BH taxpayers facing $80 million in capital cost for sewers, school; housing remains elusive for many

Other news: Tremont citizens vying for new petitions; SWH seeks to restart recycling

BAR HARBOR, Feb. 5, 2021 - This town is too rich for federal assistance and too poor to solve critical needs like workforce housing.

Its median household income is too high for federal grants, so local taxpayers will bear the brunt of the staggering cost of deferred waste water abatement. But on housing, those with the same income are struggling to live here (see sidebar article).

Publics Works Director Bethany Leavitt told the town council Tuesday night it will cost $27-$37 million to bring the town into compliance with the state’s mandate to stop polluting Frenchman Bay. QSJ reported two weeks ago that it took Bar Harbor four years to develop a qualified master plan to abate the polluted water. It now has to execute that plan.

Public Works Director Leavitt’s forecast presented Tuesday night

Contrary to the representation by Town Manager Kevin Sutherland Tuesday, federal grants may be out of reach for Bar Harbor, according to Mike Riley, senior environmental engineer in Maine.

Even though the state is expecting federal grants for infrastructure to double in the next four years, Bar Harbor has a tough case to make for federal money, Riley said.

“Bar Harbor being a relatively affluent community probably wouldn't be getting grant funds for the projects. You have to demonstrate financial hardship. You have to be a certain percentage of median household income to claim financial hardship.”

Towns that pay more than 2 percent of their median household income (MHI) for sewer services tend to be favored for federal money, he said.

“Bar Harbor has MHI of $53,000 and change, and their rates were $624. So their percentage of the median household income is only 1.18 percent, quite a bit less than the 2 percent threshold for financial hardship.”

Borrowing at low interest rates is available, Riley said, but rates are going up. Bar Harbor may qualify for loan abatement, he added.

Bar harbor’s rate base is low because the town hasn’t been spending enough on required abatement nor maintenance over the past two decades. Translation: Don’t ask for the federal government to bail you out of a financial hole created by your own negligence.

In a response to a question from council member Gary Friedmann, Leavitt said only ratepayers pay for the capital costs of the sewer system, but that all taxpayers will be footing the bill for storm water abatement.

That is likely not going to sit well with rural homeowners who have their own septic fields and do not benefit from the sewer system. Mount Desert is the only town on MDI which reimburses rural homeowners for costs of maintaining their stand-alone septic systems.

Leavitt did not return emails from QSJ for an interview. Sutherland also did not respond.

Business-friendly town councils kicked the can down the road for 20 years when they happily ushered in unchecked hotel growth without adequately funding waste water abatement, adding thousands of toilets which are flushed during the most likely time of the year for a summer deluge.

They quietly deferred that investment to another generation.

“Every system has a capacity to it, based on piping that’s currently there,” said Riley. “When you add more sources of wastewater and you try to convey it through that existing piping, there's a limit to how much you can add before you start causing problems.

“So if you added a big hotel and put out 10,000 gallons a day a wastewater the town would have to come up with a project that would remove 10,000 gallons of stormwater by rewinding a leaky pipe or separating out the catch basins or separating out private connections.

“When we have a huge summer influx of people that's obviously going to increase the wastewater that your system is handling.”

Bar Harbor is one of 31 municipalities in Maine’s abatement program for “combined sewer overflow” because its sewers are ancient and do not separate out storm water. Also, Frenchman Bay is more sensitive to overflows because it does not flush well.

The most critical area is the West Street pumping station because its overflow empties into Eddie Brook, said Riley. “A higher flow going into that pump station has caused that to be the most active or certainly the most serious situation because you're dumping in a small stream as opposed to in Frenchman's Bay.

Bar Harbor actually has four combined systems including one near Hull’s Cove, Riley said. They are the only ones on MDI.

Maine has spent more than $1 billion on waste water abatement. Portland is building two storage tanks for $70 million to hold rain water until the ground is less saturated. Bangor is building a similar tank.

The water abatement project in Bar Harbor is in addition to regular maintenance to keep the sewer system running, said Leavitt, who projected another $10-$18 million needed by 2028.

Flooding on lower Atlantic Avenue, which started after the town began pumping water out of a basement onto the street, is a critical need, according to resident David Einhorn, who sent this photo of a skating pond which is his driveway.

Friedmann urged Leavitt to commit to fixing the Atlantic Avenue flooding this year.

But when Leavitt tried to answer, Sutherland intervened, “I'd like to recognize that this is a challenge for that neighborhood, and we will work with the community to solve it. But right now we need to address the CSO (combined sewer overflow) piece of our requirement with the DEP.”

In other words, the town can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. Atlantic Avenue will have to wait.

The economics in Bar Harbor has always favored development over residents. And Sutherland offered no solace that he is going to act differently.

When a hotel is built in Bar Harbor, the developer is obligated to pay only for the connection to the sewer system. Any expansion to handle the increased inflow to the system or “augmented capacity” is paid for by residents. Finance Director Sarah Gilbert and Leavitt tried to address this imbalance in their FY22 budget statement.

This is the pact with the devil the town council made. Tourism is Bar Harbor’s daddy. Under former chairman Paul Paradis, who owns a hardware store, and members Peter St. Germain (motel owner), Jeff Dobbs (video marketing), Matt Hochman (cafe owner) and Wendy Searchfield (Chamber director), Bar Harbor chose tourism over residents.

And now the bill is due. Guess who is going to pay the piper? Clue: Not the hotel industry.

FOOTNOTE: Another large investment deferred was the upkeep of K-8 Conners Emerson school buildings, which are 60-70 years old. Both are susceptible to leaky roofs, inadequate insulation and starved for space, according to the Islander. The boiler system and other critical infrastructure are on life support. A renovation project is estimated at $40 million.

Why Bar Harbor’s working class can’t afford to live here

BAR HARBOR - Mike Riley called this town “wealthy” in the above article. So why can’t so many of the workers at MDI Hospital, Jackson Labs, College of the Atlantic, police, fire, schools afford to live here?

They are a class apart from the seasonal workers, many of whom are temporarily housed by businesses which have bought up huge chunks of the housing stock, exacerbating the problem for year-round workers.

It’s not a new question, but as MDI braces for 2022 to be the year from hell, it is taking on a sense of urgency.

At a Planning Board workshop last week to establish some baseline assumptions about the problem, town officials got some sobering data from analyst Clyde Barr of the Maine housing authority.

Barr started with census data from 2010 to 2020 showing the decline of year-round inventory and increase in “vacant housing units” in Bar Harbor.

“You could think of vacant housing units in a town like Bar Harbor as mostly vacation rentals or second homes.

“So looking at single family homes, the average price of of a home is unaffordable to the average household on MDI,” Barr said. And as bad as those numbers were, they failed to take into account the crushing inflation of home prices in 2020 and 2021.

Barr uses a calculation that if a household has to pay more than 30 percent of its income for housing cost, then that household is “cost burdened” and may need to seek affordable housing elsewhere.

Three towns on MDI have at least 30 percent of their households said to be “cost burdened.”

The following chart shows the number of owned and rental households in each town and the percentage of each town’s “cost burdened” households. Bar Harbor and Tremont lead the pack in Hancock County for “owner cost burden,” while Southwest Harbor leads in renter cost burden (39 percent of 84 houses rented).

The slide is deceptive because Mount Desert and Southwest Harbor have so few homes available as workforce housing which account for their lower owner cost burden.

Barr then cited the huge gap between the median price of a single family home here and median household income.

In 2018, the median price for a single family home was $316,000. Last year it was $520,000. The most current data for median income was $66,591 in 2019, Barr said

Bar Harbor is at least attempting to engage the challenge. While affordable housing is an MDI-wide problem, there is no meaningful attempt to address it by the municipal governments in Tremont, Southwest Harbor and Mount Desert.

Barr pointed to many tools to tackle the problem including allowing second or third out-buildings (accessory dwelling units) on a single lot, changing restrictive zoning practices and reducing density requirements.

But all these tools face the ultimate test of whether they should be encumbered by a requirement that the housing produced be “affordable.”

Portland last year implemented an ordinance requiring all new development over 10 units to have at least 10 percent as affordable housing.

Bar Harbor is challenged because it does not have the land nor the underlying infrastructure (see above) for development of any affordable housing of scale, said Barr.

CTR seeking to give voters an alternative to Tremont Planning Board ordinance changes

TREMONT - Concerned Tremont Residents are working feverishly this weekend to collect 84 signatures needed to place a question on the ballot for the May town meeting which has stricter language than the one proposed by the planning board.

CTR is knocking on doors because Town Clerk Katie Dandurand certified only 54 signatures as valid on Wednesday:

Dandurand did certify CTR’s second petition for ordinance changes, if approved, to apply to any campground application still pending as of May 10. Acadia Wilderness Lodge, the chief igniter of residents’ ire with its massive development in West Tremont, would fall back into a pending application if an appeals board or judge remands it back to the planning board, CTR proponents say.

The Board of Selectmen meeting Monday at 5 will consider both the PB and CTR ordinance proposals.

The chart below is a summary of CTR’s proposed changes compared with the planning board’s proposal filed with the town on Tuesday.

Jayne Ashworth, candidate for the select board seat vacated by Jamie Thurlow, said she will vote for the CTR petition.

“During our town election and meeting on May 9 and 10, Tremont voters will decide which proposal will be used until the Comprehensive Plan Task Force completes its work next year.  I will vote for the plan proposed by the Concerned Tremont Residents, in large part because it  has a cap on occupancy per site and provides a larger setback from adjacent residential properties.  For me, we need for businesses and residents to co-exist in reasonable ways.”

Candidate Ben Harper said he hasn’t decided.

Information about CTR’s petition drive may be obtained from goodplanningtremont@gmail.com.

Bristol native daughter scores interview with Biden

SOMESVILLE - Every morning when I wake up, I grab my phone and read “Letters from an American” penned by a Boston College historian about the day’s news in its historical context.

That is before I check the weather, read the local news and WSJ, NYT and WashPo.

Unlike journalists, Mainer Heather Cox Richardson cautions us to understand that what happened yesterday is part a continuum and not just an ephemeral event. It can be both reassuring and frightening.

She doesn’t aways succeed. Like all of us, she occasionally over reacts to yet another unspeakable act by the former political entity known as the Republican Party. But she is now one of my favorite guiding lights, along with Harvard historian Jill Lepore.

She scored an interview with Joe Biden Feb. 25. Please watch it in its entirety and see the difference between this and interviews by cable news networks. Biden would be smart to have more of these “fireside chats.” Richardson’s family in Bristol dates back to Colonial days.

SWH board to recommend cardboard-only to reboot recycling effort

SOUTHWEST HARBOR - This is the only town on MDI which has not recycled since the closing of the Fiberight plant in Hampden, but the warrant committee wants the select board to consider starting with just cardboard.

The committee held a long discussion Monday night with Ben “Lee” Worcester, vice president of EMR, on the merits of various models. EMR hauls trash for several towns and has offered SWH the same deal Tremont has for a single-sort bin. In addition to the transportation and facility fee, Tremont pays Casella $75 per ton to process the recyclables. 

“EMR is not in a position to do much in the way of putting all kinds of recycling in place because you don't have the space for it,” said Don Lodge, chair of the warrant committee.

“At the end, we were amenable to making another offer to the town to recycle cardboard only.” The warrant committee wants to avoid the $75 per ton fee because there are at least two companies that will take cardboard for free.  Worcester said he would come back with a proposal.

Meanwhile, MRC still flailing …

The SWH discussion underscores the plight of the 115 towns left in the lurch by the Municipal Review Committee, which has offered no assistance since the Hampden plant went into receivership in May 2020. All it’s done is to shift the trash to be burned at an incinerator in Orrington and dumped at landfills.

Almost half of the trash since then have ended up in landfills, according to data collected by QSJ from a Freedom of Information Access Act request. Landfills are the lowest in the hierarchy of environmentally sound waste disposal.

MRC waste destinations between June 1, 2020 and Jan. 20, 2022:

James N. Katsiaficas, the Portland attorney who worked on the initial Fiberight and MRC documents in 2016, said, “An interesting historical footnote is that MRC was created not to provide a solid waste disposal facility or technology, but to ride herd on one (PERC) when soon after PERC’s commencement of operations in 1989, it greatly increased tipping fees. 

“Thus, MRC began as a watchdog agency, not as a solid waste disposal agency, and then morphed into an entity proposing its own solid waste disposal solution.”

He added:

”I think it’s fair to say that here was some concern about the insularity of the MRC Board, since its directors (necessarily) represented a narrow cross-section of the entire 187 municipality membership, and perhaps represented more of its larger members.”

Katsiaficas cited other similar organizations which have wider representation.

“With Ecomaine, just to give you an example, every municipality that is a member of Ecomaine has a representative on the board. And so you can say it is a corporation that is owned by the municipalities.

“And so it's obviously very democratic because it represents each of the municipalities that have a stake in the organization. It would have been very difficult for MRC to do something similar because they had 100 to 187 members.

“I forget the size of the (MRC) board, but it's somewhere around nine or so. And so the question is, is that nine truly representative of the interests of the 187?”

The 187 number was the original membership before 115 towns broke off, while the remaining stayed with PERC in 2016.

Since the collapse of Fiberight, the MRC board has had only one goal - to reopen the failed plant despite questionable economics and fuzzy claims of recycling success.

Meanwhile, waste management trends are moving away from monolithic solutions like big waste plants and moving toward decentralization. Portland reintroduced curbside pickup of recycled materials which go straight to Ecomaine. Zero waste initiatives are sprouting to reduce trash.

MRC’s model actually can only work by encouraging more trash be created to support the scale of a large enterprise.

FOOTNOTE:

Select board member Martha Dudman has a great antenna. She and fellow member Geoff Wood consistently ask the best questions. On June 16, 2016, while the board was asked to approve the “joinder agreement” with the MRC, the minutes stated that Dudman “inquired about the town’s options should they feel they need to exit the agreement or if Fiberight defaults. Director (Tony) Smith noted that in the event of default, Fiberight will pay costs, and the towns will work together to find an alternative.” Public works director Smith did not answer the first part of her question. And so here we are.

Cruise ship devotee mocks Bar Harbor efforts to cap visits

BAR HARBOR - This obnoxious video made its way onto social media.

Charles Sidman, the champion of a citizens petition to cap cruise ship visitations, said the video clearly shows “the mentality with which we are dealing.

“A direct “HA HA HA – IN YOUR FACE!” to the majority of Bar Harbor citizens who clearly stated that they want fewer cruise ships and visitors, and making our Town Council look unconnected, two-faced and ridiculous!

“Out town should know what the world thinks and says about us, including that they own us for their own convenience and pleasure, no matter what we think for ourselves.”

Mount Desert Conducting Town-wide Broadband Audit

SOMESVILLE - The town has contracted Casco Bay Advisors to do detailed data collection and analysis to determine the current status of high-speed broadband services across town. This effort will result in a comprehensive report designed to support the Town’s goal for everyone to have access to reliable, affordable, high-speed, and future-ready internet service. The final report will also recommend strategies and related costs for filling gaps and availability, recommended sources of funding to implement those strategies, and the data and information to support those findings.

A crew from Casco Bay Advisors drove along all the roads and driveways across town to identify each dwelling or commercial building and what services, if any, they currently have in place for internet access. Residents may have seen a Chevy pickup truck with a flashing light on top used by the firm to do this audit.

The Town Broadband Committee will be working with these consultants and Town staff to determine the next steps towards the ultimate goal of universal coverage.

Lincoln’s Log:

SWH final candidates:

Southwest Harbor Town Manager Marilyn Lowell announced Friday these candidates have filed to run for office in May.

For two three-year terms on the select board: Natasha Johnson, Michael Magnani, Michael Sawyer, James Vallette and Allen Willey.

For two-year term on school board: Clifford Noyes.

For one, three-year term on school board: John Izenour, Aaron Lisy.

For one three-year term on MDI trustee board: Steven Hudson.

Bar Harbor opens nominations process

Bar Harbor Town Clerk Liz Graves issued this announcement Friday:

Nomination papers available March 7

Nomination papers are available beginning Monday, March 7 in the Bar Harbor Town Clerk’s office for the following elected officials:

• Bar Harbor Town Council                              Two seats – Three-year term

• Superintending School Committee                Two seats  – Three-year term

• MDI Regional School District Trustee*           One seat   – Three-year term

• Warrant Committee                                     Five seats – Three-year term

Deadline for filing nomination papers with the Town Clerk is Friday, April 15, 2022 at 5:00 pm. 

Some suggested reading on aquaculture:

Washington State’s Great Salmon Spill and the Environmental Perils of Fish Farming

- The New Yorker, Sept. 13, 2017

“Had the state inspected the site in the spring, taking note of Cooke’s application to repair and replace, the spill might have been averted. But such inspections are not required. According to Cori Simmons, of the Washington Department of Natural Resources, the state’s five thousand private aquatic leases are mostly self-regulating: lessees monitor pollutant levels and the condition of their equipment.

https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/washington-states-great-salmon-spill-and-the-environmental-perils-of-fish-farming

Net loss: the high price of salmon farming

-The Guardian, Sept. 20, 2020

Our greatest assaults on the environment are visible in salmon. Complex as the problem of survival is for most fish, few species are faced with as many difficulties as salmon. This is partly because it is central to the “food web” (now that we understand the importance of biodiversity and the interdependence of species, this term has replaced the more familiar “food chain”) and partly because of a complicated life cycle that depends on both marine and inland habitat. In 2005, a group of scientists studying the survival prognosis for Pacific salmon concluded that 23% of all salmon stocks in the world were at moderate or high risk of complete extinction. For Atlantic salmon, the situation is even more desperate.”

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/sep/15/net-loss-the-high-price-of-salmon-farming

Wild fish stocks squandered to feed farmed salmon, study finds

- The Guardian, March 2, 2022

In 2016, 15m tonnes of wild-caught fish were ground down into fish meal and fish oil, which was directed towards agriculture and aquaculture. According to figures cited in the paper, salmon fishing accounted for 60% of fish oil and 23% of fish meal directed to aquaculture, while producing only 4.5% of the sector’s global output.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/02/wild-fish-stocks-squandered-to-feed-farmed-salmon-study-finds