Kittery restaurants reach agreement

The clash between two Seacoast restaurants seems to be eanring end. Last week, Michael Landgarten and Terry Gagner, owners of Bob’s Clam Hut and Weathervane Seafoods, respectively, reached agreement on Landgarten’s plans to open a new restaurant on Route 1 in Kittery.

“I’m happy that we reached this point. While the agreement represents a compromise from our side, it’s a pragmatic choice that protects Bob’s and possibly enables us to move forward with Robert’s too,” Landgarten said in a statement. “I know the Gagners feel they have compromised as well.”

Gagner and his father Ray Gagner Sr. live on residential property behind their restaurant and are abutters to Landgarten’s planned restaurant, Robert’s Maine Grill. Ray Gagner Sr. sued Landgarten and the town of Kittery in February after Landgarten tore down the former Quarterdeck Restaurant to make way for Robert’s. Terry Gagner said his father is concerned about lighting and parking at the new restaurant, as well as potential damage to nearby Spruce Creek, and felt that the town illegally gave Landgarten permission to build the restaurant. 

Landgarten said some of the requirements laid out in the agreement include making the new restaurant smaller in size, changing its operating hours, addressing storm water management issues and altering some general landscaping on the property.

“None of it was too difficult,” he said. “It was worth the trade of getting out of this lawsuit.”
Terry Gagner wouldn’t comment on the details of the agreement but said the terms were “just the things we had looked for from the start.”

“I think it’s good that it’s behind us, and I think it’s good both parties could work it out and not have to bother going to court,” Gagner said. 

The agreement has not been formalized and must be reviewed by the town of Kittery.  Landgarten hopes construction can start in late October or early November.

“That’s my dream, but there’s a step in between,” Landgarten said. “After six months of (construction) being down … I kind of have to survey the wreckage to make sure … things still make financial sense to do. Of course, in my heart I still want to do it very much.”

During the lawsuit, a group of Seacoast businesses and residents formed a coalition to support Landgarten and his restaurants. For two consecutive weekends in June, the group picketed in front of Weathervane’s Route 1 location, protesting the lawsuit. Landgarten said talks between the two businesses began after he read a statement Gagner made in Foster’s Daily Democrat.

“(He said) something like all he ever wanted was for us not to make the building so tall and to bring the parking back from the wetlands. I had been trying to reach him for months. … I called him again and said, ‘If that’s what you want, that’s something we can do.’”

E-ZPass comes to Hampton this week

The automated E-ZPass toll system continues to roll out across the state this week when it goes online at the Hampton toll plaza on Interstate 95 on Aug. 3.

Motorists can start paying tolls with the electronic E-ZPass transponders at 5 a.m. on Wednesday morning.

Bill Boynton, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation, said the Hampton plaza will  have one designated E-ZPass lane on each side of Interstate 95. The number of lanes may increase if there’s enough demand.

Once the Hampton toll plaza is online, the next stop for E-ZPass is the Spaulding Turnpike in Dover and Rochester. The target date for those facilities is Aug. 15, Boynton said.

Since E-ZPass made its debut in the state on June 20, more than 90,000 accounts have been set up and 160,000 transponders ordered, according to the Department of Transportation. Approximately 17 percent of toll transactions at the Bedford toll plaza and 15 percent of transactions at the Hooksett toll plaza, the first locations to use E-ZPass, are done with the automated system. E-ZPass users get a 30 percent discount on toll rates. The state will stop selling its highway tokens, which gave motorists a 50 percent discount on rates, on Sept. 1 and will cease accepting tokens at toll plazas on Jan. 1.
For more information, or to enroll in the program, call 877-643-9727 or visit www.ezpassnh.com.

Exeter gets $1 million for water treatment plant

Efforts to upgrade Exeter’s water treatment plant got a boost last Friday when Congressman Jeb Bradley announced the town will receive $1 million in federal funding to go towards either replacing or upgrading the existing treatment plant.

“The funding for improvements to the Town of Exeter’s wastewater infrastructure will relieve some of the cost burden on town residents,” Bradley said in a statement. “The much-needed replacement water treatment plant will provide a tremendous benefit to public health and the environment and will help to improve the aesthetic quality of drinking water in Exeter.”

The funding came from a Department of the Interior appropriations bill and must still be approved by the Senate.

Exeter voters tanked a warrant article for a new $17 million treatment plant in March. Town officials have said the plant needs to be replaced or upgraded to deal with water quality issues, as well as to meet increased demand for water. Last year, testing showed that the town’s water has the maximum level of the contaminant trihalomethanes allowed by federal regulations.

Exeter Public Works Director Keith Noyes said the federal money is helpful, but the future of the treatment plant is still unclear.

“We’re kind of in the interim of which path to go for our water treatment process and plant. We know that we need to do something, whether that means building a brand new plant … or looking back and possibly repairing and upgrading our existing plant,” he said.

The town’s water advisory committee will discuss options during the next few weeks, according to Noyes. He said town officials hope to have a clear plan for the treatment plant by September so that the question can appear before voters next March.