Celeste Edwards of Fort Hill Road in Wiscasset has been placed on the agenda for the Board of Selectmen on April 18 to discuss her recent experience with the Wiscasset Historic Preservation Commission.

Edwards had appeared at a commission meeting April 6 to discuss her application for a certificate of appropriateness for a fence she erected around her property last fall. Edwards, who is legally blind, said she requires a fence around the property to prevent her from falling down the steep hillside around her property, and also to contain her dogs. She lives in Wiscasset part of the year.

Because she can’t drive at night and lives in Massachusetts for the winter, she had asked Town Planner Ben Averill to make sure she was placed on the agenda during the warmer months so she could get there during daylight hours. She said she had also asked for a special meeting with the commission during daylight hours owing to her disability, but was refused. She said she was surprised to learn she had been on the agenda for several months, because, she said, she had not been informed in advance.

“Ben said that the agenda was in the newspaper, but I can’t read the newspaper, and even if I could, I was out of state,” she said. “Letters apparently went out in September, but I assumed that because I bought the house before that, I didn’t have to come before the commission.”

She bought the house in May of last year, but said she was not told she was in the historic district and was subject to the authority of the commission with regard to the fence.

Her application was denied April 6, and the commission wanted to send her a letter ordering her to tear down the fence, but Averill asked Commissioner James Kochan to withdraw his motion, because, Averill said, the commission did not have enforcement authority, and was required to ask the code enforcement officer, Stan Waltz, to write and tell her the fence was not in compliance. Waltz would have to seek a remedy with the Board of Selectmen, Averill said, and it would be a statutory remedy – that is, the board could take Edwards to court.

Instead, a week later, Edwards received a letter from the commission, demanding she tear down the fence. 

She said she called Averill, who suggested she get onto the agenda at the Board of Selectmen. Averill told the Wiscasset Newspaper on Tuesday, the issue of the letter would be discussed and “clarified” at the selectmen’s meeting.

Edwards said she also also phoned Town Manager Marian Anderson, and that Anderson was very sympathetic. She also called Waltz, who said she didn’t have to tear down the fence, according to Edwards. Calls to these town officials were not immediately returned.

“I was shocked,” Edwards said. “I chose a picket fence rather than a chain link fence because I respect the historic nature of my house, and I have historic pictures of this house with a similar picket fence around it. I’d like to put the money I have into restoring the house itself.”

Edwards said she had put about $35,000 into renovation of the house, but that the fence the commission is demanding would cost about $40,000. “I can’t afford that,” she said. “I lost my job because of my blindness.”

Edwards also said she was saddened and surprised at how she was treated during her hearing at the commission. “I felt like I was 2 years old, being yelled at by my mother,” she said. “Several members of the commission were rude and belligerent. I’d go so far as to call them historical bullies.”

She said she was particularly shocked to learn that one of the commission members went so far as to contact her real estate agent to find out if she was informed about the historic nature of the house and whether or not it would be subject to the Historic Preservation ordinance. “He was calling to see if I was lying,” she said. Averill said that issue would be discussed during the April 18 selectmen’s meeting, as well. Calls to the agent were not immediately returned. “I’ve been stopped in town and asked about my house and my fence, as far away as Bath,” she said. “It makes me want to sell the place and move, and I really love the house.”