Staff Writer

A special Kennebunk town meeting scheduled for Jan. 31 will allow residents to vote on a number of items including the pending sale of Park Street School, plans for a rear access road connecting businesses along Route 1 and amendments to town ordinances.  

Residents will be asked if the town should nullify existing contracts for sale of Park Street School with Avesta Housing and appropriate $55,000 as well as approve a $1.4 million bond for operating costs of the building and design, renovation and equipping the facility for municipal uses. Terminating the sale agreement would also result in reimbursing Avesta Housing for their expenses estimated at $60,000 from the time the building was handed over in the beginning of October, Town Manager Barry Tibbetts said. 

Residents will be asked to consider several warrant articles regarding a matching grant and acquisition of land for rear access roads to connect the Maine Health and Wellness Campus with Shopper’s Village and Post Office Square and alleviate some traffic on Route 1.

Current plans to build access roads to connect to an existing road behind the three business centers are partially funded by a $400,000 grant received from the Department of Economic and Community Development, Tibbetts said.

Remaining finances for the project would come from the town’s $400,000 contribution, and the first warrant article asks residents if the town should borrow a short-term note or appropriate from surplus funds up to $325,000 to match the $400,000 grant. Shape Drive Medical Center LLC has already committed to matching $75,000 of the grant, and any debt service accrued by the town will be paid through funds from the Route 1 tax increment financing district. 

A second article asks if the town should accept as a town owned road the current existing paved drive in front of Maine Health and Wellness Campus and the unpaved portion extending along the back side of Post Office Square, the length of which runs parallel to Route 1. 

In the third and fourth warrant articles, residents are asked if they approve the purchase and sale agreement of Shape Drive and if the town will accept Shape Drive as a public way. 

A warrant article asking residents if the town should seize the leasehold property of Miksu Petland, owned by Wayne Gibbs, by eminent domain is pending negotiations and selectmen’s decision during a special meeting scheduled after The Post deadline Tuesday. 

Included in the access road plans is a road from Route 1 through Shopper’s Village connecting to the current paved and unpaved portions of the road parallel to Route 1. Miksu Petland is located inside the proposed right of way for the access road. 

Miksu Petland owner Wayne Gibbs has leasehold of the property through May 31, 2011 with an option for an additional five years, and Gibbs’s lawyer James Audiffred said this contract gives him exclusive rights to the property until the leasehold’s end.

Offers made by Bates Realty Manager Paul Gosselin to Gibbs include a $30,000 cash buyout of the lease or $20,000 to cover relocation expenses to the former Sports Shoe Store next door are considered “inadequate” and have subsequently been rejected, Audiffred said. Gibbs declined to comment on offers made to relocate his business. 

After a special meeting between Audiffred, Gibbs, Gosselin, Tibbetts and town attorney Bill Dale, Audiffred said all parties are attempting to reach a settlement to buy Gibbs out of his lease and compensate him for relocation expenses. Audiffred declined to disclose the buyout costs he is negotiating for his client.

“If we can’t resolve this issue by settlement, we will oppose eminent domain,” Audiffred said. “We don’t believe there is a need and taking the building doesn’t represent a public need.”

Two other articles on the agenda for the special Town Meeting include amendments to the town’s ordinances and zoning. The first asks if the town should enact an amendment to the zoning ordinance regarding the construction of piers, docks and wharves. The second article asks if residents wish to enact amendments to the floodplain management ordinance in order to bring it into conformance with the National Flood Insurance Program and State Floodplain Management program. Copies of the proposed amendments are available for review at the clerk’s office in town hall. 

The special town meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 31 in the gymnasium of Kennebunk High School. Residents must be present at the meeting to cast their vote, as absentee ballots are not allowed.