Council members get assistance to build case against sending cruise ship petition to voters
Council members get assistance to build case against sending cruise ship petition to voters
Other news: Park superintendent wants a more diverse workforce (is he serious?); mussel farm, local fishermen spar over wild seeds
BAR HARBOR, July 23, 2022 - The public hearing on the citizens petition to limit cruise ship visitors Tuesday night was a one-sided affair thanks to the actions of the town manager and council chair, prompting the lead petitioner to note “their unmistakeable pandering to this self-serving element in our community.”
The animus between town manager Kevin Sutherland and lead petitioner Charles Sidman is now nearing a boiling point.
It started earlier this year when Sidman lost patience with Sutherland’s lack of response to his request for data related to cruise ship visits. But it took a sharp turn for the worse July 15, when Sidman noticed the town had posted the wrong petition.
On Monday, Sidman lashed out and wrote to Sutherland, “This is not to be tolerated, either as unintended error or deliberate sabotage. I am simply shocked!”
Town Clerk Liz Graves had mistakenly posted an earlier version which limited “passengers,” later corrected to “persons” by the petitioners to account for crew members disembarking. The petition would limited persons disembarking to 1,000 a day.
But at the same time Graves was updating the correct version Monday, Sutherland received a 25-page document from lawyers for Ocean Properties claiming the petition was unconstitutional. At Town Counsel Tim Pease’s suggestion, Sutherland forwarded the document to council members and recommended the council delay the vote to send the petition to voters in November. It is unclear whether Sutherland and the lawyers had other communications.
That gave cruise ship supporters on the council, Matt Hochman and Jeff Dobbs, ample time to review and begin the process to scuttle the citizens petition on behalf of Ocean Properties.
Last week the QSJ reported a Maine judge ruled that secret emails between Andy Hamilton, lawyer for Eaton Peabody, which represents Ocean Properties, and the town attorney for Tremont, violated the state’s Freedom of Access Act and ordered them be released to the public.
https://theqsjournal.substack.com/p/judge-orders-tremont-to-release-campgroun
The QSJ asked Sutherland why he didn’t release the same documents to the press and the public on Monday. He did not reply.
So as the hearing began, most of those attending did not know some council members had already decided to delay the vote.
Citizens petitions are sanctified in Maine giving voters the right to take action when the local governments fail them. The council’s only role is to call a public hearing before moving the issue to the November ballot.
When the QSJ noted that the actions by council chair Val Peacock, Hochman and Dobbs to delay approval of the citizens petition appeared to have been orchestrated, Sutherland admitted he sent out attorney Andy Hamilton’s materials the night before the hearing.
“Andy provided the information that he presented to Council to me yesterday afternoon, which I forwarded to Council last night,” Sutherland wrote.
The council and Sutherland’s actions differed sharply with how the petitioners were treated.
Peacock repeatedly rebuffed Sidman’s attempt to speak a second time, saying she did not want a “back and forth.” But Sidman was not given the same opportunity to read the documents which Ocean Properties’ lawyers presented at the hearing, sent out in advance to Hochman and Dobbs to activate their move to delay.
Earlier in the evening Peacock had no problem allowing the differing sides of a live music permit to come to the mic multiple times.
Local businesses showed up in force Tuesday, but they reinforced the notion that cruise ships benefit only those businesses in a narrow area at the corner of West and Main streets near the dock - the Ocean Properties’ hotels, restaurants, tender service, West Street Cafe, Geddy’s, Testa, Ben and Bill’s ice cream emporium, Little Village Gifts and a few others. Most of them were thriving businesses before cruise ships reached their critical mass in the late Nineties.
Only one business south of Cottage street spoke against the petition. That was developer Stephen Coston, the former council member voted out of office after he was the only member to oppose a ban on cruise ships during the pandemic.
The great majority of businesses in Bar Harbor did not attend.
A letter from the CEO of the hospital was read to correct the petition’s assertion that the hospital was unable to handle all visitors during tourism season.
While Peacock denied Sidman a second shot at the mic, she allowed a phalanx of Ocean Properties heavyweights to speak - two lawyers who said the same thing and Eben Salvatore, local manager of OP’s properties and chair of the cruise ship committee, the parking committee and now warrant committee member.
After the meeting Sidman wrote, in part:
“At the end I heard members of the Council talking as if their approval and constitutional vetting of the citizen's initiative was a condition for placing it on the ballot. I couldn't believe what I was hearing, because the the initiative process allows proponents to go ahead whether the authorities like it or not."
“Any legal arguments will be settled in court by the appropriate parties if and when the Initiative is passed by voters, but not by Council pretending to neutrally consider the opinions of attorneys hired by itself or any constituency at this stage.
“And for the record, the Initiative was prepared carefully by experienced Maine civil attorneys, and even the prior Town Attorney formally opined that the Town can indeed regulate and limit the Cruise Ship industry.”
Eaton Peabody has represented Ocean Properties well over the years as the company grew to become one of the biggest hospitality enterprises in Maine and Florida.
In 2010, after a unanimous vote by the planning board to reject its application for a hotel on West Street, it won, by a of 3-2 vote of the appeals board. Mike Siklosi, Donald Bell, and board chairman Ellen Dohmen voted in favor of the hotel. Paul DeVore and Roger Samuel dissented, stating that the planning board made the right decision.
A year earlier, OP successfully snuffed out the town’s efforts to bring tender service back to the public docks.
Ruth Eveland, Jane Disney and Rob Jordan voted in favor of allowing routine cruise ship tender traffic at the town. Councilors Sandy McFarland, Paul Paradis, Peter St. Germain and Greg Veilleux voted against the measure
“That was the beginning of my demise,” said Nate Young, the former police chief beloved by many despite his multiple DUI arrests. “I dared not to be a team player.”
Young succeeded in securing a Homeland security clearance for Bar Harbor and was in the process of securing federal grants to open the town dock to tendering cruise ship passengers until it was rejected by the town council.
Bar Harbor has a history of successful citizens actions. The groups have been aggressive, loud and unrelenting. A citizens petition is not a garden party, and Sutherland is not the first town manager to cross swords with this ilk. His predecessor took it upon himself to change the townwide survey last year which became the foundation of the citizen’s complaint by allowing non residents to opine, drawing the ire of the anti-cruise ship coalition.
Near the end of the Tuesday’s hearing, retired surgeon and MDI native and historian Bill Horner said, “I came here to see how this all works, and what I'm struck by is that with the exception of a few people, most of the speakers here tonight have something to profit from this discussion. I operated under a principle of conflict of interest when I was in my professional life.
“But what really brought this on was the voice of the people - 60 percent of the people in Bar Harbor at some point in time.
“This referendum voice of the people is democracy. Democracies are in a tough time right now. And it's gonna get tougher, I believe. And I just want to ask the question, Where does this all end?”
You may read Eaton Peabody’s document here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P8pkv5e8b_Cv3CBoFbn5c3yIL-fQZ_UY/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=107061827254036912405&rtpof=true&sd=true
You may watch the hearing here, starting at Minute 46.45:
https://townhallstreams.com/stream.php?location_id=37&id=42159.
DeKonings, local fishermen spar over taking of wild mussel seeds
TRENTON - The DeKoning family’s aqua farm in Frenchman Bay is not winning many friends among its fellow fishers, and neighbors.
James West of Sorrento whose family has been fishing here for more than six generations said the DeKoning’s heavy dredging equipment is going deeper on the seabed to harvest wild mussel seeds leaving the area near Trap Rock barren and uninhabitable for fisheries like clams.
Mike Manning agrees. The mussels fisherman said the areas around Trap Rock have been depleted of future growth because the DeKoning’s equipment goes deeper into the seabed than the typical scallop and other drags.
“Our drags go four inches into the bottom, five tops,” Manning said. “We use tumblers to separate the adults from the seeds which go back in the water so they can grow.”
He said the DeKoning’s dredges go as deep as 10 inches and they take wild mussel seeds and move them onto their permitted lease area in Frenchman Bay to grow.
Fiona DeKoning, the public face of Acadia Aquafarms wrote in an email:
“The management of shared resources is not only about technology or equipment it is about protocols of timing of activities around the life cycles of the organisms, the needs of the market for the income of the harvesters and the recruitment for the sustainability for all the species involved.
“Monitoring, record keeping and evaluation are crucial to effective management and we are doing this with as many partners who are willing to participate.
“We harvest seed annually and as you can see the mussels are plentiful again, covering the mud flat, thus replenishing what was harvested last year. the close-up photo shows how the tiny mussel seed shelters in the protection of the larger mussels. This is why we only ever ‘thin out’ the mussels carefully and not strip it bare.”
“So this method works as you can see. However, the climate is changing the recruitment patterns and the predation on the tiny seed and we are afraid that this generation's old method will not be sufficient. Hence the need to adapt to survive, like many of our colleagues in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors. Collecting the seed settlement in the water rather than waiting for it to fall to the seabed, lets it grow a bit more before the green crabs can eat it, giving it a better chance of survival. That is the simple principle of the next step. This is still a simple, clean, water improving method of farming delicious seafood.”
On Thursday at low tide, the QSJ inspected the mussels beds near the Hancock County Airport and saw there were plenty of the bivalves. Upon closer inspection, however, they were mostly empty shells, likely victims of predation by crabs. Manning also pointed out that a section of that area is close to fishing.
Green crabs have become the biggest source of irritation among mussel fishers. Since the Eighties and Nineties when 30- to 40-million tons were regularly harvested in Maine, the catch has fallen to below 10 million in 2020 and 2021. Only increased prices have kept the value high. (see chart)
Theo de Koning is a fifth-generation mussel farmer who brought his family’s technique from the Netherlands to Maine in 2006.
The family leases 158 acres in Frenchman Bay from the state and wants more. It has two applications pending - one for 48 acres and a longer-term plan for 68 acres to raise scallops.
That would be a lot of acreage for one company, Frenchman Bay being a shared resource.
West and others have testified against the first application, as well as the MDI Bio Lab which stated that noise from industrial generators would adversely affect the raising of sensitive species for experiments.
Also opposing are the 80 members of Friends of Eastern Bay, the portion of Frenchman Bay where the lease is located, according to Spectrum News. “They are questioning whether the expansion will catapult the small, family-run business into a larger more industrial operation. And, the organization worries that other nearby lease applications, not to mention the in-water salmon farm proposed near Acadia National Park, will put too much pressure on a vulnerable water source used by lobstermen to make a living and by recreational boaters who enjoy Maine’s coastline.
“There don’t seem to be any mechanisms to look at cumulative impacts,” said Jeri Bowers, president of Friends of Eastern Bay. “We’re looking at what’s on the table and saying where does this stop?”
Judith Burger-Gossart, who lives in Salsbury Cove, criticized the proposal in a January letter to the Islander for “attempting to grab 48 acres — the equivalent of 36 football fields — in the heart of Frenchman Bay.”
“I am not against small-scale aquaculture, but this is aquaculture writ LARGE with a Sharpie!” she wrote.
Fiona de Koning, who has spent years serving on various community boards, including the Bar Harbor Marine Resources Committee and the state’s Aquaculture Advisory Council, said:
“We chose this system with their best interests at heart not to make it more visible than it has to be,” she said. “We are trying to keep the footprint as small as we can. We are collaborative people.”
Acadia superintendent says he wants a more diverse workforce; can we believe him?
BAR HARBOR - The cynic in me thinks it was a facile, throwaway line - vaporware said to appease the boss.
That would be Charles F. “Chuck” Sams III, a very Anglo sounding name but which belongs to the current director of the national parks. Sams is Cayuse and Walla Walla and is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Northeast Oregon, where he grew up. He also has blood ties to the Cocopah Tribe and Yankton Sioux of Fort Peck.
He reports to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of the Pueblo Tribe in New Mexico.
On July 6, at the annual meeting of Friends of Acadia, Acadia Superintendent Kevin Schneider gave one of his well-worn updates on park activity - visitation slightly down from last year, inability to fully staff seasonal workers because of the housing crisis, heavy toll fromu storm damage - most of which had been previously reported.
Then he added, “And we're also working internally to lift up our diversity and outreach efforts. We must ensure that our national parks reflect the face of America, that being inclusive is a core part of our DNA, whether it's our visitors or our workforce.
“We have a long way to go on this and we're going to need all the help we can get and partners like friends of Acadia are going to be critical to us making progress on this.”
Schneider is correct to observe that as a publicly supported entity, ANP has an obligation to reflect its users, unlike the swimming club of Northeast Harbor. But its staff is shockingly similar to that all-white enclave.
The room of 200 FOA members gave a polite applause. I looked around and did not see anyone resembling an Asian, Latino or American Indian. I saw a few African Americans but they were the wait staff serving canapes. I wondered how many FOA members had experience in building a diverse workforce.
I had always cut Maine some slack, suspending my big-city sensibility each time I crossed the Piscataqua River into Southern Maine. Since 1984, when I hiked my first trail in Acadia National Park, I had always assumed it would be rare to see another person who looked like me, not to mention an African American. (In all that time I never encountered overt racism in Maine, unlike Boston, where I served a 17-year sentence.)
But Maine is changing.
For decades, minorities made up fewer than 5 percent of the state’s population. But the 2020 census showed a significant shift with the white population declining to 92.7 percent. Hispanics were the fastest growing segment and now stand at 1.9 percent of the population. Blacks make up 1.7 percent.
In recent years I have also detected a significant change in the visitor population makeup at ANP, especially Asians.
The QSJ asked for and received ANP’s current staffing by race and the results are sobering. Schneider wasn’t kidding when he said “We have a long way to go.”
Out of 104 full-time staff, the park has no Hispanic employees, no blacks, no Asians and two American Indians.
Including seasonal workers, the park has 217 employees and only one more American Indian, one Pacific islander, two Asians and three Hispanics. The park has no black employees, even counting seasonals.
"The outdoors and public lands suffer from the same systemic racism that the rest of our society does," said Joel Pannell, associate director of the Sierra Club, which is leading an effort to boost diversity in the wilderness and access to natural spaces. UII
But systemic racism can be many things. Jobs with the park service are highly prized. They are located in beautiful places, come with great benefits and imbue workers with special standing in their communities as they sit on school boards and zoning commissions.
When jobs become available, the park service workers often are likely the first to alert like-minded friends and relatives who are not likely to look like Kerry-Ann Hamilton.
The visitor side of the equation is only slightly better.
New government data, first reported by ABC News, shows the country's premier outdoor spaces -- the 419 national parks -- remain overwhelmingly white. Just 23 percent of visitors to the parks were people of color, the National Park Service found in its most recent 10-year survey; 77 percent were white. (Minorities make up 42 percent of the U.S. population.)
“Over the years, my jaunts through some of the nation’s most spectacular wonders — Zion, Yellowstone, Denali and others — have rewarded me with breathtaking views of serpentine canyons and sheer cliffs, prismatic pools and epic glaciers,” Hamilton wrote in the Washington Post. “But I rarely encounter other Black people on these trips. It’s a jarring reminder that the nation’s expansive network of natural wonders and wildernesses has primarily been a sanctuary for middle- and upper-class White people.”
Building a diverse workforce requires persistence, leadership and creativity. There are many ways FOA may help, starting with the seasonal workforce. FOA may start a “finders” fund to pay bonuses to current employees who successfully recruit minority workers. There can be assistance for housing. Diversity consultants may be engaged.
But all such initiatives must start at the top. Schneider has been superintendent for six years. The QSJ asked how many minorities he hired for his senior team in that time. He did not reply.
TRIBUTE: Richard Mark Hamblen
July 20, 2022
BASS HARBOR - Richard M Hamblen, born June 22, 1959, on MDI, passed peacefully July 15, 2022, at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor with family by his side. He lived most of his life in Bass Harbor, a member of MDI Class of 1977, and after graduating the University of Maine with a degree in civil engineering worked as a general contractor.
Rick was predeceased by his mother, Joan Doyle Hamblen, and is survived by his father, Richard B. Hamblen, and family Ruth, Andy and Steven Davis.
Surviving family includes his sister, Susan, and her husband, Reggie Lizzotte, and their family Nicole, Nicolas and Abby Strout, Katie, Josh, Sammy, Maddie and Olivia Hessert and Nathan Lizzotte. He is also survived by his sister Laurie and her husband, Merle, and Jonathan Bragdon.
Rick will be cremated and his ashes buried at Head of the Harbor Cemetery in Bass Harbor. A memorial gathering for family and friends will be announced at a later date.
I have said it a few times now; while it is polite and appropriate to try to address the cruise ship infestation with the town council, concerned (and now rebuffed and disenchanted) citizens have a lot of power to enact change on their own. It’s time to protest, and to invite the news crews to film it. It is your right and privilege to do so, and the cruise industry will take immediate notice. Their fragile public image is their Achilles heel.