Dave Lee, plant manager at Northeast Coating Technologies, surveys one of many trash piles in the woods off Emery Street. Photo: Lee Burnett
By Lee Burnett
The owner of property at the edge of the Sanford Mill Yard is threatening to close a Mousam Way trail due to ongoing problems with bootleg camping, drug use and accumulating trash.
Frustrations at Northeast Coating Technologies have been building since last fall and have come to a head because people camping in the woods have harassed employees congregating in the parking lot on breaks, according to the company.
“My employees are fed up. They get accosted when they go out of the building,” said plant manager Dave Lee. “We work three shifts. On breaks, some come out to their cars and they get harassed. ‘Your car woke me up,’ and ‘don’t put your headlights on.’ They’re on private property telling employees what to do. The empowerment is what gets me.”
During a recent fire drill, Lee said he was addressing his 35 employees in the parking lot and got interrupted by a voice from the woods.
“Someone started screaming at us that we’d woken them up. They had some colorful words,” he said.
Lee said he takes some comfort in the response he’s received since a Northeast Coating employee posted about the problems on social media last week. He’s received supportive calls from the police chief, a city councilor and chair of the Sanford Trails Committee. Lee said he wants to work with other property owners to make a presentation to the City Council. “This deserves attention.”
To date, the trail that runs from Emery Street to School Street has not been posted against trespass, although that was suggested on the Facebook post.
“I didn’t want to post the property and dissuade everybody,” said Lee. “But the next step is to post and keep people out. I don’t know what the solution is. I could post on either side of the trail. If people are using it for recreational use, we have no problem with it.”
The Sanford Trails Committee is organizing to get the site cleaned up, according to committee chair Sam Paradee, who said he sympathizes with Lee’s plight.
“I think the landowner made the right call to temporarily close the trail,” said Paradee. “We want people to feel fully safe when they use the trail.”
Lee took the Sanford Springvale News on a walking tour of the property Tuesday. We found half a dozen extensive trash heaps, some surrounding abandoned tents. Some trash heaps were new to Lee. He said it’s difficult to know how many people use the property.
“It’s constantly changing. Some get evicted, more move in. Look at the amount of trash. There are needles absolutely everywhere,” he said.
We were within sight of chain link fence topped with barbed wire that the company erected at a cost of $20,000 to keep trespassers from cutting through the parking lot. “Why should we have to fence ourselves off from our own property? And we are responsible for the cost of removing the trash left behind. I’m at a loss quite honestly,” Lee said.
Bootleg camping across town has increased since the City Council shut down a centralized encampment for about 40 people on Heritage Crossing in June 2024. The site had become squalid with human waste, rats and needles, prompting the city to hire a hazardous waste cleanup company to remove 350 yards of contaminated debris and nearly 15,000 needles.
Police are authorized to issue summonses to evict people from unwanted campsites on private property, although that usually results in little more than ineffective court proceedings. Lee praised the responsiveness of the Police Department in dealing with a problem he has heard others liken to “whack-a-mole.”
“They know there’s no power to do anything about it,” Lee said. “They know if they get kicked out of one place, they just move to another.”
Police Chief Eric Small said his department and partners continue to face “extraordinary challenges” dealing with the systemic character of homelessness and mental health issues that “no single agency can solve alone.”
“We are committed to balancing compassion for people experiencing homelessness while also upholding our responsibility for criminal enforcement when necessary. At the same time, we strongly support our local businesses and property owners and respect their right to live and operate free from trespassing and littering,” Small wrote in an email.
Sanford’s unhoused population swelled in May 2025 when York County Shelters closed its emergency shelter in Alfred that had been home to 36 men and women. In October 2025, the City Council passed a resolution calling on the state to do more to combat substance use disorder and crime associated with homelessness. State funding for homeless shelters has remained flat since 2016 at $2.5 million, although the Maine Legislature authorized a one-time infusion of $4.47 million last year. A committee of the Legislature earlier this month recommended an infusion of funding for homeless shelters with revenue to come from a hike on taxes of real estate sales exceeding $1 million.
One remedy being explored by both Lee and the Trails Committee is making the trail more inviting to a wider range of users, thereby bringing the eyes and ears of the public to bear on the problem.
“I think that’s the way to go. I’ve always said visibility leads to accountability,” said Lee. “The president of the company is committed to the trail. We want people here; we want people to enjoy the trails. It’s a nice area.”
The post Trash, Harassment Could Lead to Trail Closure appeared first on Sanford Springvale News.
