Harpswell Information

Letter to the Selectmen (2)

1. Introduction

2. Letter to Selectman with request for fulltime Harbormaster

3. Email to members of Committee informing them of Selectman Weil's offer

4. Email to Selectman Weil requesting advice on how to present amendment

5. Flyer given out at Town Meeting

6. Comments I have received

7. Comments made to Selectmen 5/26/05

8. Comments made at hearing for Harbormaster

Below is the letter the HWC sent to the Selectmen which tells of the committee's recommendation for a full time Harbormaster (HM) and the reasons for it.

• According to Selectman Weil, the HWC sent repeated requests to the Selectmen. However, there was only one letter, which is reproduced below.

• To my knowledge the Selectmen never responded (in the sense of informing the committee) to this letter. Indeed members of the HWC have commented about the lack of response.

• Selectman Weil never spoke of any discussion by the Selectmen of any of the problems (number of moorings, Mackerel Cove, etc.)  raised by the letter.

• The Selectmen never consulted with HWC to see if the Committee had any suggestions concerning the reservations the Selectmen had, such as not enough to do in the winter. The Committee had suggested such a meeting.

The Harbor and Waterfront Committee
Town of Harpswell

The Board of Selectmen
Town of Harpswell
Harpswell, Maine 04079

December 17, 2003

Dear Sirs,

 The Harbor and Waterfront Committee unanimously recommends that the job of Harbormaster be made onto a full-time position. Funding for this step could be provided by a-modest increase in the mooring fees.

 Harpswell's greatest resource is the longest coastline of any town in the State. At 218 miles, on twenty square miles of land, no other community in Maine has an asset that provides as high a percentage of the town’s tax base or of income and pleasure for its residents. The Town currently has 2300 registered moorings and only about 400 are commercial in nature. 105 new mooring were approved last year. The pressure for access is increasing and the interests of Harpswell require that this resource be protected and managed. The workload far exceeds the capacity of the present part-time position. The time required to document the present state of the moorings, design a new system, and enforce it, in Mackerel Cove alone is a case in point. This process began with the previous Harbormaster and is not yet complete. The Committee feels that the Town needs to provide the method used by other towns in the State to oversee its interests on the water.

 The Harbor and Waterfront Committee also recommends that the Harbor and Waterfront Ordinance be changed from

5.1     Registration

All moorings located below low water in waters of Harpswell shall be registered with the Town Clerk before June 1 of each year. Any applicant who completes re-registration by June 1 of any year shall be given preference for the location occupied by that registrant's mooring the prior year, unless the Harbormaster determines that a demonstrated need for that site has been show by someone higher on the list of priorities in section 5.5.3 below. In such an event, the Harbormaster will a provide a new site agreeable to the original registrant and relocate the mooring, in the same condition as at its original site, at the expense of the mooring owner taking over the old site. Determinations by the Harbormaster may be appealed to the Selectmen.

to

"Mooring registration is due before May 1st. Following that date, the Town Clerk shall notify mooring holders. If a mooring is re-registered after May 30th, the fee would be doubled. Any registrations that are unpaid on June 15th would lose the mooring space."

 The Committee would be happy to meet with the Selectmen if requested to discuss these matters further.

Yours truly,