Wants to work on existing special amusement permit instead

Shaun Farrar

Oct 23, 2025

TREMONT—At its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, October 20, the Tremont Select Board heard public comment and discussed a possible noise ordinance for the town. The board did not back the proposal.

“This is a working commercial community. We will not support any noise ordinance whatsoever,” select board member Eric Eaton said.

The issue had originally been brought up before the town’s planning board on October 14 by property owner Paul Beatley, whose property at 5 Flat Iron Road abuts Archie’s Lobster.

Select Board Chair Jamie Thurlow gave Beatley the floor first and Beatley made similar comments tho those he had made to the planning board. Those included:

• The noise levels of the music at Archie’s have historically not been an issue until this summer, but since Archie’s has adjusted the location of the musicians and the direction in which its musician’s speakers are pointed (to help alleviate complaints from across the water) the sound now comes directly at his house.
• He has registered decibel (dB) readings as high as 91dBs from his property.
• The town is issuing special amusement permits that are not in compliance with the town’s land use ordinance due to the fact that the town is not adhering to the conditions specified on the permit applications.
  • Article 2 section 201 requires that the permittee be in compliance with all ordinances in order to receive a permit.
  • Article 6A of the land use ordinance requires a buffer in order to prevent nuisances at adjacent properties.

Beatley submitted a letter of explanation of his concerns and displeasures as well as a proposed noise ordinance to both the planning and select boards. During his initial presentation to the select board, Beatley said that his proposed limit of 55dBs at the noise producing entities property line has drawn comments such as, “that’s just ordinary conversation” or that’s “the hum of a refrigerator.”

Beatley’s response to this was, “Exactly, that’s what I expect on my property. In fact, in my living room I don’t have a refrigerator, so I don’t even have that.”

For reference, Bar Harbor’s special amusement ordinance has a not-to-exceed level of 71dBs as measured within five to ten feet of the property line.

“I would like Archie’s to continue to enjoy the business that they do and to have music that they want. I just ask that they redirect it away from my property or that the existing buffering be used to effectively block it from entering my property at such elevated levels,” Beatley said, suggesting some “easy fixes.” Beatley went on to add that Archie’s has buffering on site already in the form of an empty hangar and other buildings.

Thurlow asked how many years there has been music at Archie’s and Beatley responded that he believes it has been two or three years but prior to the music being subject to permitting (just this past year) it has been “tolerable.”

Archie’s has only had a special amusement permit for the summer of 2025 because it is coupled with having a liquor license which it procured this year.

Thurlow then asked Archie’s owner Heather Lewis if she had anything to say before he opened up the floor to general public comment.

“The biggest thing that I want to say is that when we tried following alternatives for the music, we were not trying to direct it directly at our neighbor. We are not pigeonholing this one neighbor,” Lewis said, “Like he said, ‘disperse it.’ I thought maybe putting it in a wooden building would recess some of the sound but . . . it certainly wasn’t directed at one, I wasn’t taking it out on one neighbor in particular at all. I was seriously trying to find a solution on the property to make it work for everyone.”

Thurlow then went into public comment with Dan Lorey speaking first. Lorey also spoke at the planning board meeting on October 14. Lorey said that the regular performers at Archie’s are three separate performers who all play alone and not in a band format. Lorey said that Troy and Heather have gone out of their way to try and figure out a solution.

“I have seen nothing but bending over backwards by both Heather and Troy in this issue,” Lorey said.

Lifetime and multigenerational resident Kat Murphy read a prepared statement that included, “Archie’s graciously hosts events that would otherwise be impossible in Tremont.”

“Tremont embodies the generational rugged identity of coastal Maine. You’re going to find fishermen, boat builders, fabricators, carpenters, heavy equipment operators and this means we are not always as quite as a church mouse and nor should we be expected to be. It breaks my heart to think that people who arrived in our community in 2018, apparently without researching permitted land uses around their property or understanding who we are as a people, now seek to impose restrictions on those of us who have lived here our entire lives,” Murphy continued.

Jeanette Feuer who owns an inn across the water from Archie’s said that she believes that everything she has heard this evening is true, “but it’s also true that there is noise from those musicians. It varies, some nights it’s quiet and some nights it’s not so quiet. Some nights it’s really loud and it comes right across the water and often it’s been, I won’t say often, there are times when it sounds like whoever is playing is right in my yard.”

“I do think it’s not a noise ordinance that we are looking at; it’s that particular permit which allows it to be any time, any day, any volume. There are no guardrails on that special amusement permit,” Feuer said.

Another audience member who said that he lives across the water from Archie’s, perhaps closer than anyone else at the meeting, said that he and his family often sit outside on his deck and try to guess who is playing and what song they are playing. It often takes multiple guesses he said and “to say that the music is driving anyone out of conversation on that harbor, and I am not speaking for the people who live next door, I do feel for them, they are that close, but they live in a zone, a working zone place and you are gonna have to expect music. If it was going past nine o’clock at night, I would be the first one to vote for this.”

Rod Shelden spoke to both sides of the matter but said, “My bottom line, by the way, is that I hope you put it to a vote. Let the people of the town decide because, Bar Harbor has ordinances, Southwest Harbor has ordinances. Are we the wild west of MDI?”

A number of audience members mentioned that the Beatleys have played loud bagpipe music in the direction of Archie’s while musicians have been playing.

After public comment, Thurlow allowed Beatley to speak again and he did. His wife, Sylvie Beatley, spoke as well, ending with a comment about property owners paying the same amount of taxes whether they are year-round or seasonal residents.

“There is no such thing as from away or from here when you are paying your taxes,” Paul Beatley said after his wife had finished speaking.

Thurlow said that he agrees with the statement about paying taxes and equal rights, but stated that he feels that it is very important and part of a potential property owner’s due diligence to research the area around the property they are looking at so that the potential purchasers can understand what is, or what could be, near the property they are potentially purchasing.

During Thurlow’s comment time, he was interrupted multiple times by both Beatleys and eventually had to rap the gavel twice and threaten to remove them from the meeting before he could finish.

“I do not think, my personal opinion, that we should be looking at any sort of noise ordinance in town, overall. I think that there are some things that we could probably look into as far as the special amusement permits and making sure that we looked into some of the details in that but as far as a town-wide noise ordinance, I cannot see we are interested in that whatsoever,” Thurlow said.

Thurlow then asked if the other select board members (member Kevin Buck had an excused absence for this meeting) had any input.

Vice Chair McKenzie Jewett said, “I agree totally with you and I appreciate everything that Heather and Troy have done. I mean they host a lot of community events. I have been there many times and I don’t find the music offensive, but that’s just me. I am also not a fan of changing—“

Jewett was interrupted by Sylvie Beatley and had to be spoken to by Thurlow again, and again he threatened to have to ask her to leave.

“I also feel like it is unfair to the Lewises to change the rules midway through their season or the beginning of their season. These are the only complaints that I know about and it hasn’t been an issue until now so, I am not a fan of a noise ordinance. I think it is unfair to everybody in town. I am a fan of tweaking the special amusement permit a little bit to maybe, make it clearer. That way, if Troy and Heather violate it, the neighbors can call the police,” Jewett finished.

Eaton said, “This is a working commercial community. We will not support any noise ordinance whatsoever. If you want to put a fence up on your property (speaking to the Beatleys), put a fence up.”

Speaking to the owners of Archie’s Lobster, Eaton said, “If you wanted to do that (put up a fence) to quiet the neighbors, then more power to ya, but I am not going to tell you that you have to.”

“I think just a noise ordinance is just going to cause more noise,” said board member Howdy Goodwin.

After more discussion between the select board members trying to come up with some guidance for Town Manager Jesse Dunbar, they tasked him with starting to put some ideas together for potential changes to the town’s existing special amusement permit ordinance.

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LINKS TO LEARN MORE

Noise Concerns Put Archie’s Lobster in Spotlight in Tremont

Shaun Farrar

Oct 16

Read full story

Tremont Land Use Ordinance Draft 2025 05 13

682KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Tremont Special Amusement Permit Ord

16.4KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Beatley Address To Planning Board 10 14 25

189KB ∙ PDF file

Download

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