A plan for Raymond Beach would allow a floating food shack to start operating off a dock in Sebago Lake this spring.

The plan is seen as a way solve waste problems that have plagued the beach and led to its closure last summer.

Selectmen on Tuesday approved leasing the beach to Jeffrey Pomeroy of Raymond, who still needs several state permits before he can move forward with his plan.

Raymond Beach was closed in July, after public works employees found piles of human feces and dirty diapers while cleaning up the area.

This winter, the town put out a request for proposals to privately manage the beach, which is used largely by people who don’t live in Raymond and has been costly to maintain, said Town Manager Don Willard.

Willard said Pomeroy made the only formal proposal.

Pomeroy plans to install a 100-foot-long dock off the shore and sell food including hamburgers, hot dogs and steamed lobsters on a pontoon boat. He said he also wants to rent kayaks and canoes.

Pomeroy would be responsible for monitoring people on the beach and keeping the area clean.

“We’re trying to come up with a way where people can continue to use the beach, where we can keep it clean and the town can be proud of the beach,” said Joe Bruno, chairman of the Board of Selectmen.

The 400-foot-long strip of sand off Route 302 is the only free, public access point to Sebago Lake. There are other beaches on the lake that are free for Raymond residents.

“We, as a town, don’t want to shut off our beautiful lake to other people, and we think this might work,” Bruno said.

The beach would be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily during the summer, and Pomeroy would have someone monitor, open and close the beach. Access would be controlled with a locked gate.

He said his restaurant, which he plans to call the Black Ghost Cafe, would be open Wednesday through Sunday, with a walk-up window for people on the beach and a drive-through window for boaters.

Pomeroy originally wanted to sell food out of a trailer on the beach, but state and local regulations would have required it to be 100 feet from the shoreline, which would have put it in a corner of the parking lot.

He realized that he could have a restaurant 100 feet in the other direction — off the shoreline.

“It worked out a lot better,” he said. “People are more excited about a floating cafe than they are about a trailer in a parking lot.”

Pomeroy, who owns a construction company called Dovetail Woodworks, said he doesn’t have experience in the restaurant industry but his plans call for “nothing fancy.”

He hopes to start operating the week before Memorial Day, he said.

Bruno said it’s too early to tell whether the business plan will work, but the selectmen, who unanimously approved the five-year lease, were “willing to give it a try.”

“We want to see it succeed,” he said.

Staff Writer Leslie Bridgers can be contacted at 791-6364 or at:
lbridgers@mainetoday.com