BELFAST — Belfast City Council will meet Tuesday, March 5, for its regularly scheduled meeting. Agenda items on Belfast City Manager Erin Herbig’s pre-meeting report include two city staff appointments: a new director of the parks and recreation department and a new executive assistant for the City. Also on the agenda is a request that the Council authorize the City attorney and Herbig, on behalf of the Council, to engage the statutory perambulation process between the Town of Northport and the City. 

Perambulation is defined as a walk around a territory in order to officially assert and record its boundaries. 

Pamela Salokangas, of Unity, has been selected as the new parks and recreation director for the City, and the Council has been asked to officially appoint her. Salokangas has a bachelor’s degree in recreation and park management, from Pennsylvania State University, in addition to a master’s in education for recreation and leisure studies from the University of Georgia; her master’s degree had a focus on public administration.

Salokangas has been a certified park and recreation professional since 1996 and a certified playground safety inspector since 2010. She will bring over 20 years of experience with her when she assumes her role. 

The Council is also expected to appoint Elena Thomas, of Camden, as the executive assistant for the City. Thomas has a bachelor’s degree in urban studies from the University of Manchester. She most recently worked as a marketing coordinator for the Points North Institute/Camden International Film Festival. 

Thomas will bring experience with graphic design, including email and print deliverables.  

Following the two approval and appointments of two new City staff, the Council will move on to discuss the border between Northport and Belfast.

The border shared by the two municipalities has become an issue due to ongoing litigation over which municipality has intertidal rights to Little River. Once the City authorizes the request to walk the property to find the official boundary, the establishment of the shared boundary between the two municipalities can be made. Additionally, it could allow the City to appropriate up to $5,000 to contribute to the cost of professional assistance as needed to conduct perambulation and set the boundary line. 

The perambulation process involves both municipalities scheduling a time when the process can take place. It involves locating any monuments and/or otherwise agreeing on the boundary line, which runs within the Little River and into Belfast Bay, according to Herbig’s pre-meeting report.

Herbig includes a reminder in her report, that the Council is all aware that “the opponents to the planned Nordic Aquafarms project filed a legal action in 2021 challenging the Council’s passage of an eminent domain order that took title to the intertidal areas (appurtenant to tax map 29, lot 30). The Superior Court in September of 2023 issued an order remanding that eminent domain order back to the City Council so that it could take appropriate action to address changed facts related to the status of title of the intertidal areas, as well as questions raised about whether the original eminent domain order included land located within the boundary of the Town of Northport.”

According to Maine Revised Statutes (25851) the City is required to complete a perambulation process to resolve the boundary location because there is a pending dispute regarding the location of the boundary between Northport and Belfast. 

Additional information regarding this agenda item is available in Herbig’s full report. 

City Attorney Kristin Collins will be at the meeting to answer any questions.

Herbig is requesting the Council to authorize her to “execute the fifth amendment to the options and purchase agreement between the Belfast Water District, Nordic Aquafarms Inc., and the City of Belfast that would extend Nordic Aquafarm’s option to purchase the Little River Lower Dam for no more than two years.”

The original options and purchase agreement was executed between the Belfast Water District, Nordic Aquafarms LLC., and the City of Belfast, in 2018; it was amended four times after that date as the legal process continues. The purchase agreement gives Nordic an option to purchase the Little River Lower Dam during a term ending two years from the date of closing on Nordic’s acquisition of the Water District’s Land. The current agreement will expire March 14. 

Elsewhere on the agenda, Director of Planning and Codes Bub Fournier is requesting  the City waive permit fees for repair work on the Harbor Walk area adjacent to Front Street Shipyard’s building number one. Severe flooding and wave action during the January storms that impacted the waterfront caused damage to the Harbor Walk, and no State or Federal relief has been authorized. Despite this, repairs must be made ahead of the upcoming summer season. 

Front Street Shipyard has applied for permits to make the needed repairs to reopen the damaged portion of the Harbor Walk, including a building permit, shoreland permit, and a minor flood hazard permit. The shoreline and flood permits are $100 each, while the building permits total $2,153.41. The total cost of the work required to repair the damage is estimated to be $256,455.

If approved City staff recommends a motion be made to waive the total of $2,323.41 in permit fees for Front Street Shipyard. 

Herbig’s full pre-meeting report available to view.

Erica Thoms can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com