Truck Plunges Off Dysart's Dock
Southwest Harbor Police Department Will Likely Soon Be Fully Staffed, Lobster Buyer Trucks Tweak
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Side Street Cafe.
SOUTHWEST HARBOR—According to the Southwest Harbor Fire Department, a driver’s truck brakes stopped working February 27 and the truck drove across the Dysart’s Marina dock and through a barricade.
The truck plummeted twenty feet.
The driver “was able to quickly exit the truck and climb onto the dock with only a cut hand,” according to the department.
After the fall, the truck’s front end ended up on the low-tide mud. The rear of the truck was on the dock. The firefighters put out an absorbent boom to contain leaking fluids.
Cody Seavey's barge (Charles Bradley) joined the rescue effort.
“The crew lifted the truck onto the barge and transported it to the Manset Dock where it was loaded onto a DC Towing ramp truck. Although it was slippery from the wet snowfall, all responders went home safely!” the fire department reported.
The above video is a clip from the Dysart's Great Harbor Marina live stream. Though we made the clip of the incident, the credit for the stream and the capture goes to Dysart’s Great Harbor Marina via IPTimelapse.com.
Southwest Harbor’s Police Force is about to be fully staffed again.
The town’s police department has hired Charles "Rick" Graham as a full-time officer. He has worked in Southwest Harbor from 2009-2012 and was previously a Bar Harbor sergeant (2005-2009). He owns C.R. Graham Professional Investigators.
According to Police Chief John Hall, Graham has to be re-certified.
Another officer, Kristen Roulet, from Texas, should be in town in the beginning of March and has found housing in Tremont.
“We will just need to get her certification transferred over to Maine before she is on the road,” Hall wrote. She’s also a certified school resource officer.
The department hasn’t been fully staffed for many months and like many rural departments has had issues finding full-time officers.
“This will bring us to full staff for the first time in a long while,” Chief Hall wrote.
Within the packet of materials submitted to the select board, Hall and Fire Chief Tom Chisholm gave updates.
The department has also been working on a seniors program with Climate to Thrive that Graham will be in charge of. Sgt. Ryan Blakeney has been attending the FBI-LEEDA leadership training for supervisors. Officer Bradley Russell is attending the Maine Criminal Justice Academy and Officer James Kamorski has begun animal control officer training. When his training is complete, he’ll be training the other officers.
FIRE DEPARTMENT NEWS
Chief Tom Chisholm reported that the town’s fire department had responded to 50 calls as of February 19, which was an increase of eight compared to the same time period last year. During that time it helped at a structure fire on Valentine’s Day. That fire was on the Oak Point Road in Somesville.
The department also hosted Bar Harbor Fire Department Deputy Chief John Lennon for a CPR/first-aid training for a local contractor. Chief Chisholm wrote that it is part of community outreach for the department.
Firefighter Stephen Pierce is attending the Hancock County Fire Academy in Ellsworth. Firefighter Lea Pierce is training as an EMT-B.
INTERIM LOBSTER BUYER TRUCKS WEIGHT LIMIT POLICY
This week, the Southwest Harbor Select Board agreed that once the town approves weight limit restrictions on a general weight limit policy, it will remove those restrictions from the interim lobster buyer permit policy.
“Did we see it as necessary to modify this?” Chair Carolyn Ball asked her board.
“The permits are issued for the year, right? So there’s no rush,” Selectman James Vallette said. “I think the main thing is the weight limit. It’s the main area.”
At the select board meeting on February 11, 2025, the select board requested to have a review and discussion of the 2025 interim policy that was drafted by the harbormaster.
“The three applicants recommended by the Harbor Committee and approved by the Select Board (RDR, Northeast Lobster, and Seal Cove Lobster) have completed the application process, provided certificates of insurance, and paid the fee for the 2025 buying season,” Town Manager Karen Reddersen wrote in her manager’s memo.
Ball said she’d gone through all the documents included in the meeting’s packet of materials and said the language in the harbor committee’s recommendations was more positive than how the ordinance was written.
Vallette wondered about the weight limit on the dock and if it had more to do with engineering recommendations and not having to do with lobster buyers specifically. He said he was unsure of what the town’s legal rights were about the restrictions.
Weight limits and other trucks that might be of higher weight than the lobster trucks might be something that the town should consider, Reddersen said.
An engineering report suggested that if a truck is more than an H-15, it should not be used on the town’s lower dock. A duo of winter storms in 2024 damaged the piers. FEMA asked the town to survey the Manset pier. The firm, according to Reddersen, then recommended a weight limit of 20,000 pounds.
“That’s very clear to me on the engineer’s report,” Vallette said.
During the meeting, Vallette said that according to an engineering report, the Lower Town Dock existing pier structure was designed for an H-15 truck load capacity. An H-15 truck is 30,000 pounds in total. The front axle has 6,000 pounds. The rear is 24,000 pounds.
“That’s very clear to me on the engineer’s report.”
Harbormaster Rob Leavitt and Harbor Committee Chair Nick Madeira will draft a weight limit policy. The current lobster buyer policy will stay in place.
Members of the public and harbor committee expressed that auto-renewal of the three licenses is important as businesses plan for their future. Those occur every calendar year.
The town’s goal is to give the harbormaster oversight to make sure that the harbor use is fair and equitable, but also allow the businesses to be able to plan for their future. Those businesses currently are Northeast Seafood Company, RDR Wholesale, and Sea Salt d/b/a/Seal Cove Lobster Company.
A member of the public said he worried that the town is building itself up for a lawsuit when somebody goes through the pier.
Selectman Chapin McFarland wanted to make sure that the harbor committee recommendations were integrated with the harbormaster’s.
Selectman Noah Burby also motioned to change the title of the policy to include the word “interim.’ It was unanimously approved.
MARIJUANA
Tyler Johnson and Vice Chair Nathasha Johnson, co-owners of Meristem LLC had their adult-use retail store on the Seal Cove Road license renewed by the town.
The application and fees have been provided, paid, and advertised. Johnson, who is the select board vice chair, recused herself for the discussion. The application passed unanimously.
APPOINTMENTS
Raney Bench was appointed to the Southwest Harbor Sustainability Committee for a term effective until June 30, 2025. Bench is the director of the Mount Desert Historical Society, which has been partnering with other agencies to understand climate change’s impact on the area.
“As a citizen of Southwest Harbor I have been more and more concerned about the conversations that are taking place around the working waterfront,” Bench said.
The town is creating a page about the committee on its website.
Allan Wiley was appointed as Water/Sewer District Trustee for term effective until December 31, 2027. Wiley ran the water company for 38 years.
“I think can give quite a bit to the district,” Wiley said.
ORDINANCES
The board authorized amendment to the subdivision ordinance to be placed on the May 6 town ballot.
It also authorized changes to the 911 addressing ordinance to be placed on the May 6 town ballot.
It also discussed who to dedicate the town report to as well as reviewed the memoriam section of the town report.
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Rick Osann Art.
Cover image courtesy Jack Martel/SWHFD
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when I first read the head line truck goes thru dock I thought It was idiots doing something lacking common sense.. Remember we had that idiot who went out on the flats across from bar island and it took two days to haul him out?