Gravel pit owner seeks specific survey of property

CARMEL – A gravel pit owner asked selectmen for a “detailed” inspection of his property, arguing that a previous visual review was not exact enough to determine whether he was in compliance with a judge’s order to limit encroachment onto the Horseback Road.

Selectmen then referred the matter to the town attorney.

Barry Higgins is one of three gravel pit owners who have been ordered by Penobscot County Superior Court to remedy what the town claims is an encroachment on the road. Higgins, Earl E. McSorley and Donald Hewes were found in contempt of court in September for not making improvements previously ordered.

Justice Andrew Mead, however, gave the three owners until the end of December to “purge themselves of any contempt” and avoid paying fines.

To comply, the gravel pits must be filled in 43 feet from the center of the road with what is called a 2:1 slope. That means the slope must drop 2 feet horizontally for every 1 foot of vertical drop.

In a contentious meeting with selectmen Monday night, Higgins presented drawings he had prepared, claiming that he has met the rules that require an average slope be maintained. He asked that the selectmen direct Richard N. Perry Jr., a Bangor surveyor, to measure the slope along the road and show in diagram form the actual ratio.

Higgins also asked Monday night if he could place concrete barriers along the sides of the road in an effort to end the 7-year-old legal battle with the town. Selectmen referred the matter to their attorney, but Town Manager Tom Richmond said the town could not consider solutions outside the judge’s order.

Town officials first notified owners about concerns that the excavation of the three gravel pits had encroached on Horseback Road in 1989. Selectmen voted to close the road in October 1993 when school officials expressed concern that busloads of children might plunge over the steep edge of the road or that the road might collapse as children were being taken to and from school.

The issue has been in court ever since, without being resolved.

Higgins, Hewes and McSorley each have reacted differently to the September order.

McSorley said Tuesday that he has been working every day since September, weather permitting, to comply with Mead’s order. He said that, to his knowledge, no one representing the town or the court has inspected the property to see if it is in compliance.

Higgins told the board Monday that he has done no work on the road since August and will do no more work until Perry or someone representing the court produces a detailed report showing that the average slope on his property is not now 2:1.

Hewes has refused to comply with Mead’s order. He said Tuesday that the order conflicts with legislation passed in 1993 that requires burrow pit owners to take certain remedial actions, such as the one described in the court order, but not until they no longer are hauling gravel out of the pits.

“I’ll go to jail. I’m not going to do it,” Hewes said Tuesday. “I do have to comply with the common burrow law, but I don’t have to comply ’til I’m done using the pit. … It is unconstitutional for the town to force me to do work without paying me for it. The town wants an 86-foot-wide road. I-95 is only 38 feet wide.”

In other town business Tuesday:

. Depositions were taken Tuesday in former Town Manager Glennis A. McSorley’s discrimination suit against the town in relation to her 1998 firing.

McSorley alleges that she was discriminated against on the basis of sex and age and because she reported the town’s violations of its own personnel policies to state officials. McSorley was hired in 1969.

In March, she was elected to the Board of Selectmen. She also is the wife of Earl McSorley, one of the gravel pit owners being sued by the town. No date has been set for her discrimination suit.