Edgecomb held a special joint meeting between the Edgecomb Board of Selectmen and Planning Board, along with fire department personnel and an impressive cadre of Edgecomb citizens March 8.
They all came together to discuss a new business coming to town: Steve Marson owns Pyro City, and is purchasing the former Dexter/Super Shoes store on Rt. 1 to be the home of his latest fireworks store, slated to open around April 1.
Making his presentation after listening to more than an hour of discussion by the joint boards and comments from the audience, Marson seemed frustrated.
Taking the floor, he first outlined his numerous fruitless attempts to contact town officials in early January. “I called your house and left messages,” Marson said to the officials around the table.
Marson said he had read all “192 pages of your ordinances, and found nothing.”
He said he wished the town had called him, “and I’d be in another community who wanted me. It’s here [in Maine]; and it doesn’t matter if I open a store here or not.”
Marson said he “ask[ed] the code enforcement officer, and I came here to go about it the right way; that’s why I’m here.”
Addressing citizens’ comments, Marson said Maine has the strictest laws of all 50 states governing the use and sale of fireworks, and he outlined specifically the many building requirements, of which the former Super Shoes store does comply. He also said his industry is overseen by four strict federal and state agencies.
He said, as a Maine company of longstanding, and with the passage of the law allowing the personal use of fireworks, he doesn’t want competition from New Hampshire.
“I’m a very good neighbor; with a good reputation,” he said. “Don’t penalize me before this even happens. I’m going above and beyond to make it as safe as possible for this state.”
Marson said, unlike stores in neighboring states, the only product he would sell was fireworks – no liquor, cigarettes, guns – or any other products and no one would be allowed in the store under age 21; nor can anyone purchase fireworks unless they have proof positive of being 21 years old or older.
Of his employees, he said, “We have licensed technicians; not just someone off the street. They have to be trained and licensed.”
Marson said, “It’s not about making a dollar; that’s the last thing. It is about doing it safely, and having fun, so this business is here 20 years from now. The state brought it in and the state can take it out. It is all about [state] revenue; I didn’t create the law. It is about tax revenue.”
Earlier, when calling the meeting to order, Edgecomb Planning Board chair Jack French admitted he told [Marson], “erroneously that we didn’t need a site review, and that it being commercial, we don’t have any specific category for use [of fireworks], so both shoes and fireworks would be retail.”
Long before Marson’s presentation, he was sitting in the audience like everyone else, listening to the joint boards hashing out where the town stood on the sale of the building, the ramifications of selling fireworks overall, and tackling the site review snafu.
Speaking of the empty Dexter/Super Shoes building and whether or not the town should have ordered a site review, Selectman Stuart Smith said, “that building has been unused and vacant for more than three years and that clearly put it back into site planning.”
French said it was just as well the property did come back for site review but “the Maine law says that once you start the application process, the municipality can’t pass a law restricting use.” French also said the board had received Pyro City’s application before the meeting.
“This [business] is going to happen, provided he [Marson] comes forward with the necessary materials,” French said. He also said the town would have had to pass an ordinance prior to the application to preclude the store. “That’s what we should discuss here,” French said.
The joint boards took some moments to discuss the “general definition of retail” and the “special types” with French saying the board has used only the word “commercial” in the ordinance. “We’ve never used the definition anywhere else,” he said.
“You bring up a good point,” Smith said. “I’d rather not see an adult bookstore or something like that in town; that’s the type of retail I don’t really want in our town.”
French said that issue was recently discussed and Edgecomb only has about three or four general categories.
“We were going to put that on the agenda for the next meeting,” French said. When asked, Marson confirmed he would attend the upcoming meeting Thurs., March 22.
Discussing safety, Planning Board member Jarryl Larson said she found online a “fireworks university” listing family safety tips and Larson hopes the information will be listed on Edgecomb’s website.
“If they are going to be sold in town, realistically, they are going to be used in town,” Selectman Jessica Chubbuck said. “Who’s going to enforce it? We have one sheriff.”
Chubbuck said there would be responsible and irresponsible people, and she advocated for education. “I think we need to work together with Steve Marson, even with educating consumers” on safe handling. “The store is coming,” she said.
Planning board member Barry Hathorne is “fully in favor of fireworks,” but agreed about education.
Smith said he’s “knocked on about 150 doors in Edgecomb,” found most people don’t care about fireworks, calling them lukewarm. “A few are adamant – they don’t want anything,” he said.
Smith said however he believes 70 to 80 percent, are either lukewarm or want to limit the use. “A lot of people just don’t know what the law says. They’re not going to look at what the law is; they’re just going to use them.”
Remembering Wiscasset recently tackling the subject, and how that town now requires a permit for personal fireworks use, the boards bandied about requiring permits. “You have to have burn permits,” said planning board member Patricia Jeremiah.
Planning Board alternate David Nutt said he didn’t think the town should [have permits] and regulations. “Why not in a few years, if the entire town has burned down, we reassess? We are really getting a little NIMBY (not in my back yard). The planning board should have no opinion. It should be, ‘Does it go under the regulations here?'” he said.
Associate Fire Chief Larry Omland agreed with Nutt. “It is not the planning board’s responsibility whether they will be used or not and I think talking here isn’t going to accomplish anything.”
Omland said he had no objection to selling fireworks to bring revenue to the town and some employment. “This is a corporation that operates nationwide; it’s not a fly-by-night that’s coming in here. For my personal feeling, I have no objection.”
Omland said the fire department is prepared to respond to any emergency and “if you are going to legislate against potential hazards, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Have faith in people and their ability to govern themselves.”
He said he and Fire Chief Roy Potter would have a one-on-one meeting with Marson to work together to have a safe environment.
The board opened the discussion to the floor and some Edgecomb residents weighed in, voicing noise concerns pertaining to wildlife (“There’ll be no more eagles and ospreys”); and, worries that fireworks would be used in local preserves.
Edgecomb resident Jo Cameron counted herself among the “lukewarm,” but raised concerns about summer traffic jams at the site. “How much more time is that going to put on the famous need for a bypass?” she asked.
Sue Carlson said, “We knew that the fireworks situation had been passed in January and I’m disappointed the planning board didn’t take action then. I’m quite frankly disappointed that a vision of a town center is somewhat sabotaged.”