LUBEC — Two dogs were killed in separate traffic incidents in downtown Lubec last month, underscoring the Board of Selectmen’s ongoing discussion about pedestrian safety and speed limit enforcement.
Kris and Charles Schwartz said they have summered at the corner of Washington and Church streets in Lubec since 2021, when the COVID‑19 pandemic made their Campobello Island summer home inaccessible.
They now spend about five months a year in Lubec and live the rest of the year in Princeton, New Jersey.
Their dog, Dan, a Jack Russell terrier mix they adopted from a pound, had long reacted to passing vehicles, especially those that are large or noisy, a behavior the Schwartzes had been working to train out of him. He spent most of his days inside or in their yard behind a wooden picket fence.
In August, the Schwartzes were in their driveway on Washington Street loading Dan into their car when a big rig carrying bait from Campobello Island came up the hill. Dan ran into the street, where the truck ran over him and killed him.
The couple described the incident in a letter to The Quoddy Tides in early September, mourning their dog and thanking two men from Perry who stopped to help them clean up and dispose of Dan’s body.
They also thanked the truck driver, who stopped to offer his condolences.
Speaking at their summer home this week, the Schwartzes said they remain upset over the loss of their companion, but the incident has led them to broader questions about whether Lubec is doing enough to protect pedestrians.
“I had an idealized idea of Lubec as a walkable town,” Kris Schwartz said.
Charles Schwartz agreed, saying, “Cars rule the road here.”
Kris Schwartz said she has friends in town who worry about letting their children walk to school.
Washington Street runs from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Campobello Island checkpoint at the base of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Bridge past Claire’s Bakery, a row of homes, Bar Harbor Bank & Trust and the IGA, ending at a stop sign at Flatiron Corner, where it meets Main Street and Maine Route 189, also known as the County Road.
Washington Street and Route 189 are state roads managed by the Maine Department of Transportation. In addition to MaineDOT speed limit signs, several private signs along Washington Street ask motorists to drive slowly.
Claire Egan operates her bakery out of her home at the intersection of Washington and Dewey‑Mowry streets. Egan said she can see, but is legally blind, and has used a white cane since this past winter. She said that in the roughly 60 times she has walked from her home to the grocery store since she began using the cane, drivers have stopped to let her cross in front of the IGA three times.
“I used to know everybody’s cars and trucks, and I think the people who stop are the people who know me,” she said, laughing.
Under Maine law, drivers must stop for a visually impaired pedestrian carrying a cane, whether or not the person is in a crosswalk. Drivers also must stop for any pedestrian at a crosswalk who shows “visible intent” to cross.
Washington Street’s sidewalk runs only along the north side, which means Egan has to cross the street to reach the grocery store or post office. There is no crosswalk at that intersection, and visibility is poor.
“It was scary at first,” Egan said, “but now I wave my stick and go for it.”
She said a friend asked the state to install a crosswalk for her, but MaineDOT said it cannot install one where there is no sidewalk on both sides of the road.
There is a crosswalk at the Schwartzes’ intersection, with fluorescent warning signs alerting drivers to pedestrians crossing Washington Street toward Lubec Elementary School, about 1,000 feet down South Street.
The speed limit on Washington Street is 25 mph, but the Schwartzes said cars and trucks regularly exceed it.
“I think trucks coming up want to get a head of steam to get up the hill,” Charles Schwartz said. “I’m thinking about buying a radar gun off Amazon.”
Bianca Mase, who lives just up the hill from the Schwartzes, also recently lost a dog to traffic. Mase said she had adopted Cowboy, an Australian shepherd-corgi mix, three days before a vehicle hit and killed the dog in front of her house on School Street. Mase said she does not think speed was a factor, but she knows of several dogs killed in traffic over the years in Lubec and no longer allows her dogs to be unleashed in her yard.
The Board of Selectmen discussed traffic at its meeting earlier this month, responding to a request for a stop sign on Main Street where it intersects with Washington Street and the County Road at Flatiron Corner.
Chair Carol Dennison said a resident complained about early morning traffic coming down Main Street “going 60 mph, flying through the intersection,” and asked the board to consider adding a stop sign at the bottom of Main Street.
Dennison said Main Street is a town road, meaning the town could install a stop sign there, and she asked for public input on the idea.
An audience member said a stop sign had been installed there seven or eight years ago, but it created confusion over the right of way and led to “more close calls and more accidents.”
Selectman Dan Wagner said he believed a member of the public removed the sign and it was never replaced.
Audience members agreed.
Selectman Mark Kelley said MaineDOT had advised against installing a stop sign in that location.
Another audience member said the real issue is the lack of enforcement.
“If people obeyed the stop sign that’s there now,” he said, referring to the Washington Street stop sign, “we wouldn’t have too much trouble, but people just don’t stop. And we’ve got no policing in this town.”
Members of the audience and the Board of Selectmen also pointed to another problematic spot for Lubec traffic: the five‑way intersection by the U.S. Postal Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection offices, which has two stop signs, two crosswalks and an entrance to the USPS parking lot.
Dennison noted that the intersection is managed by MaineDOT, which would need to make any final decisions about regulating traffic.
Like most other Washington County towns, Lubec’s law enforcement is handled by the county sheriff’s office, which operates patrols in Lubec and responds to complaints. The sheriff’s budget is set by the county.
County commissioners have clashed repeatedly with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office over cuts the commissioners made in response to the county budget crisis, most recently at a meeting earlier this month, when commissioners asked that the sheriff cut back on overtime.
The Schwartzes said they were not aware of the details of the county budget crisis, but were frustrated to hear that the town had not been able to come up with a solution to better manage traffic.
The couple suggested installing temporary speed bumps on Washington Street in the summer, when traffic is heavy, and adding more signage to caution motorists.
Kris Schwartz said she has become sensitized to the traffic since losing Dan.
“It’s like Danny lives on inside me,” she said, adding she has started waving at passing vehicles to ask them to slow down. “They think I’m just being friendly, and wave back.”
