Arundel

Seeking sign ideas

The town of Arundel is preparing to rewrite its sign ordinance for businesses and home occupations.
In order to encourage public input in this effort, Arundel businesses and residents are invited to send in digital photographs of signs that best represent the type of signs that they prefer to be permitted by the new ordinance in the town’s commercial districts.
Photos that depict the type of signage that should be discouraged in town are also welcome. Participants are asked to restrict their submission to no more than five photos per entry, and photos may be taken from any source. The results of the photo survey will be posted on www.arundelmaine.org.
For more information, call the town planner at 985-4201.

Kennebunk

Town to get second opinion on flood maps

Kennebunk will hire land surveyors to review what the municipality calls significant changes to the town’s flood elevation map by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Selectmen on Nov. 24 unanimously voted to hire the engineering firm Sebago Technics to research the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s flood plain findings to determine if any parcels of land may not need to be reevaluated as FEMA suggested.
Code Enforcement Officer Paul Demers presented the proposal for an engineer’s review of how FEMA determined the new flood plain designations.
“They’re taking much more data and a lot more accurate information,” said Demers, explaining Sebago’s system.
According to Demers, Sebago Technics, the same firm used by Portland to evaluate FEMA’s findings, will take aerial pictures of the Kennebunk coast. The photos will then be matched with maps of property lines. These pictures will help determine what parcels of land the flood plain affects. The council approved $10,000 from the selectmen’s contingency fund to pay for the new evaluation. Demers suggested contacting some owners of “at-risk” properties to help foot the bill.
Demers said most flood evaluations cost $15,000 per property, but the firm’s contract with the town uses a lower cost for more properties because the same amount of work will go into the project, just on a larger scale. Having property owners affected help pay for the work will help save property owners and the town money, Demers said.
“I have had contact with a couple of owners and they said if they were approached, they would contribute their fair share,” Demers said.
The biggest change in the FEMA evaluation was velocity zones, which involve wave action or waves actually breaking on the property. The increase in insurance to these properties is “dramatic,” Demers said.
Sebago Technics also will offer a discounted price to Kennebunk if surrounding towns, like Old Orchard Beach, ask Sebago to reevaluate FEMA’s findings. Kennebunkport already has signed on for evaluation.  The discount depends on the amount of towns that sign up for the reevaluation but the cost would be below $10,000.
Sebago Technics will begin work soon on Kennebunk’s evaluation to submit any appeals to map changes within the 90-day window for appeals that begins at the end of January, Demers said.
Many of the maps across the country haven’t been revised in more than 30 years. The new maps will be digitalized and available to be added to municipal Web sites.

Community development director appointed

During the budgeting process earlier this year, Kennebunk Town Manager Barry Tibbetts suggested restructuring departments in town hall to better meet the needs of the town through its employees.
Tibbetts on Nov. 24 announced his appointment of Caroline Segalla as the new director of community development, a new position for the town.
Segalla, the former assistant town planner, will now oversee all aspects of planning, code enforcement, grants and local businesses. Her position will be in effect until June 30, 2010, coinciding with all other town manager appointments.
Two Kennebunk Selectmen, Deborah Beal and David Spofford, offered to serve on the Kennebunk Local Development Corp.
Selectmen also approved establishing a Kennebunk Festival Committee to further develop and implement a future event. The new committee, recommended by Albert Searles, will work on the concept of an annual event in downtown Kennebunk that could attract more visitors.
According to Town Charter bylaws, committees may have only five members and two alternate members. Searles, who wanted to change the bylaws to allow for a larger committee,  agreed to also use members from other committees that meet infrequently.
Suggestions for events during the one- or two-day event include a parade and soap box derby among other activities.

Kennebunkport

Town files countersuit in beach access dispute

Kennebunkport filed a counterclaim on Nov. 26 against a group of more than 30 waterfront property owners in an ongoing case over ownership of Goose Rocks Beach.
In the docket files for the counterclaim, the town of Kennebunkport defends the rights of access to the beach for the public by way of title to Goose Rocks Beach, easement to the beach and a royal grant by King Charles II.
Kennebunkport’s counterclaim asks the property owners to reimburse any legal fees and prohibits the landowners from posting signs or hinder the public’s use of the beach.
Using a colonial ordinance dating back to 1647, the waterfront property owners are seeking to force the town to recognize some properties extend to the low water marks.The property owners want the town to acknowledge the private property.
The counterclaim argues the landowners’ source of title wasn’t approved until after the town received land grants and colonial grants and therefore has no basis in court. The countersuit also argues that the landowners have never paid property taxes on the beach,  and the landowners of the properties in question have never claimed to own the beach until recently.
According to the counterclaim, if the property owners win the suit, the town will ask for part of the back taxes.
 Property owners at Goose Rocks Beach have been working to force the town to acknowledge their properties as private for more than a year.
Larry Mead, Kennebunkport’s town manager, discussed the first “Private Property” sign he saw on Goose Rocks last October. Recently, the town created a Web site, www.preservegooserocksbeach.org, in order to publicize its position against some of the town’s property owners. In a prepared statement on the “town manager’s page” of the site, Mead wrote, “Words have meaning. The placing of the sign was significant in that it represented a marked departure from past custom and behavior at Goose Rocks. For the first time in the memory of longtime Goose Rocks residents, a property owner had posted a sign with the claim ‘Private Beach.’ Such an unprecedented step was un-neighborly at best and provocative at worst.”