In a rare move, town officials in August used state law to clean up a trash-strewn Bailey Island property that also has a history of police activity.
Harpswell Health Officer Margaret McIntire described the state of the site in an Aug. 6 letter to the apparent owner of 7 Hugh Ave., Shania Richardson. McIntire said she observed “an uncovered pile of trash, including several trash bags and trash barrels, discarded appliances, tires, and other debris and filth” in the yard, as well as “an odor of rotting trash.” The letter ordered Richardson to clean up the property within 24 hours.
Neighbors said they saw people at the house moving trash and debris and taking some away in the subsequent weeks, but large piles remained when an Anchor reporter went to the location on Aug. 28.
The town contracted Wetty’s Plowing and Sanding to remove the refuse. On Aug. 30, the business used a small excavator to load trash into trucks. Wetty’s ultimately hauled out six truckloads, according to its invoice.
Two weeks later, most of the area around the house was bare dirt, with tarps covering a pile behind the house about the size and shape of a shipping container.
The Anchor was not able to speak to Richardson, despite multiple visits to the property. A man outside the house in September, who gave his name only as Jake, said Richardson’s tenants were to blame for the trash.
State law gives towns the authority to clean up trash determined to pose a health risk, and then recover the costs of removal and disposal from a property’s owners or occupants. Wetty’s charged the town $3,870. Disposal at the transfer station cost another $1,610.46, according to a memo to the Select Board.
Town Administrator Kristi Eiane said in an email that she is seeking advice on how to recoup the town’s costs from Richardson. She mentioned a payment arrangement as one possibility, but said she would need the Select Board’s guidance.
Eiane could only recall one other instance when the town had used the state’s “Removal of private nuisance” statute. She said that instance was years ago and involved a property on Cundy’s Harbor Road.
Neighbors said the 0.17-acre lot at 7 Hugh Ave., near the south end of Bailey Island, has been messy for a long time. The issue apparently grew worse after owner Nye Richardson died and the home passed to his daughter, Shania Richardson, in 2019.
Shania Richardson, as representative of her father’s estate, is listed as the home’s owner in town records, although Cumberland County records indicate a mortgage holder foreclosed on the property in 2022. Neighbors that the Anchor spoke to were not sure who was living at the house.
John James, who lives next door at 5 Hugh Ave., said he saw people unloading a moving truck of apparent junk, including a damaged boat hull, into the yard when Richardson moved in around 2019 or 2020.
James and his mother, Diane Holcomb Evans, whom he lives with, said that in the years since, they have seen other people bringing full garbage bags and other waste to the property. They described a changing group of occupants and associates frequenting the house.
James, Evans, and other neighbors said there has often been activity in the middle of the night at the house, including dumping and hauling away material from the yard. On multiple occasions, they said, refuse from 7 Hugh Ave. has spilled onto adjacent properties.
Neighbors have also complained about what they believe to be drug activity at the property, but a review of law enforcement records did not reveal any drug-related arrests.
Deputies from the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office have been a regular presence at 7 Hugh Ave. in recent years, with patrols and visits to the home increasing dramatically starting in 2022. Agency records indicate deputies were called to the address infrequently between 2004 and 2021, coming one to three times some years, but not at all in most.
A May 2022 call was the first after 2019, but deputies made another 40 visits in the rest of that year, more than 200 in 2023, and almost 40 more in 2024, as of Sept. 3. More than half of those calls were “property checks,” when deputies drive by without being called. Officers conducted these types of visits almost daily from December 2022 through October 2023.
Speaking generally, Sheriff’s Office Lt. James Estabrook said that an uptick in property checks, like that on Hugh Avenue, often follows an increase in 911 calls and other complaints. Officers will then make a point to frequent the area more often, he said, in order to reassure residents and discourage potential offenders. And in a quiet town like Harpswell, Estabrook said, a problem area attracts a lot of law enforcement attention.
Neighbors told the Anchor they have called 911 and talked to town officials about the property. The Sheriff’s Office’s call log reflects a range of issues and complaints, including fires in the yard, issues with dogs and other animals, and traffic issues on the narrow road.
The home was the target of a July 2023 Sheriff’s Office raid in search of stolen property. A Sheriff’s Office detective wrote in an affidavit that a deputy responding to a property dispute at the address noticed an outboard motor fuel tank that matched a description of one reported missing days earlier from the Harpswell by the Sea neighborhood. He subsequently spotted a chainsaw and other tools. (Sheriff’s Office call records for that date only list a response to an animal problem.)
Officers returned with a search warrant for two outboard motors that had gone missing with the fuel tank, along with a number of tools that had been reported missing from an unlocked storage room at theFinestkind Boatyard on Harpswell Neck. Some of the missing items were recovered.The Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office charged two people in connection with the thefts. Their connection to the property is not clear.
