WESTBROOK – The Westbrook City Council has given first-reading approval to a new blast appeals process, including hiring a third-party engineering firm at the expense of Pike Industries Inc.

The council voted unanimously to approve the measure at its meeting Monday night. The new process is geared toward helping residents living near a controversial Spring Street quarry the company operates.

The process gives residents who feel Pike’s work has caused damage to their homes a new layer of appeal, in case Pike denies claims for financial compensation.

Pike has owned and operated the quarry for decades, but work there has been sporadic until recent years, when Pike executives announced they would be ramping up activity there after closing the company’s Main Street quarry.

The move angered residents, who have voiced concerns about noise, vibrations and other problems they say will only increase as the company’s work continues at the Spring Street location, which is expected to include periodic production blasting.

Other corporate neighbors, including Idexx Laboratories Inc., Artel Inc. and Smiling Hill Farm, have argued that Pike’s operations would negatively impact their businesses. The dispute led to a consent agreement between Pike and the city, which was approved by a Cumberland County Superior Court judge in the fall of 2010.

Since then, Smiling Hill, Artel and residents of the nearby Birdland neighborhood have sued to challenge the consent agreement. That lawsuit is still awaiting judgment in court, but injunctions to keep Pike from running the quarry before the judgment is handed down were blocked.

As part of the consent agreement, Pike got to work this spring and early summer on building an access road, which runs parallel to Spring Street. That work involved construction blasting through rock to make way for the road. After the blasting, Birdland resident Brad Chicoine filed a complaint claiming damage to his home.

Chicoine alleged that Maine Drilling and Blasting, the subcontractor Pike hired to do the work, caused a hairline crack in his ceiling, and broke several tiles in his kitchen. The company declined to pay for the damage.

City Administrator Jerre Bryant said the consent agreement calls for the city to set up an appeals process to offer further relief to residents, and Chicoine’s experience has spurred the city to finalize the process.

As part of the process, the city proposes to contract with R. W. Gillespie & Associates of Saco, an engineering firm, to act as an independent third party. The company will review appeals by residents who are denied compensation for damage.

If the arrangement receives full approval at the next council meeting, the company will bill the city $6,200 for reviewing Chicoine’s case, along with the cases of four other property owners that are listed in the consent agreement as having ongoing disputes with Pike over damage to their property, as well.

Bryant and other city officials said the appeals process dictates that Pike would foot the bill for the firm’s fees.