By Wayne E. Rivet

Staff Writer

When Selectman Bob McHatton voted against a proposed Mooring Ordinance and hiring a Harbor Master during the last budget review cycle, he did so due to lack of information.

McHatton Tuesday night proposed the formation of a committee, consisting of five or possibly more members (based on interest), to study the question of what is needed here, and how much will it cost.

The Select Board supported the idea, but members Carmen Lone and Paul Tworog called for a tight focus.

“As the committee goes forward that they focus on what issues they’re trying to resolve. When this first came forward, I was frustrated by the fact that we weren’t able to quickly get a regulation of house boats being on the lake and moved from that position to all these other auxiliary items,” Tworog said. “It quickly expanded in scope to include wakes and noise on the lakes.”

Lone, who had given lots of thought on the issue prior to Tuesday’s meeting, added, “What is the objective? ... What’s our capacity to handle it? So, number one, we don’t have any office space. Number two, we need to buy a boat, a trailer, a truck, a place to store it. So, these are things we need to consider. So, if our objective is to not have house boats on our lakes, then that’s a lot of money for that... But if that’s our goal, our objective, then I think we should stay focused on it. We can go hog wild with this.”

McHatton and Town Manager Bob Peabody will craft a mission statement for the study committee, and present it to the Select Board at their next meeting.

One starting point for the committee will be to reach out to neighboring towns, such as Harrison and Naples, that already have Harbor Masters to find out costs and their approach to the task.

Selectman Ken Murphy felt addressing the Harbor Master, who is the one to enforce the Mooring Ordinance, issue is long overdue.

“The population of boats on the lakes is probably quadrupled since I was a kid. If Harrison can have a Harbor Master and Naples can have a Harbor Master, the question is why we don’t have one? I know it’s costly, but to put it aside for another 50 years doesn’t make sense,” he said.

Ordinance Review Committee member Kevin Raday felt if a committee is being formed to look at a Harbor Master and Mooring Ordinance (the town has a proposed ordinance, but it is currently sitting on the shelf), it is an opportunity to study “all the various problems out on the lake.”

“Process and public policy process — I think says that you should get all the information you possibly can covering everything on any subject, pros, cons, what’s good, what’s bad, where you could go, where you shouldn’t go. What are the ramifications of each of the things we’re talking about? What’s the liability? How much does it cost? All options, every option you could possibly have, you can have it in front of you and make decisions. It’s your decision to make. You should be getting all the information to look at it and decide which piece, no pieces, some of the pieces, et cetera. Does that sound logical?” Raday said.

Resident Jean Preis, who owns property on Highland Lake and whose family has run a small cottage rental business for 38 years, called for the Select Board to support adding a Harbor Master.

“I think it’s extremely important. I brought with me the LEA newsletter about house boat regulations being needed. House boats are a real concern for us. I think it’s always easier to get control of a problem before it occurs rather than after,” she said. “The health of the lake is extremely important to us. We’ve always had young children staying at our place and they go out in kayaks and swim, so having someone keeping an eye on the regulations that are already in place and perhaps even making some new regulations such as the house boat would be extremely important to us.”

Resident Brook Sulloway felt bringing in a Harbor Master to check moorings and enforce the ordinance is a great place to start, and if the town finds more enforcement is needed (if game wardens are unable to consistently patrol local waterbodies) down the road, then officials can take another look.

“My biggest fear is when the hotel goes in, how is that going to change the use of Highland Lake? Is someone going to start plopping moorings out there and say, ‘You can’t park your boat here,’” Sulloway said.

Resident Will Libbey added, “We want you to be proactive and not reactive to the situation because it’s going to be awfully hard to back it up. Moorings are critical... We have no law of protecting the people on the lake or the body of water. Game wardens and the police, they won’t touch any of this. It’s not their domain, it’s a Harbor Master’s domain. So that’s what we need to consider.”

In other board news:

New hire. Following an executive session, the Select Board confirmed Town Manager Bob Peabody’s nomination of Nicole McKeith of Auburn as Community Development Director.

McKeith succeeds Tori Hill. There were 22 applicants, and five were interviewed, and three received a second interview.

“She will bring her diverse experience working with city, county and state government agencies encompassing budgeting and finance, technical assistance, audit requests, public policy research, board governance, community development, management practices and governmental regulatory process,” Town Manager Bob Peabody said.

McKeith previously served as Director of Housing Initiatives at ProsperityME, located in Portland. She was responsible for creating an affordable housing development department and project management (including risk analysis, site acquisition, funding source identification and financial modeling), and development of partnerships with municipalities, funders, developers and other like-minded organizations in the housing development community.

Before joining ProsperityME this past January, McKeith served as Multifamily Program Manager/Officer at Montana Housing, Department of Commerce. She worked three years as Building & Development Program Manager at Missoula County Building Division.

McKeith earned her bachelor’s degree in Political Science with an emphasis in Public Administration and International Relations and a master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Montana.

Beefing up landscape, buffer standards. A public hearing next Thursday, Aug. at 5 p.m., will outline proposed changes in the Land Use Ordinance regarding landscaping and buffering requirements, Planning Board chair Deb Brusini informed the Select Board. The hope is to place the changes on the November ballot (Select Board approval needed) for voter consideration.

“We’re actually going back to what was in the original or very close to what was in the original Land Use Code when it first came out,” said Brusini. “We’re also doing something at the request of town staff concerning escrow for sidewalks instead of making the developers put the sidewalks in when the property is developed.”

Copies of the proposed changes are available at the town office or on the town website.

Ash trees under attack. The future of the Ash trees in Pondicherry Park appears bleak due to attacks by emerald ash borers, Selectman Paul Tworog reported.

Tworog, who serves on the Pondicherry Park Committee, said some trees near trails will need to be taken down because they cause a safety risk, while others away from trails will be allowed to fall.

“We’ll let Mother Nature prevail,” he said.

A program by the Forest Service using natural enemies of the ash borer to thwart their destruction will save younger saplings.

Also, the popular Story Book Trail program might get an upgrade. A suggestion has been made to install “viewing stands” to be permanently installed.

Tworog added that the Aug. 13 story time will be held at the Hancock Amphitheater. A work crew is needed to spruce up the area. Anyone interested in helping out should contact Loon Echo Land Trust (lelt.org).

Busy sticker selling day. If you noticed a line of vehicles at the Transfer Station recently, it was folks purchasing stickers to use the facility. Public Service Director David Madsen reported that 453 stickers were sold on Saturday, bringing the total to 1,200 over the first three weeks of the new fiscal year. Last year, a total of 2,700 tickets were purchased.

Madsen said a second sticker sale day will be held, but no date has been released. Transfer Station stickers can be purchased at the town office during regular operating hours.