A Jefferson resident was arrested by Lincoln County Sheriff's deputies after an alleged armed confrontation with a road crew outside his residence on the Goose Hill Road on May 13.

John Burbank, 34, was transported to Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset following a 45-minute standoff with authorities and a subsequent interview once in custody.

Assisted by officers of the Maine Warden Service and the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, the deputies secured a perimeter around the home and spent some time attempting to convince Burbank to exit unarmed.

Burbank was impaired and intimidating the road crew, according to a recent press release from the Sheriff's Office. Deputies recovered numerous weapons from the home after a search warrant was obtained, according to the release. One of the weapons is a 9mm semi-automatic handgun deputies believe Burbank was wearing at the time of his confrontation.

Jefferson Road Commissioner Allan Johnston said this was not the first confrontation he has had with the Burbank family.

John Burbank's mother, Victoria, has actually been disputing the expansion of the road in front of her home for some time now, he said.

“We've tried to work with her and compromise,” he said, while standing by his truck just after 4 p.m. A worker on Johnston's crew had just finished removing numerous wooden fence poles from the edge of the road. “She's determined not to work with us.”

Johnston said he started work on Goosehill Road on March 20, following a special town meeting vote last November.

The warrant article “cures the defects in the town's title to an easement for highway purposes in the road known as Goose Hill Road, being a strip of land three rods in width, the center line of which is the center of the current traveled way along Goose Hill Road running from Route 126 in Jefferson to the Waldoboro town line, and appropriate no damages as compensation for the aforementioned easement.” The results of the vote were: 751 “yes,” 672 “no” and 40 blanks.

Johnston said he was forced to call the Sheriff's Office in March following a confrontation with John Burbank. “He came out and told us to stop, said we didn't have a right to do this,” Johnston said, recalling the incident.

Johnston said he offered to cut tree limbs back, “so they look better,” but said Victoria Burbank wanted his crew to cut the tree limbs no more than a foot from the edge of the hot top. “I couldn't do that,” he said. “I would have had to return every year.”

A letter dated April 12 to Victoria Burbank from Town Attorney Michael Hodgins of Bernstein Shur states the rights of landowners to challenge the town order expired 60 days after its January 10 recording in the Lincoln County Registry of Deeds. It also notifies Burbank that the town planned to continue the road construction on May 12.

Hodgins further asks Burbank to remove de-limbed wood, left behind by Johnston's road crew at her request, a mailbox attached to one of the trees and the fence to the outside of the road's right-of-way within 30 days. The 30-day notice ended on May 12.

John Burbank was charged with criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, a felony offense and for creating a police standoff, which is a civil offense. If unable to make bail, the Sheriff's Office said he will appear before a judge on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.

“It's unfortunate he did it,” Victoria Burbank said of her son's actions. Burbank later denied making that statement. She said she had asked her son to make a request to the road commissioner. “I shouldn't have done it. I was the one at fault.” She then described the challenges they have faced over the past month regarding this issue, with the road commissioner and selectmen.

It took the full 30 days for her and her son to remove some 18 trees cut down and left behind by the road crew, she said. Describing how the trees were buried under piles of chipped wood, she said, “They were so big, it took us forever.” She also said the road work is diverting all of the water onto her pastureland, flooding nearly two acres and rendering it almost useless.

Burbank said she has filed a lawsuit against the town. “They took the property by eminent domain. They paid no money and just took it.”