As tony Yarmouth celebrates its annual clam festival this weekend, a clam shack down south in Sanford is throwing in the towel after a tide of junkies laid waste to a once family-friendly neighborhood.
Used hypodermic needles and sidewalk squatters have taken their toll on a popular southern Maine seafood joint.
The owner of Ted’s Fried Clams in Sanford said the fallout from street homeless finally got to be too much to bear.
So he’s not renewing his lease.
Jason Cole, whose family has been behind the counter selling seafood in Maine for more than 50 years, opened his business at Midtown Mall in downtown Sanford after a fire damaged his original Shapleigh location.
But Cole says the neighborhood has become a virtual open-air drug-infested magnet that’s driving away his customers.
Cole’s experience is similar to that facing businesses in the downtown of Maine’s largest city to the north, Portland.
In Portland’s Monument Square, the street squatters and their public defecation and drug use have made untenable attempts by high-scale businesses to attract patrons.
Now Cole knows what they’re up against – drug-addicted homeless locals living on the street.
“They have left meth pipes,” Cole told WGME-TV news. “We’ve found uncapped needles all around the restaurant, and it’s uncomfortable for the customers coming in.”
Just the other night, he recalled, “police were doing CPR on someone out front that overdosed and passed away. So It’s a tough environment to run a successful business in.”
Cops say they have tried their best to get to handle on the problem.
“We do remove people when we see them,” Sanford Police Maj. Mark Dyer said. “However, if they’re hiding in bushes, if they come after we drive through, there’s going to be a couple of hours where we’re just not there.”
