DOT to Charlotte neighbors: Remove obstructions or we will at your expense
Other news: SWH harbormaster quits in row with town manager; an appreciation of Arthur Greif; endorsements of Grohoski, Ryan; BH voters approve big bonds
SOUTHWEST HARBOR - June 11, 2022, Charlotte Gill has won a major victory in the twisting saga of her neighbors’ efforts to abridge customer access to her restaurant at Seawall.
Lawyers for the state DOT sent letters this week ordering three neighbors to remove boulders and a fence constructed to prevent parking on Rt. 102A next to Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound. They have 30 days to act or the state will come and remove them at their expense, said John Devin of the Eastern regional office of the Department of Transportation.
State law (MRS Title 23, Section 1401-A) prohibits obstacles within 33 feet of the centerline of a two-lane state highway, Devin said. The obstructions pose a safety risk to the traveling public, he said, and the neighbors are exposing themselves to lawsuits from anyone who might be injured.
The state’s handling of the matter is in sharp contrast to the way town officials have treated Charlotte Gill, the single most famous business person in town who drew international acclaim for her use of cannabis to sedate lobsters before they are cooked.
The neighbor who started the hostilities is the sister of select board chair George Jellison, who used his influence last year to order police action against the restaurant, prompting Gill to accuse the Jellisons of trying to put her out of business.
Last month Gill said this would be her last season. But the DOT decision may give her some life support.
Aimee Jellison Williams traffics in her own version of facts. On May 21 she wrote a comment on this blog that confirmed the DOT paid a site visit but that “they reported to the police chief the state doesn’t have a right of way. The landowners own to the pavement,” she stated. “To bad he doesn’t do his homework before he does his report,” she wrote of the QSJ. “Pure fiction!” (Police Chief John Hall did not return two calls from the QSJ.)
In fact, the QSJ has had three interviews with John Devin, culminating with the one on Thursday when he reported that the DOT was sending out the citation letters to:
Kirk and Nancy Smith for an illegal fence at
475 Seawall Road.Aimee Jellison Williams for illegal boulders at
476 Seawall Road.Kathe Newman Walton of Bar Harbor and owner of Newman Marine Brokerage, for boulders across Charlotte’s Lobster Pound.
The QSJ emailed all three abutters and heard back from only Kirk Smith, who said he would respond “appropriately.”
Ownership is a moot point if the state has a right-of-way. The abutters may own the land but are prohibited from encroaching on that easement.
Since the Jellisons picked this fight with one of the town’ most famous businesses, the lobster pound has received overwhelming support from customers and residents on social media.
They pointed out that her lobster pound is being singled out when tourists park all over the island on road shoulders, Acadia National Park being the worst offender with parking at Rt. 102 on Echo Lake a much bigger concern for law enforcement than Seawall.
The lobster pound started in 1967. Charlotte Gill took it over 11 years ago and said there has never been an accident nearby that anyone can recall.
Not a good week for Jellison as Harbormaster quits
George Jellison has other, more urgent worries from his bully pulpit.
For the second straight summer, Southwest Harbor, the busiest fishing port on MDI, will have to do without a harbormaster.
Oliver Curry sent notice to the select board Tuesday that he is resigning because he no longer has the support of Town Manager Marilyn Lowell, who denied Curry’s proposal to work one weekend day instead of both, according to persons who talked to Curry. He was the third harbormaster in the last two years.
The position is the most demanding after the town manager’s job in SWH. Curry earned high praise for his management style, his work ethic, his knowledge of the marine industry and his interpersonal skills.
He told harbor committee members that Lowell wanted him to work an extreme schedule because the newly hired deputy harbormaster Eilon Zboray could not work the months of June and July. Zboray is scheduled for fire fighting training. Curry offered to work either Sunday through Thursday or Tuesday through Saturday so he could have one day with his family but was rebuffed by Lowell, the sources said.
Lowell refused to release Curry’s resignation letter Friday, stating that the matter will be discussed in an executive session at next week’s select board meeting.
Deputy Attorney General Brenda Kielty, who oversees the Freedom of Access Act, wrote Lowell an email on behalf of the QSJ stating, “The denial to a Freedom of Access Act must state the legal basis for withholding the record. The reference to a future ‘executive session’ is inadequate. Please take this opportunity to clarify what, if any, legal support exists for withholding an employee resignation letter.
“I am not clear what support exists for this argument and would appreciate further explanation.”
The Jellison legacy
How many punches to the gut can a town take? Under the chaotic reign of George Jellison on the select board the last decade, he has been more of a hammer looking for nails than a leader.
Under him, the town not only picked fights with Charlotte Gill and other women-owned businesses, but the board hired a new town manager who was convicted of assaulting his wife. Mike Patterson rescinded his appointment last September after the QSJ disclosed his criminal record. Last November he was arrested at the Denver airport on four counts stemming from an incident that took place Aug. 30, only three days before Jellison and the rest of the select board voted to hire him. The charges Nov. 3 included two counts of stalking-emotional distress, a Class 5 felony; sexual contact-no consent, a Class 1 misdemeanor; and providing alcohol to a minor, also a Class 1 misdemeanor.
The City of Florence, Colo., fired him as city manager on Aug. 31. Apparently no one in SWH bothered to call his previous employer for reference. It took the QSJ a half-hour search online to discover his felony record from 2008 when Patterson pleaded guilty to assaulting his wife twice that year.
Jellison wanted to make Lowell town manager after Don LaGrange resigned in 2017 but the select board hired Justin VanDongen instead. Jellison then led the effort to fire VanDongen in January 2021. The town went without a permanent town manager for a year until Lowell was hired last December.
Jellison led the quashing of grant applications to upgrade the Chris’s Pond skating facility and nearby affordable housing despite a unanimous town meeting vote in favor. He was blamed for the resignation of Kristin Hutchins as select chair after that vote.
Without mentioning his name, former select chair Lydia Goetze wrote in the Islander:
“We - the residents of Southwest Harbor - need to clean up our act, to have civil discussions that place the town’s welfare front and center, and to have women as well as men run for office and volunteer for service on town boards and committees.
“When I moved back here in 2005, women were active on most town boards and committees. As public discussion of town affairs became increasingly hostile, they dropped out. I ran for the Select Board in 2014 and served for six years to try to improve the climate and increase women’s participation in our town’s governance. It worked for a while, but I am very concerned that we are sliding back into a culture that makes volunteering for town service hostile to half our population.
Former local journalist Blake Cass added:
“The public has a right to information that will allow them to question the decisions of their elected officials. Town employees shouldn’t be fired because of the whims or undisclosed resentments of the ‘good ol’ boys’ of the Southwest Harbor Select Board (Chad Terry, George Jellison and Allen ‘Snap’ Willey, who often vote together). Terry said that the 3-2 vote to fire VanDongen was based on a ‘lack of confidence.’ That is extremely vague and highly questionable.”
“The citizens of Southwest Harbor deserve transparency – as well as a Select Board who treat each other with respect.”
Since then, Jellison loyalists Dan Norwood and Chad Terry have withdrawn from the board or decided not to seek re-election. Willey was soundly defeated in May’s municipal elections.
Jellison also attempted to jettison Natasha Johnson’s bid for the select board. She is a co-owner of the only marijuana retail store in Hancock County.
She and warrant committee vice chair Jim Vallette were elected to replace Willey and Terry. They will start July 1. It remains to be seen whether the board will name a new chair. Former chair Hutchins said the board traditionally rotated the chair seat.
APPRECIATION: Arthur Greif - a man of the people, a ‘hero for the little guy’ - fearless, generous, brilliant solicitor
BAR HARBOR - It wasn’t even 7 a.m. and my cell phone ran. I saw that it was Arthur Greif but when I heard Donna’s voice on the other end, I knew instantly why she called.
“I knew you’d be an early riser, so I wanted to tell you Art died.”
I let out a loud and guttural “OH, NO.” I surprised myself at how deeply I was affected. And I had never even met the man.
Arthur Greif was a celebrated man of the law, one of the most accomplished in Maine.
As a trial lawyer, Art earned 26 verdicts of more than $100,000 for his clients (three of which exceeded $1 million). He carefully chose which criminal cases he would try. Of the 13 criminal defenses involving one or more felonies he took to trial, he won 12. After seeing him try cases to a jury, Court officers and retired judges referred clients to him. Witnesses he had cross-examined would retain him or refer clients to him. An FBI expert who had testified in 36 other states said that Art's cross-examination of him was the hardest and most skilled he had ever undergone.
Around the same time Art was diagnosed with cancer, I began to write my local news blog.
Art and I both used our skills on behalf of the underdog. We especially disdained immoral corporations which only take and leave a huge negative blot in the world for others to clean up.
Our work would soon cross paths as his name is still on the petition in Bar Harbor for a citizens question on cruise ship passenger limits.
"A kind, thoughtful and generous man personally, and with his wife Donna, a treasured, persistent and effective legal warrior against abuse of official and corporate power!" wrote Charles Sidman, the lead petitioner.
“He was a hero for the little guy and an enemy of Corporate Piracy,” wrote James O’Connell, another fellow petitioner. “Of note, Art gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal work for the little guy and never charged a penny. He had the eye of the eagle for all things legal and used that gift to fend off some huge corporations in defense of the way life should be.”
Eight years ago Greif led the successful fight to prevent the electric company Emera from building a substation in a residential area of town. The utility ended up on Rt. 3 and designed a beautiful structure resembling a classic New England carriage house, at Art’s persuasion.
Art and Donna helped friends in multi-year efforts to block the building of a huge mega-pier for berthing cruise ships, and protect the ultimate form of citizen democracy, the New England town meeting and the right of voters to pursue changes to a town's code through the citizen's initiative process. He did all this for free.
Art was born in Morristown, New Jersey, on July 16, 1951, and grew up in Boonton Township, New Jersey. He was the youngest of six children of Charles E. Greif, of Englewood, New Jersey, and Alice Peavey Greif, of Twin Falls, Idaho.
At Age 10, Art and his family began summering on Lake Androscoggin in Wayne, Maine, where Art began enjoying swimming, sailing, hiking, and water-skiing. Coming to New England felt like coming home to a place he'd never been before.
An excellent student, he graduated in 1973 with a B.A. in Government from William and Mary. He earned a J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1977, graduating cum laude and serving as the associate editor of the Law Review.
While in Pittsburgh, Art began a life-long interest in running and bicycling. By the time he left in 1980, he had run the first of nine marathons (the last two being the 1993 and 1994 Boston Marathons) and the first of scores of 100-mile bicycle rides.
Art moved to Maine in 1980 to practice law and ride his bicycle even more. It was through the latter that he met the love of his life, Donna Mae Karlson, in 1985. They married on the summer solstice of 1986.
As an appellate lawyer, Art helped transform the law in Maine in the fields of civil rights law, the rights of pregnant patients to receive appropriate medical care at hospital emergency departments, disability discrimination, gender discrimination, whistleblower discrimination, sexual orientation discrimination, accident insurance coverage. medical malpractice, criminal law and the rights of injured plaintiffs.
Seth Libby, chairman of the warrant committee and a former associate of Art’s practice, stated, “he was unquestionably one of the leading plaintiff's attorney's in Maine during the past 30 years and made dozens of appearances before the Maine Law Court (Supreme Court). One case in particular--Chad Swan v. St. Mary's Hospital, a right-to-die case, where Janet Mills as opposing counsel, was arguably one, if not the, verdict he was most proud of.”
The high court ruled in Greif’s favor, agreeing to terminate life of a 17-year-old boy who was in a vegetative state after an auto accident. Greif represented the parents, while Janet Mills was the deputy attorney general who opposed ending life support.
ENDORSEMENTS: Grohoski for state senate in special election Tuesday; Cara Ryan for BH warrant committee
TREMONT - Nicole Grohoski certainly doesn’t need my meager affirmation, but I am going to offer it anyway.
I first met her at the home of Rick and Debbie Smith in the barn the Smiths had built using timber off their own land. Smith founded a company in 1985 which developed and and managed diverse timberland investment portfolios. He is an example of how business people can leave a net positive impact on fellow humans and the planet.
The gathering at the barn was to hear Grohoski and State Rep. Seth Berry pitch the idea for a consumer-owned power company to replace foreign-owned Central Maine Power, which consistently posted the worst customer satisfaction surveys in the country. They had the political courage to go against Janet Mills, whose penchant for industrialization from CMP seems to have no limits until recently.
After her disastrous campaign on behalf of CMP’s corridor project through central Maine, Mills tried to make amends by proposing a stop gap measure to require power companies meet certain benchmarks or pay a penalty, to stem protest of recent spikes in electric bills.
Grohoski and Berry led an effort to amend Mills’s proposed legislation which is stalled.
A state rep for only two terms, Grohoski achieved national prominence after her EPR for Packaging bill (Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging) was passed in 2021, making Maine the first state to make package producers pay for recycling.
“Nicole's grasp of the work involved in implementing this, and her ability to communicate well about complex issues, let to the passage of this bill,” said Carey Donovan, chair of the Tremont Democrats. “I could feel the respect that she had from other legislators. Recycling is a priority for Nicole. Once in place the EPR for Packaging bill should result in (1) less packaging material (2) more recycling opportunities and (3) fewer toxins in packaging material.”
Grohoski’s opponent in the special election Tuesday for the Hancock County state senate seat, Brian Langley, is a gentleman and gets high marks for his civility at a time when our body politic is so cankered.
But he served former Gov. Paul LePage loyally, seldom challenging LePage on major issues such as his veto of expansion of Medicaid in Maine five times. Langley owns a seasonal restaurant in Ellsworth. He is a man of businesses and not one of the people.
I wrote profiles of both candidates last month and was told that I was too generous to Langley, whom I like as a person.
But Langley is not what Hancock County and Maine need at this moment.
Grohoski is a cartologist and no doubt has benefitted from a trained view of Maine from a special lens. She can see the ruination of a way of life in rural Maine, as policies of growth at any price by governors going back to Angus King contribute to the savage destruction of the planet and Maine’s coastline.
She is a serious person - about her work and the time it takes to thoroughly understand things. She is an excellent communicator and is very accessible to her constituents.
Please vote for her on Tuesday.
Bar Harbor warrant committee has a serious write-in candidate
BAR HARBOR - It was a small item on the agenda, and no doubt will never be publicly cited again. The Warrant Committee and Town Council backed different approaches to fund $150,000 in emergency maintenance at Conners Emerson School.
The council wanted to take the money out of a “rainy day” school capital fund and the warrant committee favored just paying for it out of the operating budget, leaving the fund intact.
On June 7 voters agreed with the warrant committee by a vote of 97-28 at the first part of the annual town meeting, a small example of why founders of most New England townships crafted a separate body independent of select boards and town councils to bring topics for voter consideration at annual town meetings. Back then virtually all townspeople attended.
Cara Ryan and others on the warrant committee are the “ying” to the town council’s “yang,” a body which seems unable to stop Bar Harbor’s self emolation, as entire neighborhoods (West Street) are churned into a Vegas strip.
The existence of the warrant committee should remind citizens that two-thirds of the town’s tax base consists of revenues from home ownership and that businesses pay only one third of the property taxes.
When voting Tuesday, ask yourself a simple question: Is your quality of life in Bar Harbor improving or declining?
About four years ago the council pushed through changes which reduced the warrant committee from 21 to 15 members. But more importantly it forced members to run for election as individuals instead of as a slate, discouraging candidates.
Indeed this year, there are only five candidates on the ballot for five positions which means all five will likely be elected. That will tilt the warrant committee to be more like the tourism-friendly town council, baying homage to the almighty cruise ship industry.
That is unless you write in Cara Ryan. (A write-in is the most challenging hill to climb in an election - at all levels.)
Cara Ryan is an unabashed champion of preserving the special residential nature of Bar Harbor, which once was a pristine model of a New England village. She and others took an important act last year to ensure voters would get a chance to implement a cap on short-term vacation rentals after the Planning Board chair attempted to scuttle the initiative by disallowing remote participation by one member who favored the cap and then opposing the cap with another member - both of whom own vacation rentals. Vacation rentals make up more than 20 percent of Bar Harbor’s housing stock and is a major factor in its affordable housing crisis.
At the warrant committee, members were asked to declare such ownership and recuse themselves. About half of them did. The cap sailed through the committee, and voters approved it overwhelmingly last November.
For those who voted, you may now reward your talismanic guardian by writing in Cara Ryan Tuesday, because she’s got your back.
St. Germain’s departure to complete planning board makeover
As planning chair Tom St. Germain departs, it frees him to pursue development of a hotel on Cottage Street made possible by the very ordinances he helped to enact - a weakened B&B definition so it may escape the oversight of the Planning Board.
That, in a nutshell, is how things roll in Bar Harbor.
But it also frees the planning board to begin to serve the citizens of Bar Harbor instead of mostly the businesses of Bar Harbor.
In an eye blink, the board went from having four business people to having only one - assuming Joe Cough seeks reappointment.
The board now consists of one scientists, two employees of College of the Atlantic, a former librarian and a retired journalist turned historian and Joe Cough.
St. Germain, who owns Jack Russell’s Steakhouse on Rt. 3, had a friendlier board when he had members Erica Brooks (realtor) and Basil Eleftheriou (bar owner).
Under St. Germain, Bar Harbor saw its biggest thrust forward for business development and its worst period for housing island workers.
His business partner is Stephen Coston, former council member who is running for state rep.
Coston was the beneficiary of St. Germain’s vote in 2017 to approve his Inn at Mount Desert as a “Bed and Breakfast,” a backdoor around the zoning code. St. Germain and fellow board members Eleftheriou and Alf Anderson approved Coston’s proposal to demolish a motel and erect a new inn, despite town attorney Ed Bearor’s opinion that it did not fit the definition of a B&B. Eleftheriou owns the Thirsty Whale Tavern. Anderson is director of the Chamber of Commerce.
In July 2020 Coston was the only council member to vote against banning cruise ships during the pandemic. That November, Coston was ousted by voters overwhelmingly and replaced by Val Peacock.
He and St. Germain are now partners in a proposal to construct a 44-room inn at 77 Cottage Street, site of an abandoned auto dealer and garage across from Jordan’s Restaurant, as a “bed and breakfast.” It is unclear when they will proceed with the application.
Bar Harbor voters approve major bond items
BAR HARBOR - Voters approved big ticket items at the first part of the annual town meeting June 7.
The $44 million bond for “Priority Infrastructure Improvements” was approved 153 – 6.
Town manager Kevin Sutherland wrote to council members:
“With the passage of the bond, we’ve also created a new webpage that will contain updates, timelines, and other information related to the overall project.
Currently it has a PDF of the presentation with accompanying notes.
Finally, in the weeks and months ahead, we’ll be working to:
• Engage Stakeholder Groups o Input on mitigating construction impacts of individual projects and traffic detours
• Provide regular updates to Town Council during the Design Process to obtain feedback (project element and schedule updates)
• Utilize Neighborhood Meetings and Business Platforms to inform and engage o Example: Streetscape design still relevant? And should it change any?
• Utilize the new communications coordinator to communicate the status of these projects
Article R – the $4.35 million Solar Array on Town-owned property was approved 125 – 33.
Pemetic High Alums reunion June 25
SOUTHWEST HARBOR - Teddy Roosevelt was president. William T. Cobb was governor. Acadia National Park was still just an idea. And this town got its own high school. That would be 1908.
On June 25, the Pemetic High School General Alumni Association will hold a reunion from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Legion Hall in Southwest Harbor. “All are welcome to bring your own lunch to the Legion Hall at 12 noon. Water will be provided.”
The Southwest Harbor High School opened in 1908 and was renamed Pemetic High School in 1938 when it occupied the new brick building that today houses the Pemetic Elementary School. Pemetic High School closed when the three MDI island high schools were consolidated into the present MDI High School. The Class of 1968 was the last class to graduate from Pemetic.
The Pemetic Alumni Association was organized shortly thereafter by Les Thurston, Tommy Newman and Harold Beal. The Alumni Association includes all classes who attended Pemetic High School and Southwest Harbor High School before it.
Current officers are Al Michaud, president; Muriel Trask Davisson, vice president; Ellen Martel Corkery, secretary-treasurer; Loretta Madore Rogers, PowWow editor; Sharon Lawson, alumni news; Karen Craig, executive committee member. The annual Reunion is traditionally the last Saturday in June. The Pemetic newsletter, the PowWow continues as the alumnae/alumni newsletter, the PowWow II.
The school graduated a total of 1,632 students. The current alumni association has 206 members.
Karen Craig remembered the “get-togethers” started in 1971. “We ended up at three different restaurants, Seawall, Moorings and one other. I remember several meetings to get it all set. Think we ended up at the school for a dance.”
Re: Charlotte's...it's nice to see that, occasionally, the jerks don't win.
lt is hard enough fighting city hall, much more so when the fix is in. Charlotte Gill has changed her friendship status with me. She has risen to hero status.