Edgecomb resident Karen Smith has filed a lawsuit against the Edgecomb Board of Selectmen and town road commissioner Scott Griffin alleging the town is “selectively” prohibiting excavation efforts at her Mt. Hunger Road gravel pit.
The suit is the latest volley in a protracted conflict between Smith and town officials over operation of the gravel pit. In a copy of the lawsuit obtained by The Lincoln County News, Smith claims the Board is acting maliciously by posting the road for weight limits when, according to the document, no conditions existed requiring such limitations.
The lawsuit specifically names Selectmen Jack Sarmanian, Stuart Smith, Jessica Chubbuck and Road Commissioner Scott Griffin as defendants, along with the Town of Edgecomb at large.
The lawsuit alleges an ordinance is needed to legally close the road and the town has intentionally ignored this requirement. The complaint charges the Board with “acting outside the course and scope of their authority” and the actions “do not constitute a government official’s discretionary act because they did not possess the requisite constitutional, statutory, or lawful authority…to make the said posting of Mount Hunger Road thus doing so in bad faith.”
The lawsuit goes on to claim Smith is being denied her constitutional rights of freedom, travel, and equal protection under the law.
Mt. Hunger Road residents have long complained that Smith and contractor Mark Hanley of Bristol have ignored the posted weight limits and continued to excavate the gravel pit without permission. In previous statements, road commissioner Scott Griffin said the weight of Hanley’s equipment is damaging the plastic culverts of the road and contributing to flooding. At a selectmen’s meeting in August, Mt. Hunger resident Sheryl Cunningham told the Board of the ongoing nuisance of the excavation efforts, which forced her to take aggressive actions.
“I literally blocked the road with my car after hearing trucks coming in and out of there all day,” Cunningham said. “I eventually had no choice but to call the police.”
After responding to Cunningham’s complaint, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy Lt. Rand Maker, informed Edgecomb Selectman Stuart Smith that the road could be not closed without an ordinance. In September, the town posted the road without an ordinance, a decision Smith claims was “selective” and intentionally done to interfere with her “constitutional right to sell sand, gravel, and crushed rock.”
In a letter to selectmen dated Aug. 14, Smith’s attorney, Clifford Goodall of Augusta, promised that all excavation efforts would cease until a resolution could be reached concerning three conditions of approval required by the town’s code enforcement officer. Indicating in her suit that those conditions were met, Smith and Hanley resumed hauling materials from the pit.
In previous comments, Selectman Jack Sarmanian anticipated a challenge to the Board’s actions by saying “the matter will be pursued through the necessary legal channels.”
Defendant’s attorney John Cunningham declined comment to The Lincoln County News citing a general policy on pending lawsuits but did confirm that all parties in question had been served.
The Board held an emergency executive session on Oct. 25 before their regularly scheduled selectmen’s meeting that evening.
