One-way traffic on busy artery for next 8 months as SWH Main Street project restarts Sept. 18
Public hearing Oct. 16 on Tremont short-term licensing plan; SWH approves new harbormaster office, rebuffs Jellison objections on solar panel move
SOUTHWEST HARBOR, Sept. 9, 2023 - It’s only two-tenths of a mile but that stretch of Route 102 at the top of the harbor here is the choke point to the rest of the town and most of neighboring Tremont.
On Sept. 18 it will revert back to a one-way street with flaggers alternating traffic north and southbound.
The $2.6 million project horribilis to improve drainage, water and sewer and construct a safe sidewalk is entering Phase 2 with many questions and uncertainties, and frayed nerves.
“It's not an easy job. It's slow going. There's a lot of ledge and working around all the utilities. So there's a lot to this project. It's going to take some time. So I have no idea if it's going to be late or not but I don't expect it will be,” said Annalies Hafford of Olver Associates, which is overseeing the project.
The project completion was slated for June 1, 2024 and must be shut down from June 10 though mid September to allow for two-way traffic.
“If it goes over that date (June 1, 2024), the contractor may be charged liquidated damages, which means they would have to pay the town a certain amount of money a day for it being late,” Hafford said.
“Now that's rare. Normally contractors don't want that. So they put more people on the job.”
But the contractor cannot control all circumstances, such as poles owned by Consolidated Communications Inc. which must be removed.
As recently as July 27, the state’s utility coordinator said CCI’s work crews were not aware of any plans to remove the poles.
“It’s 18 poles and is a big line project for CCI with splicing and recon,” utility coordinator Derrick Carleton wrote in an email to resident Keith Briggs, whose property abuts the project.
“CCI has been involved with the development of this project and were present at meetings but no information ever got to their construction folks,” Carleton wrote. “The CCI engineer that was involved has since vacated the position and construction cannot find any CCI engineering design for the project.”
That prompted an email from Eric Hardy at Olver to Briggs telling him not to interfere, and to communicate only with Olver or the town.
Briggs said Olver contacted the utilities 18 months ago “at my request.”
“I could not find out if there was any response or follow up so I contacted MDOT myself on July 27, 2023.
“Subsequently, on Aug. 7, 2023, I received an email from Eric Hardy at Olver Associates, reprimanding me for my efforts. It seems he would rather spend his time scolding concerned citizens instead of focusing on this important issue.”
Briggs, who is an architect, wrote back and stated, “If the project is further delayed for any reason and the embankment work in front of our house is not completed before this winter, there is a risk of damage to our house from frost heave.
“I am perfectly within my rights to communicate with anyone I wish to and will continue to do so as I see fit.”
This project has been gestating for at least 10 years.
In 2017 former Town Manager Don Lagrange announced that the town was awarded a $495,000 grant for reconstruction of the sidewalk from Apple Lane to the Oceans End condos. The project was estimated to cost $840,000.
In 2019 voters approved $1,055,135 for the work, including grant money.
After the pandemic struck, the project required two more tranches of funds passed by voters, the final one 69-14 last Sept. 1 to appropriate an additional $802,769.
On Monday, electronic messages boards will begin warning drivers of the impending lane shutdown.
Ben Sekulich, project manager for R. F. Jordan & Sons, wrote Hafford an email Thursday stating the contractor plans to add another crew Sept. 25, “and see if we can’t get things back on schedule!”
Last year the contractor struggled to staff the project, Hafford said. “It's just not a good working environment for contractors right now. But they're a good contractor. They'll get caught up.”
In December the road was closed to one lane and re-opened in June. This will be the first major test of traffic during the fall which has become a robust period for tourism.
Will workers at Hinckley Yachts have to endure two bottle-necks on their way off island, one here and one at the head of the island?
Why re-invent the wheel? Tremont has plenty of data to set short-term rental policies
TREMONT - For a $180 annual subscription to AirDNA.com the QSJ was able to learn that the above, beautiful Victorian across Tremont Road from the school generated revenues for its owners of $107,800 the last 12 months, on an average daily rate of $817 and a 94 percent occupancy rate.
The house is listed as having seven bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms and 16 beds. I was able to locate it on a map and find its address, 122 Tremont Road.
The house was sold in 2017 for $665,000 but Redfin now estimates its worth at $1,426,294.
Its 2024 taxes are $5,577. It’s assessed at $435,000. The owners live in Lunenburg, Mass.
There were 203 such short-term rentals in town the past 12 months which advertised on airbnb and VRBO. They provided a comprehensive roadmap of the entire sector for AirDNA, which aggregated the data for useful analysis by potential investors.
AirDNA claims a 94.9 percent accuracy on AirBNB data and 98.7 percent accuracy on VRBO. Its data scientists source, verify and analyze property data from a diverse set of sources, including federally required financial filings.
All active rentals were searchable by me on an interactive map. Every blue dot represented a rental and when you hover your cursor over one, it opened up a trove of data.
There is no shortage of such data to facilitate a robust discussion of how to confront the short-term rental problem in all four towns on the island, indeed in all the municipalities in the country.
So why aren’t the select boards on the island cutting to the chase and beginning serious consideration of enacting policies similar to those adopted in Bar Harbor? The three towns outside of Bar Harbor have more active short-term rentals than Bar Harbor, 706 to 572, according to AirDNA.
The housing crisis may be more profound on the Quietside than in Bar Harbor. Isn’t it time to find out?
Thirty-six citizens signed a petition in December to request the select board take action.
As one signatory of the December petition said, the short-term rentals benefit the owners, but they contribute to the lack of affordable year-round housing, resulting in decreasing school enrollments, fewer people to check on aging seniors, decreasing number of volunteers to serve in the Fire Department, on the Ambulance Service, on t;own Boards and Committees.
“Lack of volunteers may lead to more paid positions for services we want/need, increasing taxes.”
Ten months later there will be a public hearing Oct. 16 to consider a proposed ordinance from a consultant whose similar effort was rejected in neighboring Mount Desert because it only layered a coat of bureaucracy with no effective policy or enforcement.
If approved by the select board, the ordinance would go the the town meeting in the spring. If adopted, there would be plenty of follow-up work that a consultant might be called upon to perform.
According to the select board and the consultant Tuesday night, the purpose of the proposed ordinance is to gather data so to better inform public policy to deal with the scourge of the housing crisis.
But the data sought by the ordinance already exists. Aggregators like AirDNA have much more information than that being sought by the town, such as the above example. By triangulating it with existing data the town possesses, such as tax records, a clear picture of the situation townwide is availing.
A serious discussion of the topic would be messy, especially after the consultant Noel Musson declared in June that he operates a short-term rental business in town.
“The big issues that have come up in Mount Desert are really two things. One is what is the challenge and the concern about the availability of year-round housing opportunities,” Musson said in March. “What are the, say, the land use implications of short-term rentals that are different than just a house.”
Is someone with a direct pecuniary interest in the outcome the right person to direct such a discussion in the interest of the common good?
The public hearing Oct. 16 might also be an opportunity for select board members to declare their own prejudices and conflicts.
Member Kevin Buck, for instance, operates “Mermaid Cottage” at 27 Shore Road in Bass Harbor. AirDNA records showed he gets $40,000 in rental income a year. The cottage has a $388 average daily rate and 78 percent occupancy rate. It has two bedrooms and one bath, with a stunning view of Bass Harbor.
The taxes are $2,909 and the property is assessed at 226,900. The Bucks also own 18 Short Road and 11 Shore Road.
The ordinance proposal does not require inspections by the code enforcement officer of safety features, such as alarms and fire extinguishers, unlike Bar Harbor, which does require inspections.
The ordinance allows the license to be transferred upon sale of the property. Bar Harbor’s does not.
The proposal does not recommend how much to charge for registration, leaving that to the select board. Bar Harbor charges $250.
To prevent out-of-town investors from gobbling up the housing stock for short-term rentals, Portland has a tiered fee system where a non-owner occupied short-term rental would pay $4,000 for the fifth rental.
The Portland requirement:
The proposed Tremont ordinance places the responsibility for enforcement on the code enforcement officer. How realistic is that given the CEO office is open only 2 1/2 days a week?
The ordinance states that fines may be imposed for violations but doesn’t state how much. It also leaves open the question of remedies to resolve disputes.
A lot of work remains before there is a serious effort to curb short-term rentals in town. Maybe too much work?
SWH approves new harbormaster office, awards permit to move solar panels over Jellison objections
SOUTHWEST HARBOR - Harbor Committee member Anne Napier, Harbormaster Jarrod Kushla and Town Manager will travel to Unity Monday to consummate a contract to acquire a building which will be the new harbormaster’s office in Manset.
The Planning Board gave its unanimous approval for the project this week.
Still to be determined is whether the building will have vinyl siding or cedar, as preferred by select member Jim Vallette, who posted this analysis this week. The contractor said that cedar shingles will cost $1,500 more, Napier reported.
The Planning Board also rebuffed multiple objections raised by former select chair George Jellison to an application by a neighbor behind Seawall Road to move his solar panels from his roof to a cement pad on the ground.
The board voted unanimously to reject all of Jellison’s objections on electrical safety, lighting, erosion and buffering issues and awarded the permit to Charles Watson. Jellison said he would take up his objections as a “civil matter.”
I find it fascinating that Lincoln Millstein does so much of the work that somehow eludes the SWH select people. Why is that? Thank you Lincoln and I hope you stimulate the select board.
Does anyone know how to get more information on the CCI plan for the impacted stretch of Main St? I have not been able to find details on which poles will be moved, where they will be relocated and what other activities are to occur on the properties lining the west side of the street.