SOUTHWEST HARBOR, March 30, 2024 - Rarely has a single building symbolized the frustration and despair of a small town as profoundly as the failed attempts here to maintain a public works garage to safe guard its highway equipment from the brutal Maine winters.
For six years the garage which sheltered the town’s vehicles, including plow trucks and school buses, has been falling apart shingle by shingle due to the neglect by previous select boards.
In July 2020, the town’s leadership couldn’t even muster enough support to repair this critical piece of infrastructure. Some select members publicly opposed it. The proposal to spend $1.9 million failed by nine votes at a town meeting. Shortly after the insurance on the building was canceled.
Instead of coalescing around a goal to solve the problem, the leadership devolved into finger-pointing and blamed the former town manager who was let go shortly after.
A new select board was swept into office but left with an uber mess - declining school enrollments wrought by surging housing cost, an understaffed police force, volunteer ambulance and fire departments battling inexorable forces of change, vast infrastructure needs; the wholesale loss of the entire harbor master staff and the retirement of the town manager in September.
There were also external events beyond the reach of the board such as the collapse of MDI Lobster, a commercial wharf and restaurant, near the lower town dock on Clark Point Road.
The town badly needed some good news.
Just before George Bailey was preparing to take the plunge into the icy river at Bedford Falls this week, the guardian angels Joe Biden and Angus King answered the call to the tune of $2.14 million.
At the select board meeting Tuesday, Town Manager Marilyn Lowell announced the town’s application for a grant under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture was approved through Maine Sen. Angus King’s office,
“We started developing plans in 2006,” said Lowell earlier this month. “We have the plans for a new steel building on the existing lot, and right now the bid is $3 million.”
In 2020, the garage was described as “not likely to stand for another year” by former town manager Justin VanDongen, the Islander reported. “With the addition of Pemetic Elementary School’s new electric bus, the need for a new garage comes now more than ever, according to the Select Board.”
Enthusiasm for acquiring Skip’s Auto Repair on Rt. 102 near the Tremont town line for a town garage waned considerably after news of the federal grant approval.
Both Lowell and town roads foreman Scott Alley strongly favored using the federal money to build a new garage instead of buying Skip’s, whose sale was recently teed up by the real estate agent representing the owner.
The asking price for Skip’s is $1.6 million but there is an unknown cost to retrofit that site as a town garage, said Alley. Skip’s Automotive has operated out of 19 Bass Harbor Rd. for 35 years
“This grant is going to put less money on the tax rolls for residents because the town's portion is going to be a lot smaller,” Lowell said.
Lowell was not eager to ask too many questions of the Feds after the town’s engineering consultant warned against doing anything which would put the application in jeopardy.
The cost of the project increased from $1.9 million in 2020 to $3 million after it was determined that the town-owned Seal Cove property needed soil remediation because of its proximity to Marshall Brook, where water tests have confirmed contamination.
Even with the added cost - say $700,000 - that would still be a lot better than the original price tag, lowell said.
Alley said before the town learned of the grant, he thought acquiring Skip‘s might have been a good option.
“But now, I think we're better off putting money into a brand new building instead of a 30-year-old building.
“It addresses the school buses and we don't have to modify anything. Skip’s would need major modifications.”
Lowell was instructed by the board to seek more details, such as the grant requirement that materials be made in the US, and whether changes could be made to the original application such as locating the garage at another, less soil compromised site.
With the news, the town’s once muddy infrastructure picture is starting to gain more clarity.
Lowell also announced that the contractor for the $2.6 million Main Street drainage and sidewalk project has agreed to work Saturdays to try and shorten the schedule so that stretch of Rt. 102 at the base of the harbor will not require one-way traffic in June as the busy season starts.
Also, the town received a $1 million grant as part of the same Congressional package as the garage grant. It will help pay for a portion of the town’s $27 million sewer plant upgrade, most of which is funded by federal and state grants and loans.
The town will have to approve $7.5 million to match federal and state loans.
Voters will be asked to pick up that tab among all taxpayers or for ratepayers to absorb that entire amount. Without the town support, ratepayers face a 48 percent or a $263 increase to the “gross rate base,” Steve Kenney, water and sewer director, reported previously.
If the town’s taxpayers picked up the tab, the increase would be $159 for a $300,000 assessed property, he said. The town has more than 1,500 taxpayers and 680 sewer users.
When the town created the district in 2016, it committed to funding all capital projects which would last more than 20 years in service.
Two notes - one for $2.5 million to match a state loan and one for $5 million to match a federal loan - would cost $122,676 and $186,850 a year respectively.
If taxpayers do not assist with the cost, ratepayers will pay the entire cost, it has been decided by the water and sewer board.
Taxpayers could also pay for one but not both loans. The $5 million note would raise taxes $96 a year, the $2.5 million note $63.
For ratepayers, the increases are $106 and $157, respectively.
Former select board chair Kristen Hutchins said the town’s vote to support sewer capital projects carried by only three votes seven years ago.
“It was very close, but the majority of people felt that that water and sewer was such an important asset to the town that it made sense for the taxpayers to support it.”
Select board’s lone candidate
SOUTHWEST HARBOR - The town has little trouble staffing its boards and committees - Conservation Committee, Solid Waste Task Force, Warrant Committee which are filled with high quality members.
But only one candidate emerged to take the seat being vacated by one-term select member Luke Damon. He is Noah Burby, a May 2023 graduate of the University of Maine who started his job as a veterinary surgical technician at Jackson Labs in October.
Burby has been attending meetings of the Warrant Committee, Conservation Committee and Harbor Committee. The select board last week named him a temporary member of the Harbor Committee, since he is certain to win the seat on the select board because he is running unchallenged.
He worked the summer of 2023 at the Islesford Dock restaurant where fellow workers had high praise for his work ethic, humor and intelligence.
He’s going to need all that. Southwest Harbor is no place for an unwary neophyte. The job doesn’t come with training wheels.
FOA moves annual party after objections from Northeast Harbor
NORTHEAST HARBOR - Friends of Acadia has quietly slinked off to a more appropriate venue for its annual benefit after brazenly trying to take over the public park here at the town marina for an entire week at the height of the summer season in August.
The party will now be at the Cover Farm on Rt. 3 next to the Pot and Kettle Club, according to a posting on its website.
Last October, in a rare break from its usual comity, the select board approved 3-2 FOA’s annual fund-raising gala at the the town marina despite objections from residents, The QSJ reported.
Member Martha Dudman said, “ I've had a number of people approach me who were not in favor of having the Friends of Acadia event in the marina next summer. Some of the the objections were it was tying up the Marina at the height of the season for a week, which seemed difficult for people.
“Also, some people were concerned that this would open the floodgates to other organizations who would then want to use the green in that way when it's really intended as a place for everybody.
“I know that we've made exceptions in the past when there was alcohol but generally, alcohol is not allowed in public spaces.”
Select chair John Macauley also voted against the application, saying such a large event was inappropriate for the harbor area.
Member Geoff Wood told FOA director Eric Stiles, “I sincerely hope I don’t regret that (his approval).”
Members Wendy Littlefield and Rick Mooers also voted in favor. Mooers said he thought the publicity would help village merchants.
Video of the discussion may be viewed on Youtube starting at Minute 7:28.
Jim Bright, who is a member of both the harbor committee and a new member of the FOA board, said he has expressed “real reservations” about the event.
“I’ve been on the FOA aboard for only two months and I may not be on it for much longer,” he joked to laughter from the audience.
“My biggest concern is noise. You're gonna have a hotel full of people to listen to that, starting at nine o'clock at night.
“And I'm also concerned about the working people that are going to be bothered by this. It’s inappropriate to put a huge event in the middle of a quiet town in the middle of summer.”
Former select member Matt Hart, who runs the Neighborhood House, said this will set a bad precedent to allow such an event in the town’s tight public space.
He reminded members that the New York Yacht Club held a similar event and that the town adopted a policy in 2015 restricting use of the green “that was partially as a result of that New York Yacht Club event.”
“I think the nice thing about a policy is it's not an ordinance. It does give you some wiggle room maybe should be applauded for trying to accommodate different groups. I think that's a good thing. But I think that at a certain point, when you make certain accommodations, you sort of cross the line and ignore the intent of the policy.
“And I think the main point of the policy is that space belongs to the residents. I was on the other side of that table and saw dozens of applications. And we would always say you need to, even if it's just a small 10-person wedding, remember the space has to remain open to the public.
“And I think that's between setup and the event itself, people are really going to feel like they don't have access to that space.” FOA had planned to occupy the green from Aug. 5 to 12, 2024. The party was expected to draw 400 to 450 persons. FOA held its annual party at the Asticou Inn for 25 years. New owners are remodeling the hotel.
State Supreme Court upholds Bar Harbor vacation rental cap - reprinted from March 27
BAR HARBOR - The local tourism industry was dealt a second, embarrassing loss in as many months, as the state’s highest court this week upheld the town’s 2021 citizens ordinance to freeze short-term vacation rentals until they fall below 9 percent of the town’s housing stock.
The news was broken by Richard Cohen of Tremont, a retired New Jersey jurist who writes a newsletter on judicial topics.
The lawsuit was brought by former Planning Board member Erica Brooks, an agent with Swan Real Estate, who said the ordinance was illegal because it did not have a supermajority of two-thirds of the vote. The ordinance was adopted by 60 percent - 1,260 to 840. Brooks was on the board when the ordinance was contemplated. She was not reappointed in July 2021 after she openly worked against its adoption.
Neighboring towns of Mount Desert and Tremont have vacation rental ordinances on their annual town meeting agendas in May. Mount Desert’s is more like the Bar Harbor version with a cap, while Tremont is simply seeking registrations without a cap. Short-term vacation rentals on Airbnb and VRBO have impacted rental and sales prices, according to land-use consultant Noah Musson, cutting into the stock of year-round affordable homes.
The state Supreme Court upheld an earlier decision by the Superior Court striking down Bar Harbor’s unique provision for the supermajority approval on land-use ordinance changes.
Cohen wrote, “The town's land use ordinance provided that, if the planning board did not support a proposed ordinance, it required a 2/3 supermajority to enact it. The planning board had split 2-2, and thus did not support the ordinance, 60% is less than 2/3, and so opponents sued for a ruling that the ordinance had not been adopted. Yesterday, Maine's Supreme Judicial Court released its decision disagreeing, and upholding the ordinance.”
A critical consideration cited by the Supreme Court was a friend-of-the-court brief from the Maine Municipal Association. Cohen wrote the MMA argued, “for the first time, that the requirement of a 2/3 vote was invalid, because the statute required such a requirement to appear in the town charter. It didn't appear there, and so, the MMA argued, the LUO requirement was ineffective.
“The Supreme Judicial Court agreed, and upheld the short term rental ordinance for a convincing reason which neither party nor the superior court judge had recognized. Proper result, but a number of embarrassed lawyers, I bet,” Cohen wrote.
MMA was represented by Sarah J. Jancarik.
Erica Johanson (orally) and Paige Eggleston of the Portland firm of Jensen Baird represented Erica Brooks and Victoria Smith. Jonathan P. Hunter (orally) and Stephen W. Wagner, of Rudman Winchell, Bangor, represented Bar Harbor.
The ruling came one month after U.S. District Court Judge Lance Walker, in a blistering critique of the tourism class in Bar Harbor, struck down a lawsuit by hotels and restaurants to prevent the town from enforcing a cap on cruise ship passenger visitation.
But instead of enforcing Walker’s ruling, the Town Council gave the industry a free pass to conduct business as usual in 2024.
In 10 years, business groups which have sued the town have not had a single victory. Yet the council continues to behave defensively and gives the industry wide berth against the interest of residents.
Just a note to say that while the Cover Farm is on Rt. 3, it is not "next to the Pot and Kettle Club" which is some distance away and on the opposite side of the road. Cover Farm is across from the open beachy area of Hulls Cove and Pot and Kettle is next door to the Linscott's property. It's after Baymeath Road on the same side of the road and before Gerrish Chiropractic which is on the opposite side.
Regarding "State Supreme Court upholds Bar Harbor vacation rental cap," it is interesting that the Appellate Court affirmed the result using a completely different ground that was suggested to it by the Maine Municipal Association -- namely, that the 2/3 rule had to be in the town charter, and so was invalid. In other words, the original rationale for ignoring the 2/3 rule that the town had followed, and which the lower court followed, was unsound -- as anyone looking at the facts would have seen. That's why the plaintiffs challenged the action. Neither party considered this new argument until it was suggested by the outside group. I guess the ultimate result was correct, given the charter requirement, but it would have been fairer if the plaintiff had been given a fair chance to have a chance to vet that new ground. The problem with the current situation is that owners of a vacation house are treated the same way as outside investors who buy up properties just to make vacation rental income. In particular, such vacation rental owners can't hand down their house to a child without losing the rental permit. I hope at some point the rules are modified to fix that.