When Steve Clark moved into his home on a quiet wooded road in Phippsburg in 2009 — followed by his wife Juanita who moved in seven years later — he looked forward to a peaceful retirement from a career in law enforcement.
But an intense years-long dispute between the Clarks and the owner of a 30-year-old neighboring firewood business has upset those plans, forcing them to seek help from police, local officials and ultimately the Maine Supreme Judicial Court — which ruled in their favor earlier this year and required the town to finally crack down on noise and smoke violations by the business.
The town just recently filed a cease and desist order requiring the business to stop operating and seek new local permitting, although the Clarks doubt that will finally calm the waters.
“When I retired here, I thought I was going to have a pretty quiet existence doing my little one-man-show business here,” Steve Clark said, referring to the repairs he does on other people’s machines. “And it’s been anything but for the last nine years.”
While neighborly feuds are not uncommon in rural communities, where small businesses and private residences often coexist, this one stands out for reaching the state’s highest court. Most Mainers know the area for its tranquil beaches and expensive coastal property. When local disputes have made news in recent years, it’s more often been related to access to Popham Beach.
According to Steve Clark, the debate over the firewood business first started in 2016, when he confronted the business owner, Dan Gurney, about Gurney’s sons shooting guns late at night and early in the morning. In response, the Clarks allege that the Gurneys eventually retaliated by throwing firecrackers and hitting golf balls onto their lawn and shouting obscenities at them.
Gurney has not responded to multiple requests for comment.
Ultimately, the Clarks were granted a protection from harassment order against Gurney that is still in place. But that wasn’t the end of it: After Gurney was convicted of violating the protection order in 2017, his neighbors argue that he began operating his home firewood business in the early morning and late night, exposing them to excessive noise and smoke.
That prompted the Clarks and another set of neighbors, Linda and Cliff Trebilcock, to go further by filing a complaint with the town in September 2020.
The town’s Board of Appeals found Gurney was in violation of Phippsburg’s land use ordinance, and ordered the code enforcement officer, Lee Rainey, to write a consent agreement for all three parties, according to court documents.
Gurney did not sign the agreement in time, so Rainey sent him a notice of violation.
Juanita Clark, who works as a legal assistant in Portland, then reported to the Select Board that Gurney did not abate the nuisance. When the board discussed the matter in September 2021, its chair, Julia House, said, “I spoke to Mr. Gurney and I said, ‘If I was you, I wouldn’t sign [the consent agreement] because I’m not signing that myself,’” according to court documents.
That’s when the Clarks and Trebilcocks took their dispute to court. After the town’s decision was upheld by Sagadahoc County Superior Court, they then appealed it to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.
In March, the justices found that the Select Board failed to follow the land use ordinance when it rescinded a code violation against Gurney, and that it had no authority to overrule the code enforcement officer or appeals board.
Finally, on June 9, the town issued a cease and desist order requiring Gurney to stop running his business and seek a new business permit.
He has now applied once for a business permit with the Planning Board, but his application was deemed incomplete and he has another meeting with the board later this month, according to Rainey, the code enforcement officer.
“It’s been a long process,” Rainey said about the court case.
The Clarks feel vindicated by the Law Court’s decision, but say they are frustrated they had to go above the town to address their concerns with the neighboring business.
“All we have asked these officials to do is to follow the law. We’re not asking for anything particular, not asking for anything special. We’re just asking you folks to follow your own ordinances and state law,” Steve Clark said.
Clark, who was previously the police chief in Boothbay Harbor before his retirement, argued that neither local law enforcement nor town officials took their complaints seriously enough. At times, he said, it felt like local officials were siding with Gurney.
In their ruling in March, Law Court justices expressed concern about House, a Select Board member, giving ex parte advice to Gurney to not sign the consent agreement, and they ordered that House recuse herself from further hearings on the matter. And, in 2021, Gurney collected signatures from Phippsburg residents on a petition stating that he had not caused them a nuisance. One current Select Board member, Anna Varian, signed it, according to a copy of the document provided by the Clarks.
Town Administrator Ross McLellan and members of the Phippsburg Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.
“The thing is, we’ve never been opposed to him having a business; we just believe, under the ordinances and stuff, and based on the fact that he has used that business to harass us repeatedly, it doesn’t belong at the location where he wants it,” Juanita Clark said. “If he found another spot somewhere in town where there’s not a residential area, and he wants to operate his business, good luck, that’s fine.”
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated how Phippsburg’s Board of Appeals handled the complaint from the Clarks and Trebilcocks.
Jules Walkup is a Report for America corps member. Additional support for this reporting is provided by BDN readers.
