Ossipee — October 18, 2012 — The state has ordered the owner of Lakefront Landing Marina to apply for permits for six of his docks that extend into an Ossipee Lake channel because a state investigation shows they extend farther into the channel than they once did.

But 38 of Wayne Killam’s 44 docks, which are located in a “basin” area near the channel, have been “grandfathered” by the Department of Environmental Services because the previous owner of the marina signed a legal document saying the docks were in place before 1979, said DES Water Division Assistant Director Rene Pelletier.

None of the docks at the marina have state permits on record, but because the 38 basin docks have been in place before state dock permitting rules were put in place, they have been grandfathered, Pelletier said. Killam bought the marina and its docks in 2004 from Wesley and Eleanor Lords, who had owned it since 1979.

The other six docks were also there previously, Pelletier said, but they extend farther than before.

“We have a sworn affidavit from (the Lords) saying the docks were there when they purchased the marina in 1979, so we are aren’t concerned about the basin docks, but the channel docks are not where they were, they aren’t tight to the shoreline as they used to be,” Pelletier said.

Killam, who said he is pleased with the DES decision issued this week, said all 44 docks will be legal once he applies and is granted permits for the six docks in the channel. He said he will comply with the state’s request regarding the length of the docks extending into the channel.

“All they have asked is that I reconfigure those docks and apply for permits, and that’s what I will do,” he said.

Complaints in the summer of 2011 from two local residents that Killam had expanded his dock structures and constructed a new water wall without state permission prompted an investigation by DES officials in January.

On May 11, the DES issued to Killam a Notice of Findings from the probe, informing him that the DES had no record of permits issued for the 44 docks that he sells to customers.

Killam said he bought the marina without knowledge that the docks had no permits on record.