Logging near Indian Pond prompts call for Greenwood noise ordinance

The pre-dawn “horrific roaring” of heavy logging equipment near Indian Pond has awakened a call for Greenwood to adopt a noise ordinance.

The call comes from residents Henry and Pat Stewart, who made their case to town selectmen last week.

The Stewarts live off the Hobbs Road, on the eastern side of Indian Pond, which is set low in a natural amphitheater about a half mile south of Howe Hill Road.

“We had been aware of logging activity in the distance for some time,” the couple said in a prepared statement.

That logging [Citizen, 12-08-11] is taking place on a 586-acre parcel between the pond and the intersection of the Greenwood, Sheepskin Bog and Martin roads.

“The morning that we arrived home after Thanksgiving with our family, we were awakened by the sound of several pieces of heavy equipment, roaring, seemingly in our front yard. This was accompanied by bright flashing lights. Sometimes they commenced at 4:30. After a day or two, we realized that this was not temporary, and it wasn’t just us. Neighbors in all directions, not only around Indian Pond, but as far away as Old County Road complained of the racket.”

Town Manager Kim Sparks said other residents of the area had expressed similar concerns.

Pat Stewart said she called the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office and was told that unless the town had a noise ordinance, there was nothing the S.O. could do.

She said she also called the owner of the company that owns the land, T.R.Dillon, Co., a large-scale “timber liquidator,” who, she said, “basically, as the kids say, ‘blew me off.’”

“The noise persisted for weeks,” the Stewarts wrote, “sometimes a few hundred feet from our home, with the horrific roaring coming straight across the pond and the lights flashing in our windows. It continued until 3:30 or 4 in the afternoon, when they knocked off and went home. Recently they moved off a bit, but they are right in front of the homes of others, waking them and their animals each day.

“It seems unlikely that we can prevent the stripping of the forests of our town, but we can insist that they not, day in and day out, ruin the quality of life of citizens who live nearby. For this reason we would propose the town adopt a noise ordinance that would at least give us the right to a decent night’s sleep.”

The Stewarts also noted that many Maine towns have such ordinances, which range from the detailed and exacting to the broad and non-specific, with most stipulating quiet between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m.

They also provided the board with three sample ordinances, from York, Ogunquit and Winslow, and asked the selectmen to begin the process to have one drawn up for Greenwood, to be voted on by residents at this year’s annual town meeting.

The selectmen agreed, but Selectman Amy Chapman cautioned the Stewarts to expect “some pushback” from people who work in the woods.

And Board Chair Fred Henderson said it was “kind of a hard thing” to restrict someone who is working, “but there’s two sides to it.”

Sparks said later she expects an ordinance to be drafted in time for an informational meeting to be held in early April, as required if the ordinance is to go to voters at the May 19 town meeting.

Nearby Woodstock is also expected to take up a noise ordinance at its annual town meeting, but in that case the focus will be on noise, primarily from large trucks, in Bryant Pond Village, rather than in the woods.