City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, we're live here.

Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call the order of this meeting, please. Item two is adjustments to the agenda.

I have one, Council President. I'd like to add the renewal of the liquor license for Phoenix Fine Wine. Top item three, SD, reason for values. I did publicize it in the paper. I inadvertently forgot it.

First one is to remove item N, which is amendment of language to the airport hangar lease. Given all that's been going on there, I thought we might need to change something there. We don't. So the lease might get approved by council in the past, if it's going to be declined. I'm also going to suggest I'll propose it at M2, maybe, just right after M. Discussion of vendor food truck policy. And I'm putting that after the scheduling of the public hearing for, now let's get, or perhaps we may want to put it before, make it like M0. Maybe that makes more sense. So before M? L1. L1. L1. Discussion of the vendor slash food public license.

Any further adjustments? Hearing none, do I have a motion to that effect?

I'll make a motion to accept the changes to the agenda. I'll second it.

I'm going to move to second it. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please.

Councillor Stephens? Yes. Councillor Moran? Yes. Councillor Seelig? Yes. Councillor Boone?

Yes. Before I go into item three, Councilor Dana Cummins is excused from tonight's meeting. She's had an appointment. Item three, public hearing, renewal on liquor licenses. Before we go too much further, do we need more chairs down back?

There's a box down from the gift shop. This one? On the bottom top of the door. Oh, there is?

I think it must have gone to the Bully. Okay. That's the most he can do. Yeah. He's going to stay there all day. He's going to be very warm. We'll continue on with item three, public hearing, renewal of liquor license. A, renewal of Seaview Events, LLC, 16 Norwood Road. I'm gonna read them all, and then if anybody from the public would like to speak on any one, let me know, please. Item three B is renewal of Eastport Arts Center, 38 Washington Street. Item three C is renewal of Look Lobster Company, 7 C Street. Item 3D is Phoenix Fine Wines. Doing business with Phoenix Fine Wines downtown. Anybody from the public like to speak on any of those renewal liquor licenses? Hearing none, I'd like to close the public hearing on the renewal liquor licenses. On the new or renewal victor's license, A3AM, the new renewal of victor's license for Lobster Company, 7 C Street. Would anybody from the public like to speak in honor or against that? Hearing none, I'll close that public hearing. I guess the last item on three is new liquor, new license application for temporary extension of premises, special events, yield hookers, 106 Water Street, reference state file number 143295. From 6-1-26 to 10-31-26. Anybody from the public like to speak on that?

Do you have any questions about what we're requesting?

Is it just putting tables outside?

It's what our intentions like we did last year during the festival days where we had a plastic chain where we just made a controlled area where it kept victims safe from things going on outside, and also it gave us a controlled area of no conveniently mixing with underage kids or whatever. It's very clearly defined and supervised areas that we aren't, that's people with alcohol or anything.

On Solomon and water?

If water, the request does include water street if the street's completely closed.

Thank you. Any other public comments? Hearing none, I'll close that part of the public hearing. We are on item four, action on public hearings.

I need to speak to... the Yule Harvest temporary extension of premises. The police chief and I walked out there the other day and looked at it. So to be clear, if liquor had been taken out or been served on Sullivan Street or Water Street in the past during a festival, that was illegal. That should not have happened. While I'm all in favor of there being anything to increase visibility along Sullivan Street, should patrons just be standing out there to smoke or chat, This application is to permit alcohol service in fixed locations outside the building. In the case of Sullivan Street, the police chief and I agreed it's a non-starter. It's not safe. The road is not wide enough, and we don't think it's appropriate for putting anything out there. As well, we've not approved any sort of ability to serve alcohol out in the streets before that I'm aware of, and I don't really want to set that precedent. I'm also going to suggest we deny the Water Street request simply because, for that same reason, it would be putting picnic tables out in the parking areas. I understand that it's their intention only to do that if Water Street is completely closed off at that point, which typically only happens during the 4th of July and if we have a gigantic cruise ship in. Otherwise, we don't close it that far down. If we have a cruise ship in, having spoken with the police, we think that's a bad idea. Buses are going back and forth in that direction, along with the number of people that are out there. We just don't see that as beneficial to the city to have, and again, that would be liquor service in the street. So it's the police chief and my recommendation that you deny that application.

Todd, I think last year we had spoke a little bit about the rope on Sullivan Street was to really protect your patrons that were outside smoking. Right. But this is to serve alcohol outside as well, right?

I believe, because we made the request that basically if a smoker walks out of the entrance,

Your drawing gives no indication of dimensions. It just shows a scribbled line. It could be the entire road, half the road. There's no distinction of where you intend to put this barrier.

Who that was submitted, it was an informal conversation we had with the liquor inspector, and he said he'll send that over, and kind of got included into the formal application.

When the chief and I assessed this, I mean, you know, there are picnic tables in Milwaukee. where the picnic table would start and how far it would be. So while I agree that that's not there, I'm going to say just on the face of it, at an intersection at the bottom of a hill. I understand it's a safety issue, but I guess I also want to be clear that every liquor license holder is required to ensure people are not leaving the premises without a drink. And to extend your premises to help protect yourself against that is not the appropriate mechanism in my opinion.

I make a motion to deny the temporary extension of premises for yield hookers.

I'll second that.

Moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, we'll call, please, Sarah.

Councillor Stephens? Yes. Councillor Moran? Yes. Councillor Seeley? Yes. Councillor Boone?

Yes.

I make a motion to renew the liquor license of Seaview Events LLC on Norwood Road. I'll second it.

Moved and seconded. Any further discussion on that motion? Hearing none, roll call, please.

Councilor Stephens? Yes. Councilor Moran? Yes. Councilor Seeley? Yes. Councilor Boone?

Yes.

I make a motion to renew the Eastport Arts Center liquor license at 38 Washington Street.

I'll second it.

Move to second it. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, we'll call please, Sarah.

Councilor Stephens? Yes. Councilor Moran? Yes. Councilor Seeley? Yes. Councilor Boone?

Yes.

Move to renew the liquor license for Book Lobster at 7th Street.

I'll second it. Move to second it. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, we'll call please, Sarah.

Councillor Stephens? Yes. Councillor Moran? Yes. Councillor Seeley? Yes. Councillor Boone?

Yes.

I'll make a motion to renew the liquor license at Phoenix Wines, Water Street.

I'll second it.

Moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call please, Sarah.

Councillor Stephens? Yes. Councillor Moran? Yes. Councillor Seeley? Yes. Councillor Boone?

Yes.

I move to renew the victular license at Look Lobster at 7th Street.

I second it. We can second it. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please, sir.

Councillor Stephens? Yes. Councillor Moran? Yes. Councillor Seeley? Yes. Councillor Boone?

Yes. Should have plopped them all together, but nonetheless. Do we need more chairs?

Yeah, please sit.

Thank you.

We're on to item five, public open forum. If I may, I'd like to make a short statement. As many of you may know, at the last council meeting, I left the meeting angrily during open forum because I was myself involved in an argument with a member of the public. Paragraph G of our public participation in that policy states that I'm expected to refrain from arguing or debating issues. I apologize for losing my temper and I'm going to make every attempt not to do so in the future. However, I am concerned with the way that open forum has had a tendency to turn into ask the city manager. This is not a good venue for me to accept general questions. I prepare for this agenda. And my role here is not to be the guy who the meeting's about. It's about the council. And I'm here to advise them, not to take queries. It's their meeting, not mine. To be clear, outside this meeting, I have always welcomed questions from the public. I repeatedly ask people to make appointments with me. I'm available at City Hall all week. I will adjust my hours to accommodate citizens' questions. If you have a particularly complex or confusing question, or you're confused and want help, let me know in advance and I'll do everything I can to have my homework done so I can talk with you about it then. However, since I've demonstrated repeatedly my inability to resist answering questions during Open Forum, I'm instituting a new policy for myself. Should a question be raised by the public that a counselor wants to have addressed, I'm gonna ask you guys to do so during the appropriate agenda item that the question was raised about. And I will certainly answer if I can at that time. If there's a topic that's not on the agenda, please bring it up during city manager's issues. If I'm prepared to answer at that time, I will. If I'm not, I will not, and I'll prepare an answer for a later time. I left the meeting angrily last month. Now this month, to make my point as vivid as possible, and I ask the council's forbearance on this, but I'm going to now step out again, however perfectly happy. I would like you to text me when it's completed, and then I look forward to hearing what the council has to ask me and continue our business when this is over. Thank you.

Thank you, Brian.

Thank you.

We are on public open forum, and I'm going to try to take an order as I see them go up. Victoria, please go to the podium.

Hi, Victoria Vance. I'm here for the Energy Committee. Jean asked me if I would let you know. We are going to do another round of energy audits for the city. We're going to do another round of energy audits for the city. So starting on Monday, there's going to be forms at City Hall. Ms. Al will decide where the box and everything goes. You fill out a form if you want to have an energy audit. Put it in the box. We will collect them, and we're going to try to get them done somewhere June, July timeframe. We're preparing this for another window dressers build where we can do the inserts for people's homes. We have a limited amount. Actually, we have like no money right now. But we are applying for two grants. So it looks like it's going to be about $20,000. So it'll be a limited amount of windows and homes that we can do. And I say that to say this. First come, first serve. If you need window inserts, if you've got a really old drafting home with drafting windows, please go down, fill out the paperwork, get it in the box. and then we'll make every effort to accommodate as many as we possibly can this year. So that's going to start on Monday.

Thank you.

Any questions from City Hall? Yes, at City Hall. It will be on the desk at City Hall.

And I think Jean was next. Thank you, Victoria. Jean, you were next.

I'm Jean B. K. Berman. I'm a 144-county grown-in. while we were away on an extended trip. They took wonderful care of the house and I got to send them a thank you email every time he came through because I had cameras on. But it was a good thing and I just wanted to put a good thing on the table tonight.

Thank you. Thank you. John, I believe you were saying...

looks like it's going to be one of those meetings. I will try to keep everything short.

In January, I had prepared a letter, or I had said that I wish to be on the Budget Committee. As part of, as I understand things are moving, to be on a committee now, there is a requirement to prepare a letter

You can, John. I have no problem taking your letter. I don't know whether the Budget Committee needs members. I'm kind of leaving that up to the committee members.

Also submit it via email.

Yeah, well, you know me and email. Banks tend to get lost.

Thank you.

I spoke with Brian about one other issue. I'm going to wait for him to get back to me on that. The other thing that I wanted to talk about tonight, and I know this is a contentious issue, so I wish to not the belief of the city or the city council or anything, and I am not here to debate. It was brought up in the last committee, the city's commitment to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. I have had as, I don't know if you could call it a curse or pleasure in my life, the ability to deal with what I call the alphabet people. You can pick any three letters of the alphabet, string them together, and you'll find a federal bureaucracy that has those letters and people with badges on them. When they come around, they are not one people. They are a unified people. There is no way on God's green earth that you can say with any certainty that there is any individual within city government legislation on the book. We have a lawyer sitting here, and I believe that he will agree with me, that that is so extensive even he doesn't know it, at least by memory. There is no way that any citizen sitting out here can expect our police, our city officials, or anyone else to be able to know how to be fully compliant. And from experience, I can tell you, when the alphabet people come... They will tell you when to jump, how high to jump, and you better jump. That's just the reality of the situation. We should not be mad about it, or if we are mad about it, we shouldn't be coming to city government for that. That's just my opinion.

Okay, I appreciate that, John. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else from the public? 30, I see your hand. Yeah.

Hi, everybody. I'm Bertie. I live in Eastport. Before I begin, I'd just like to correct the language of a general item R regarding the AI data center. This item wasn't requested by Diversity Studies. It was a community initiative for a public hearing, and it was circulated and signed by a dozen independent residents. Tonight, I'd like to bring the council's attention to Maine's mandatory Shoreline Zoning Act, which requires municipalities to regulate wetlands. The legal definition of wetlands includes the land under the ocean spanning three miles.

I apologize. No, it's fine.

Name's Mandatory Shoreland Zoning Act. It requires municipalities to regulate the wetlands. Wetlands includes the land under the ocean extending three miles to the outer territory boundary of the city. This boundary includes the proposed site for the AI data center, as well as the site on Candlehead where the cables will come ashore. It means that this council is the governing body responsible for permitting the AI data center's development. Tonight I am asking you to vote to pursue a permit AI data centers and their infrastructure. Don't table this issue. Don't kick it down the road. Vote tonight, one way or another. I'll use the remainder of my time to address the community that as a matter of how this happens tonight, we have a lot of out of use information. I hope you remember what happens tonight when we go with that wave in November. And I want to say that I believe in us. I think people's power wins today. And I think we've got this.

Thank you.

Thank you. Hello, my name is . Hello? Can you hear me now?

Not really.

My name is Sue Ellen Hendricks. Can you hear me? I can. I live in Eastport, and I'm asking the City Council to pursue a permanent ban on AI data centers in Eastport. I want to know tonight if the council will pursue a moratorium or not. Don't kick this down the road. Don't ask the city to wait until it is too late. The proposed underwater data center is an understudied industry. Only China and one test case in Scotland has ever used underwater data centers. No significant testing has been done center. Our city can protect itself from unknown industrial projects, and this provides no energy to our grid, and it emits noise, air, and water pollution. I refer to the South Portland LNG turbo dispute to support precedence. This dispute brought forth a clear this dispute was driven by environmental concerns over tar sands oil and effects to local air quality ordinance number 2-13 and 14 prohibits the bulk loading of oil vessels in portland city harbor it is designed to protect air quality and support community health and common land use goals mr wolfson There is no reason he wants to build this AI data center. There is a reason, I'm sorry, there is a reason he wants to build it here in Eastport instead of Cape Cod where he owns a home. It's because it's an understudied industry and we don't know the effects of this underwater. So I'm asking the city of Eastport and its council to do something today. I've heard that there will not be a vote on whether we're gonna do something with the moratorium or an ordinance or a public hearing today, I demand we have a vote. We don't have time to wait. This man is a one percenter, a billionaire. He doesn't care about us. He wants to use our energy grid, take energy from us, give us maybe 10 jobs for a full time, and offer us nothing but hot water and Candlehead. That's what we're offered. We're not offered free energy. We're not offered any kind of permanent jobs. This is the kind of underwater system that only needs to be maintenanced every five years. And if you want to job maintenance this, you should have started college years ago. You will not get a job there today unless you're maybe plowing the driveway to go to this center

Wait a minute. I've got two different people coming up. First of all, before we go any further, the AI issue is on the agenda. We don't need to hear it from everybody in the room. Their take on AI.

Do we speak to it then? No, we speak to it.

I don't need to hear it three times. We're all very aware of the issue.

He has no right to say that.

I do.

No, you don't. It's unconstitutional. Everybody here has a right to speak. We're not one body. We're individual citizens. We can say what we want. You have to hear us. You don't have to answer us, but you have to hear us.

We don't have... No, I have one person at the podium.

Can I just clarify a couple of things? Could you please state your name first? Deborah Gillespie, 7 Shackford Street. My understanding was if you had something different to say, you could get up and say it, but you don't want repetition.

It's true.

Thank you. I'm concerned as well, and I do think that we need a moratorium so that this issue can be studied. I realize that It will be cumbersome and a lot of work, so I prepared for you, based on the ordinances in our state, and cross-referenced it with the city's charter, an actual emergency ordinance that is compliant and it states every single law that we can use to fight this that you can review and take into consideration at that time.

Thank you, Deborah.

Right. And what I would like to just say, and maybe this is repeating it a little bit, but our passage is ecologically sensitive. It's one of the most sensitive passages that there... is on the east coast with the extreme tidal currents, and it shapes how the species move through it. This proposed underwater data center includes, as everyone knows, like 170 tidal turbines and 34 underwater data center pods. And that is going to have a significant impact on marine life and our fisheries. One of the things that was not in the proposal that's before FERC is the fact that there's going to be heat discharge, and they didn't even speak to the temperature increases that will result from this underwater data center. So that is a big deal. I mean, and there's many, many studies that say even a small temperature increase in our coastal waters can affect the local ecosystem. if you couple that with the potential harm during installation anchoring cabling seabed disturbance that's going to disrupt the habitats of our ocean floor there's no way around it and the chemical leakage noise pollution as once mentioned and so I would I think that And a path to outline its defeat needs to start before it gets any further down the road. I'm happy to serve on a council or a committee to help because this is critical for our fishermen and our business owners and the viability of this city. This is a big deal. It's a really, really big deal. And I'm under the understanding that there's a thought process that others might be involved. Our partners up here, our Indian partners up here, I think we need to be talking to them and talking to other communities that will be impacted and getting a coalition together as soon as possible. And that's my thoughts and that's my work before you to help you all out. And I even... speak.

Thank you, Deborah. Thank you for your willingness.

Good evening.

Hello. Hello. Respectfully, I just want to say that I was going to read the letter. Can you state your name, please? Stacy Spemlow, medallist here in Eastport. Thank you. This is a letter dated April 9th of this year, and it has Commissioner Chairman David C. Burns' name on it, Horton Hammond, and William Howard. This is regarding application for preliminary permit D Green Western Passage Subsea Compute and Infrastructure Hub. Dear Mr. Wolfson, this is the response to his request. On behalf of the county commissioners, of Washington County, I am ready to express that we do not support the application of the preliminary permit, Deep Green Western Passage, South Sea Compute and Infrastructure of Washington County. Washington County has a long involved history, dependency, and respect for maritime industry, and we feel this type of project would be too risky for this region and its waters. and the people of Washington County who live and work here. Respectfully, David C. Burns, Commissioner Chair. Just want that noted on record.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Further public comments?

I think a lot of us are getting nervous because both in the banker article and in the letter that was just posted the quality ties the developer said he was pursuing community agreements with the city and we haven't heard anything about that so it sounds like it might be proceeding and if you haven't been discussing it with him then he's lying which is not a good sign going into business I think a moratorium would be good if you're not sure what to do. It wouldn't hurt anything. It would just put a pause on it so we can figure things out before something we elected you to serve the best interest of the town and are beautiful. We expect you to do that, and I know you will. If you don't know what to do, a moratorium is the way to go to put a pause on it so we can figure this out. Yeah, but he's...

I think you should be the one talking, but somebody behind you would rather have the floor at this moment.

At the last city council meeting, this is a sidebar, but the person was talking to Billy Boone and the city manager intercepted himself in the conversation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Can we have people use the microphone?

Because the last two speakers, I have barely been able to hear anything at all. I know I'm a young guy. I've got really good hearing, so there's people probably in the back who aren't hearing.

That's great. It's going to be up about three feet. I don't think you can read it.

For the public comments, or public open forum, not comments. Hearing none, I'm going to close the public open forum. Item five. Item six, new business. Update and presentation from the DEER committee. I believe Walter wanted to speak in reference to this.

Sarah's already on that.

She's well... Well, I'll introduce myself.

Walt Cummings, I'm the chair of the year committee. And although he didn't introduce himself, Chris Bartlett, my secretary, is with us. Chris answers all my phone calls and takes all my memos. of the committee, and he does tremendous leg work. He is a liaison between the city of East Florida and the state. He's in touch with a biologist. He sent out the survey. He conducted all the survey results, and he just puts his finger print on everything that we do, and that's much appreciated from the committee, Chris. Thank you for all the work you do. I believe you've got letters in front of you. There's a lot of verbiage. We take a lot of that verbiage out and just go over some of the highlights. The survey was conducted and a total of 257 surveys were submitted back. And in a nutshell, over 65% of the survey participants were opposed to people feeding deer. Feeding a deer is allowed with each year, so that is legal at that time. But I think the overall consensus to feeding deer was people didn't want that to happen. Quick story, I was having dinner at my sister's house on Pleasant Street, and I looked out the window, and there was a car stopped in the middle of the road, and there was at least eight or 10 deer held around it, and they were feeding. And I saw a second car come, and I said, wow, that second car is going to feel a little angry because they're impeding traffic. So the first car left, and guess what the second car did? Another drive-through service. Feeding the deer is not good. 60% of the people believe that the deer population was too high. 48% supported additional well-regulated hunting practices to manage the deer population. 12% said they might support additional hunting efforts. And 40% were opposed to hunting for deer control. And that's up substantially since the last time we submitted a survey. It was 25% back in 2016. So for some reason, people have changed their mind on hunting deer as a way to control the herds. Maybe another piece of information. So the DEA committee got together and we've researched. Chris can speak on his relationship with the state, if you'd like, on some of the practices that could be used. And I will tell you, any of the other practices would be costly. the budget tonight but they're very good it could be a very costly measure but if you would like more information on that christie give you that so we decided as a committee and it was unanimously uh there was no debate it was good conversation but we decided to uh present to the city council a uh expanded archery season Now, an expanded archery season is a season which is lengthened. It starts September 12th, and it will end December 12th. Regular archery season is October 3rd to October 30th, but you can also hunt archery during the fire out season. So basically, it gives you a month on each end of the season to... to hunt with archery. There's a $32 initial fee for expanded archery. With that $32 expanded archery fee, you can take one male deer and then numerous does, and you'd have to pay an additional $12 per doe committed. So, does that make sense to you folks? Okay, and we thought that was going to be the way to go. You can only use bow and arrows or crossbows during this season. You must hold a valid state and Maine license and complete an approved archery education course, which is $30 paid to the state, or you must show proficiency with a bow and arrow. Another benefit to having this expanded archery is during the hunting season, the regular hunting season, people have their deer butchered. And the butchers are very busy during that time. It's hard to get deer in to get butchered. So an early season would allow people to get deer to the butcher and make it a little more easier to have your deer. You can gift a deer, so long as the person shooting the deer tags it. So in other words, someone may not like to hunt, but they can have someone tag a deer for them, and then they can go through the process of having it butchered. You cannot buy, sell, or buy deer meat. I think there's an option for the food pantry, if they're willing to participate, and I think they did the last time I had a special hunt. It's the healthiest red meat that we have. It's rich in protein and essential B vitamins. And the list goes on. That's about it that I had for the council. And just general information, a deer typically lives three to six years in the wild. captive deer can live up to 25 years. So obviously the deer in Eastport are not living in the wild, yet they're not captured. So I think it's safe to say that deer that are in Eastport probably have a survival rate of 10 to 12 years, and that's just a guess. And the mortality rate are affected by vehicle collisions, diseases, and predators such as bear and coyote. And we don't have a lot of that going on in East Florida. And an average healthy adult doe can produce two fawn per year. So that's about all we have to present to you folks.

Did you get any hard numbers, like do we know the population of the deer on the island? Did you get a guess of it?

That would be a question better suited for Chris. Do you want to come up and share the mic with me, Mr. Secretary? Sure.

Very good, Secretary.

Thank you, Walter. Good evening, everyone. I'm Chris Bartlett. And, Rhonda, we did not receive actual numbers of the deer. As State Biologist Steve Dunham said, stated it's very difficult to get an accurate count of the deer in this region. He said what would be better is to collect information on the social care capacity. That is, are deer becoming, are they impacting

Did you get deer strikes for the cows or for the police department?

We didn't get from the police department and assume that they're still working on it. We did receive information from participants on how many deer they had hit within the last 10 years and how many almost collisions they had within the last year. And so that's in the full survey that we sent you. We do have that data? You do. That's in the full survey that you should have received by email.

The full survey is very lengthy.

Thank you.

And the deer survey car collision, that is with the carcass laying present at the site. A lot of times a deer will hit a vehicle or be hit with a vehicle and wander off and probably die internally bleeding. So those numbers are probably skewed a little bit.

So I was at the last meeting, and the wildlife biologist was recommending a hunt for this area, extended archery hunt for this area anyway, right? Could you explain a little more of that, Chris?

Sure. Yes, so Steve Dunham stated that the state is proposing to offer expanded archery to bridge and barred islands in Wildlife Management District 27, of which his report is included. Several years ago, unbridged islands in Wildlife Management District 27 were included in expanded archery. That includes Treat Island, which is part of Eastport. And so that was passed by rule several years ago. Now expanded archery is part of Treat Island. The wildlife biologists felt that the deer numbers in the coastal area, where there are bridged and barred islands in our area, are having more deer nuisance problems, and that the population can withstand additional harvests. And so they're offering it to British and Rhode Islands in our region. So if the council wishes, we would be included in a rulemaking process by the state. It would start in June, and it would be finished by the time expanded archery would open in September.

and it would be for anyone who's willing to buy the extra license. That's correct.

And that's the committee's recommendation.

Right, and back in 2016 when we had the special hunt, we had done a lot of legwork on designated areas that people can hunt, and that's still in existence, and the ordinance that was put out is still in existence. So we're not reinventing the wheel. All the homework's been done. And we've been very conscious of all meetings and the information we've been gathering. So it's a very conscious proposal to the city council to go with the expanded archery hunt.

How many deer were killed in the last hunt in the archery? Do we know? Yes.

So we conducted a special hunt from 2016 to 2018 for animal this year. The wildlife biologists recommend taking out female deer to lower the population. We removed 54 does over that three-year period. In addition, up until 2017, there were no any deer permits, excuse me, animalist deer permits issued for this region. In 2017, 2018, they started issuing some animalist deer permits. An additional 27 does were taken in 2017, 2018. I believe the total over that three-year period was 84 does were removed. And I think that's where we saw... the reduction in nuisance complaints after the three years, and it's taken eight years for the population to build up again.

And with that said, if you take that 84, and of all those 84 that have been impregnated, you can times that by two.

I can see why you're the head of the class, Bill. But thank you, and thank the DEER Committee for all their work. Thank you, gentlemen.

So you're looking for a vote from us so we can get back to the wildlife biologists, right?

This is time-sensitive.

I appreciate that. Thank you, folks. Thank you. Do you want to make a motion for that?

I'd like to make a motion that we accept to expand the archery season. Do you have any support?

I'll second that. We move to second it. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please, Sarah.

Councilor Stephens? Yes. Councilor Moran? Yes. Councilor Seeley? Yes. Councilor Boone?

Yes. Item 5, 6B, appointment of Rita Harmon as city treasurer.

I'll make that motion.

I'll second.

Move to second it. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please.

Councilor Stephens? Yes. Councilor Moran? Yes. Councilor Seeley? Yes. Councilor Boone?

Yes. Item 6C, approve City Treasurer Rita Harmon to negotiate and execute quick claim deeds. I'll make that motion. I'll second it. Move to second it. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please, Sarah.

Councilor Stephens? Yes. Councilor Morag? Yes. Councilor Seeley? Yes. Councilor Boone?

Yes. Item 6D, approve Rita Harmon, Ella Cole, and Sarah Mutter as bank signatures. Signature. Wow, that's a fun word. Signature. Signature. Yes, thank you.

Thank you.

We all have our words. Yes, we do.

I'll make that motion.

I'll second.

Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call please, Sarah.

Councillor Stephens? Yes. Councillor Moran? Yes. Councillor Seeley? Yes. Councillor Boone?

Yes. Item 6E, appointment of Ella Cole as BMV Bureau Motor Vehicle Agent and Moses IFW Agent, Handling Fishery Wildlife.

I'll make that motion.

I'll second it. Any further discussion on that motion? Hearing none, roll call, please, Sarah.

Councilor Stephens? Yes. Councilor Moran? Yes. Councilor Seeley? Yes. Councilor Boone?

Yes. 6F, appointment of? Tahereh. Yeah, yeah, okay. Tahereh Aronson. Okay, as deputy clerk, deputy tax collector, and deputy register.

Let me speak briefly to this. She's actually starting on Monday, so to be clear, it's not like she's been trained into a bunch of positions. The reason we're doing this is our internal controls require people in these roles to be able to be secondarily following up on all of our office procedures.

I'll make that motion.

I'll second it. Moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please, Sarah.

Councilor Stephens? Yes. Councilor Moran? Yes. Councilor Seeley? Yes. Councilor Goon?

Yes. Item 6G, accept the resignations of Pete Lehman and Chet Jenkins from...

Right. Should this be G, Alan?

No, G should be the transfer.

Transfer, yeah.

He might be working out.

That was me. We made that adjustment. I have the same one, Billy has.

I have the same one.

Oh, I must have. I apologize. Some of our letters are going to be confusing, too.

Well, let me... That's probably why I... Verdi had R, and we had Q. That's probably why that happened.

So keeping Ella and I on track, shall we? So this is asking I did not mention this last night, the capital plan, because I forgot. The left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing. But I'm right dead on in my budget, and this was an additional purchase we made.

So transferring for the capital for the animal control.

For the animal control vehicle we approved. And that way it stays off my accounting against taxation and helps me stay on budget. And it's a capital purchase.

Make a motion to transfer capital funds to the animal control vehicle.

I'll second it. We've moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, we'll call police.

Councillor Stephens? Yes. Councillor Morang?

No.

Councillor Seeley? Yes. Councillor Boone?

Yes. And I'm assuming we're going to use the new agenda?

So, yeah, just pull that from here. So we should be on age except resignations. Okay.

Six H's, except resignations of Pete Lehman, Chet Jenkins from the Energy Committee.

I'll make that motion. I'll second.

Moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please, Sarah.

Councillor Stephens? Yes. Councillor Moran? Yes. Councillor Seeley? Yes. Councillor Boone?

Yes. 6i, request appointment to the shellfish committee. Jimmy Pelletier.

We've spoken with the chair of the committee, and the committee is full at this time. But we do have a copy of the request to come before council.

So they have their five members that the bill's number?

to pass without a motion, you can't appoint another person by ordinance. It's full. So no motion?

No motion.

Do we table a motion?

We just let him know that the committee is full.

We'll just let him know that, no. Because this was a specific request from the individual and we only clarified this point like two days ago, probably in the future we would just inform the individual that there were no openings and it wouldn't get this far. Okay.

Item 6J, perpetual care lot, Hillside West, Kamek section, lot number 61, 4 foot by 9 foot, to Ben and Kathy Hopper.

I'll make that motion. I'll second it.

Moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please, Sarah.

Councilor Stephens? Yes. Councilor Moran? Yes. Councilor Seeley?

Yes.

Councilor Boone?

Yes. 6K fiscal year 2027 municipal fuel bid. This ought to be great.

Ooh. Can't wait for this. Yeah, we can. Yeah.

We've received one bid. That's from Vail Tamaro Oil Company out of Bailey Hill. And the first bid is for heating oil. And he has submitted a bid for $3.509 per gallon. for municipal buildings as well as the general assistance. And that's for oil. The second one to be opened is the propane fuel, also from V.L. Tamarow out of Baileyville. And submits for municipal buildings for propane, 1.45 per gallon in general assistance. He's offering 1.55 per gallon.

So compared to last year, we're actually about the same on propane. Is that a surprise? It's a surprise to me. We were at, I believe, 267.9. I may be off by a penny in a couple of directions. Not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

I didn't think it was. I thought it was going to be the fullest. Me too. It really did. But I don't know whether we dare to hold off.

They inquired about the time of the meeting. I'm not sure if somebody's here representing them. I guess not. But my kid called earlier.

Last time he had to wear a pink tutu or something when he left. So let's not go there.

If we're locked into that and the price suddenly takes a crash, I doubt it will. Well, that's the risk in the present.

He took a bath the last few months on the price we're currently doing. Yes, he did. Correct me if I'm wrong, Al. I haven't. I mean, I think literally the only thing we could do at this point, if you don't want to accept this bid, is to reject it and put it out to bid again.

It could be worse.

This is a July to June contract, correct?

Correct.

So the benefit of doing the bid this late in the year is that you're getting kind of as close to real as you can for what he's going to be buying. The drawback is you're up against it if you don't like your bid.

Compared to the market, that's not bad, but we're buying a lot.

Well, right, we're buying a lot. Not as much as the school. Indeed. Yesterday we talked about budget and that because of the way right now I'm pricing up utilities, I can't give you an exact amount of how much this might affect because it's spread out. However, if we say for argument's sake this is a dollar more than last year, I'm estimating we were burning around 5,000 gallons. So this is not an impossible amount over where we are right now. Well, first of all, we have time. I would recommend we not try to modify the budget we're putting up for public hearing because I'd have to do all that mapping again. But I can certainly account for that or at least give you better numbers by the time we get to the June public hearing if you want to make a modification. So I don't believe it presents an insuperable difficulty with the budget. It's up to you guys if you want to take risks or make guesses about how the market will function in the future.

I don't have an opinion on that. Do I have a motion?

If we wait a month, we could also get hit harder.

Well, that's... If you know what's going to go on in the Strait of Hormuz in the next four weeks, call me tomorrow and let me know.

I'd be on the gambling markets.

Right, right. Yeah. I doubt... I'll put it this way. I doubt that no matter what happens in the next year, that the numbers will go down to what we paid this year. The question is how much higher do you think it's going to go? At about $15,000 a year in heat, which is both propane and oil. I can't separate those two. That's why I'm guessing right now. I don't have separate numbers at this point. We're talking a few thousand dollars. It sucks. But it sucks for everyone, everywhere.

But I think we've got to do it. I mean, I don't think we can take the chance not to do it. motion that we accept the bid for propane from JL Tamra and also the oil. I'll second.

Moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call please, Sarah.

Councilor Stephens? Yes. Councilor Morag?

Yes.

Councilor Seeley? Yes. Councilor Boone?

Yes. 6L, schedule of a public hearing on the fiscal year 2027 municipal budget.

Yes, so we The budget, as was presented yesterday, was projecting a middle rate rise of 7.75%. Yeah, actually, the one, which one, it is a, yeah, that's the one. The one that's got this graph on front is the one you want to look at right now. There is a recommendation for a couple of adjustments, which I have made. You know what, actually, if they can borrow your time, let's do the budget part. We reduced the airport EIP match by $5,000 because that's actually what we thought would be needed. And if there was going to be a problem, we could cover it out of the fuel account. Let me jump over. Unfortunately, I hope workers' comp, we had initially been billed at $32,000. I then reduced it to $27,000 and said last night, and I'm hoping it will be less. Well, it's $150 less. So that should hopefully go down, assuming we avoid people getting hurt at work. But that's going to be what we pay this year. I've made a couple of changes, and then we made sewer changes. I'll discuss sewer in a second. I also, on my own, made some small changes in revenue just to see what I could do based on where we are year to date. Building permits are well ahead year to date, so I bumped that up. The Maine Coast Heritage Trust in lieu came in at 3,300 this year, so I'm projecting that for next year. And I did just a back of the envelope calculation on should we be able to get through hangar leases this year, what that would actually contribute. The big one, and that's why I've given you this graph, is solid waste. Solid waste was budgeted at $185,000. We're well below that year to date. And so the question was asked last night, do we know what's going to happen the rest of the year? And I didn't have that data, but today I put it together. And the graph you see at the bottom shows how much we have paid per month to marry and transfer in fiscal years 24, 25, and this year 26. the good news is if you just want to look at these numbers and say that's great we it appears that we are under this year the thing that's confusing to me is i don't know why um the green line is fiscal year 26 the shortened line you got it um starts out a little bit over last year and then goes under it and the last So what I did was basically said, if the year ran out and I take the other two years, take the maximum from each of those last three years and add it together, I get us at 180,000. If I take the minimum from those three years, I have us projected out at 174,000. And if we think we're generally kind of running under, I don't know what that gigantic peak is in May of last year, but it's out of there. So I rolled the dice and took $12,000 out. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. One thing this is teaching us, of course, is actually there's some interesting dynamic stuff going on here that we don't know about. I'll keep a closer eye, and I'm, of course, on that board. I'm not sure the people at the transfer station can tell me what's in the trucks to explain why it's heavier, but we'll keep an eye on it. With all of those changes, I'm able to drop the projected mill rate to 3260, which is an increase of seven and a quarter instead of seven and three quarters. The second page is the numbers we dealt with And it is this I would be asking you, if we're gonna hold a public hearing, we're holding it on this. We'll publish this in the paper, it'll be available at City Hall, and we'll discuss it in June. Oh, I'm sorry, and briefly, yes, on sewer, there were some changes made yesterday because sewer is running over budget this year on items we can't control. So we made changes to those items, and we're currently looking at a 3.3% sewer rate increase. We never actually put a rate increase in the paper. I could potentially add that, but as you can see, we have expenses and revenues. And the one thing I'll say is good, for the second year in a row, we are showing more revenues than expenses, unlike we had done in the past. So at least that part was done right. That's where we're at. And of course, so all questions about the budget and everything, I would expect to come at the next month's meeting.

But this matches what we went over last night. With the adjustments I do you need a motion to put this out into the paper?

Yes, you need to move to, what should the motion be? To schedule a public hearing on the fiscal year 2027 budget as presented.

And a reminder that the meeting will be on the 17th of June. The third Wednesday, yes.

Correct.

That's good.

I'll make a motion to schedule a public hearing for the fiscal... Year 26-27 for the June 17th meeting.

Actually, it's fiscal year 26.

No, it's 26-27. It's the second half of 26. I almost did it too well, but she's right.

I'm surprised I got it right.

I'll second that motion. It's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, we'll call the police over.

Councilor Stephens? Yes. Councilor Ryan? Yes.

So this is L1. We had done it yet. L1, the vendor slash food truck ordinance.

I'm on M now. I've got a different agenda. Right.

We did have L1.

So it's going to be M1. Yes, M1. Both of these together. But we got M first. Yes. Okay. And schedule a public hearing on a new victor's license application for 6-17-26, submitted by Alan Skinner for Williams Pizza, doing business as Golden Steer LLC.

I make a motion to schedule a public hearing for June 17th.

Can I clarify something, Council President? Yes. In your adjustments, you voted to adjust to this.

Well, that was the old agenda.

Now we're on the new agenda. This is the order we're doing it in now. Sorry. If anyone wants to take us to court, I don't think there will be much to complain about here.

It's going to work either way.

It is to follow. Yes. Did I have a motion on the second thing? I think I had a motion. I'll second it. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please.

Councilor Stephens? Yes. Councilor Moran? Yes. Councilor Seeley? Yes. Councilor Boone? Yes.

Now we're on M1, which is the vendor...

But actually, so this document I call the street vendor ordinance. This I presented last month. It's an attempt to consolidate the vendor and peddler's ordinance with the food truck ordinance because most of the requirements are the same. It was intended to streamline. Now... I can't say I don't have an interest in this because we'll have to enforce it, and we can't enforce what's on the books right now at the food trucks, and not without disrupting festivals and everything else. I've received no feedback from council about any specific changes in the text. I believe there's probably still some stuff to be worked out. But we're running up against it, folks. It's May, and we have to, if we're going to enact this in time for the first festival, which is the Pride weekend, the weekend before 4th of July. We need a public hearing. So I was just going to ask that, you know, you can amend this after public hearing and everything else. This doesn't have to be perfect. However, if you want to amend it now, there are things you know you want to change that's worth discussing. But I would like to have this advanced. I would like to point out one thing in here. This map is wrong because I copied the map but not the little orange blocks that show. So if you look at the existing... food truck ordinance. That's the map that's supposed to be here, and I'm sorry.

So this is not the right map?

No, the map is correct, but there's supposed to be little orange blocks showing the parking lot behind the post office and the Sullivan Street parking lot. Those were the only places that were approved for food trucks in that ordinance.

Because I had some safety concerns

No, I understand, and actually I think it looks like, boy, we could put it anywhere. There were supposed to be little orange blocks in the parking lot behind the post office that we own and in the parking lot on Sullivan Street across from Moose Island. there. But look online. I'll get you a correct copy and when we get this, if you approve to do it tonight, we'll produce correct copies to be held at... And we'll be able to change things at this public hearing because I do have some questions.

I have some questions on a few things. Okay. what they are.

So I can tell you exactly where you are?

On the first page, on number four. On special events, we should update that yearly, and it should be done December 31st, so it's automatic. We don't have a whole bunch of this coming at us at once.

Oh, interesting. So, okay, the way we've typically done it, with the exception of the 4th of July, which always kind of gets tacitly assumed as going on, I don't think actually we pass a special event, we pass it for all the other festivals that I'm aware of. We could put that in here, I mean, it might make, so I wasn't planning to enumerate the events here, because they could come and go.

I'd just like to get them over with all at once, but I guess it's not going to matter to me.

You could choose to do that in your motion, I suppose you could say. I don't know if I'd say that, I don't know if it's

Why don't we just wait until public hearing?

But that doesn't change how the ordinance...

Right, that's just a bit, maybe, yeah. And obviously, both, I mean, with council, if you guys want to sit down, it might be helpful if you have specific amendments just for us to talk them through so I can meet with each of you individually if you have overlapping concerns or something, and that way, if we have a whole list of amendments, I can help coordinate them. I won't put my finger on the scale.

I agree with that. Okay.

so we can still go forward with the public hearing they don't this doesn't happen at least we have text i am pretty sure you know i'm pretty sure that i know there are other people in the community are going to want to talk to me once we realize this is on public hearing so i expect there might be a lot of proposed changes but at least we'll be moving forward so when are we going to have the public hearing i mean we're pretty booked for the 17th if we don't if we don't right now we have the only thing we have on the food trucks you have told me not to enforce I'm afraid this one has to be June.

We'd have to have a special meeting before.

Or we could hold a special meeting before. But I know June's was difficult for... I'm gone the first two weeks of June.

But you could do it like an hour before the meeting.

Oh, yes, absolutely.

We can set that for 5.

17th of June is so close to the 4th.

Yeah, if we could do it at 5 o'clock. I mean, that would be... The only other thing that would happen is if you guys can... If we can talk about this a little bit now. Well, we have publication deadlines. I was going to say we could try to hold maybe a special meeting before the end of the month, but we have to make sure we publish the notice in time.

When's your last day in East Fort? 26?

27?

And I'm going to be up between Memorial Day and the weekend after. You don't have to have me there. I think we have to do the 17th and bite it off and see what we can do.

And then we can go right into Council afterwards.

I'll see if I get it. Alright, so we'll need a motion to put the street vendor ordinance have a public hearing on the proposed street vendor ordinance for the 17th of June at five o'clock at the Port Authority.

I'll make that motion. I'll second.

Seconded. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call please, Sarah.

Councilor Stephens? Yes. Councilor Moran? Yes. Councilor Seeley? Yes. Councilor Boone?

Yes. And amendment of language to the airport. That we struck.

That was an adjustment.

I thought we took the request submitted by Steve. No, no, no.

Because he had a different lettered agenda. He said N. We did not take out that item.

I had asked for a request to potentially modify lease language because I thought that might be necessary given what we were dealing with. I took that out.

So we're keeping the request submitted by Steve for the hangers.

That would be O on the

Request submitted by Steve Trevor, reference airport hangout lease, and I believe Steve is with us. Please come to the front, Steve. Thank you.

myself and five other hanger owners out there. We all had hangers there for, with the exception of Deb, her hangers were new, 20 plus years. We've been tenants there for 20 plus years. I resigned in 2023-ish as the report manager. went with our house. We paid our property tax. We quit getting hangar lease bills for the land that our hangars sit on. We've always got them. We quit yet. We went to pay our property tax the year we didn't get our leases, our land leases. And we were told they're rewriting it. We don't have one. And they're changing the rates. So This happened for three years. We would go to City Hall. Everybody has pretty much the same story. us 30 days to pack up, remove our buildings from the airport for non-payment of the lease. That was me personally. The other guys, the other three tenants, their leases had expired. They went in asking about what to pay. They were getting new leases. Stand by. We asked the airport manager, what do you know? Stand by. Nobody seemed to know. Out of the blue, the first correspondence ever from the city was a notice to vacate. Remove our hangers from the land and and restore the land back to its original condition. That's the first correspondence ever. This is a real hardship for us. We've been there a long time. We've acted in good faith, the city has,

I can try to answer some of it. First of all, I think that we need to continue with the rest of that letter because you're skipping up the part that says please stop by and get a new lease. It's not saying that you have to vacate. It's not saying that they're going to move your building. You've got to finish the rest of the letter first. Second, I apologize, Steve, because it's It's been going through my mind. Wow. I'm on the Airport Advisory Board, and we have been discussing the new leases, and I wasn't aware of the breakdown at City Hall that, number one, you weren't getting notices in the mail. Number one, I didn't know that you needed to, because nowhere does it say that the city is obligated to send you one. They did in the past. I realize that's past practice, so you would expect it to continue. But with the turmoil at City Hall, the breakdown happened. Does that negate that we shouldn't try to continue working together? I don't believe so. I believe we should work together. The committee has been trying to, I guess the best way is get all the hangar leases on the same dates so that everybody is December 31st. Not, this one's in June, that one's in August, this one may be in February. Nobody knows where things are at. To try to get it to uniform. And I don't understand, as we have spoken privately, I don't understand... My opinion is we do not want to put, and I'm only speaking the airport advisory, not the council, we do not want to put the expense of moving a hangar on the hangar owner. They've already put that expense out. They shouldn't have to burden that again to move it. If it has to be moved, it may not have to be moved. We don't know. We are only in the beginning phases of working on this new airport plan that needs to be updated, and I believe it's 10 or 15 years old. So we're behind the eight ball. So I don't... The option is there. Nobody is telling you you have to pick up your hangar and run away. The option is, would you like to stay in Eastport? Please come in and sign a new lease. That's all it's saying. It doesn't say you can't sign the new lease. Get out.

None of us want to leave Eastport. We don't want you to. We don't want to, but we have a letter right now that says we are responsible financially to remove our hangers from the city land by May 25th. And the other thing is, here's this letter that comes out. It's a demand letter. It came certified mailed. Not, we're going to move your hangar. No, this is a demand letter bill. Okay? And I want to know, I talked to members of the advisory board. They didn't know about it. Did any of the councils hear? This is a question. Were any of you guys aware that this letter was coming out? This never went through due process. And we did want to pay our land leases. We went to City Hall. We asked. I mean, I understand four city managers since I quit And how many treasurers and how many staff? I understand that. But we have to be in good faith. This letter is not good faith. Not at all. And yes, we don't want to move anywhere. And if we're forced to go, we will never come back. We're all retired. That's a financial burden. You know, this letter that you sent, that the city sent, which I assume is you guys, it says that we're welcome to lease you a new piece of land for a new construction hangar. stuff. That's part of what's called a master plan. I'm going to speak as an airport manager and aviation professional with 53 years in aviation. This is an airport master plan. This was developed by the new advisor. What I had started on this before I resigned. They finished it up. It's a lot different than the one that I put together. I don't know if you guys realize this. I'm going to give a copy of

You set the letters off. No, that's not it. I misunderstand. Sorry. Yeah, okay.

So I'm going to give this to you guys. Thanks for taking the time for this. I got one for each of you.

You're very welcome.

I've highlighted some stuff on there. Thank you. So the possibility of moving the hangars that everybody's been talking about at the meeting that I attended, and you mentioned right there, this is a master plan. This is what the airport or the city, which is the airport, decides what they want to do in the future with the airport. So this, I think, is a done deal, the master plan. I think it's been signed off by the FAA. I'm not 100% sure because I don't go to the meetings. I do another thing with my time. This ramp plan, to expand the ramp and take our hangers down, if you look on the first page, that's a $31,600,000 job. That's the estimate. Brian, did you get a copy? I don't. I'm going to need the batteries. But you're done, okay. Yeah, that's $31,600,000 to expand the ramp. And my hangers, there's one, two, the four hangers are not even included in that plan. There's only two hangers. But that's the cost for the ramp project. That's not the full cost for all the projects on the master plan. If you go to the second page that I gave you, I'm also a pilot, and I really do want to improve the airport. This is pie-in-the-sky stuff. The city's got to come up with 5% of that, and we've got holes in the roof out here. So I don't think my hangar or anybody else's hangar is going to need to move for a very long time. And I'm not going to speak to the lease, but we went and talked to Brian after that airport advisory meeting. So I have a lease right here. That was handed to me. I asked for the, we might as well have the same lease as everybody else on the airport. I think that grant assurances, the city is bound to abide by FAA policy, which is called grant assurance. There's specific rules on the grant assurances. You can't treat Rhonda any different than this Alba. Alba. If Rhonda rents a house and Alba rents a house, basically they've got to be pretty close with their agreement. That's called discrimination with the aviation grant assurances. When Brian said, if you don't want to leave by, I'm paraphrasing Brian, sorry if I get it wrong. If you don't want to leave by the 25th of May, here, just sign a new lease because we want to get everybody on the same date. Well, the terms of our lease is valid until 31 December 2027 with no terms to renew. No renewal terms. The other hangar tenants out there, the new hangars, with they can renew for another 20 when they're done. So this is not fair. I want to know why. I'd like to know why. Why we get a year and a half and the rest get 20. I mean, I understand they have a little bit more money invested, but we also have money invested. A couple people out there just bought their hangers. They have a lot of money invested. So I want to know why. Where's the breakdown?

I don't have the answer to why. First of all, I agree. You should not be discriminated by having a one-year lease. You should have a whatever everybody else has. But wait a minute. If you did a 20-year lease, is it going to be the same as the next person? Because their 20 years is already halfway through. What am I doing?

It's irrelevant. I get 20 years. You know... All of us guys that are out there now, we're going to time out. We're all retired. We enjoy it. We're spending our time.

I've got one, two, three, four, five. We've got five young people here that we sponsor in aviation.

That's what we're doing now. We leave, that's gone. These are the young people that are going to be flying the PALS flights. These young people, they're not going to be able to buy the new hangers out there. They can't afford it, but when I time out, they'll be able to come in and get my hanger. I don't understand this. I don't understand it. I'm not going to be real long-winded here. I want other people to speak on this, but I just request, first off... We all have a letter over our head, 25th of May, and you're gone. I request that the council rescind that letter so we can sleep at night. I have no problem with the new lease. My lease still has 10 years on it. I'll take a new lease with the other guys because I'd like to pass my hanger on to one of these young people when I find out in 10 years. Thank God I don't have one. But I'd like to pass mine on to them just as Bob Kennedy passed it on to me. And, you know, the result of that was, you guys know how well I took care of the airport?

I do.

Yeah. There's your future back there. They can't afford a new hangar, but they'll come, they'll buy my hangar, and maybe they'll do as good a job as we did in the past and the gang before me did in the past. So, yeah, we're all good with a new lease, but give us the same terms. And, you know, if this ramp project is, and I'm sorry, but this is pie in the sky, but if it ever comes to fruition and the city wants to come up with the 5%, the $1.5 million of grade that's done in six projects, okay, so let's call it $5 million, you know, or $500,000, you know, you know what it was like to get a no-match grant at the airport for the runway, right? So I don't see this coming. Just please resend the letter and give us the same lease as everybody else. Treat us... There's the rest. I don't have anything else to say about it. I hope you both can do that tonight.

So how many of you didn't get the same lease as everybody else?

We have three tenants that their leases expired right about the time I resigned. So they had been asking, when's the new lease coming up? Because we were told that the new leases were coming. That's the whole thing. We were told, told, told. Right. My lease was good for 20 years. I was only 10 years into it along with two other hangar owners. So we have three with leases that expired, three that still had valid leases, and all of us were on the same page as far as trying to pay, finding out when the new leases were coming out. If anybody said that, I don't know what else to say about that. We tried to be of faith. Even though the city didn't send us a bill, we always got one.

And we always stayed in it.

Nobody was ever in tears.

Ever.

I'd like to speak to this, but in the interest of not engaging in debate, I'll wait until Steve is done. No, I'm finished.

Go ahead. I'm done. Steve, first of all, I don't believe anybody on this council wants to see any tenants at that airport leave. First of all, I'm going to go up there and say that. Second, I have repeatedly gone to the airport association meetings. I've asked, how come the airport association is not sitting at this table? You guys need to come so that we can hear you. We can listen to your concerns. We don't know if you're not there. I don't know. I don't like to see this blow up to this level. If we were all sitting at the same table, we could have worked this all out long before it got there. But we need to have that communication. It has to happen.

We're here. If they want to communicate, we went to the meetings to discuss the lease and we gave our input to the new lease. I didn't particularly like the whole thing, but there was and you were there. There was just a few paragraphs. If we're going to have We finally had to say, let's take a vote on it. I'm not going to go there. But we've all done the boards. We've been there. And I said this at the advisory meeting. I used to winter in Arizona. I still rent a hangar from the city of Phoenix. I don't have to go to all their meetings. But if there's something that directly involves my hangar, they let me know. They let me know. I don't want to go to the meetings. for 10 years to give an airport report. I don't want to. And something's amiss with the airport advisory board, because someone from the airport advisory board went directly to Brian. It never went to a vote, this whole mess. You guys weren't aware of it. There's some members on the board I called. They weren't aware that this was going to be done. And so, if it directly involves me, we go. And we do go. We showed that. We went for this lease agreement. Yeah, I don't know what else to say about it. Just please, you guys take care of this and do it right, please. Yeah, I'd like people to speak. I'm going to thank you for your time. This is turning into another open forum. I'll step outside again.

Yeah, and I don't think we need this. We have the information that we need in front of us, Steve. We're dealing with the least disagreement of the letter that you received and the other five, six people received. It's up to council. And I personally, I listen to my manager and he's in charge of the city. We are in charge of our manager. And when everything comes down, it's going to fall on his lap. Then it's going to come to our lap. So we all need to be... First of all, we all need to be together. We all need to communicate as to what needs to happen. And if this would have happened two months ago, before anything happened, I don't think we'd be having this discussion. But we did. But I don't want to see us keep repeating everybody in the audience step up and complain about the lease agreements. We have the information. And I appreciate you coming here and talking your concerns. That's what I need to do. Listen to you. And I'm doing it. And I'm going to do my best to remedy this situation. The best that I can do. I do not want to see our airport go down. We have been building that airport up. I was disappointed when you left as the airport manager, but I can't change those facts. I'm not going back. Let's go forward.

I want to go forward. Then I respectfully request that that letter get rescinded, that we hang it over our heads, that you... because I've spoken to everyone. Give us the same lease on the same terms, and we're all going to be happy. That's all I ask. You send the letter, and let us know what we owe. If it's the rate that we have, well, I'll add it up monthly. I'll come down and pay. I'll come down. I tried to hand you a check the other day. I've got no problem paying that lease, though. Not if there's anyone else out here. So, yeah, if you can take care of that tonight...

I'm going to ask you one simple non-contentious question. Steve, out of everything you've said, the one concrete thing I'm taking away from this is that you are happy with a new lease if it is written to the same term as your old lease.

No.

The same term as the new Hainer leases. I'm sorry. Okay. Okay. I can address other things for that with my question. Thank you.

Yeah, and we'd like the same lease as the rest of the hangars. Right. And anybody else that builds a hangar there, they're going to have the same lease.

Same lease, yeah.

You know, I'm fine with prorating it so they all come due, or just...

Sorry, just to make sure I'm not confused, because there's a lot of moving parts here. Can you say exactly what the term is that you're asking for? 20 years. Okay.

The same as the other ten. I looked at Bob Chico, one of the guys on the board. I said, could you send me your lease so I can compare it to the lease that I was handed at a meeting? And his lease, I believe, was 20 years renewable for another 20. I can't remember the exact terms. That gives us the opportunity.

Very well. And thank you very much, Steve.

And I hope you vote on it tonight so we can sleep easy and get this office hanging over our heads. Yes.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Steve.

We'll just leave it right on the podium. All right. Don't let it roll off.

All right. So a couple of things. First, I... I want to apologize on behalf of the city for the clumsiness with which the billings were handled. You hit the nail on the head there, Steve. You guys are gonna get sick of my saying this. I am the sixth city manager in seven years. Since the turn of the century, there have been 10 city managers. I've been here two years and two months. I'm the fourth longest tenured already. If I make it to January, I'll be the third. There were no written processes in place. to explain what needed to be done with the airport leases. No one knew what to do with them. We didn't even know they existed, frankly, for about a year. No handoff was made tied to the treasurer or myself when I came on. So that has something to do with why we were not able to give you the service you required at that point. I apologize for that, but frankly, that's on the city. Frankly, I don't mean just the council or the managers. It's on the entire city. The city has not been able to keep someone in this job long enough to run the place properly. I'm doing the best I can, being here two years. That's only two years. I want to apologize secondarily for anything I might have suggested about what lack of payment might have implied. I now have heard, as you said, Steve, some stories about people who have said they've tried to pay, they didn't get an answer. I have no record of that. I have no way of knowing. Here's what I saw, though. I have at the airport, for which, by the way, I am accountable, the airport advisory committee cannot be. They're volunteers. So if something goes wrong down there, or if there's something that's not in the city's interest, it is my responsibility. I was presented with six leases, three of which have been expired since 2023, and three of which were in default of payment for two and a half to four and a half years. That's what I saw. leases that were in arrears were non FAA grant compliant so I cancelled those leases this is to protect the city's interest now we can argue back and forth whether that was the right choice to make I personally think it was still the best choice in the city's interest to protect the city's interest to move forward however yes I did offer a the opportunity to go to a new lease. So first of all, so people can sleep at night. If you are one of the six leaseholders who has received, I'm sorry, it's actually five leaseholders on six hangars, because one leaseholder, Victor, has two. If you are one of those five, all you need to do is talk to me to negotiate what needs to happen next. And those dates will no longer be active in the letter. If you choose not to negotiate with me, those dates are the boundaries I set. And they were set for a reason. Those are standard boundaries. Where if you say you don't want to deal with me, you're not happy with this, and you're not going to do anything, those are what those dates mean. You come to me, and I've been offering this for over a week. I was at the airport meeting. It was a Tuesday. I don't know. It's been a long week. And I offered it then, and I'm offering it now. The second question then, so even if I were to, first of all, Council, I do not believe it is in our interest to rescind these leases. We would then be restoring non-FAA grant compliant leases and the very first thing I would need to do, if you rescinded it, is negotiate a new lease for the new language. It's a waste of my time and it does not protect the city's interest to reinstate those leases. I went out and measured hangers today. I am prepared to write new leases. Now, this is why I ask the question of term. I do not believe discrimination is an accurate way of describing the city's choice to be able to offer different terms to different people. The reason behind what I have offered, and this is no surprise, is yes, there is a question about whether the current hangers, which are using what I've been told is sort of a common-use apron, the space in front of them, Common use apron, from what I understand, I am not an aviation expert, is not something the FAA is fond of anymore. And the new leases speak about having separate apron spaces. That's why there's been talk about moving the apron. I don't know, you know, master plans are like comprehensive plans or capital plans. You put everything on the list. I can't speak right now to whether that master plan is reasonable or not. I do know that the airport advisory committee has been talking about it for a long time and the intention of making a rectangular public apron instead of the J-shaped apron we have right now is not news to anyone who's been at the committee. And I know people who have been, there are people who have been invited multiple times to be part of this conversation and have chosen not to. So, my position remains the same. I am willing to sit down and negotiate with everyone next week. This is budget week. By the way, every person who received a letter, I have been in contact with. Every single one of them has received new lease language. None of this is news. That's been out this week. I have extended the offer. Steve, if you're going to start debating with me, I'm just going to ask that we stop this. You've said your piece.

No, I haven't. Now you have to respond to that.

No, you don't. No. Sorry, Billy. I'm doing it again.

No, no. You are.

You're doing it again. Shut up. Well, wow. We can recess this meeting and do something else altogether.

I'd like to request a 15-minute recess.

Do we need to make a motion? Yes, we do.

Motion for a 15-minute recess.

Do I have a second?

We have recess for Brian.

Second.

We moved and seconded. Is there any further discussion on the motion? We are going to have a recess, and when we come back, we will either conduct a meeting or we'll adjourn the meeting. It's going to be up to the public how they would like to proceed this evening.

Need a roll call? I do need a roll call, please. Sarah?

Hang on, Sarah. Sarah, I can't hear you. Well, we don't know either.

The letters don't match up.

We're towards the end. I just wanted to see it. It's a moratorium. Coming up.

We're live here.

Our recess is over. Please, audience, we are all trying to get through this. It doesn't help when the audience erupts. It does nothing. It doesn't get anything solved. Tensions are high on both sides. So please, let's just try to communicate and work this through. That's all I'm asking.

And I asked, here's what is going to be offered. So I do think we were talking past each other. Steve has expressed some concern about things he thought I was misinformed with. In the statement I made, I asked him that if we could talk about that offline, I'm happy to be instructed otherwise. I don't want to conduct that in this forum. I have said I want to speak with him.

Please.

I would like to speak with him and all the other four leaseholders to talk about a negotiation on a new lease. I'm understanding now, and that Steve and I may have had a misunderstanding from our meeting last Friday, about the flexibility on what the term would be. Steve is continuing to ask that it be the same term out there. I've expressed my concerns about that, but I think we can come to an agreement. In the case of those that were canceled, I'm not even going to negotiate here. We're going to sit down and talk about what your current term is. For those who are aspiring, what the other term is. I think we can come to an agreement, but it has to be in a negotiation, and it can't be. We're not going to negotiate in a public forum. I may have already offered to the leaseholders to meet with me starting next week, because this week has already been enough, and it's budget week. but we'll start next week. So long as we're in negotiation, the dates and the letters are not in effect. Okay? Can we leave it there?

And that means they just contacted for a meeting?

Yeah, we will schedule a meeting with me. Is that good enough, Steve? Yeah, that's good enough.

Okay, thank you. Thank you. We're on to item 6P, Eastport Cemetery Tombs, Main Preservation, Most Endangered Historical Listing.

I'm going to do it, guys. I promise. You don't trust me, fine. It's in the minutes. No, we'll hold the manager accountable, Steve. Thank you for your word, Bill. Thanks. All right.

The cemetery tombs. So we've had a couple of back and forth on this. They are currently in decent condition, but we did shore up on the south side with a bunch of sand before. Going back about a year, Hugh French approached us and was hoping we could figure out some way of getting them restored. What he's suggesting now is that be able to nominate the tombs for what's called Maine Preservation's most endangered historic places in Maine. This has no restriction on the use of the property whatsoever. It's essentially a way of drawing attention to the property. The Fisherman's Church, the Congregational Church, has been listed like this once. And as you said to me, it's not like that necessarily opened up the floodgates. but it's a good first step to be able to say, hey, these are endangered and they need attention from this community.

And available for grants.

Exactly. So he just wanted the permission to make that nomination.

So it's not turning over ownership?

No, absolutely nothing. It's just somebody gets to point at us and say, most endangered. It's, yeah, no legal implication whatsoever.

Make the motion to allow Hugh French to pass the tombs at the Eastport Cemetery on the most endangered historic places in Maine.

I'll second. Then move to second it. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please, Sarah.

Counselor Stevens? Yes. Counselor Morang? Yes. Counselor Seeley? Yes. Counselor Boone?

Yes. 6Q, approval of realtor bid policy.

Given the lateness of the night, so this is another one, just like the motor vehicle, things have been going around and around on this. We can't list a property until July anyway. However, we've also now loaded up the June meeting. This does not require a public hearing. I am just going to propose the idea behind, so we talked about how do we want to do this out here. This is putting out a request for a proposal from realtors. It's a much reduced version of the original thing I did. My intention actually, I have not had time, I was going to do it last week and then I was going to do it this week, is to approach a couple of realtors, I haven't had time to do so yet, and say, is this insane? Can you work with this? If I get a yes from this, yes from that, I'd like to be able to go forward to them with it, and I would actually probably just call everyone on the quality ties plus a public posting and say would everyone be able to put this in there. If you have had time to read this and feel comfortable with its contents, If you approve it right now, should I come back to you in a month and say, so-and-so said this wasn't sane, we just need to modify the policy, but we could move forward at that point. If you are not comfortable reading it, let's push it to June. If you have not read it enough to be comfortable with it, let's push it to June.

I read it. I didn't say anything wrong.

If you're willing to approve the policy, it's not out of the realm of possibility I'll come back to you with amendments, but you'll hear about them all in advance and they won't be too dramatic. The one question I will be asking, we actually have a lot of properties, I'm going to be asking how many is reasonable for one person to, because these are going to individuals as opposed to firms. I'm sorry, I'm going down the rabbit hole. If you're comfortable with it, I'll come with you approving it and I will come back to you if I think there are any changes that need to be made.

Make a motion to accept the realtor service bid package policy.

I'll second it. Move and second it. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please, Sarah.

Councillor Stephens? Yes. Councillor Moran? Yes. Councillor Seeley? Yes. Councillor Boone?

Yes. Item R, request from concerned citizens that the City Council enact a moratorium ordinance on AI data center. I have a motion from the board.

I understand the concern, and I don't think it's unjustified. I am concerned that it's reacting too early. There's nothing in the works at this point. And moratoriums, as I understand it, only last for 180 days, and then you've got to renew them.

Literally, I have no idea. Okay, yeah.

And if it gets taken to court and they keep saying we're putting up these moratoriums, now we just look like we're just being insistent on the purpose.

No, it's not for the public to discuss. It's the council, please.

So it's still not in my opinion. It's my right. It is not your right. Yeah, throw me out if you want.

I'm not going to throw you out. Please, I'd like to get this city business taken care of. Me too.

I've been waiting all night. Let's get to it. We know you're not going to vote. Brian has already said so, so let's go. Get it on the record.

Brian, please.

Monkey business? Tell me all about it, Brian. Please be appropriate.

Do I have a motion from the council on this issue?

I would suggest we put out a letter expressing our disapproval with the process, like the county commissioners.

I would agree with that. I'm not for this AI, not even a little, so I would agree with that.

It just has to be very specific about your language. I don't want to have to guess what goes in the letter.

The letter you sent us. Essentially take what the commissioner said and say it's fair enough. I would do that right away. Fair enough.

For the discussion on the motion. Hearing none, we'll call please Sarah.

Councillor Stephens? Yes. Councillor Moran? Yes. Councillor Seeley? Yes. Councillor Boone?

Yes. Item 6S, minutes of previous meetings, 325.26, 4126, 4826, 429.26. I move to accept minutes for those meetings.

I second it.

I move to second it. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call please, Sarah.

Councilor Stevens? Yes. Councilor Moran? Yes. Councilor Seeley? Yes. Councilor Boone?

Yes. Item 6T, City Manager's Report.

I'll try to keep it brief. You've got the financial, the data I gave you yesterday for budget, I just gave a new one at the big financial report here. We're hanging right on. 86.3% of the way through the year, 83.3% expended. We're right on, as we overages are the same overages we've seen. I'm feeling pretty good. We'll see. You have your fund balance. We're right on track historically, so I'm feeling good about that. I do want to point out the police department is at 89 total calls And we hit over 90, we have 95% coverages here this past month, in April. So we're getting where we want to go. The police department is visible, people are willing to call them, and we're catching almost every single call despite not being fully staffed. Cemetery looks good. All the flags are out. I saw that today. I didn't even know she was doing that. Sweeping is proceeding fairly quickly at this point. We have had a minimal amount of breakdowns and that sort of thing. So we're in pretty good shape. You've already talked about budget. I'll leave it there. Unless there's something else somebody wants to ask me about. I'm feeling very good about where we're at right now.

Item 6U, Council Liaison Updates and Issues.

I went to a planning board meeting, got an update from Tabitha on what was going on around town, and one of the, Jerry Morrison, came to give us a presentation on WAF, and also the guy... came with a group getting together to put a boat landing in up to Deep Cove and give us a presentation on that. And they're waiting for Army Corps permits going on city land up there. So that's coming together.

The walk that Jerry is building, is that going to be the same length that it was? Or are they saying it's going to be longer?

It's going to be 30 feet longer, I think.

Is that going to do anything to the inner harbor?

No. I have had at least one person talk about, and I know you've heard about it in the past, Brian, the pickleball, the noise.

I have not received a complaint yet. I did receive a complaint, and I did some research on it. Apparently, it's piercing and troubling. And if I lived next to it, it would probably annoy me, too. So I have called to ask for some pricing. I'm not sure about where it's on school property. What our abilities are, and I know cost-wise it might be prohibitive. I appreciate you doing the research, at least. Thank you. But...

Pickleball court. Have you seen it? There's no one playing pickleball on that court. Your son does. No.

He plays on the inside.

That was going to be my question. The outside court is all falling in and it hasn't been fixed. I got the same email you did. If they can hear, they shouldn't buy a house near a school because

I know there's a conflict between, you want people to get out and exercise, but seriously there's research about the sound just being annoying to some people. This is happening indoors, but there's no pickleball going on outside.

Yeah. Yeah, and it's great. It's bringing a lot of people together, you know. Maybe it's late and I'm dismissing something. Are there just doors that need to be shut? No. I think they're procrastinating and thinking it's going to get fixed, but if you go up there and take a look, it looks like a bomb hit. Oh, I'm sorry, I thought the noise complaint.

If it's happening from inside, maybe there was a door left open?

They did not make the specification to me. Okay, I don't know. I'm just saying I'm looking into it to get a cost to see if it becomes an issue.

It's only a couple hours a day. I only had two liaison meetings. The first one was the airport, which was not pleasurable, but nonetheless we got through it. The second one was the senior center. They've got a calendar done for four months, and it looks like each and every day there's something going on up there, and it's getting a lot more use. So it's a good thing. And they're moving towards the youth as well, right? Oh, the youth. They're trying to get more and more of the youth in there as much as they can, as well as the elders, I guess. Nonetheless, they're trying to do more with the youth. I think as the June month comes and they're out of school, I think you'll see a lot more between the baseball fields and different things going on. But it's busy. That calendar gets full quick. So those are the only two I had. And we are down to item 10, executive session. Do I have a motion to go into executive session?

Sorry. 8-22.

Drop me a line tomorrow.

Personal matters, Title I, MRSA 405-6A. And competition with legal counsel, Title I, MRSA 405-6A. Do I have an extra one?

Let me see. If you were going to say, send out a letter this year, please send out a letter. Can you send that to me?

Yes!

No. Send me an email so I can send it to you then.

and we are on there's any motion to come out of executive session to make that motion second it moved and seconded any further discussion on the motion hearing on roll call please councillor stevens councillor moran councillor seeley yes councillor boone yes uh item 11 action from executive session

I make a motion that we take part-time police officers up to the wage of $25 an hour. Seconded.

We move to second it. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, we'll call police, Sarah.

Councillor Stephens? Yes. Councillor Moran? Yes. Councillor Seeley? Yes.

Councillor Boone? Yes. We're on item 12, adjournment.

I make a motion to adjourn at 9.05.

Second it. Move to second it as part of the discussion. Hearing none, we'll call, please, Sarah.

Councilor Stephens? Yes.