SWH voters asked to approve road project 7 years in the making - 'more than just sidewalks'
Competitive races in local elections; fish hooks, lead sinkers doom 2 loons
SOUTHWEST HARBOR, April 30, 2022 - The “Main Street Sidewalk Project” is an apparition which has haunted this town since 2015. The name itself diminishes the scope of what is being undertaken. A better name would have been “The Quietside Transportation Act.”
That third of a mile from Chris’s Pond to the condos at Ocean’s End is the most important roadway in the southern part of MDI.
It is the principal egress into the Town of Tremont, and links about a third of SWH’s households and the town’s most famous business, Hinckley Yachts, with the rest of SWH, Mount Desert and Bar Harbor. It is also dangerous and full of pot holes.
“Everyone in town knows about the poor condition of the roadway and they are not happy about it,” stated Keith Briggs of 3 Wood Street. “But I think it should be emphasized that not only is it a hazard to motorists, but more so it is an Extreme Hazard to Pedestrians.”
“At a town meeting a few years ago I told of nearly being hit by a truck's side view mirror while I was walking home on the sidewalk. Now I drive the 0.3 miles into town (which means one more parked car).”
So it is with great exasperation felt by residents that select chair George Jellison, the longest serving member of the board, has been unable to push this matter across the finish line in the decade he has served, especially since he drives across that stretch to get into town from his home on Seawall.
Residents Monday will be asked to approve a second traunch of funding if needed - $743,940 - to meet the state and federal requirement for minimum local matching funds of $1.8 million. Voters approved $1,055,135 in 2019.
That does not mean the taxpayers necessarily will be on the hook for $1.8 million, a fact poorly explained in the warrant article.
The addition of $189,000 in federal money from the American Recovery Act last year flipped the process whereas the town previously could have gone out to bid first, it now must secure the local obligation before seeking bids, Town Manager Marilyn Lowell explained.
The project has about $800,000 in committed state and federal grants. As an example, if the winning bid is $1.5 million, the town’s portion would be $700,000, saving itself from having to seek $1.1 million in bonds.
In addition to building five-foot sidewalks, the project will repair sewers, storm drainage and unsafe conditions for pedestrians. Securing the easements alone has been a major headache.
The town’s capital projects are piling up. Its recent history of seeking voter support is not good. In 2020, while Jellison and former Town Manager Justin VanDongen were embroiled in a fractious relationship, residents by nine votes rejected the $1.9 million project to rebuild the town garage.
Six years ago, select chair Thomas Benson wrote in the town’s annual report, “We have been planning to construct a five-foot sidewalk, five-foot shoulder and a two-foot storm water system on the west side of Main Street between 422 Main Street and Village at Oceans End. This has been a very dangerous and narrow area for pedestrians and/or cyclists.
“Construction is anticipated during the FYI8-19 budget year, beginning in the fall of 2018. We have received a State grant of$400,000 and a DOT-MPI grant of $98,500. Cost of project is projected at $842,000 including $49,000 for the design work which has already been budgeted. Balance of the Town's share for completion of this sidewalk is $294,500 and should be a part of the FY18-19 budget cycle.”
Of course, it didn’t happen in FY19. It didn’t happen in FY20, FY21 and FY22.
The road remains an unparalleled hazard with little town leadership to correct it. A petulant Jellison spends much of his time on pettiness - jousting with the Conservation Committee’s over grants to improve the town’s beloved Chris’s Pond, to add affordable housing and to build a small recreational area at the town landing - at no cost to taxpayers - and targeting small businesses like Charlotte Gill’s lobster pound because his sister across the street didn’t like the parking.
“From the upstairs window of our house, we can see straight up Main Street and we FREQUENTLY see southbound vehicles swerve completely onto the ‘sidewalk’ to straddle the potholes along the shoulder (there is no curbing or white line),” Keith Briggs stated in an email to the town manager.
“We see vehicles swerve into the oncoming traffic lane, and we have seen small cars lose control after hitting the bumps and potholes – all this while approaching a sudden curve in the road. If this doesn’t qualify as a NUMBER ONE Public Safety Hazard, then would someone please tell me what does? It is certainly WAY more dangerous than the road in front of Charlotte’s Lobster Pound.”
But it would be a mistake to conflate the town’s urgent needs with Jellison’s government by grievance.
The consecrated communities of New England provide for an escape from the incompetence and detachment of elected persons.
Vote yes on Article 47 Monday.
Quietside towns to hold critical elections
SOUTHWEST HARBOR - Municipal elections starting next week on the Quietside - usually humdrum affairs with few participants - are decidedly more edgy and competitive this year.
No fewer than five residents are vying for two seats on the select board. In Tremont, the incumbent chair must face a resident “from away” who is more aligned with citizens wishing to preserve the town’s “rural residential” character.
Is there a new class of activist voters who heretofore were content to skip local elections which were out of calendrical sync with national elections? Or will the elections, as usual, draw only 20 percent of registered voters?
Southwest select chair George Jellison isn’t on the ballot. But his sidekick, Allen Willey, is. He will be a proxy for whether voters still want Jellison to lord over the town from his bully pulpit.
Because the select board is down to only four members until November, at which time voters will replace Don Norwood who recently resigned, Jellison will need Willey’s vote to be effective.
Willey was the long-time water plant chief operator during a period when the water and sewer departments were so badly run that former Town Manager Don LaGrange asked that they be removed from the public works department. In 2015 the Islander reported SWH had the 34th highest water rates among 155 municipalities surveyed.
Willey retired after the new water and sewer district was created, ran for the select board and became a reliable Jellison apparatchik.
In February, Willey was there when Jellison attempted to sabotage the candidacy of Natasha Johnson, co-owner of the Meristem marijuana store. The two voted against amending an ordinance which would have permitted Johnson to hold a select board seat while owning the store. Instead of recusing himself from voting against a challenger, Willey used his position to deny Johnson her constitutional right.
The language was amended after the town consulted the lawyer who drafted the marijuana ordinance.
Johnson recently earned the endorsement of former select chair Kristin Hutchins, who resigned in protest of Jellison’s heavy handed rejection of the Chris’s Pond improvements.
“I will be casting one of my votes for Natasha Johnson. Tasha has deep roots in this community; her grandfather, Les King, served on the Select Board in his time years ago.
“Having worked with Tasha recently, I have found her to be prepared, thorough, articulate and clearheaded. She further appears to have a bent for action and productivity. The town of Southwest Harbor has a long to-do list just now. Tasha’s capacity for detail and her energy, coupled with her other qualities, will make her a welcome addition to the Southwest Harbor Select Board.
In a statement, Johnson said, “I feel that the Town of Southwest Harbor has had some missed opportunities and I hope to provide a fresh perspective. I believe that I can help bring a sensible, thorough, forward-thinking voice to the Select Board and would love an opportunity to serve the town I love so much.”
Johnson was born on MDI, and raised in Southwest Harbor. She has two degrees from the University of Maine (BS Marine Biology, BS Secondary Science Education)
“I grew up learning local history from family members, specifically my great grand father Stanwood King and my grandfather Les King, both of which also served the Town of Southwest Harbor for many years. In a way, perhaps, this knowledge is in part what makes me feel the call to serve.”
The other serious candidate is Jim Vallette, vice chair of the warrant committee and the recent founder of the Southwest Harbor Recycling Club.
“We have some critical gaps in services and excess expenses, especially when it comes to our trash for which we pay more, per capita, than almost any town. Southwest Harbor’s property tax rate is the highest on MDI, yet some of our services are among the barest. Something is off with this formula.”
Jellison had a firm hand as chair, with Don Norwood and Willey supplying all the air cover he needed to use his bully pulpit to smite down citizen initiatives and small business people like Meristem and Charlotte’s Lobster Pound, while not attending to issues like the sidewalk project.
But Dan Norwood resigned two months ago. Without Willey, Jellison will be seriously out-gunned. And his personal grievances, as opposed to sound policy, will lack oxygen.
Tremont’s select chair appeals to town’s nativist instincts
TREMONT - Is your birthplace the single most important attribute to hold office? In this town and Southwest Harbor that has certainly proven to be the case, while it remains irrelevant in Mount Desert and Bar Harbor.
Will the emerging bloc of activist voters in town be ready to dispense with that shibboleth and all its attendant prejudices? We’ll see on May 9.
“I was saddened to see that one of the Select Board campaign signs in the town of Tremont boasts the line ‘Tremont Native.’ As a qualification for the job, how unnecessary, irrelevant and divisive,” wrote Craig Kesselheim in a letter to the Islander. He is a well-know birder on MDI and graduate of the College of the Atlantic,
“Being ‘from here’ could mean that the candidate is connected, committed to the town and versed in the history of community priorities. It could also be a sign of bias, old-boy networks or close-mindedness.
“Being ‘from away’ could mean that a candidate is disconnected, brings baggage that doesn’t fit the region and has no clue about the town’s past. Or such a new resident could offer essential and timely skills, bring fresh perspectives and ask constructive questions.
“What matters more than where we were born is how we listen, whom we involve, how we collaborate and how we lead.
“If you go back far enough, we’re all from away. “
Jayne Ashworth is such a person from away, having moved here in retirement in 2012 after a career as an IT professional at the University of Virginia. She followed closely the controversy of the largest proposed development in town history - a massive campground cutting through a residential subdivision. She attended virtually all the planning board meetings vetting the application of Acadia Wilderness Lodge.
“If Tremont had a better Land Use Ordinance which more clearly defined for everyone – citizens, applicants and our hard working Planning Board members – in what direction we as a community want our community to grow/go, this type of situation would be less likely to occur,” Ashworth has stated.
“If elected, I will work to try to hear what direction our citizens want our community to take, and will work to try to modify the existing Land Use Ordinance to reflect those desires.”
(Voters will get their chance to modify the LUO the day after elections at the annual town meeting when the stricter rules for campgrounds will be vetted.)
Ashworth is clearly differentiated from Jamie Thurlow, whose biggest boast is that he was born here. Thurlow was a low-key chairman and ran meetings respectfully. But his term was also marked with several decisions which had many residents roiling.
Most notably, he voted on Aug. 2, 2021 against Richard Cohen, Yale Law School graduate and a retired appellate judge from New Jersey, for the appeals board, after select member Howard Goodwin simply said, “I think we should see if anyone else applies.”
Thurlow eventually reversed his decision but only after he heard from residents that the select board had gone too far with its prejudice against persons “from away.”
Joanne Harris, chair of the appeals board, said she was shocked that the town would reject such a distinguished candidate who would have been a “badge of honor” for Tremont. “He was my nomination and the select board’s decision is just baffling.”
“They summarily dismissed it and no one bothered to call me after it happened. In fact it was Rick (Cohen) who told me.” Harris said if the board is putting its own bias “ahead of what is in the best interest of the town, then I will have to rethink my own situation.”
The select board had previously named Tremont native David Campbell as an alternate on the appeals board.
Under Thurlow, the board also named Beth Gott to the Planning Board despite objections from PB Chair Mark Good because she co-owns the largest heavy equipment company on MDI and already was doing work for Acadia Wilderness Lodge.
Lastly, under Thurlow the select board rejected a request by the citizens group Concerned Tremont Residents to extend a six-month moratorium against campground development and CTR’s proposed ordinances for such development which were stricter than that of the ones proposed by the Planning Board.
Death of two loons darken a fraught 2021 season
SOMESVILLE - They are the sine qua non of my Maine Experience. And when I learned that I might have had a hand in the death of a loon, I vowed to stop fishing on lakes and ponds and limit myself to fly fishing on streams.
The discovery this winter that two loons on MDI died, probably at the hands of humans, was unsettling.
One died at the southern end of Long Pond, frozen but with two fish hooks inside its belly revealed from X-rays, which was reported by Billy Helprin, director of the Somes-Meynell Sanctuary who monitors every loon on the island.
True, the chance that they were my hooks were about as likely as a winning Powerball ticket. Still, there have been times over nearly 40 years that a bass escaped my clutches but with a hook still in his mouth. Loons do not discriminate when they fish, and the prey goes straight to the stomach.
Weak or injured loons have to confront the vicissitude of Maine’s extreme weather. Loons are large birds with under-sized wings which require a long path on the water to take off. They can easily get trapped if ice forms quickly to reduce the area of the water.
“It was a very up and down winter,” Billy Helprin reported. “By early December we had already had two complete ice-ins and 2 ice-outs on our smaller lakes, as temperatures fluctuated widely from day to day.”
“Most of the larger lakes stayed open all the way until Jan. 12, primarily due to windy condition. Several weeks in January and February had temperatures in the single digits and in the 40s or 50s. Eagle Lake (436 acres) was back to almost completely open on Feb. 20 for about a week after one of the significant warmups.
“Ice left most of MDI lakes around March 22 - 23. Hard to believe that Somes Pond had 10 inches of ice on March 11 and all but a skim was gone in just over a week. Some years our resident loons come back to the lakes as soon as the ice has opened up enough for takeoffs and landings.”
The second loon died from lead poisoning after ingesting sinkers. Loons do not chew food. They ingest pebbles at the bottom to help grind the food in their gizzards and cannot distinguish between stones and sinkers.
It also was not a great year for procreation. Only four chicks fledged to fly on their own, out of seven eggs hatched - not a bad percentage. But Helprin pointed out a season about five years ago when 15 loons fledged.
Some loons live as long as 30 years. There are 11 pairs of loons who have settled in territories on MDI, Helprin stated.
You may read his report here.https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iOuJQ0u-WDcrwpRXfTqOe-tTL2Q5mElzkwJT1qteL_4/edit?usp=sharing
Quarry owner files appeal of permit rejection
HALL QUARRY - The longest zoning dispute in MDI history entered its ninth year April 15 when the owner of the granite quarry here filed an appeal of the Planning Board’s rejection of its permit in February.
Harold MacQuinn, owner of the six-acre property, and his tenant, Freshwater Stone, appealed the decision to the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals which has yet to schedule a hearing.
The actual length of this dispute is fuzzy. The town enacted an ordinance in 2013 barring quarry activity excepting ongoing operations. But neighbors had been complaining about the noise emanating from the operation since before 2010.
Hall Quarry was one of the town’s first subdivisions where working folks, retirees and summer residents were promised that they would live in peace and that the quarry was a thing of the past, never to be reborn.
The owner and his tenant maintained they have the right to extract stone from the quarry, while neighbors say they lost that right when the quarry was dormant.
In 2012, the Islander wrote, “This is the way they torture terrorists,” quoting Hall Quarry resident Gerald Shencavitz on the noise from the stone cutting a couple of hundred yards from his home.
Noise is the principal objection.
Across Somes Sound, Hans Utsch and Julia Hazzard Merck could hear the stone cutting pealed across the water by the prevailing southwest wind during the summer. An unlikely alliance was forged - one of the richest couples on MDI and the scrappy neighbors of Hall Quarry bonded around a common interest.
They joined Gerald and Laurie Shencavitz and their neighbor, Peter Aylen, who argued that the quarry was abandoned for too long to qualify for grandfathering. They cite a provision of the town’s land use ordinance that states that “a non-conforming use of land shall be considered abandoned if the use or activity ceases for a continuous period of 18 months.”
The Shencavitzes say the quarry near their house was effectively abandoned for 29 months.
“Following the 29 consecutive months of inactivity, (Freshwater Stone’s) invoices show a site visit on October 27, 2008, wherein they hauled out a miniscule four cubic yards of (crushed up rubble rock) for a total sale price of $75.56 before expenses,” the Islander reported.
Harold MacQuinn had a different interpretation.
He maintained that there was enough commercial activity as to comply with the town ordinance for some work every 18 months to “grandfather” an old quarry.
In June 2017, the Planning Board ruled 4-1 that the quarry had been dormant for so long that it did not qualify for grandfathering.
MacQuinn and Freshwater Stone appealed to the town’s Board of Appeals, which upheld the PB decision. But in October 2018, a judge overturned that ruling.
On Feb. 9, the Planning Board rejected a permit 5-0 stating that the owner failed to provide access which meets the town’s 50-foot right of way requirement.
In addition to the appeal by MacQuinn and Freshwater, the residents have filed a “cross appeal” with the appeals board. Hans Utsch and Julia Hazzard Merck possess the wherewithal to keep the legal marathon going for several more decades.
Tribute: Weston Alexander "Alex" Wade
1981 - 2021
BAR HARBOR - A celebration-of-life gathering for family and friends will be held on Saturday, May 21 from 2-4 pm at Kebo Valley Golf Club in Bar Harbor for Weston Alexander Wade (Alex), 40, who passed away unexpectedly December 24, 2021. He was born in Blue Hill on May 22, 1981, to Benjamin Alexander Wade and Lois M. Willis Wade.Alex grew up and went to schools in Bar Harbor. He played baseball and football for the teams at MDI High School and graduated in the class of 1999.
Following high school, Alex was trained as a chef. He worked for a few years in restaurants in the area. He also worked for the MDI and Ellsworth Housing Authority in maintenance. While there, he made strong ties with the residents and staff.
Alex had a kind and generous spirit, always ready to support and encourage others. Family was very important to him. He loved fishing with family and friends at camp on Beach Hill Pond in Otis. He also enjoyed playing golf with fellow golfers at Kebo Valley Golf Club in Bar Harbor.
Alex is survived by his mother, Lois, and his brother Andrew (Andy) Benjamin Wade and partner Jennifer Kay Wright.
Also surviving are his sisters, Kirston Wade Little and husband Michael and Melanie Luttman and husband Ronald; brother, Benjamin P. Wade; uncle Roger and aunt Cheryl Willis; cousins, Jake, Lily Willis and husband David Nichalson, Kathy MacLeod, Nancy Myers, Dede Willis, Hazel Alley; and many other family members. Alex was predeceased by his father in 1987; grandparents, Weston and Jean (MacLeod) Willis and Benjamin W. and grandmother, whom he never met, Ruby A. Wade.
In Alex’s memory please be kind. When you learn something, teach someone.
There will be a private committal service at Ledgelawn Cemetery in Bar Harbor.
Arrangements by Jordan-Fernald Funeral Homes, 113 Franklin St. Ellsworth.
Condolences may be expressed at www.jordanfernald.com