Meeting Oct. 24, the Edgecomb Board of Selectmen agreed to settle a nearly year old lawsuit filed against the town regarding the operation of a gravel pit on Mount Hunger Road. The agreement comes after a month of mediation between the board and the plaintiff, gravel pit owner Karen Smith.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Town of Edgecomb has agreed to pay Smith $5000. Smith will be paid an additional $10,000 from Maine Municipal Association’s Property and Casualty Pool, of which Edgecomb is a member.
Edgecomb also agreed to allow Smith’s application to reopen her gravel pit remain in effect. The Edgecomb Planning Board approved the application in January 2008.
According to the agreement, the town will take no action on two conditions that accompanied the application, chiefly that Smith reach an agreement with the town road commissioner regarding extra work that might be needed to accommodate extra truck traffic to the gravel pit and that she seek an agreement with abutting landowners regarding an easement over their property.
Also according to the agreement, Smith will only be able remove a maximum of 24,000 cubic yards of gravel per year from the site. Smith must also furnish the town with 350 cubic yards of Type B processed gravel upon request on or before Dec. 15, 2011, and 250 cubic yards of Type A gravel upon request each year after that.
The gravel, which will be used to maintain Mt. Hunger and Dodge Roads, will be provided without cost to the town. The initial 350 cubic yards will be appropriated to upgrade Mt. Hunger Road for use by all vehicles, including trucks using the road to reach the gravel pit.
As previously reported in The Lincoln County News, Smith filed a lawsuit against the town last fall, contending that the town had selectively prevented her from conducting excavations at her gravel pit.
The lawsuit charged the Board of Selectmen and Road Commissioner Scott Griffin with going beyond their authority in posting weight limits on Mt. Hunger Road. Smith alleged that the Board of Selectmen failed to go through necessary legal channels to close the road to certain traffic.
The Board of Selectmen, Griffin, and the Town of Edgecomb were named in Smith’s lawsuit.
Mt. Hunger Road residents and town officials had frequently complained that Smith and her contractor Hanley Construction, of Bristol, excavated the gravel pit against posted weight limits and without permission. Griffin said that the Smith and Hanley’s trucks were causing damage to the culverts on Mt. Hunger Road, contributing to flooding.
Hanley Construction filed a similar lawsuit against the town. Under the mediated agreement, both lawsuits will be combined into one and entered as consent judgment to be reviewed in federal court.
According to a memo from the town’s attorney, the town was forced to seek a mediated agreement because of a clause in MMA’s Property and Casualty Pool rules stipulating that the fund does not cover damages or attorney’s fees in lawsuits regarding the “takings” theory.
The takings theory, the main argument in both lawsuits, argues that Edgecomb unlawfully took away the property rights of the plaintiffs. Had Edgecomb gone to trial, it could have potentially been liable for over $200,000, the initial amount sought on both lawsuits, plus attorney’s fees.
