ROCKLAND – Knox County Commissioners met Tuesday. January 11, for their regularly scheduled meeting. Of note was that the meeting was held via Zoom video conferencing. The county cited the prevalence of the COVID-19 Omicron variant in Knox County, and the inherent risk to the health and safety of county employees, as reason for going remote.

Commissioners will hold their public meetings remotely via Zoom on an ongoing basis until further notice, as allowed under the Knox County Commission Remote Participation Policy and 1 M.R.S. Section 403-B. 

The first order of business was to elect a chair for 2022. Commissioner Dorothy Meriwether will serve as the commission chair for the year.  

The Sheriff’s Office wanted to replace three patrol vehicles this year and acquired a fourth vehicle to be used more for administrative purposes, meaning it would not need to be outfitted as a police vehicle. The purchases had been approved in the 2022 budget.  

Seven requests for bids were circulated with only two returned. One bid was from Rockland Ford for an F150 Super Crew 4X4 K-9 priced at $49,999 and two Ford Explorer Interceptors AWD priced at $36,232 each. One bid from Quirk Auto in Rockland was for a GMC Terrain priced at $33,759.  

Commissioners approved a total expenditure of $139,222, which took into account the $17,000 of trade-in value for three vehicles.  

Carroll said it typically takes six to eight weeks for delivery, but this year the dealers told him to expect 30 weeks, which would mean the county will not take delivery of the new vehicles until Fall 2022.  

Carroll said it reflected the state of the auto industry.  

“They may come sooner and they may come later,” Carroll said. “I know Waldo County ordered their trucks in December of 2020, and I don’t believe they are on the road yet, but they just received them in December of 2021.” 

Commissioner Meriwether asked if additional maintenance monies had been figured into the budget in anticipation of this.  

Carroll said they had put extra monies into the maintenance line of the budget not knowing what to expect.  

“It’s a tough market and it’s costing more money,” said Carroll. 

The Knox County Airport and the county commissioners have been trying to build eight new hangers on a recently completed taxi lane. Scheduled to be before the Owls Head Planning Commission meeting on Monday, January 10, the request was tabled.  

County Administrator Andrew Hart said he had reached out to the Owls Head Select Board to talk about the Shoreland Zoning Ordinance and the corresponding municipal map.  

Hart said funding could be jeopardized. 

“We’re a little concerned that it’s not moving as fast as we would like,” said Hart. “we’re also a little concerned that funding could potentially be jeopardized down the road if we don’t do something sooner than later.”  

In addition, Hart said there’s a probability potential hanger owners could lose interest because they just don’t want to wait anymore. 

Knox County Regional Airport Manager Jeremy Shaw said Owls Head had tried to, “strong arm,” them into not storing jets in any hangers that they built.  

“They tried to make that a condition of the permit,” said Shaw, “and even though we don’t have any plans to put jets in there, we can’t accept that as a condition of the permits.”  

Instead, the town added wetlands around the airport to the Shoreland Zoning Map that weren’t there despite the airport paying thousands of dollars for scientific proof that the wetlands were not there, he said.

“The town permitted plans to build the taxiway, they permitted our hangers, but now they aren’t letting us build the hangers,” said Shaw. “It’s frustrating because there are people ready to build and people, we are ready to do business with.” 

Meriwether said the county’s legal counsel is comfortable with what the county is trying to do.  

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” said Meriwether, “but the issue of the shoreland zoning is somewhat a town fabricated issue. They basically created a shoreland zone where there was none.”  

Shaw said the town singled out the Knox County Airport to protect a resource that the town is not uniformly protecting, and that it put wetlands on maps to prevent the airport from expanding over the years. 

“When we delineated that to the committee with scientific evidence, they refused to change the map because that would mean that this project could go forward, and that’s where we’re at,” said Shaw.

Hart said the big issue is that Owls Head approved the ordinance and map at a town meeting. 

“Whether you like it or not it’s an official document,” said Hart. “Now to undo that is to go back to town meeting and have that either amended or replaced or revoked with what’s better. Not necessarily that assists us, but makes the map correct and the ordinance correct,” 

He said: “They are working on the whole ordinance and the map. It’s just that they are not fine-tuning our area as part of that.” 

Hart said an option would be to collect signatures to get it on a town meeting and a final option would be to sue the town. Hart said the latter is not favorable, but it is an option.  

Meriwether asked Hart if he would discuss with legal counsel whether not to go to the town because voters can be influenced by emotional arguments. 

“Put this before a judge is where I’m going,” said Meriwether. “If you take it before a judge and have it ruled on then you don’t run the risk of going before a town and having it voted down.” 

Meriwether asked Shaw what would be the loss to the county if they just gave up and let Owls Head win. 

Shaw responded they would jeopardize the loss of all federal funding going forth. 

Hart responded that he would have that discussion with legal counsel.  

Hart said Friday afternoon, Jan. 14, that the county had been successful in being put on the Owls Head Select Board agenda for Tuesday, January 18.