Regularly scheduled Select Board meeting

Camden to consider peddler’s license application for proposed Public Landing lobster shack

Mon, 02/06/2023 - 7:00pm

    CAMDEN — Mark and Catherine Bradstreet are asking the Town of Camden for permission to establish a stand or shack by the fisherman’s dock on the Public Landing, from which they would sell lobster on a daily basis.

    The Select Board will take up the discussion Feb. 7 at a regularly scheduled meeting in the French Meeting Room at the Camden Town Office, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

    Mark Bradstreet, of Lincolnville, owns the Lady Catherine, which is part of the Camden Harbor lobster boat fleet. Bradstreet had been fishing out of Camden Harbor for seven years.

    He wants to sell lobsters daily from his catch at the parking lot, along with related items, such as portable coolers, ice and claw crackers, according to an application file with the town office.

    The temporary, “quaint stand or shack composed of a chest refrigerator (table), scale and a ‘see-through’ structure that will serve to elevate existing signage,” is a description of his proposal. 

    The purpose is to better serve visiting tourists and locals, he wrote, in a letter to Camden Harbor Master Steve Pixley.

    “This format will allow us [to] educate our guests in more depth about the picturesque Camden area, as well as the nuances of commercial lobster/crab fishing on the Camden waterfront,” he wrote.

    “The ‘shack’ will draw in more tourists and it will provide them with an ‘iconic Maine lobster experience’, i.e, Q&A, pictures at the helm of a lobster boat, visual trapping dynamics, lobster-holding photos, and memories that keep them wanting to come back {with others} to Camden,” wrote Bradstreet.

    At its Dec. 13 regularly scheduled meeting, the Select Board listened to Bradstreet, who laid out his idea. At that point, the board raised concerns about other lobstermen possibly wanting to sell their lobsters alongside Bradstreet.

    The board voted to table the application until it had heard more details from Bradstreet.