Mount Desert, Tremont, SWH awaken to destruction of community by short-term rentals

OTHER NEWS: MRC asked to stop encouraging more waste; cruise ships love compromise deal; Bob Granger wants DA office to be more responsive to victims

NORTHEAST HARBOR - Diana Mei and her husband play by the rules.

They are part of the legendary corpus of summer residents here, including billionaires Thomas Peterffy, Charles Butt, Abigail Johnson and Mitch Rales, to mere millionaires like the Rockefellers, the Stewarts, the Putnams and the Mercks.

They all share the space and the rules of engagement on whether this is a community or just a zip code.

They allowed that the Gatsbyesque mansions of the privileged class would have certain allowances - that one family member may rent a cottage to another without much fuss and often without documentation, and no income to alert the IRS for sure.

Or if a family wanted to decamp to a quieter venue and rent out its cottage for a few weeks, so be it.

For the lesser endowed, the rules were pretty much the same. Enjoy the village but respect its comity.

The rules were never codified and not needed to be legislated by the hoi poloi. “We got this. No need for municipal intervention.”

Now comes Scott Jerutis, a New York real estate investor who plopped down $611,500 in February 2022 to buy 25 MillBrook Road, next to Diana Mei’s house.

27 Millbrook Road (left) and new short-term rental in Northeast Harbor

Once a year-round home, it is now a a short-term rental listed by local brokers and on airbnb, which reported it averaged $387 a night in rental income. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/586952943549926257?source_impression_id=p3_1666351406_%2BjBhwnzLuKF10nOa&check_in=2022-10-24&guests=1&adults=1&check_out=2022-10-27

Diana Mei felt the change almost immediately, from having respectable neighbors to overnight visitors whose idea of fun was to ignite a bon fire in the back yard on property Jerutis didn’t even own. The smoke came into Diana Mei’s bedroom, forcing her to call the fire department.

It’s difficult to expect good neighborly behavior when the neighbors are here for only two nights.

Katrina Carter, the listing agent of 25 Millbrook Road and a member of the LUZO committee, said Jerutis also lists with other brokers and on airbnb. She said the local businesses on Main Street enjoy the uptick from such short-term renters.

They are the winners, and as far as I can tell the only winners.

The losers are Diana Mei and her husband and others like them. The losers also could be the village itself, as a careful balance between commerce and community loses its center of gravity.

One only needs to look at neighboring Bar Harbor to see the wholesale destruction of a once lovely New England village.

“We are not Bar Harbor” is what the Land Use Zoning Ordinance committee heard repeatedly at two listening sessions recently in Otter Creek and Seal Harbor. The town sponsored the meetings to get input from local residents to update its Comprehensive Plan.

They would be horrified at this airdna.com map, showing the complete takeover of Bar Harbor by short-term rentals, the purple dots representing entire homes and the blue dots representing single rooms.

Could that happen here?

For several meetings of the LUZO committee, Mei sought support to control the takeover of the town by investors with no interest in the community but only in the cash flow.

Indeed, websites like airdna.com are facilitators of such investments. They collect data on the best places for investors like Jerutis, then promote them.

In February, it listed Southwest Harbor as a Top 10 locale (among 265) for short-term rental investing. https://www.airdna.co/blog/best-places-to-invest-in-us-vacation-rentals-2021-2022

It doesn’t take many clicks for an investor to discover neighboring Tremont and Mount Desert.

Is that what Scott Jerutis did? The QSJ attempted to reach him but to no avail.

The Town of Mount Desert has begun to try and size up this problem, starting with the LUZO committee.

“I don't think any one of you likes to be in my shoes,” Diana Mei told the committee this week. “Because when renters came in, they thought they deserved to have the rights or whatever according to what they signed up for.”

She cited the illegal fire pit advertised on the airbnb listing, the promise of parking beyond what’s allowed under the easement she granted the “residential” property and not a an investment business and the number of bedrooms stretched to make the house more rentable.

“I feel very special to live in Northeast Harbor. I've been living there since 1979. So I'm not feeling entitled. I just feel like this is such a community that I feel most comfortable, safe. And I like to keep it that way with all the people living in town or in village, not just some tourists coming over spending two days, three days and it breaks the harmony and creates conflict between neighbors.”

She said the house next door now is essentially a business and should not be allowed in a residential zone.

The LUZO committee is just getting started, as well as task forces in Southwest Harbor and Tremont. They are actually late to the party as Bar Harbor has already codified much of what is needed to be done:

• Distinguish between owner-occupied rentals and others

• Capping the number of non-owner occupied rentals

• Forbidding the transfer of rental registrations

• Mandating safety regulations for short-term rentals

• Requiring non-owner short term rentals to a minimum of four nights

Maine has the highest percentage of vacant homes for part of a year, according to the Bangor Daily News, and MDI towns rank among the top. https://www.bangordailynews.com/2022/05/09/business/maine-home-vacancy-rate-joam40zk0w/

Mount Desert, with 2,205 housing units, had a vacancy rate of 54 percent, according to the American Community Survey data. Bar Harbor, with 3,639 units had 35 percent vacancy, Tremont (1,263) had 41 percent and Southwest Harbor (1,497) had 44 percent.

Across the country, communities in similar straits are taking bolder steps.

Aspen voters are being asked to impose a new lodging tax between 5 and 10 percent on rentals. In addition to an 8 percent tax, Atlanta is imposing an annual $150 permit fee. In Burlington, Vermont, owners must now live on the property, though there are some exceptions. Hosts will also pay an annual fee of up to $110 and a 9 percent tax.

In Portland, Maine, voters will consider two questions on short-term rentals Nov. 8. One would stop corporate and non-local owners from registering short-term rentals, and stop property owners from evicting residents so they can convert a unit into a short-term rental. A second question would restrict short-term rentals to units that are owner-occupied, tenant-occupied or located in a two-unit building where the owner lives in one unit. It would impose a $250 fee on owner-occupied units and $750 per non-owner occupied unit.

Short-term rentals and seasonal workforce housing displace year-round tenants who move off island for cheaper abodes, reducing school enrollments, critical care personnel and much needed trade workers on the island.

If Diana Mei and her husband decide they have had enough, that their quality of life is forever impaired, and pull up stakes, the likely buyer would be another short-term rental investor. That would benefit local real estate agents and businesses, and add another tick to the Bar Harborization of the village.

Environmental groups urge waste agency to change model based on ‘tonnage’

HAMPDEN - The consortium of 115 towns agreeing to combine their efforts to achieve an economy of scale only works when the towns meet “minimum tonnage requirements.”

That means they agree to get the best price when they produce more garbage.

Which flies in the face of the current movement to reduce trash at the source - zero waste.

Now several citizens groups are challenging the core of this promise by the consortium, Municipal Review Committee,

“We need to recognize that requiring towns to meet guaranteed waste tonnages is contradictory to the concept of a recycling facility or moving toward real solutions of zero waste,” said Dana Colihan, Co-Executive Director of the northeast environmental group Slingshot https://www.slingshotaction.org/. “We need to be recycling, composting, and actually reducing as much waste needing disposal as possible, not requiring it.” 

The plant has been closed for 30 months because its operation failed. All four MDI towns are members of the MRC.

On Oct. 4, the Blue Hill Solid Waste Committee voted unanimously to reject the current offer from the MRC board and asked for a special meeting of members, citing similar concerns. However, for a special meeting to be called, the request must come from member towns representing at least 60,000 tons of guaranteed waste.

Monday night Bar Harbor council member Gary Friedmann urged his fellow members to take a similar action.

“After two years of watching the Hampden facility remain shut and waste sent off to be burned or buried, some towns have finally had enough and want to weigh in on how the MRC moves forward to ensure accountability," said Peter Blair, State Policy Director with Just Zero. "The process for initiating a special meeting makes that incredibly hard, especially for smaller towns." 

Some towns and residents see this as an opportunity for MRC communities to consider investigating options for moving forward that encourage effective recycling and diversion of organics from the waste stream. Ed Spencer of Old Town and vice-chairman of DWME is concerned about a lack of transparency and the ability of citizens from the MRC towns to meaningfully participate in the decision process. Living nearby Juniper Ridge Landfill in Old Town, he knows first-hand the impacts from MRC towns’ trash being diverted to the landfill because of the Hampden plant’s extended closure.

"MRC is again asking its member communities to back an unproven waste process and as yet unknown operator, after the previous effort failed and cost bondholders over $70 million,” Spencer said. “We would rather see a slower and more inclusive process. A 30-day ultimatum which cedes control over prior investments to an outside entity seems like a gamble," Spencer added.

Environmental advocates worry that some towns don’t understand what is being asked of them, and hope they see this as an opportunity to consider looking at other ways to better manage waste. Bill Lippincott, Chairman of Con’t Waste ME and a Hampden resident, has concerns about the way trash has been processed at the plant and the threats it may pose for water pollution. 

“The process-water from the Hampden plant operations is more than likely contaminated with PFAS from the waste stream,” he said. “Testing for PFAS in the waste water and removing it has never been required at the plant. This lack of testing and elimination of PFAS from the process water that ultimately gets discharged into the Penobscot River, sacred to the Penobscot Nation,  cannot be allowed if the plant reopens,” Lippincott concluded. 

“It’s a known fact that economically challenged communities,  Indigenous communities,  and communities of color bear the heaviest burdens from polluting operations like this,” said Jackie Elliott, long-time environmental health and justice advocate.

All this will be moot if Revere Capital Advisors, the investment firm selected by the MRC to operate the plant, cannot raise the money needed by Nov. 10. The MRC has estimated it will cost at least $20 million to re-open the plant and to bring it to profitability in two years. That’s in addition to the cost of acquiring the plant and its equipment which will be another $2 million.

DA candidate Bob Granger’s ideas for overhauling prosecutorial operations

ELLSWORTH - When I was a 25-year-old local reporter in Middletown, CT., I would scoot over to the Superior Court every Monday to cover the “short calendar,” a relic of Yankee irony because the day was anything but short.

It was a mechanism for pending motions to be heard in all manner of cases - criminal, civil, family court. I witnessed the brutal consequences of bad preparation and poor decisions by lawyers under pressure and on deadline.

Once, I saw a public defender confuse his client from another in his cattle call.

“Your honor, I am here to represent Jose, who is charged with burglary …”

The lawyer then suddenly stopped when his defendant tugged at his coat sleeve with his hand-cuffed hands and whispered something in his ear.

“You’re not Jose?” I heard the lawyer say. “You’re Fernando?”

“Your honor, I’m going to need a minute to confer with my client.”

Bob Granger wants to make sure the district attorney’s office in Hancock and Washington counties don’t waste public resources with such incompetency.

He wants to play judicial small ball - run the bases with efficiency, hit to the opposite field, make the throw to the relay player and don’t only swing for the fences.

Bob emailed me after I posted his photo with Paul LePage last week with the caption of him seeking “right-wing pixie dust.” He was upset that I “politicized” his candidacy.

We ate sandwiches at the Flexit Cafe Thursday. It was like 47 years ago when I hung out with the judges and lawyers from Superior Court at their favorite diner on Main Street in Middletown. I could have talked to Granger for hours.

But here were the main takeaways:

• Granger thinks sexual abuse and domestic violence victims are getting a raw deal from the current DA, Matthew Foster. The Islander and others reported on his views in full detail. https://www.mdislander.com/maine-news/da-candidates-agree-the-system-needs-work

• He thinks Maine’s law on DUIs are too strict and creates too many unnecessary cases that clog the system. “I saw one individual trying to prosecute someone who was an O five (.5 alcohol level) just because - I don't know if they were diabetic as well and having an insulin issue - but they didn't perform well on the field sobriety test. So this prosecutor was going to go after him on an O five. I mean one stiff drink can get you to O five.”

• He wants to activate grand juries more to handle serious crimes to give citizens more of a say in determining outcomes.

• He wants to lead his team by example as a trial lawyer, something he said Matthew Foster almost never does, leaving the Ellsworth office with only four active prosecutors.

• He wants to nip the bud at frivolous cases such as the charge against Eli Durand-McDonnell for his protest against Leonard Leo. Granger wasn’t exactly sure who Leo was but said the case sounded like an overreach by authorities. Durand-McDonnell is scheduled for a “disposition hearing” Dec. 15.

• He said law enforcement officers are frustrated at the lack of follow-through from the the DA’s office.

This week former Ellsworth prosecutor Gail Marshal of Mount Desert and lawyer John March of Seal Harbor wrote in the Islander:

“Bob is committed to reducing the unacceptably large backlog of untried and unresolved cases that deny both victims and defendants a fair resolution.  

“Bob believes that victims of sexual assault and other serious crimes should not have to wonder if the DA’s office will have their back. He knows that wise and fair prosecutorial decisions can be tough calls, but that they are the backbone of effective and respected law enforcement. 

“We anticipate that he will earn broad support from the law enforcement community, which is something every DA needs in order to succeed. The community also needs that in order to trust that his ability to set wise priorities and encourage best practices will be respected and implemented.  

“A community’s chief law enforcement officer should be able to inspire trust and respect across a broad spectrum of the community without regard to politics and party. We should be confident that the individual will never seek to misuse the power of the office.”

I’m not ready to give Bob Granger a free pass on his photo-op with LePage.

He stated,

“I attended an event where I could reach out to a large group of folks at once and get my message out. I was invited to and attended the Democrats' monthly meeting in Washington County as well for the same reason. Here I am posing with a Democratic State Representative (Anne Perry).

“Should the Right throw me under the bus? As DA I have to be able to work with all flavors, and do so professionally and without bias or prejudice.  I need to be fair with everyone, not just those I choose to be fair to. I'm in this for the victims not the politicians.”

Giving a local state rep in Washington County the same weight as LePage seemed a little off. Nonetheless, although I’m not sold totally on his promise of non-partisanship, I wish him luck because that promise serves all of us well.

It took Matt Foster’s office an entire year to reach settlement of a case involving a terrible collision on Long Pond in July 2021 when a power boat towing a skier slammed into a kayak and sent an elderly woman to the hospital for an extended period. I wrote many emails to his office for updates on the case and did not get a single reply.

I think Bob Granger will do better.

Cruise ships signing compromise agreements with Bar Harbor with alacrity

BAR HARBOR - Does it give you any comfort that cruise ship companies are signing the town’s new agreements for governing visitations in a quick pace?

“We've signed a whole bunch of MOAs (memorandum of agreement) with cruise lines. So that's exciting,” said Council Chair Val Peacock Monday. “And they're coming in fast and that's progress.”

“Three quarters of them are done,” town manager Kevin Sutherland beamed.

The Town Council agreement calls for a cap of 4,000 passengers a day as measured by the number of beds in the “lower berth” of the ships. It does not account for the upper berth capacity nor crew members which on some ships could be as much as 50 percent of passenger capacity.

The agreement is essentially for just the 2024 year, after which the industry may negotiate new caps.

No wonder the cruise lines are signing up so quickly, It’s like a free buffet in Vegas back when they had them.

Only the citizens petition on the ballot Nov. 8 would bind the industry to a codified visitation cap - 1,000 a day, including crew - which would require another citizens initiative to overturn it, not just a facile MOA.

Peacock has certainly bought into Sutherland’s argument and scare tactic: My way is the only way to avoid more work for town employees and lawsuits from the industry. She repeated it again in a letter to the Islander this week.

Sadly, those considerations have been the foundational bulwark for how this town has been governed for two decades, as quality of life for most residents slip into the abyss. It’s a vicious cycle. As more citizens assess their future here, the cruise ship-supported businesses are happy to gobble up your house and turn it into seasonal housing, so that Bar Harbor becomes a carnival. Send in the clowns.

A defeat of the citizens initiative will end Bar Harbor as we knew it. There will be “for sale” signs for what existing housing stock is left.

The council Monday night heard from Dee Karnofsky, a resident of more than 50 years, who delivered a deeply heartfelt plea to her fellow citizens.

“I remember a time when spring came, it was exciting to see people building and renovating stores and getting prepared for summer. Now I dread it.

“And it used to be in the fall, everybody was ready for it to quiet down. Now it never feels like it quiets down.

“And I feel a lot of resentment for tourists that I never felt before. And I don't want to feel that way because I've been a tourist.

“But now when I go places I feel really aware of what's too much, and it's too much, and the cruise ships have just really tipped the balance over.

“There are many, many times now that I turn to the computer and go to Amazon because I just don't want to go downtown and I know a lot of people do that.”

Val Peacock moves to overturn appeals board recommendation without explanation

BAR HARBOR - The normally loquacious council chair Val Peacock, who, unprompted, overshares many facets of her life, was suddenly muted Monday night when she moved to override the council nominating committee’s recommended choice for a vacancy on the appeals board in favor of her friend Cara Ryan.

The committee of Jeff Dobbs and Matt Hochman had nominated former police chief Nate Young, who was clearly the more expert choice.

Cara Ryan was the principal reason the Warrant Committee voted against recommending the citizens petition to cap cruise ship visitors at 1,000 a day. Ryan decided not to seek re-election on that committee this year, then changed her mind after the ballot already had gone to the printers. She ran as a write-in candidate but was out-polled by Eben Salvatore, the Ocean Properties executive who then convinced the committee to vote against recommending the cruise ship initiative, which is on the ballot Nov. 8. Ocean Properties has the monopoly for providing tender service transporting passengers to and from cruise ships.

Ryan at one time was a staunch cruise ship critic but has since been accompanying Peacock around town drumming up support for the tenuous Town Council agreement with the industry.

Peacock has brought a Tammany Hall sensibility to Bar Harbor politics. She did not schedule a customary public hearing before the council vote on the cruise ship agreement, one of the most consequential in town history. She did not reply to the QSJ to explain her move to approve Cara Ryan which the council did by a 4-3 vote.

Nate Young was police chief from 1990 to 2013, when he was fired for drunk driving. He had multiple infractions after that. He has since met all his fines and penalties and is trying to control his demons.

Young was lauded by many, including former School Superintendent Rob Liebow for his work with youths on the island. He built the town’s modern police force and took courageous stances which earned him enmity with local politicians. After 9/11 Young was credited with restoring the town’s waterfront status with Homeland Security and for securing $500,000 in federal grants which upgraded the town pier and harbormaster’s building.

He was on his way to restoring the town pier for tender service when Ocean Properties objected and the Town Council put an end to that effort.

Young is an acquired taste, like the QSJ (we’ve had many disagreements).

Ten years ago, the appeals board, by one vote, approved the West Street Hotel edifice owned by Ocean Properties which forever changed that section of Bar Harbor. Young’s independence should be treasured by the town, instead of the cronyism of favoring friends ahead of the interest of the citizenry.

CORRECTION:

SOUTHWEST HARBOR - Former select member Dan Norwood’s name was misidentified in last week’s column.

Lincoln’s Log:

Please read this unexpected Facebook post from a former colleague and buy her books!

https://www.alisa-valdes-rodriguez.com/post/mentor-monday-the-unusual-editor-who-opened-the-publishing-door-to-me?fbclid=IwAR1oCTGvS-iH8SVddVIiFHYpificWBkqAQS8dvJtyOzt410IyVwZXVh0f94

TRIBUTE: Jay Collis Liscomb

BAR HARBOR - Jay Collis Liscomb, 65, died unexpectedly on October 18, 2022. He was born May 21, 1957, in Bar Harbor where he was a lifelong resident. His parents were Donald C. and Edna S. (Bennett) Liscomb.

Upon reflection of Jay by family members, his true nature was a natural “mother hen” in caring for those around him. He too was remembered for his love of animals, nature, gardening, and knowledge of the outdoors. His friends knew Jay was in his element when storytelling, whether as it was or exaggerated. We all knew Jay was “Jay”!

Jay is survived by his wife of 24 years, Ellen Smith: two sisters, Dawn Jordan and husband Tommy and Brenda Pauly and family: four nieces, Jayne Bowden and husband David, Debbie Parsons, Brenda Parsons-Landry and wife Tracey and Susan Coffin and husband, Travis; two sisters-in-law, Amy Gower and partner Scott Baltz and Joanne Bradt and husband Dirck; two brothers-in-law, Rick Savage and David Smith and partner Leeann Kula.

Private services will be held at Hillside Cemetery, Hulls Cove. Those who desire may make gifts in Jay’s memory to the SPCA of Hancock County, 141 Bar Harbor Rd., Trenton, 04605.

Condolences may be expressed at www.jordanfernald.com