KITTERY, Maine – The Town Council’s meeting Monday night will touch on whether the town will determine whether a property on Old Post Road being used as a bus rental company is dilapidated and needs to be removed.

The ongoing discussion about the property, which has been caught up in litigation for roughly 30 years, has moved from the buses that sit on the property of Jim Dineen to the structure on the property that, for a long time, was a convenience store before Dineen purchased the property in 1992.

The town believes the structure poses a threat to the community if it were to fall, and is dangerous in its current condition. The property, on 40 Old Post Road, is right next to a public pond often used for ice skating, and down the road from the town’s football and baseball field complex.

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Charter buses parked around the property at 40 Old Post Road near Legion Pond, across from Sue’s Seafood Kittery, Maine, are raising concerns that the property is an eyesore. Photo by Rich Beauchesne/Seacoastonline

KITTERY, Maine – A property dispute involving the town and a resident that has been ongoing for roughly 30 years is active again, as the town seeks to have a dilapidated building removed on Old Post Road.

Since 1985, litigation battles have ensued between the town of Kittery and Jim Dineen, who, since 1973, owns property on Old Post Road near Legion Pond and has been running a charter bus company from that property. The town deems the property as an unpermitted vehicle graveyard and has ordered several thousands of dollars in fines on Dineen as well as the removal of any non-functioning vehicles.

Dineen said he has complied with the court orders, and that each vehicle on the property is operational and that spare buses are commonly used for extra parts.

“Every vehicle on my property is a running vehicle,” Dineen said over the phone Wednesday. “The town has been on a crusade against me since 1985. Even if I had all new buses, that wouldn’t satisfy them.”

Town Council Chairman Jeffrey Thomson sees the situation differently, saying that if Dineen wanted to run a bus charter company in the commercialized zone, the town would be more than willing to let him do that.

“(Dineen) has every right to operate a legitimate business on that site,” Thomson said from his living room, which looks out toward Legion Pond and Dineen’s property. “And if that means he has more buses than can fit in his garage – as long as they are road-worthy – that is fine. That’s part of a normal business. But when you have these carcasses there, that’s not normal.”

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