St. George to vote on taking land for road

ST. GEORGE – At a special town meeting tonight, residents will consider endorsing a selectmen’s order to allow the town to seize a strip of land from Elizabeth “Betsy” Jacks Scott to widen a road.

The 13-by-160-foot strip of land is needed to widen the road so vehicles traveling in opposite directions can pass each other, Town Manager John Falla said last week.

But Scott, who will be present at the meeting to urge residents to vote against the move, believes the land seizure is unnecessary and claims the town has not acted in good faith.

The town wants to widen Front Street, in the Tenants Harbor part of town, from Water Street to Commercial Street. Scott’s summer residence is at 30 Water St.

“We’re looking for an easement,” Falla said, that would allow the town to pave the road to a width of about 12 feet and add shoulders and ditches.

Currently, two vehicles heading in opposite directions on Front Street struggle to pass each other, Falla said.

“We can’t have a road at 111/2 feet. It’s not safe passage,” Falla said.

An appraisal of the property by Dwyer Associates of Augusta set its market value at $19,800. If the town approves the deal, Scott would be paid that amount for the easement.

Both Falla and Scott acknowledge they have negotiated for about five years on Front Street and other access issues.

In the town’s explanation of the issue included in the warrant for tonight’s meeting, officials noted boundaries for Front Street have been in dispute for some time.

“Over the last 4-5 years, a very productive process has occurred where the town and abutting property owner Betsy Jacks Scott have worked on establishing boundaries along Front Street, Commercial Street and the access road to the Tenants Harbor Public Landing,” the explanation reads.

But Scott rejected a request through her attorney in January to widen Front Street, the town reports.

On Wednesday, Scott disputed that assessment.

“I thought this was all settled,” she said.

Scott offered the town a easement of 111/2 feet along her property as long as the town agreed not to pave the road.

“The town had told me what they wanted, and I basically offered it to them,” she said.

When the town rejected Scott’s stipulation that the road not be paved, “they made absolutely no counterproposal to me,” she said.

Scott said she had no contact from the town between January or February and last week, when she received notice of the meeting.

In a letter to the editor sent to area newspapers, Scott wrote:

“My family has owned this property for over seven generations and has a long history of being generous to this town: my ancestors before me gave the public landing to the town; it used to be the wharf for my great-grandfather’s store.”

Scott also noted that her family gave the town an easement to a 1-acre ball field on family property.

Falla said selectmen see the taking of the easement as a fairly routine matter, designed to minimally affect Scott’s property.

“It’s not like we’re taking an 80-acre parcel and putting in a beach,” he said.

Scott said the property on which her house sits is about an acre.

Selectmen meet at 6 tonight to sign the order for taking the easement as well as to address unrelated matters. At 7 p.m. the special town meeting begins, during which an explanation of the procedure will be given and questions and comments addressed before residents are asked to vote on the issue.

Also on the warrant for the special town meeting is the offer of a conservation easement from Blueberry Cove Associates for a portion of its property at Harts Neck.

The easement is proposed on about 1,400 feet of waterfront property, about 100 feet wide. The easement would prevent development on the parcel in perpetuity.