BELFAST - The City Council on Tuesday approved a plan to make more space for boats and marine commerce in the inner harbor. For now, that means swapping out the loose scattering of single-point moorings for a tight arrangement of floats with boats tying up on both sides. Doing this would increase the capacity of the inner harbor from 30 boats to roughly 50, according to Harbor Master Katherine Pickering.

Councilors raised some questions about whether the city should retain dock space in the inner harbor and how to accommodate a greater number of large ships that expected in the coming season. Pickering encouraged the Council to be clear in whatever course it took.

“It’s better that the city set a precedent and say, this is what we do for commercial users now and this is what we want to do in the future,” she said, adding that it would be better for a business like Front Street Shipyard to know exactly how much dock space they would have, for planning purposes.

Councilor Neal Harkness agreed. “We should grant the people who know what they’re doing the flexibility to do that,” he said. The city could adapt some of the details later depending upon new developments in the harbor. Given the fact that Front Street Shipyard arrived within the last five years, there seemed to be consensus on the Council that it would be unwise to set anything in stone.

The Council approved float layout and asked Pickering and the harbor committee to return after sorting out some of the smaller details, like the cost of building floats and who would pay for those, which was a concern of some longtime mooring holders.

In the future, the harbor may need dredging to scoop out the shallow east side and the Council expressed informal approval for the idea. Lobster fisherman David Black pointed out that Belfast Bay is more of a river estuary than some harbors in the region, which may account for the low water levels in areas due to sediment. Another option floated in a city-commissioned engineering plan would be to add a wave attenuator beyond the breakwater. This would effectively expand the protected area of the harbor. 

RSU 71, next steps

Voters in Belfast and four surrounding towns approved leaving Regional School Unit 20 and starting a new school district, but what happens next?

Larry Theye, the secretary during the transitional period, gave an update including important upcoming dates. The secretary’s position is a statutory one for towns making a transition between districts. There is also a five-member advisory committee for RSU 71, as the new district will be known. That group is scheduled to meet for the first time on Wednesday, Dec. 3 at 4:30 p.m. at the Swanville town office.

In mid-January, authority will shift to a new, nine-member school board, including five members from Belfast and one from each of the other towns. Elections for new board members will be held on Jan. 13. The nomination period is currently open. Completed papers must be returned to municipal clerks by Dec. 11 at 5 p.m.

As of Wednesday morning, four potential candidates — Allison Goscinski, Timothy Wilson, David Crabiel and Caitlin Hills, who currently serves on the RSU 20 board — had taken out papers in Belfast. Absentee ballots will be available starting Dec. 15.

A candidates night forum will be held on Monday, Jan. 5 at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

After the election, Theye said the school board’s first task would be to hire an interim superintendent. A business manager of some sort would probably be the second priority, Theye said.

“Just as it’s easier to get married than it is to get a divorce ...” he said, trailing off amid a round of knowing laughter from city officials, who at the very least have heard this analogy before. 
 

Cleaning ‘The Muck,’ from the bottom up

Parks Director Norman Poirier got approval from the Council to spend up to $6,000 out of Parks reserves on an excavator service to dig out vegetation and debris from beneath the water in a portion of Kirby Lake. “The Muck,” as the artificial pond is commonly known, caught the eye of local Game Warden Chris Dyer in August as a potential youth-only fishing site. The Council approved the idea then. The current plan is to drain the lake in order to kill the goldfish and other invasive fish species living there, clean out the bottom in areas near Miller Street and Lincolnville Avenue to beat back encroaching growth and minimize snags while fishing, refill the lake with water and stock it with trout.

The procedure as described Tuesday by Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Biologist Jason Seiders sounds dramatic but is similar to other conservation actions done by the agency and results in native species of plants and animals coming back stronger. Seiders said he consulted his wildlife counterpart at IF&W who was “very supportive” of the project. Despite the likelihood that some turtles and other animals that make their habitat at the lake would be killed or driven away during the dredging, the wildlife biologist told Seiders these species were usually quick to recolonize.  

Several councilors voiced support for youth fishing opportunities. Councilor Eric Sanders said despite his own good memories of learning to fish when he was young, he’s had to seek out those experiences for his own children. He reasoned the easy access at an improved Kirby Lake would attract interest from city dwellers like himself.

Seiders also expected it to be popular. The trout, which require a good supply of cold, well-oxygenated water, would not likely survive from year to year, he said, but based on other youth fishing sites, he anticipated a de-mucked Muck might need to be stocked multiple times in a season to keep up with demand.

Others asked how much the lake would be drained. The answer seemed to be pretty much all the way, to ensure all the goldfish were killed.

Poirier said dredging not begin until the spring. The goal, he said, would be to clear lakebed debris in an area stretching roughly two-thirds of the way into the pond from areas accessible from the road. An area at the east end of the lake, bounded by a walking trail, would not be dredged. The dredge spoils would be deposited toward that end, but not too close to the shore.
 

In other business, the Council:

• Approved a five-member committee to chose the next Belfast Poet Laureate. The honorary position is open to poets living in Belfast and abutting towns.

• Approved a buying two police cars: a used Chevy Impala and a new Ford Police Interceptor. The latter would be the second SUV in Belfast’s fleet of police cars. Police Chief Michael McFadden said his experience with the other one, the 2014 model Police Interceptor led him to the conclusion that they are the best police cruisers being made. He touted the higher vantage point of the SUV carriage and said the all-wheel-drive vehicles handle better in the snow. 

Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com