Winterport residents want access to airport

WINTERPORT — Selectmen heard complaints this week from Winterport residents who want access to the town-owned airport.

The promoter of dragstrip racing on the runway recently installed a gate that prevents cars from driving onto the airstrip.

Town Manager Scott Tilton said he had been approached by a resident who likes to run his hunting dogs at the airport while driving alongside them in his car, but the gate prevents his doing so. He asked Tilton about getting a key to the facility.

Chairman Cliff Woodman said others like to fly ultralight and remote-control planes at the airport, ride bicycles there, and learn to drive on the runway.

The gate was installed, said Selectman Sam Butler, so people could not drag race there at night, and to ensure that new paving planned in the near future is not damaged.

Butler said the promoter of the races carries a $1 million liability insurance policy on the facility year round and wants to be sure he is protected.

Other residents have approached selectmen about getting keys to the gate, but Woodman said keys could be duplicated.

Selectmen will discuss the issue at their next meeting.

Selectmen received a warning from Animal Control Officer Leroy Mayhew, that the town was violating state law by not picking up all dogs at large.

He said his instructions are only to handle complaints, but by law he should catch dogs at large when he sees them, observe whether animals have proper shelter, notify animal owners of violation, and enforce dog license laws.

Unlicensed dogs, he said, may not have had rabies shots, a requirement for licensing. Mayhew said that a rabies epidemic in raccoons is expected in Maine next year and animals in town should be vaccinated before the disease reaches Winterport. He suggested that the town run an advertisement telling people that state law requires that dogs be licensed.

On another matter, Town Manager Tilton told selectmen that he had met with Dana Hanks of the Maine Department of Transportation about reducing traffic speed on Route 1A through town. He said he also called the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office and the state police, and the town’s legislative representatives asking them to appeal to Dana Connors, head of the DOT, to take measures to slow traffic.