Tremont Manager to Invite IFW Representative to May 5 Select Board Meeting to Talk About Deer Hunting
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Swan Agency Real Estate.
TREMONT—At the end of the April 22 Tremont Select Board meeting, Town Manager Jesse Dunbar informed the select board that he had submitted a letter to the legislative public hearing on LD 1438, HP 947, which is meant to potentially allow deer hunting on Mount Desert Island, saying that the select board did not have an opinion one way or the other and that the town would be holding a public hearing on the matter at a later date.
The original plan was to submit a letter after having a public hearing at the town level, but the legislative public hearing was scheduled to quickly to allow that to happen.
Dunbar said that he watched the state legislative committee’s April 16 public hearing and that Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (IFW) director “was reiterating that the law is very clear the way it is that the commissioner can open it but only with any of the effected towns legislative bodies voting to allow that to take place.”
That would be by town meeting vote Dunbar said.
Dunbar asked the select board if they would like him to try and get a representative from IFW to come to or Zoom into the select board’s May 5 meeting to go over issues or answer questions that they may have.
Chair Jamie Thurlow said that he thought the board members should do that because they have been down this road at least twice before and he would like to hear about any ideas other than just opening the town up to a general hunting season.
Dunbar said that he would put a question-and-answer session regarding the proposed legislation on the May 5 agenda and see if he can get someone from IFW to attend.
CONSENT AGREEMENT FOR CODE VIOLATION
An approximately 40-year-old setback violation was discovered on a Tremont property recently and the current property owner, Paul Frascoia, has been working with Code Enforcement Officer Angela Chamberlain on a consent agreement to resolve the violation after he was notified of the violation via the required notification process.
A portion of the actual residence on the property, which is located at 166 Tremont Road, is in the setback area and Chamberlain told the select board that she felt that an administrative consent agreement was probably the most logical solution to this violation.
There are no life safety concerns related to the violation according to Chamberlain, as well as no shoreland zoning violations.
Chamberlain added that the original property owner properly obtained all of the necessary permits when the house was built in the 1980s and it doesn’t appear as the original owner acted in bad faith.
According to Chamberlain, the new owner has acted quickly and cooperatively to rectify the situation.
The consent agreement specifies that this will not be a legal nonconforming structure, so “any future additions or replacement structures will have to comply with all of the applicable requirements,” said Chamberlain.
Select board member Kevin Buck asked, “Why are you considering it nonconforming?”
The property became nonconforming when an ordinance provision changed. “It will be noncompliant but it will have your blessing to remain as it is,” Chamberlain explained.
Buck asked if the abutting neighbor had been notified of the violation and Chamberlain said that she had not notified the neighbor. A representative for Frascoia was in attendance at the meeting and responded that all of this was “done at a time when there wasn’t a survey and the description of the property was very difficult, so it was discovered after the survey.”
After some discussion amongst the select board members and establishing that there were no attorney’s fees involved, the board decided to not charge any violation penalties or collect any reimbursement for Chamberlain’s time on the project.
A motion was made and seconded to approve and sign the consent agreement between the Town of Tremont and Frascoia with no penalties. There was no further discussion and the motion was approved unanimously.
2025 ANNUAL TOWN MEETING WARRANT
The select board had previously signed the 2025 Annual Town Meeting warrant at its March 24 meeting but since then, something has changed.
For the last few years, including this year, the warrant was addressed to someone who was not only a resident of Tremont, but an employee of the town, for the purpose of public posting and notification of the warrant. That person is no longer employed by the town so the warrant must now be addressed to someone else.
Dunbar consulted with Maine Municipal Association (MMA) and was advised to have the select board address the warrant to someone else and to sign the warrant again with the updated name.
Dunbar also advised the select board that even though the annual town report has already been published and it contains the signed warrant with the previous name on it, the annual report is not required to contain the warrant and is fine to be left as it is according to MMA.
A motion was made and seconded to approve and sign the warrant for the 2025 annual town meeting. The motion was approved unanimously.
Tremont’s annual town meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 13, at 6:30 p.m., in the Harvey Kelley Meeting Room at the town office.
FERRY TERMINAL FLOATS
In the fall of 2023, the town applied for a matching grant through Maine DOT for $60,000 to help with the cost of replacing the ferry terminal floats. They did receive the grant which made the town liable for half of the grant amount, or $30,000.
At the time, the town’s harbor committee discussed asking Swan’s Island and Frenchboro to help with the costs since the ferry services those islands and they are the largest users of the floats. The harbor committee suggested that each of those communities contribute $10,000 each and the select board later agreed but also decided to give each community the option to increase their yearly payments from $2,000 to $3,000 to help defray the impact.
Dunbar said that Swan’s Island chose the $3,000 option and Frenchboro never really responded but neither community had paid the increased fee as of yet.
“The project will be significantly delayed if we have to come up with the 30 ($30,000) ourselves and the DOT is looking to get moving on the project,” Dunbar said.
So, Dunbar and harbormaster Tyler Damon have had some conversations with the chair of the select board for Swan’s Island and the administrator for Frenchboro and both towns have since voted to pay the $10,000 to Tremont towards the project.
This was just an update to the select board by Dunbar and he said that he will be back before the board with bid specifications or quotes when available. There were no motions made or actions taken.
COMMUNITY BUILDING POLICY
The community building policy has been updated because the town no longer issues identification cards as is described in the current policy and they no longer have the identification card making machine because it belonged to the fire department.
The town has also had issues with keys being returned within a reasonable amount of time, so an amendment was added to the policy that says that keys must be returned within three days or future use of the building may be restricted.
Thurlow mentioned that they had spoken previously about putting in a lock with a code that can be changed and Dunbar responded that he has looked into that and is in the process of figuring out which will be the best option for the particular door that it will be installed on. They would like to move to a lock that generates a one-time use code, Dunbar said.
A motion was made and seconded to adopt and sign the April 22, 2025, version of the Community Building Policy as presented. The motion was approved unanimously.
TOWN OFFICE FLOORING
Approximately a year and a half ago, the town put out bid requests to have the floor in the town office replaced. The bid to remove the existing flooring and replace it was $40,000 and the town opted to purchase flooring and have it installed by a local contractor.
As of now, Dunbar’s office and the town clerk’s office have had their floors replaced using flooring purchased locally with installation by a local contractor at what Dunbar called “a very reasonable price.”
Knowing that stores can often discontinue styles and designs of products, Dunbar requested that the select board approve his purchasing of enough flooring of the same brand, style, and pattern that was used in his office and the clerk’s office to ensure that they have matching floors when they decide to replace the rest of the flooring in the town office.
A motion was made and seconded to purchase flooring for the town office at a cost of up to $6,000 utilizing the town office reserve to fund the purchase. The motion was approved unanimously.
The next meeting of the Tremont Select Board is scheduled for May 5, at 5 p.m., in the Harvey Kelley meeting room.
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