Hadley Point Ramp Damaged, Ells Pier Might Be OK
Harbor Committee advised not to discuss how cruise ship fees should be used
HARBOR COMMITTEE—During their Monday meeting, Bar Harbor Harbor Committee members received some good news, some bad news, and potentially interesting news from Harbormaster and Bar Harbor Police Captain Christopher Wharff.
The good news: the town’s pier’s external structure seems OK despite what member Jon Carter called a duo of “perfect storms.”
According to Wharff, the ground-penetrating radar report should be back within a week. That report, where the data was collected last week, will show if there are voids in the subsurface beneath the pier.
“Even if we have to fill in some voids, that’s not a huge project,” Wharff said, unless the voids are massive and more problematic than the town currently expects.
The Port Security building lost a couple metal straps, but the building itself was stable. The new hoist had water infiltration in its mechanicals, but the salt water incursion wasn’t constant and was drained so that the engine parts weren’t sitting in it. Wharff predicted that any repair work will and can be done by the start of the season.
The bad news: The ramp at Hadley Point Beach washed out a bit and needs to be fixed.
“That just goes to show how big that storm was to bother something up to Hadley Point,” Carter said. “It was like two perfect storms back to back.”
The interesting news: The committee was advised not to discuss using cruise ship funds as matching funds to help develop the ferry terminal site on Route 3 into a marina. Wharff said he’d talked about it with Town Manager James Smith and Town Council Chair Valerie Peacock after Harbor Committee Chair Kaitlyn Mullen brought it up.
“Everyone feels this isn’t the place for that discussion. That’s a Council and Warrant Committee discussion,” Wharff told committee members.
He encouraged everyone who has an opinion on budget articles and what fees should support to contact a Warrant Committee member, but he said that it’s not in the purview of the Harbor Committee to discuss budget items about cruise ship fees.
“It used to be,” Secretary Larry Nuesslein III said.
Prior to the enactment of the town’s now disbanded Cruise Ship Committee, the Harbor Committee advised the Council about cruise ship matters. Back then, and now, the Harbor Committee can only make recommendations (or give advice) to the Council. It has no budgetary purview.
“Do we want to leave the hot potato in the oven?” Harbor Committee member Francis “Pancho” Cole asked of cruise ship fee discussion and if the fees should be used for the marina plan.
Wharff said, “Where it’s a hot button right now, that’s where it’s going to sit.”
“It seems more and more is getting dumped in the lap of the Council,” Cole said.
The marina plan at the ferry terminal is one of the things that the committee advises the council about much as the Task Force on the Climate Emergency advises about sustainability and carbon emissions or recently, the Higgins Pit Solar Project or as the Parks and Recreation Committee advises about park usage.
Committee member Micala Delepierre had requested at an earlier meeting that the committee have a discussion of its enabling ordinance. She was not at the Monday meeting, but her previous concerns included that the committee didn’t have enough to do now that it has recommended the council adopt a phased plan to build a marina at the ferry terminal site. Bo Jennings expressed a similar concern earlier this month at a Communications and Technology Committee.
During the discussion, Cole brought up a question of majority voting when there is a bare quorum.
A quorum of the 11-member committee is six. There must be six to hold an official meeting with voting actions. His question was whether or not four, which is a majority of the bare minimum of six, seemed like an appropriate amount of people to make recommendations.
There was no public comment. The only member of the public attending was Carol Chappell, who is a member of the Warrant Committee. Police Chief David Kerns attended. Member Ed Monat was not at the meeting. Nuesslein chaired the meeting until Mullen’s arrival.
LINKS TO CONTACT THE WARRANT COMMITTEE
You may contact all Warrant Committee members and the Town Manager simultaneously by using the following email address: warrant@barharbormaine.gov
Individual Warrant Committee members’ emails are here.
HARBOR COMMITTEE:
Enabling Ordinance: Chapter 31, Boards, Committees, and Commissions, Article VII Harbor Committee
Individual Harbor Committee members’ emails are here.