By Dawn De Busk
Staff Writer
CASCO — The Town of Casco has sought the advice of its legal counsel regarding two ordinance violations that have yet to be corrected as of late October.
Town officials needed to know what legal recourse is available to encourage one resident to remove unregistered vehicles from his property, and another resident to keep his dogs quiet.
Actually, the pet owner who has been in violation of the town’s barking dog ordinance has agreed to make some efforts to keep his hound dogs from baying.
According the Casco Town Manager Dave Morton, more than 20 complaints have been made against a resident whose hound dogs have a tendency to bay for hours.
“There are three hounds. It is quite a chorus when they get barking,” Morton said.
“It has created some tension between the neighbors,” he said.
Morton said he visited the property. The owner of the dogs said that one dog in particular is the culprit — the dog that usually begins baying and the other dogs follow suit by howling. The animal owner said he would put his Alpha dog inside the house whenever he left the property. He told Morton that when he was home the dogs did respond to verbal commands to quit barking.
“They were genuine in their proposal to take care of problem. They are sincerely working on correcting it,” Morton said.
The barking dog ordinance, which was approved at Town Meeting years ago, states that a dog may not bark for more than 30 minutes straight.
The town’s junkyard ordinance forbids residents from having on their property two or more unregistered vehicles. Morton clarified that it is not unlawful for residents to have junky yards, but broken-down vehicles create a reason for concern.
A South Casco resident has brought some attention to his Kettle Cove property by encircling his home with vehicles that are no longer road worthy.
“The person has number of uninspected motor vehicles piled around their house.
It appears to be a barricade around their home,” Morton said.
The town sent an official letter, saying that the property owner was in violation of state and local law, Morton said. The letter also asked the landowner to contact the town office with a plan to remove the rigs.
That correspondence was sent about three weeks ago.
“The neighbors are worried about their wells. It’s only a couple 100 feet from Sebago Lake,” Morton said.
This is the third junkyard problem with which the Town of Casco has had to deal, according to Morton.
“This one is very flagrant and obvious,” he said.
On Tuesday, Morton said no legal action is being taken in either case.
It is “always in town’s interest to have the violations corrected rather than take folks to court,” he said in an e-mail.
The town “reserves court for (the) most egregious cases or instances where irreparable harm has occurred,” he said.
There was “one additional complaint on dogs in the last week,” but, it “appears owners are making an effort,” Morton said.