Some town fees reviewed for increases
Apr 24, 2025
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SOUTHWEST HARBOR—Though potential appointments and action was on the agenda, the town didn’t reconfigure its Harbor Committee Tuesday night, April 22, or appoint new members. Instead, the select board tabled discussion to its next meeting after harbor committee representatives said that past precedence was not being followed. Appointments also did not occur.
Typically an applicant for the harbor committee would appear before the harbor committee prior to appearing before the board, one harbor committee member said.
Potential appointees usually attend harbor committee meetings and the appointment process has involved harbor committee discussion of potential members prior to moving forward to the select board.
“This was total miscommunication,” Select Board Chair Carolyn Ball said. She suggested to table both the appointments and to end the discussion of the composition of the board, which included diversity of representation as well as how many members there should be.
“Given the number of openings on the harbor committee, as well as the number of interested parties, the select board chair has requested discussion of the harbor committee structure,” Town Manager Karen Reddersen wrote in her manager’s memo for the meeting.
During the April 22 meeting, select board member James Vallette asked if they could have people from the public share their thoughts.
“It’s an opportunity to hear” other people’s views, Vallette said.
Ball did not allow general public discussion. There was no vote to table the discussion. The board moved on to other portions of the agenda.
The Harbor Committee will give a list of past attendance and will have recommendations on the appointees at a future select board meeting.
Early in discussion, Vallette worried about the timing of the appointments prior to the May town meeting, when new select board members could be voted in.
The nine members of the committee are Chair Nicholas Madeira (2025), Remmington Berzinis-McLaughlin (2027), Joshua Ray (2026), Justin Snyder (2026), William Norwood (2026), Anne Napier (2026), John C. Stanley (2026), Michael Brzezowski (2025), and Donald Sullivan (2025).
The committee’s last agenda on the town’s website was in February. The last minutes were in January.
Ronald Musetti, Christopher Clark, Lydia Goetze, Ryan A. Donahue, Charlotte Gill, Jonathan Dow, all had originally applied for the three open seats. Gill withdrew her application the day before the select board meeting. Ball briefly stated each potential member’s waterfront connections.
Three harbormasters had resigned within three years previously between 2019-2022. At the time the committee chair was quoted in the Mount Desert Islander as saying the waterfront was “complete mayhem.” He’d added, “It’s unfortunately been becoming a repeat situation for Southwest Harbor where we cannot seem to maintain a harbormaster and I don’t believe the harbor committee has an answer for that.”
One of the past issues at the time had been a harbormaster not attending the meetings to record minutes, which also means that the town had been breaking the Freedom of Access Act, which requires meeting minutes to be freely available for members of the public.
Rowdy discussions at the committee were recorded even back in 2009 by Mark Good reporting for the Mount Desert Islander. The harbormaster at the time was accused of misrepresenting the committee’s support of potential changes to the town’s harbor ordinance.
More recently, the committee has voiced its frustrations with how the town managed potential changes to the Manset Town Dock, which was damaged during 2024 winter storms and required an engineering study for FEMA repairs and money. The weight limits and how the town was handling a policy change related to those weight limits for lobster truck permits were the issues.
During the select board’s February 11 meeting, Harbor Committee Vice Chair Corey Pettegrow had expressed displeasure at how the new interim policy was handled. Reddersen had apologized for not including a harbor committee recommendation in the select board’s packet.
“I’m trying to do what’s right for the town. I’ve been here four months and I’m learning as I go,” Reddersen had said.
The current harbormaster, Rob Leavitt’s employment began in July 2024 after former harbormaster Jarrod Kushla’s April 2024 departure. Prior to coming to Southwest Harbor, Leavittt had served in Boothbay Harbor.
FEE SCHEDULE
The select board also reviewed a fee schedule with multiple rate changes including for subdivision proposals, town sign posts, planning board applications, and multiple disposal fees.
Parts of the fee schedule had not been updated since 2019, which the code enforcement officer had noticed. A new fee schedule that reflects the permitting costs was created by the code enforcement officer and then approved by the planning board and board of appeals.
Code Enforcement Officer John Larson said he looked at Mount Desert, Bar Harbor, and Tremont fee schedules and they were “all significantly higher” than Southwest’s current schedule. He made changes to make the town fee’s more reflective of actual costs.
“If we’re losing money on permits, that’s not a good sign,” select board member Chapin McFarland said.
The select board approved the fees changes. The start date will be July 1, 2025.
The harbor committee’s fee schedule had not been taken up by that committee yet, so that was not discussed or included in the proposed changes. It will be at a future meeting.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
All our past stories and briefs can be found here.
Southwest Harbor Ponders Limited Paid Parking
Lobster Truck Permits Back on Southwest Harbor’s Future Agenda
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