BELFAST - The City Council on Tuesday approved plans to expand Thompson’s Wharf, but turned down a chance to apply for grant money. 

Harbor Master Katherine Pickering painted a bleak picture of city-owned dock, located in the inner harbor between properties owned by Front Street Shipyard. The steel pilings have significantly corroded, she said, and the fasteners that hold the floats together have deteriorated so much over the years that the planks came loose on a regular basis.

“We’re constantly having to go out and nail them back down,” she said.

Pickering said she wouldn’t trust the dock to hold up for another year.

“Even as protected as it is,” she said. “there’s not a lot holding it together at this point.”

Drawings approved by the city’s harbor committee show the dock length and total slip capacity doubled from 400 to 800 lineal feet.

A preliminary budget for estimated $190,000 project would have tapped $142,500 from city reserve accounts. The city would seek another $47,500 in grant money from the state’s Small Harbor Improvement Program.

Thompson’s Wharf is currently used for seasonal rentals and charter boats. The new plan would keep the charter boats and add a dinghy dock. The number of seasonal slips would be cut from 10 to eight. Roughly the same amount would be designated for public use and transient boaters. 

Belfast currently receives transient boaters at the city landing at the foot of Main Street. Pickering said the SHIP grant would require additional transient access at Thompson’s Wharf. 

Pickering said, the plan would expand public access, but added that there was some uncertainty about how much revenue transient boaters would bring in. In past years, she said, the majority have come in July and August with comparatively few arriving in May, June and September.

The condition would also apply for 20 years. 

Councilor Nancy Hamilton suggested the city try to find the $47,500 elsewhere. The amount was roughly equal to two years’ worth of fees from the expanded dock, she said, and the requirements of the grant might prove out of step with Belfast’s needs.

Councilor Roger Lee expressed strong reservations about losing any seasonal slips at a time when they are increasingly in demand. He also questioned the wisdom of adding transient boaters to a dock located away from the harbor master’s office.

Lee anticipated the small city staff stretched thin running between the public landing and Thompson’s Wharf and asked if Pickering would need to hire another worker. Pickering said she would want to try it with the current staff, for the first year.

Asked by Mayor Walter Ash why charter boats were given dock space instead of a mooring, Pickering said the market isn’t as strong here as in Camden. Dock presence has been the difference between success and failure for local charter boat operators.

“It’s tough for them to make a living in Belfast,” she said.

“It’s tough for everybody to make a living in Belfast,” said Ash.

Pickering said charter boats had been relocated to moorings once in the past, and they went out of business.

The Council unanimously approved a motion by Hamilton to adopt the plans for a redesigned Thompson’s Wharf and to forego the grant application.

Pickering said construction would likely begin in April 2014. City Manager Joe Slocum suggested she keep the SHIP grant in mind for replacing floats at the city landing.

Cleaning up the “Maskers” property

A former railroad building on Front Street that was most recently home to the Belfast Maskers theater group has been on a fast track toward some kind of redevelopment over the past year, though apparently not fast enough for some. 

The building has been vacant since 2011 when the city’s insurer refused to cover it and the Maskers were sent packing.

City Planner Wayne Marshall said on Tuesday that the building contains asbestos and lead paint. A swath of nearby dirt was removed during the construction of the Harbor Walk earlier this year after it was found to be contaminated and the building’s history as a railroad structure proximity to the former town dump have presented enough questions that the city has pursued an environmental assessment as a first order of business.

Belfast Economic Development Director Thomas Kittredge said a recently completed first phase turned up enough evidence of contamination on the site to warrant a second more detailed assessment. Work on Phase 2 will likely start by next week, he said.

Kittredge said the next step would most likely be to seek a clean up grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

No specific redevelopment plan has been discussed by the Council, but the rapid expansion of Front Street Shipyard arguably forced the city’s hand. Earlier this year, Councilor Mike Hurley argued the fate of the “Maskers” building — the last significant piece of property owned by the city north of Main Street — could mean the difference between a diverse commercial waterfront and one dominated by single company.

It was Hurley who balked on Tuesday when Kittredge said remediation work on the property was still close to a year off. Hurley asked if the building couldn’t be torn down before then. City Planner Wayne Marshall urged him to be patient, in part because the extent of contamination in the building would be revealed in the upcoming environmental assessment.

Private insurance for events on public property?

A recommendation from the city’s insurance provider got the Council talking about whether Belfast should require outside groups to buy insurance for events at city facilities like the Boathouse.

City Manager Slocum brought up the topic and endorsed the extra precaution. Members of the Council, however, seemed to regard it as unnecessary or enough of a hurdle that organizers of small community events would be turned away.

Mayor Ash suggested a little of each. Higher risk events, like those at which alcohol is served, could be treated differently than an event like a craft fair, he said. Councilor Lee suggested grandfathering some existing annual events. Slocum said he would look into this. The Council took no action.

Belfast plays it safe, or maybe stingy, with General Assistance

During a discussion of changes to Belfast’s General Assistance ordinance, Councilor Roger Lee questioned noted that the city was on track to spend a third of the amount this year as was paid out in General Assistance just a few years ago. The total amount, he said, is also much less than municipalities of comparable size.

City Manager Slocum said the question was probably best address by the city’s GA administrator, but he believed the city was following the state’s rules more carefully than in years past.

The rules require documentation of expenses that some Councilors found extreme. Slocum said straying from the rules invites the state to deny the city reimbursement. No action was taken.

NAFTA on the Passy

The Council approved a request from Economic Development Director Kittredge to contribute $5,000 to an initiative by the Central Maine Growth Council in which Belfast businesses could qualify for benefits as part of a Foreign Trade Zone.

The federal FTZ program dates to the 1930s. Businesses within designated FTZs enjoy reduced tariffs on imports, expedited customs procedures and other perks based on the need for large amounts of imported materials. Maine has four FTZs. The closest, in Waterville, lists Belfast as its official port of entry.

Kittredge is still learning about the program, but said new rules could allow Belfast businesses to get the same benefits as their Waterville cousins. The so-called “alternate site framework” clause, applies to municipalities within a certain radius of an FTZ.

In other business, the Council:

• Received word that the city’s application for a low-power FM radio station had been approved. The Council did not make any plans on Tuesday. There was some discussion of wanting a group to come forward with an interest in making the radio station happen.

• Appointed Russ Barber as an alternate on the Planning Board. Barber will fill a vacancy left by Bill Affleck, who stepped down from the board.

• Heard from a group participating in an international day of protest against the Transnational Pacific Partnership. The group warned that the international trade agreement could expose an event like a “buy local” campaign to the threat of lawsuit for potentially depriving larger corporations of profits. 

Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com