SANGERVILLE, Maine — A dispute over road work on the Burrough Road in Sangerville was settled this week but not before a resident blocked the dirt road with his tractor and his wife displayed a shotgun and threatened to blow out the tires on a contractor’s vehicle.
Richard Dobson, 63, said Friday that he and his wife, Pam Dobson, 51, were extremely distraught when they returned home Wednesday, to find that a contractor had laid road fabric within 10 inches of the shade trees in front of their country home.
After all, Dobson said, town officials had assured him after months of discussions, that the road widening and upgrade project would not encroach onto his property.
“Over the years, the road has drifted this way further and further so it’s hugging this side of the right-of-way,” Dobson said, pointing in the direction of the home he purchased four years ago. After “hashing it out” with the town manager and selectmen, they agreed to move the road so it wouldn’t interfere with his lawn and trees, he said. The mostly-wooded Burrough Road connects to the Knowlton Mills Road and Route 7.
Sangerville Town Manager Michelle Dumoulin, who called state police when she learned of the incident, confirmed Friday that Dobson had been told that the road would not be moved further onto his property. It was simply a miscommunication between town officials and the contractor, she said.
State Trooper Forrest Simpson, who answered the call, said he planned to file his investigative report with Piscataquis County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy early next week. It will be up to Almy whether to bring charges, he said.
“I haven’t had a chance to review it, I’ve been in Bangor all week,” Almy said Friday, when asked about the case. “I’ll just have to look at the evidence and see what it shows. It sounds serious so it requires a careful review.”
Simpson said Dobson defused the situation by taking the gun from his wife.
Dobson said it was totally out of character for his wife to have picked up the shotgun, but she was “extremely frustrated.”
“We’re upset, and we’re saying what can we do about this, they’re doing exactly the opposite of what they said they would do, they’re not keeping their promise,” he recalled. It was when his wife couldn’t reach anyone in the Town office because it was close, that Dobson said his wife grabbed an unloaded shotgun and told the contractor she’d blow his tires out if he moved another inch. “She never pointed it at anyone,” he recalled.
Dobson said that at about the same time, he went outside and moved his tractor to block the road to stop the project. “I was almost sick to my stomach because of what was going on, promises had been made and for some reason, all I see is them not fulfilling their promises,” he said. “We were kind of forced into tak-ing action because if we had left it alone and let them do their thing, it would have been that way forever.”
His wife’s response to the issue was wrong, Dobson said. “Yes, the gun issue was a little over, she knows it and I know it, but she’d never hurt anyone, she’s the most kind and most wonderful person you’d ever meet in your life,” he said.
The road issue has been festering with Dobson ever since selectmen decided to upgrade it. He said he purchased the property on the dirt road because it was peaceful and there was little traffic. He worries that the upgrade will bring more traffic, higher speeds and more dust. In fact, he said most of the residents along the road hadn’t wanted the improvements.
“The Dobsons are not the only ones disgruntled about this road,” Simpson said. He said he had been contacted over the weeks by other residents who had concerns. “The whole road is up in arms about how the construction is taking place.”
The road was just fine, Dobson said, and only a couple of muddy spots, one on the Sangerville end and the other on the Dover-Foxcroft end, needed any attention. He believes property tax dollars are being squandered on the project.
Not so, said Dumoulin. The road has some serious problems and it needs improvements to ensure the safe passage of emergency vehicles and snowplows, she said.
“It is the town’s responsibility to provide a safe and passable roadway at all times,” she said. The project is being done the correct way to ensure that it lasts for many years, she said. Dumoulin said town officials have done everything possible to keep the landowners involved in the process and appease them.
To avoid Dobson’s property, Dumoulin said the road will be shifted two feet to the right onto the field of another property owner who has permitted the work. “We are actually moving the road,” she said. That move will require some additional work because the road will have to be widened over a piece of ledge, she said.
Dumoulin told Dobson on Friday that she had no problem with the fact he blocked the road with his tractor. “If you felt adamantly that something was wrong, then I have no problem with that behavior, but when your wife brought a firearm into the scene, then that was over the line,” she said. “It was a wrong move.”
She said if Dobson had just called her, she could have corrected the problem. “It was just a little bit of miscommunication which has since been clarified,” Dumoulin said.
Dobson agreed things hadn’t gone the way they should have. “Somehow, somewhere, there was a misunderstanding or a miscommunication,” he said. “My intent was not to cause trouble here, my intent was to make the town do what they said they were going to do.”