Scarborough cops get a new way to go

SCARBOROUGH — The change in parking is not the only thing that’s new to Higgins Beach this year. The police officers who must enforce those rules also have a something new up their sleeves.

Or, more correctly, under their seats.

Although they will still conduct bicycle patrols from time to time, the new, primary mode of transport for the officers assigned to Higgins Beach is a 2003 GEM (Global Electric Motorcar).

Most days, the man behind the wheel will be first-year Reserve Officer Ted Gagnon, a native of Presque Isle. Gagnon attended the University of New England, but when he lost interest in his medical biology degree he elected to try and fill his father’s policing shoes instead.

As first beats go, Higgins Beach really isn’t all that bad a draw.

“I’ve been enjoying it very much,” Gagnon said Monday, as he made his rounds in the GEM. “It’s a lot of fun I get to deal with a little bit of everything. It’s a good place to learn. The people here have been very receptive to me and things have been working out very well.”

Chief among the pleasures is the GEM, which makes it easy to zip out to areas where parking is banned and still get back to Bayview Avenue before the one-hour time limit on parking there expires.

“This thing is awesome to go up and check Acorn Lane,” said Gagnon, “because I can be up there and back in no time and not miss much of what’s going on down here.”

Although Police Chief Robert Moulton says the larger beat is one reason for adding an electric car to the fleet of the Higgins Beach bike patrol, it was not the primary one. The real reason is that a bicycle is not the best mode of transport during the hours of peak usage the beach.

Because Higgins Beach has gained some renown as one of the better surf spots on the New England coast, it tends to draw a disproportionate number of visitors when the clouds are low and the waves are high. 

“In the past, when it’s been inclement weather down there, we have pulled the beach officer, so as not to make him walk around in the rain and stuff,” said Moulton. “But, with the new, one-hour parking, we had a need to be down there, even when there’s bad weather.

“The electric car also provides him a means to get around to the outlying areas and still be down on the beach to chalk tires, and he can carry a little but more material than on the bike,” said Moulton. “But the biggest thing for me was the idea that in inclement weather they would be able to still be down there and still be useful.”

Moulton said the GEM is one of two acquired recently through a military surplus program, under which police departments can obtain for free vehicles and other items no longer needed by the military.

“The only downfall is that it’s an ‘as-is’ situation,” said Moulton, “so sometimes we have to spend a little bit of money to get things going.”

So far, so good, however, said Moulton. To date, the department has invested only about $400 in new batteries for the two GEM units it acquired, both of which had about 18,000 miles on them.

Although the surplus program is a no-bid free-for-all – it’s strictly first come, first serve – Scarborough does tend to get the pick of the litter. That’s because the Maine version of the program is administered by Scarborough, specifically, Community Resource Office Joe Giacomantonio, who spotted the GEMs.

“We’re fortunate in that regard in that our guys see things before they hit the regular block,” said Moulton.

Scarborough’s GEMs are stored at the fire station at the intersection of Spurwink Avenue and Black Point Road, about one mile from the beach. It plugs in there overnight to a regular 110-volt wall outlet. Fully charged, the road-legal GEM can go about eight hours, or 30 miles, at a top speed of 25 mph.

Gagnon says he hopes his beach assignment will turn into a full-time gig. He plans to attend the Maine State Police Academy “as soon as possible.”

And who knows, maybe he’ll rise up through the ranks. It’s happened before, as Chief Moulton can well attest. After all, his first policing job back in 1977 was in Higgins Beach. Of course, back then, he walked the beat.