Editor's Note: In the print edition, an error occurred about the upcoming Woodland Senior Living Center site walk scheduled for this Sunday, May 16, at the proposed site on North High Street. The site walk is at 3 P.M. The News regrets the error.

By Wayne E. Rivet 

Staff Writer

Deb Brusini thought it was odd that when planners heard an initial overview of a proposed solar farm off Chadbourne Hill Road in North Bridgton, there was no one from the public viewing via Zoom to ask any questions.

The board later learned that silence will likely the result of improper notification.

Planners held an emergency meeting last Wednesday when town office staff were unable to locate notifications to abutters. At last Tuesday’s board meeting, planners heard a presentation by Civil Engineer David Albrecht and Project Developer Ryan Bailey regarding a two-array set-up on property owned by Thomas Saliba. 

Albrecht and Bailey also represent the landowner of the North High Street solar farm project.

Therein lies the confusion.

Planners thought what they had in hand were notices for the Chadbourne Hill Road project, but actually were looking at notices associated with the North High Street proposal.

The finding thus made the Chadbourne Hill Road application incomplete, forcing planners to cancel a scheduled site walk of that property this Sunday at 4:45 p.m.

Planners, however, will keep their 3 p.m. site walk appointment Sunday at the North High Street site where Woodlands Senior Living is proposing to construct a 26,000 square-foot facility. 

“It was a mix up. Same applicant, two different applications. I don’t blame anyone, they didn’t send it, so we start over,” Planner Dee Miller said.

Brusini pointed out that in the past, planners asked to see certified letter receipts as part of the application.

“If we don’t have them, we stop,” she said. “In the future, let’s be sure that we physically see them…They should be stapled to the application; it’s their responsibility. We spent 40 minutes doing something we shouldn’t have.”

Ironically, during the initial Chadbourne Hill project presentation, Thomas Saliba mentioned to planners that he never received a notice regarding the approved solar farm at the adjacent Ricker Farm apple orchard.

“If the notice was mailed to my address or the Northeast Industries address, I never received it,” Saliba said.

Brusini said applicants find out abutters’ addresses to send certified notices from town tax records.

“I promise, I get the tax bill,” Saliba said.

Saliba mentioned the notification process when he brought to the board’s attention that the previously approved Chadbourne Hill Road solar farm lacks a utility easement.

“Never had one, don’t have one,” said Saliba, who attempted to negotiate the sale of some property so a utility easement could be reached, but talks were unsuccessful. “I am not against that project…By law, they do not have an easement. They have an easement for access but not utility.”