WESTBROOK – Despite being arrested last weekend for trespassing on private property while trying to watch a blast at Pike Industries’ quarry, Warren Knight, owner of Smiling Hill Farm, said he will continue to fight against what he says are unfair specifications for a buffer zone laid out in a consent agreement.

Knight, 53, a vocal opponent of the consent agreement between Pike and the city about blasting at Pike’s Spring Street quarry operations, said he was only trying to watch the blasting take place Saturday and not trying to disrupt quarry activities when he was arrested.

“I believed it was within my rights to be there to observe the blast,” Knight said Monday.

“If no one ever opposed anything the city did, it certainly would save them time and money,” Knight said. “Long term, when [Pike] is done, they will leave a hole in the ground, and it will generate zero jobs and zero tax revenue.”

He said he would continue to be the spokesman for his family and stand up against the bigger businesses that he thinks are taking advantage of his smaller operation.

Pike was set to blast at the quarry on Friday, Sept. 27. Knight said he was watching for the blasting from the Central Maine Power property that is adjacent to both his farm and the quarry. No blasting took place.

According to Westbrook Police Capt. Tom Roth, Pike Industries called police on Friday about Knight, but the area where Knight was standing made it difficult for the officers to determine whose property he was on.

While standing on the Central Maine Power property, Knight said he was approached by someone from Maine Drilling and Blasting, the company in charge of the blasting operations at the Pike quarry, who told him it was not a safe area and that he must be at least 300 feet away for this blast and an additional 1,200 feet away from the site during some future blasts. That zone falls into Smiling Hill Farm.

Roth said an attorney for Central Maine Power contacted police on Friday evening, and Pike sent surveyors to the wooded area where Knight was standing the following day to verify that the property belonged to Central Maine Power.

On Saturday, Knight said he was back out on the property at 8 a.m. for the rescheduled blast. He said a friend reminded him that the city ordinance about blast procedures specifies that the blasts can only occur on weekdays, unless otherwise stipulated by the code enforcement office. With that knowledge, Knight said, he called the police to issue a complaint.

Police arrived soon after 9 a.m., but did not talk to Knight about the blast complaint and instead determined Knight was on CMP property. Police arrested him for criminal trespassing, said Roth.

“Officers went out there and told him [Knight] to leave the property. He refused to, and he was arrested. He was cooperative,” Roth said.

Pike was able to blast at the quarry once Knight was removed from the property. The company had received permission by the city to blast on a Saturday, according to Tom Spellman, Pike’s crushing manager.

“We were just happy to get a blast off, but I’m sorry everything had to work out that way to do it,” Spellman said.

After spending a few hours at the Cumberland County Jail, Knight posted the $60 bail and was released. Knight said his bail conditions state that he cannot set foot on Central Maine Power property, although he said he does not know what he will do when Pike is set to blast again. Pike is next scheduled to blast on Friday, Oct. 4.

Smiling Hill Farm and Pike have been at odds over quarry operations since the site became operational again in 2008. At that time, the farm, Idexx Laboratories and Artel, all abutters to the site, banded together to try and stop blasting at the quarry. Idexx reached an agreement that gave it more than a 100-foot vegetative buffer between the two properties. Smiling Hill Farm received a 20-foot vegetative buffer between its open land and the quarry.

“It’s not fair, it’s not right,” Knight said. “What [being given a smaller buffer] is saying is open space and agriculture do not deserve the same protection as what a business does, and we’re not going to accept that. It’s something worth fighting for.”

Knight said the history between his family’s farm and the quarry began after the quarry’s initial owners sold the business in 2006 to Pike Industries, the subsidiary of Oldcastle, the U.S. division of CRH, a publicly owned corporation based in Dublin, Ireland.

A few years later, Pike wanted to begin operating the quarry, but neighbors, including business abutters like Idexx, Artel and Smiling Hill Farm, opposed the use. When Pike went in front of the Zoning Board of Appeals that year to obtain a permit to open the quarry, the board denied the company’s request, and Pike sued the city.

While the court proceedings were taking place in 2009, Colleen Hilton was elected mayor. Hilton stopped the court proceedings and asked the city to deal with the matter between Pike and the abutters internally. Knight said that’s where the problems really started.

Knight said he was told by the city he would be included in every discussion; instead, he said, the city met with Idexx first, the biggest business opposing the quarry, and left Artel and the farm out of the conversation.

“We asked for what other people got. We don’t want special treatment, we want the same treatment. You don’t get to use neighbors’ property as a buffer, that’s not allowed,” Knight said.

Hilton on Wednesday had no comment on what Knight said.

Eventually, Idexx and Artel settled differences with Pike and the consent agreement was put into place to regulate blasting times and sound levels.

“Everything with Idexx and Artel and even with the neighborhood working group, all stuff has basically been vetted out. They seem fine with what we did when we crushed there last year and speaking with homeowners, I don’t expect any problems this week when we shoot,” Spellman said.

Roth said there are concerns from Central Maine Power about having people on its County Road property when Pike is scheduled to blast. He said police are ready to respond if anyone is reported in the area.

Knight is scheduled to appear in Portland District Court on Nov. 19.

“I believed it was within my rights to be there to observe the blast,” Warren Knight, arrested Saturday for trespassing, said Monday.