TOPSHAM

Selectmen Thursday voted to move the sand pile it provides for residents from the Foreside Field to behind the town’s public safety building in response to reports that some people are taking more than their allotted two buckets.

Town Manager Rich Roedner told selectmen the policy for the sand pile located at the Foreside Field on Foreside Road is two 5-gallon buckets per resident.

“What we’ve seen is quite a few non-residents, we’ve seen commercial users, we’ve seen pickup trucks,” he said, and vehicles getting sand multiple times the same days.

“There is a cost involved,” Roedner said. “Not an insignificant cost the way the sand has been leaving. I know one day last week we started with six yards in the morning, then four more yards went out in the evening and it was gone by the next day. That’s a couple hundred dollars of material right off the bat.”

Selectmen Donald Russell said he doesn’t want to take away the sand pile and remove the convenience for those residents using it in the appropriate way.

Roedner said there has been a lot of ice from the storms and someone told the public works director that there was a truck at the pile six times one day. But currently the two bucket rule is a policy, not an ordinance, he said, so “you can’t ticket them” if people are caught taking more than their share.

Selectmen floated having police keep an eye on the pile or putting up a camera, and Roedner suggested putting the sand pile at the transfer station where it could be monitored.

Russell said there need to be two locations where residents can go. He said he would support putting the pile at the transfer “as long as they can get at it.”

Selectmen Ruth Lyons said she believes residents could plan around transfer station hours and make sure they have their bucket of sand, and said the pile should be moved. If people are coming from other towns, “that just isn’t fair to our people.”

“You can plan all you want,” said selectmen David Douglass. “We are dealing with a weather situation.”

He said the transfer station hours are inconvenient, as it closes at 5 p.m. every night during the winter. The station is closed Sunday and Monday.

“So if you’ve been at work all day and you want to go get sand when you come home, you don’t have that option,” Douglass said.

There are several parking spaces behind the police and fire station never used, he said

“If people are going to decide they want to steal it from the police department parking lot, have at it, but we have the ability to put it here,” Douglass said. “It’s a lighted area, it’s as safe as we’re going to find.”

He added that area would still provide convenient access for townspeople.

“So instead of bringing the police to the sand, we’re going to bring the sand to the police,” Russell said. “I like that idea.”

“There was a reason he got re-elected,” selectman William Thompson added.

All five selectmen voted in favor of Douglass’s motion to relocate the sand pile behind the public safety building.