Pike Industries is hauling crushed stone from its quarry on Spring Street in Westbrook, which the city says violates a shutdown order it issued to the company in July.
Pike says the city doesn't have the authority to stop its operations unless it gets a court order.
The dispute will likely be settled by a judge, who will hear arguments next week on the company's appeal of a Westbrook zoning board ruling that revoked Pike's permit.
The clash is the latest in a long-running conflict between Pike and city officials over zoning issues that affect the company's activities at its sites on Spring and Main streets.
Westbrook residents who live near the Spring Street quarry say they are fed up.
''I'm pretty frustrated,'' said Mercer Bonney, who lives across the street from the quarry in the Five Star Industrial Park. ''They are supposed to be such good neighbors and work closely with the neighbors and the city, but Pike's actions show otherwise.''
Another neighbor, Isabelle Cilley, 66, who is retired, said she watched Pike's trucks go into and out of the quarry all day from her living room window. ''I don't understand how they can get away with it,'' she said. ''I don't understand why the city can't put a stop to it.''
Rick Gouzie, the city's code enforcement officer, said that after neighbors started calling City Hall this week, he visited the quarry, took photographs and saw trucks hauling materials.
In a written notice to Pike on July 30, Gouzie ordered the company to stop blasting immediately and stop hauling excavated material away after Aug. 31 unless it made special arrangements with him.
The order was prompted by a Zoning Board of Appeals decision on July 22 that Pike did not have the right to operate the quarry because its predecessor, Blue Rock Industries, never met conditions the board established for the site in 1968.
Natalie Burns, an attorney with Jensen Baird Gardner & Henry who represents the city, said Pike is violating Westbrook's land use codes and could be fined $100 to $2,500 a day.
''It's a little unusual, in my experience, to see something like this happen after a stop-work order was issued,'' Burns said. ''The city is disappointed with their actions, particularly in light of Mr. Gouzie's offer to work out a schedule and their refusal to do so.''
Pike has appealed the zoning board's decision to Cumberland County Superior Court. The company's lawyer, Sigmund D. Schutz of Preti Flaherty, said the city doesn't have the authority to take Pike's right to operate its business. ''Pike has every legal right to do what it is doing at the quarry,'' he said.
Chief Justice Thomas Humphrey will hear arguments in the case on Tuesday.
Jonathan Olson, Pike's regional manager, said Gouzie inspected the quarry in the past week and was fully aware that Pike was removing stockpiles of crushed rock. ''Gouzie told me that Pike had no violations,'' Olson said.
Pike, which makes road paving and construction materials, has an asphalt plant and a quarry at its site on Main Street, in addition to the Spring Street quarry. The company wants to build a new asphalt plant on Spring Street and sell the Main Street property.
Pike's plans have pitted the company's supporters against critics who say that blasting and asphalt production are incompatible with the direction of development in Westbrook. The City Council is considering rezoning the industrial park from heavy industry to light manufacturing.
Olson said police officers went to the quarry recently in response to complaints about blasting. Olson said Pike is not blasting or crushing stone at the site. ''The city is harassing us ... trying to make our life uncomfortable and inhibit our ability to do business,'' he said.
Staff Writer Melanie Creamer can be contacted at 791-6361 or at:
mcreamer@pressherald.com
