FREEPORT

About a year ago, Freeport resident Joni Tompson heard the grinding of trees at night for three weeks as part of a Maine Department of Transportation clear cutting project that gave her Freeport neighborhood a new, unattractive view of Interstate 295.

Tompson said her property abuts a chain-link fence that runs along the highway, and that she lost a 75- foot buffer of trees that once stood between her Elm Street home and I- 295.

“Boy, talk about feeling like you have absolutely no control,” she said Tuesday.

She expects noise by her house, but never expected the state to cut trees right up to the fence. The noise is louder and the highway is now a horrible visual out her front window. Her son graduated a month after the cutting began, so she hurriedly put a stockade fence up so friends and family could enjoy the graduation party in the backyard.

“They absolutely could have accomplished what they wanted to without leveling all these trees,” Tompson said. “They just had to slow down and put a little thought into it.”

She and other property owners worry about property values. She’s at the point now of wanting to know what can be done from here, “and hopefully the other half is DOT doesn’t do that to another town.”

Now, Freeport officials are awaiting a solution and cost estimate to mitigate the clear cut.

About 37 acres of trees were reportedly cleared on state property running along I-295 as part of a $205,000 project to improve visibility along the highway as part of a statewide project.

At a heated town council meeting in June 2015, MDOT officials explained that the 100-foot-wide swath of trees was cleared to give motorists a better chance to see animals before they dart onto the highway and allow more sunlight to melt snow and ice on the road.

However, residents were angry over the lack of a warning before the cutting began, and MDOT Region Manager John Cannell admitted the department could have done a better job notifying the community.

MDOT press secretary Ted Talbot said the department will pay better attention to the public notification process, and that planting will begin as early as this spring to provide a buffer against the highway.

Freeport Town Manager Peter Joseph said MDOT is willing to help immediate abutters with some kind of landscaping or vegetation on the abutters’ property. He expects the council will soon need to take action on an intergovernmental agreement if the vegetation work is to get done in the spring.

Al Presgraves, the town engineer, said Tuesday that no decisions have been made yet.

MDOT vegetation manager Robert Moosmann is expected to get recommendations for each of eight abutting lots affected by the clear cutting to him by the end of the week.

Hopefully those recommendations will have associated cost estimates. He doesn’t expect the plan to include remedies for the end of the most impacted streets themselves — Elm, True and Kendall streets — so he may add some options for discussion.

As an immediate measure, the town placed a berm and plantings at the end of Elm Street.

“I think that has done something to appease the non-abutting neighbors impacted,” Moosmann said.

According to Presgraves, the MDOT has emphasized it has never done this kind of process before in response to a tree cutting, and is only doing it because they feel they made a mistake with their communications.

“I am concerned that the process could take longer than everyone’s hoped for schedule of getting this done this spring,” Presgraves said.

Freeport Town Councilor Scott Gleeson represents District 1, which “got creamed” by the tree cutting, he said. A district workshop held after the tree cutting drew more than 100 people. He and fellow councilor Melanie Sachs arranged for two MDOT officials to attend the meeting, where residents sounded off.

Gleeson said the state’s failure to seek any community input created the rub. Residents felt the cutting was excessive, because trees were cut right to the edge of the state’s right of way. A mere 5- to 10 -foot buffer of trees wouldn’t have compromised what the transportation department was trying to do, he said.

Once the recommended plan is in for direct abutters, Gleeson wants to seek remedies for the end of the three dead-end streets most impacted, which he’d seek neighborhood feedback on.

Meanwhile, neighbors will have to contend with the noise and intrusion of the highway.

Drew Michaud is a junior at Freeport High School where he said there are now no trees separating the school from the highway. In the heat of September, he said passing traffic was too loud to open windows in classrooms facing the interstate. The school was built near I-295 and the traffic noise always been loud, but it has become worse, he said. It’s hard to hear the calls on the sports fields. He said more than just the residents directly abutting the highway are impacted.

Michaud doesn’t live in District 1, but spoke out at the workshop held with MDOT officials.

“It’s noise and it’s an eyesore and it shouldn’t have happened and they need to fix it,” Michaud said Wednesday. “They just need to fix it, bottom line.”

Everybody would like to find a solution to satisfy residents as best as possible, said Talbot, MDOT’s spokesman.

“We all want to walk away feeling better about the work. This is why talks are ongoing,” he said.

dmoore@timesrecord.com