Northeast Harbor yacht club seeks to take over town's only unspoiled cove
Invasive pest harmful to Hemlocks arrive in Acadia National Park; Saco releases details of settlement of claims against Bar Harbor town manager
NORTHEAST HARBOR, Sept. 17, 2022 - The yacht club known as the Fleet wants to take over adjacent South Shore Cove, the only remaining unspoiled cove in town, with 34 moorings, Harbor Master John Lemoine testified this week before the Harbor Committee.
Lemoine said he approved four moorings after the Fleet applied for eight in 2021. When the yacht club came back this spring for 30 more, Lamoine was not comfortable making that decision on his own and referred the matter to the entire Harbor Committee.
The lawyer representing seven residents on the cove calling themselves the South Shore Cove Association wrote:
“It is unfortunate the Fleet elected to pursue this Proposal without first consulting with the members of the Association and the public, resulting in the community feeling blindsided by the process and deeply concerned about the future of a treasured and shared natural resource.”
Stephen Wagner of the Bangor firm Rudman Winchell stated his clients wants the Harbor Committee to rescind the permits for the four moorings and leave the cove in its natural state.
Moreover, the expansion would make the Fleet a “marina” which is not allowed under its current status as a grandfathered use before there was a land-use ordinance, Wagner stated in his presentation to the committee. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XX4-Lhu1uxuq2icfUoCpHh8FQdhEy49S/view?usp=sharing
“The Cove is the site of historic lobster fishing grounds, fragile eel grass, frequent marine mammal sightings, and sea bird habitat. It has long been treasured by those fortunate enough to live on or near its waters, and the many recreationists that visit it by kayak, paddleboard, or recreational boat,” Wagner wrote.
“In fact, many current or former shorefront property owners imposed deed restrictions on their properties that prohibit certain shoreline development in an effort to preserve the Cove’s wild character and unfettered views. South Shore Cove is especially rare given the extensive development and use along the surrounding shoreline.”
Expert witnesses on behalf of the South Shore Cove residents, some of whom are members of the Fleet, testified that the pristine unspoiled cove is the only one left in the Town of Mount Desert.
The Fleet’s intrusion into this environmentally sensitive body of water was prompted by a long waiting list of members seeking moorings, according to its commodore.
I first dismissed the residents’ appeal as another foofawar among the island’s privileged class until I learned about the eel grass habitat beneath the water at the cove and the predominance of ledge making it challenging for anchors to adhere to the bottom.
You don’t need an oceanography degree to discern that 34 oversized moorings holding boats and attendant launches probably are not going to be welcoming to seals or cormorants flying across the open water unencumbered by masts.
“South Shore Cove is not a protected harbor; it is not shielded from ocean waves and is vulnerable to the strong winds of off-shore storms,” Wagner stated.
Wagner cited an ordinance which “demands a far more comprehensive and participatory approach for this shared and treasured resource, not a first-come-first-served process that places the interests of a commercial enterprise over the historic users and stewards of South Shore Cove.
“Moreover, the Applicant has not presented a traffic study or any trip data to show the effects of the increased boat traffic on this Cove or increased car traffic on parking, which is already at capacity, causing parked cars to spill into the street and interfere with the increasing bike and pedestrian traffic. Evaluating a proposal for 34 moorings without first comprehensively planning for the use of nontraditional harbors is contrary to the Ordinance and the Maine Moorings Guide, and raises significant safety concerns.”
As if to underscore Wagner’s concerns, I got trapped in an extremely tight situation when I went on the water this week to inspect for myself the Fleet’s current mooring field.
But as soon as I got near the dock at the Fleet - the venerable club with various Rockefellers as members and over which Brooke Astor once enjoyed her afternoon tea - I suddenly realized I had trapped myself into a narrow lie in Gilpatrick Cove.
I could either back out or do a tight turnaround, which I chose to do. It was close. But I was able to maneuver myself out into friendlier open water.
Over the years The Fleet has encroached onto the busy lane of maritime traffic between Northeast Harbor and Greening Island - a major egress for oversized yachts headed into Dysart’s Marina or Somes Sound. Ferries and barges carrying cargo into and out of Southwest Harbor also share the tight lane. Sailing programs and yacht races gobble up even more area and force passing boats to hug the northeast shore of Greening Island to avoid collisions.
Most of the Fleet consists of members who are here for only a few months in the summer. They should be free to enjoy the beautiful coastal waters of MDI, a shared resource among the community of boaters. But I should not have to be encumbered by their ambitions either.
Invasive pest harmful to Hemlocks found in Acadia National Park
SOMESVILLE - It was first spotted in the Northern Neck section of Long Pond in May 2020 and now it’s arrived in full force in Acadia National Park, the invasive pest Hemlock Woolly Adelgid, which has devastated hemlocks, a foundational tree in the Northeast.
“We knew it was kind of on our doorstep as it's coming from essentially the southeast coast of Maine. And so we've been looking for it for quite some time,” said Jesse Wheeler, natural resource specialist advocate. “While we're not surprised it is concerning to see to see it here.”
See Wheeler’s presentation to the park advisory commission: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1qz4VU2jiaIW-C8gIxv0knziYair-YKuY/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=107061827254036912405&rtpof=true&sd=true
ANP is considering “an integrated pest management approach,” which often will include a chemical and biological control agent, Wheeler said.
Using insecticide to treat an individual trees can be costly, and take time. “What's unfortunate about that also is that it kind of locks you into using insecticide kind of forever and it's also not scalable at a forest forested setting,” Wheeler said.
Since 2003 some parks have used a mobius beetle with moderate success to attack the HWA. “The unfortunate part about that though is you could only feed on one generation or two generations per year. It provides a moderate amount of effectiveness but it doesn't completely lead to suppression of the pest. And so what we're probably going to be looking into is multiple species of biological control.”
The non-native insect first passed from Japan. “It's actually been in the United States for quite quite some time and it feeds on Eastern Hemlock trees,” a keystone species here in eastern North America ranges just from Canada to the southeast, Wheeler said.
Hemlocks are among the longer lived conifer trees on MDI. “It goes along streams and provides shady cool environments. “They're a really important tree species here in Acadia,” Wheeler said.
In July, the invasive species was found just south of Jordan Pond.
“The hemlock woolly adelgid has a stationary phase at this point starting in mid August, all the way into early March where it's just gonna be stationary.”
Volunteer groups, or resource management groups, will try to remove branches overhanging roads and trails where the pests are found, before spring when those crawlers are able to move about more readily.
“We are working with our partners at Schoodic Institute to provide a protocol for us to manage and develop a monitoring program for for Hemlock resources in the park in the next couple of years.
“Even if the predator beetles kill 80 percent of the population, it still can rebuild in one year.
“Our winters are still relatively cold. If we have cold snaps (10 to 15 below zero for several days), that can keep down the population of the pest … While places like Shenandoah have seen Hemlocks die within five years, Vermont and Western Massachusetts see a decade or even more than that, after an infestation, that trees can live.”
Using this integrated approach does allow for the hemlocks to continue to live and grow. “HW Adelgid will not be eradicated. It'll still remain present in the ecosystem. Our intent is to keep them at low levels.”
City of Saco paid nearly $100,000 to settle wrongful firing by Bar Harbor Town Manager
BAR HARBOR - Only days before he was offered the town manager job here, Kevin Sutherland signed a settlement in which his previous employer, the City of Saco, agreed to pay a department head Sutherland had fired and his lawyers $92,500, The QSJ has learned.
The previously unreported financial settlement was released by Saco City Clerk Michele L. Hughes in response to a Freedom of Access Act request by the QSJ. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CMwhnkJk-SyYwdk6LVebUkG2CnaxDehS/view?usp=sharing
On another request for documents related to a lawsuit brought by former city Parks and Rec Director Joseph Hirsch, whom Sutherland also fired, Hughes said that would take longer.
“The attorney handling the case states that the volume of documents could be considerable, so it will take a little more time to do a time and cost estimate on this part of your FOAA request,” Hughes wrote in an email. “Once I receive the estimate, I will check in with you to see if you would like to proceed with the request.”
“Kevin left us with quite a mess to clean up,” said one Saco council member.
Fifteen days after Sutherland signed the settlement on Oct. 25, 2021 he dazzled Bar Harbor council members in an interview and was offered the job vacated by Cornell Knight, who retired. “I love him,” Council member Gary Friedmann was quoted by the Islander as saying. “He’s a great fit for this town.”
“He’s got the right demeanor and temperament – the right values,” he said.
Jeff Dobbs, the council chairman, also confirmed that the council decided to offer Sutherland the job. “I like him very much,” Dobbs told the Islander. “He’s just what we need.”
Former Saco Economic Development Director William Mann, who now holds the same position in South Portland, was able to get the financial settlement after the Maine Human Rights Commission in the spring of 2021 sided with his claim that he had been discriminated against because of his age or gender by Sutherland.
The Maine Human Rights Commission voted unanimously in February 2021 that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the City of Saco discriminated against Mann on the basis of age and/or sex.
Mann was employed by the city starting in December 2014 until February 2018, when he was discharged by Sutherland, who began his tenure with the city in September, 2015, about 10 months after Mann arrived, according to the Portland Press Herald.
The QSJ last month reported this after Sutherland threatened to have the police arrest a Bar Harbor protester who was using graffiti to call attention to Leonard Leo, the Federal Society operator who lives on MDI. https://theqsjournal.substack.com/p/as-tourism-interests-tighten-grip
A Saco activist who claimed she also was threatened with arrest by Sutherland said she and others tried to warn Bar Harbor council members about Sutherland’s past history in which he also placed the police chief and his deputy on paid leave without a public explanation, according to press reports.
The Bar Harbor council did not respond to graffiti artist Annlinn Kruger’s demands that public works staffing resources used to harass her be tallied and accounted for so the public would know how much taxpayers money was spent by Sutherland to stop her protest.
Kruger this week asked her supporters to help her archive a record of the MDI Leonard Leo protests for the Mount Desert Historical Society. “As the Society is the premier custodial institution on the island - in terms of preservation, access, and scholarship - I think this is a wonderful opportunity for us to curate an archive of our protests and to share our story.”
Kruger thanked Police Chief James Willis and Captain David Kerns for their constraint and respecting her First Amendment rights.
How much due diligence did the council conduct before hiring Sutherland? Did the council do any due diligence? One council member stated that the QSJ’s disclosures were all news to this member.
The QSJ asked Bar Harbor council chair Val Peacock by email on the due diligence done to vet Sutherland or whether any due diligence was performed. She did not respond.
Sutherland was sourced by the law firm Eaton Peabody’s municipal search consultant Don Gerrish. Two months before Sutherland was hired, Gerrish had placed a convicted wife beater as the new town manager in Southwest Harbor who withdrew days after the QSJ reported his criminal record. Shortly after his resignation, he was arrested by police at Denver International Airport again.
Sutherland distanced himself from the lawsuit filed by Hirsch, in his interview with the Islander in November 2021.
“It’s a matter in the court that they’re going to have to deal with,” he said. “I’m not tied to it anymore. It’s really a lawsuit with the city of Saco.”
Unless, of course, the suit goes to trial or the City of Saco reaches another settlement where Sutherland’s signature will be required.
TRIBUTE: Edward Sabin "Ted" Bromage
1937 - 2022
MOUNT DESERT - Edward “Ted” Bromage died peacefully at MDI Hospital on September 10 after a long, wonderful life shared with family and countless friends that he gathered along each step of his journey.
Ted was born on June 1, 1937, in Providence, RI where his father worked for the Providence Journal-Bulletin. He grew up in Barrington, RI where he spent his youth working in boatyards and sailing on Narragansett Bay. With family, relatives, and friends, he spent as much time as possible on the lakes of Winthrop, Maine where his parents eventually bought a camp in 1961.
After graduating from Barrington High School in 1955, Ted attended Wesleyan University (Class of 1959). On November 1, 1958, All Saint’s Day, he met his beloved Joan, his “Sweet Baboo.” Ted and Joan immediately connected over their shared love for Maine—her family spent time in Southwest Harbor when she was growing up. Ted attended Coast Guard Officer Candidate School in Yorktown, VA in the summer of 1959 where, family legend has it, Joan proposed to him. As ensign he greatly enjoyed his sea time on the cutter Bibb on patrol in the North Atlantic. He and Joan were married on August 13, 1960, in Philadelphia.
Daughter Sally was born in October 1962. Just months later, in December, Ted’s father died—far too early. After Ted left the Coast Guard, he went to work for Armstrong World Industries in June 1963. Armstrong took the family to Lancaster, PA, California, and, in 1965, to Florham Park, New Jersey which became the family base for the next 29 years. Son Stephen joined in 1966.
At Armstrong, Ted worked with customers to make sure that the company’s gasket products fit their needs—the work drew on his love of engines, tinkering, and joy in collaboration—many customers became lifelong friends. His sales territory included New England (and eventually the South) which gave him the opportunity to travel and see family and friends frequently. He claimed to never have had a bad day at work.
Ted was driven by his personal interests, love for friends, and enthusiasm for meeting new people. He always leaned in and helped wherever and however he could. He collected antique cars, military vehicles, and old boats. In the seventies, he was a founder of the Military Vehicle Collectors Club, a national group of enthusiasts who Joan affectionately referred to as the “jeep nuts.” Later, on MDI, he tapped his maple trees and invited all to visit on Maine Maple Sunday—a class trip to the sugar house was a big hit for kids!
Ted retired in 1993 and he and Joan began their wonderful next adventure—building their home, Fragile Earth, in Mt. Desert. Fragile Earth became the place for Ted and Joan to enjoy their many interests and friends, to welcome and share their love with family, and to simply putter on the Island that has always felt like home. His appreciation for MDI led to involvement in many civic activities, including service on the Mt. Desert Harbor Committee. He and Joan were active with Friends of Acadia and enjoyed hiking and monthly lunches with the Footloose Friends.
After a few decades spent landlocked and raising family, Ted and Joan were able to get back on the water, first with their sailboat Constance and then powerboat Landfall. Both boats provided the jumping off point for many family adventures.
Ted took great strength from his faith and involvement in the Episcopal Church. He felt a sense of stewardship for his church communities, and cherished the clergy and dear, dear friends that he and Joan made there. Ted served on the vestry at both Grace Church (Madison, NJ) and St. Andrew & St. John (Southwest Harbor), and as Senior Warden at St. John.
To know Ted, was to know that he always had a song, hymn, or snippet of doggerel on his lips, and a constant word of enthusiasm and support for those around him. He was deeply appreciative for the many blessings in his life and all of the gifts he had been given. His refrain during the family pre-meal grace was to “keep us mindful of our many blessings, and to use those blessings to serve those less fortunate than ourselves."
His most special blessing was Joan with whom he celebrated 62 years of marriage on August 13. She was his rock, and took incredible care of him, particularly over the past eighteen months.
He is survived by his wife Joan; his sister Nancy Courcy (Guy); daughter Sally Suhr (Scott); son Stephen (Jackie); and six wonderful grandchildren who all carry GT (Grampa Ted) in the glint of their eyes, Abby Byrd (Ryan), Dylan Suhr, Anna Suhr, and Ella, Owen, and Wyatt Bromage. Ted was predeceased by his parents Wilbur A. (1962) and Judith S. Bromage (1983).
The family wishes to extend its thanks to his skilled physicians and incredible caregivers at MDI Hospital, and for the support Ted and the family received from Mount Desert Nursing and Cahoon Care Associates, the Rev. Holly Hoffmann and St. John community, and from dear friends including Troy Tucker and the Friday morning breakfast group.
In lieu of flowers, the family invites gifts to be made in Ted’s honor to the MDI Community Sailing Center, P.O. Box 116, Southwest Harbor, 04679 to enable young people to get out on the water.
We welcome friends to share any stories or special memories of Ted with the family.
A service is being planned for later this fall.
Arrangements by Jordan-Fernald, 1139 Main St., Mt. Desert. Condolences may be expressed at www.jordanfernald.com
Melissa & Kelsea (NEHF managers)Mia Thompson (Commodore),
As members of the fleet and a summer residents of south shore drive we strongly oppose the Northeast Harbor Fleets application for more mooring space in South Shore Cove.
We complain about too many tourists overrunning MDI then our own sailing organization seeks to do the same with our pristine shoreline.
Let’s set an example. Please withdraw this application.
Thank you,
The Leisenrings