Tremont Fisherman's Abandoned 36-Foot Stanley Lobster Boat to be Auctioned Off Unless Owner Pays Money Owed to Town
Board talks beaver deceivers and harbormaster's shack
TREMONT—A 36-foot Stanley lobster boat owned by fisherman Richard Higgins will be auctioned off unless he pays the town what he owes for allegedly abandoning the boat on its mooring in the harbor the Tremont Select Board decided at its meeting on Monday, April 7.
Town Manager Jesse Dunbar said that Harbormaster Tyler Damon had been working on getting the vessel off the mooring since October and that the vessel, Jacqueline, could no longer be on the commercial mooring because Higgins no longer holds a commercial fishing license. Dunbar also said that the vessel had not been moved in years and had accumulated so much growth on the bottom that it was a risk.
The mooring was also in disrepair and the vessel had been bumping into other boats that were moored in the harbor. The town paid to have the mooring repaired and the mooring chain replaced, Dunbar said.
Damon said that the process of trying to get Higgins to remove the boat from the mooring has been going on since September and that he has a paper trail of attempted communications, including certified mail correspondence that was not signed for but was also not returned.
According to Damon, there are three separate reasons for the town to be taking the mooring back from Higgins and that he and Higgins had a conversation regarding this and that Higgins was understanding of the reasons for the loss of the mooring. Damon said that at the time this conversation took place with Higgins in the harbormaster’s office, which was prior to February 3, Higgins signed an agreement to have the boat removed by March 1.
The agreement, Damon said, “said somewhere along the lines of, if the vessel is not removed by March 1, the town will take ownership of it.”
Damon also said that he has pictures of Higgins’ vessel, on the mooring, making contact with Justin Sprague’s boat in the harbor, which is when the town had the mooring repaired. The mooring and chain actually belong to Higgins and will be placed on the beach Damon said.
“It should be a fair value for Ricky as well, if we sell it,” member Eric Eaton said. “It’s hard to put a value on that boat just sitting here.”
Damon said that both the engine and transmission “are done” and the wheelhouse is rotted.
“So, you’re buying a hull,” said member Kevin Buck.
If the town sells the boat by auction, any money above what the town is owed for attorney’s fees, hauling and transportation of the vessel, repair of the mooring, Damon’s time involved in the project, and any other costs or fees incurred, would go back to Higgins.
Dunbar said that if they decide to sell it, Higgins will be notified what he owes the town and can always pay that sum, even on the night of the select board opening bids, to get his boat back. On the night of bid opening, the select board would still have the choice of accepting Higgins’ payment or accepting a higher bid to pay off the town’s encumbrances and give Higgins the remainder.
A motion was made “to authorize the sale of an abandoned vessel, the Jacqueline, by sealed bid after 30 days with any funds received above what is owed to the town to be returned to Richard Higgins and to set a minimum bid of $2,500” by Buck and seconded by Eaton. The motion passed unanimously with four yes votes as member Howard “Howdy” Goodwin was absent for this meeting.
HARBORMASTER’S SHACK
The new harbormaster’s office will be ready for Damon to start using soon and the select board had to decide what to do with the old office structure. The choices presented to the select board by Dunbar were to dispose of the old building, sell it, keep it and use it in another location separate from the wharf area, or to keep it and use it in the area of the wharf.
After some discussion with Damon, the select board decided that since Damon gets to utilize the wharf garage in the winter for float repair and other upkeep and maintenance work, yet has to have all of his tools and equipment out each spring so they can lease the garage for the summer season, the building should be kept and stay in close proximity to the garage so that Damon can have his tools on hand all year.
Damon also said that the old building is watertight and he can also keep archived paperwork and seldom used supplies in the building.
It was decided that the building would be placed next to the garage on the side of the existing lean-to roof, which will probably be removed to make room for the new structure.
A motion was made “to authorize that the former harbormaster’s shack be retained and used for storage and located beside the town-owned garage near the town dock.” The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
SEAL COVE ALEWIFE MANAGEMENT PLAN
According to Dunbar’s select board meeting notes for the April 7 meeting, “Over the last several years a lot of work has gone into the restoration of the fishway at Seal Cove Pond, including the extensive project to reconstruct it. DMR (Maine Department of Marine Resources) has been stocking the pond each spring with alewives and spring of 2024 was their last stocking. Between Maine Coast Heritage Trust, and numerous dedicated volunteers there has been fish counting, monitoring, scale sampling, etc.”
However, there is a beaver presence in the pond that is causing issues with the natural flow of the alewifes’ and the rehabilitation efforts. The town has a permit to notch the beaver dam to allow water flow but this year when the dam was notched, the beaver chose not to repair the notch but to fill the fishway dam with branches instead. This required daily cleaning to keep the water flowing and the dam clear of debris.
A proposed solution to this issue is the purchase and installation of a beaver deceiver to keep the dam clear of branches and other debris. This device would be incorporated into the existing Seal Cove Pond Alewife Management Plan.
Beaver deceivers are usually a pipe that runs through the damn to allow continued water flow with the ends of the pipe being caged off to prevent beaver access and damming of the pipe.
The beaver deceiver has an estimated cost of $2,477 which would come from the fishway reserve. Additionally, the town has applied for an $825 grant to help offset the cost to the town.
A motion was made “to accept the Seal Cove Pond Alewife Management Plan as presented.” The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
A second motion was then made “to authorize using the fishway reserve to fund construction of the beaver deceiver.” The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
After Dunbar’s manager’s report, the select board went into executive session for a personnel matter. According to Dunbar, no action was taken after the executive session.
The next Tremont Select Board meeting is scheduled to take place on April 22 at 5 p.m. at the town office.
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