Kittery Police Chief Says Kittery Marketplace Pledge to Fund a New Officer Good for Whole Town

Kittery Marketplace owners announce they will give town $50,000 a year for new officer and provide police substation rent free

KITTERY - Long-time Kittery Police Chief Edward Strong said Wednesday he supports a pledge by the owners of the proposed Kittery Marketplace to give the town $50,000 a year for a new police officer, saying it will make Kittery a safer place for all citizens.

The owners of Kittery Marketplace, proposed along Route 1 between Cutts and Adams roads, also announced they will provide a 1,500-square-foot police substation rent free on mall property. The $50,000 and the space will be made available to the town each and every year, said Ed Huminick, the managing partner of Kittery Retail Ventures, LLC.

"That's what we mean by socially responsible development," said Huminick, an accountant from Salem, N.H., who is a former school board chairman and also serves on that town's zoning board of appeals. "Coming into Kittery, we believe it is important to be good neighbors and to give something back to the community. In this case, we recognized a need for more police presence in the mall area. Our pledge answers that need."

Strong said adding an officer to be assigned solely to the mall area will allow the two remaining patrol officers on that shift to focus much more of their attention on Kittery Point, the downtown area and other residential areas of Kittery.

"This offer benefits everyone in town because it will allow for a more intensive police coverage of the residential areas of Kittery," Strong said. "And it will be accomplished without costing any new tax dollars. I view it as a win-win scenario."

In his 18 years as police chief, Strong has presided over the tremendous growth of malls in Kittery's Route 1 corridor. The corridor, once congested just with spillover traffic from the Maine Turnpike, is now known worldwide as a destination point for shoppers. Kittery's proximity as the so-called 'Gateway to Maine' also accounts for the increase in traffic and the increased need for police services.

Strong said of the 17,000 calls his officers responded to last year, 40 percent originated in the Route 1 commercial district. The calls ranged from traffic accidents to shoplifting to thefts from cars, he said.

But the increase in the calls for service has not resulted in an increase in police officers. Strong has been authorized to add just one full-time officer in his tenure, bringing the total number to 19 officers in his department.

Strong said Kittery Marketplace's offer gives him more law enforcement flexibility at no cost to his department. By being stationed in the mall area, the assigned officer will help deter crime and can complete accident reports and other law enforcement paperwork on-site, rather than shuttling back and forth from the police station. Meanwhile, the other on-duty officers will be more visible in the residential areas.

"It's something that's been needed for a long time," Strong said. "As police chief, I'm grateful the offer has been made." But he made clear he is not taking a position on the September 26 referendum.

Huminick said the manpower situation with the police department should dispel the myth that the growth in malls has been a drain on municipal services. Mall owners paid for a sewage line to the area as well, he pointed out, and the ongoing need for a new fire station in Kittery is mostly due to residential development, not the malls.

His proposed project, the Kittery Marketplace, consists of shingle-style architecture in a campus-like design with roomy walkways, green spaces and just one curb cut onto Route 1. In addition to paying for a police officer, Huminick is paying all costs to move the on-site mobile home park residents to larger lots in a nearby park and freezing their rents for five years. Also, he is paying the entire cost of a comprehensive traffic study of the Route 1 corridor in Kittery and is providing the land for a new, improved, state-of-the-art nursing home to replace the Homestead facility. A much-needed senior center in the facility will be open for community use, free of charge.

Huminick has launched a public awareness campaign in anticipation of a September 26 referendum that seeks to backdate an ordinance and rescind preliminary approvals for his project, which was legally grandfathered.

He is urging residents to vote 'No' so the project, which would bring an estimated net of about $600,000 a year in new tax dollars to Kittery, will be allowed to proceed through the vigorous state and local approval process.

Huminick is hosting an informational open house on Sept. 16 for all interested residents to come and learn more about Kittery Marketplace. The open house will take place from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Sept. 16 at the Days Inn on the Route 1 Bypass in Kittery. Attendees can view a scale-model of the project, talk to the architect and question Huminick and others about the project and the referendum.

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Note to media:
For more information and background material on Kittery Marketplace, click the Kittery Marketplace button. Thank you! Contact Ed Huminick, (603) 479-7087 c, (603) 894-5634 h or Beryl Wolfe (207) 775-5115