Selectboard - Regular Meeting

Ready to go? Okay. Please hold your comments until I open the agenda items for public comment. When addressing the Board, state your full name both in person and on Zoom. And it is suggested that you enter your full name as your ID on Zoom. Public hearings. Today we'll have two public hearings. Peabody Northeast LLC doing business as the Aztecu Hotel, 15 Peabody Drive, Northeast Harbor. Request for liquor license, new license. We do these both, don't we?

I believe so.

And the second one is for Peabody Northeast LLC doing business as the Aztecu Hotel, 15 Peabody Drive, Northeast Harbor. Request for special amusement permit, new permit. Well, you can make a motion or if you have anything to say, you can ask a question.

Well, on number 21 here, it says hours 24, 7, they're going to be serving look at that. 24, 7, or is that just how long the.

That's how particular place 1 of the hours that they can. Yeah, because they're, I mean, there's people there 24, 7, and they need to.

have staff on site 24 7. well staff right but but i mean are they as far as this is for a liquor permit right are they are they actually going to be i mean i i was there used to be a state law you couldn't serve i thought anyway that's for sure yeah yeah so so i mean it's not like they're going to be serving booze for breakfast no we can't preempt stable no look at that yeah that's just weird yeah

All right does anybody have any more comments, questions? I'll take a motion to close the public hearing.

So moved.

Second. All in favor? Okay, close public hearing. All right, I will take a motion to approve the Azteca Hotel liquor license.

So moved.

Second.

All in favor? And I will take a motion to approve the special amusement permit as well.

So move. Second.

All in favor? Good. OK, thank you. Minutes. Approval of minutes from April 6, 2026.

Move approval.

Second.

All in favor? Appointments and resignations. Resignation of Nikki Moser from the Economic Development Committee.

Acceptance of the resignation with, um, thanks.

All in favor. We sent agenda. Alexis does a full time patrol officer for the town amount desert at a starting rate of 31, 1. 31 dollars, 31, 31 dollars and 20 cents and after successful completion of 6 month probation, increasing to the 27 full time patrol base rate of pay effective October 20 of 2026. And seasonal hires for the Northeast target Marina.

2nd favor.

No unfinished business new business. Liquor License Renewal, Winter, Spring, Ink, Doing Businesses, Colonel's Restaurant, 143 Main Street, Northeast Harbor.

Move approval. Second.

All in favor? Public Space Special Event Application for 2026, Island Readers and Writers Storytime, July 16, 2026, Northeast Harbor Village, Green.

approval for that second all in favor that that was the girl that was asking about yeah yeah winner has her hand up claire

okay there we go um i was muted um so i just wanted to remind you guys that you uh opened up another part of northeast harvard harbor village green um to be used simultaneously with the farmers market so and that's what this is right thank you thanks okay do we vote volunteer no yeah i think we did

We have 2 of them, the 2nd, 1 here.

In case public special space, special event application 5, 2026. Island readers and writers story time, August 13th, 2026 Northeast harbor village green.

2nd, all in favor.

Request approval for the July 2026 shellfish license allocation plan.

What is that?

Second first.

Oh, second.

Okay.

I can answer that a little bit. So, what it is, it's keeping the same numbers as prior years. The shellfish committee hasn't been meeting as of late. So, until we restart the meetings, we're just going to keep everything at the same level and go on from there. But that is something that we've got to work on. um getting back to a quorum for that group so so do we have open flats here now that is digable yeah small number yeah yeah and so we're not making any changes but um as an item for us in the future we need to get that group back up to a full quorum yeah are there any members remaining still i believe we have one remaining no no we actually we have three members we have um

David Dutton from Bar Harbor is a commercial fisherman. We have Brian Silverman, also a commercial fisherman, and Rustin Taylor. And I believe he's a commercial fisherman, but he doesn't hold a shellfish license, but Brian and David do. So how many do we need for? They would like to have at least five members on the committee. But with Earl's passing, and they had an open space, now they're down to three.

I think that's what's causing the problem is when you're right at the minimum, it gets tough.

All in favor?

Thank you.

Review and approve annual audit report for the fiscal year end of June 30, 2025, prepared by James Wadman, CPA. We have to wait till late.

Yeah. So I'm Kelly Bowden. I'm the one that is in charge of your audit. And I've been for, I'll just say several years. I won't age myself too fast. I'm just going to do a brief overview. And if you guys have any questions, just please stop me and pass it away. Did all of you get this two-page handout? All right. On pages one through three of the audit is the opinion letter. And you received an unmodified opinion, which is a clean opinion on the financial statements and the notes. You look at your fund balance on this page. The unassigned fund balance is $3,621,830, which is 14% of your total expenditures for the year. And MMA recommends that you should be between 10% and 12% which MMA's numbers we feel are low, because if you get to those numbers, you potentially will have cash flow problems. And you can see the trends. You started in 2023 with 17%, 24 with 16%, and now you're down to 14%. And I've just put in some other towns in the area in comparison, if you want to look, which everybody is usually between 14 and 17%. You go to page four through 10 is the MD&A. And this just gives a brief overview of the total financial situation of the town. And if you look at page nine, that just gives some variances of why different items were higher or lower. Like if you look at the first one, you get the arena revenues. You had a 203,000 positive variance due to conservative budgeting. And you can go down through if you have any questions with any of the rest. Pages 11 through 12 are government-wide financial statements. And these contain the fixed assets, depreciation, debt, short-term, long-term, OPEB, pensions, and everything else. We usually don't go through those too much.

Can we spend a half hour on open, please?

If you'd like to. I don't think anybody would appreciate that. So pages 13 through the rest of your report, this is what you guys base your budgets on and the financial information of the town. So if you look at page 13, this is a balance sheet of the town. And I'm just going to take you to the total fund balance toward the bottom. You can see there's $17,607,200. That includes everything. That includes your non-spendable, restricted, committed, assigned, and undesigned fund balances. And then that's for the general funds and all capital projects special revenues. If you turn to page 17, This is the Marina Fund, and you can see their total net position is $4,828,673 with unassigned fund balance of $1,217,880. Then pages ... Let's jump to page 25 within the notes. I always like to point out this page because it breaks down your fund balances in more depth. and what everything is. So if you look at this, you've got your non-spendable, restricted, committed, assigned, and unassigned fund balance. And you can see within these fund balances, large ones are the school department is in here. You've got your total town reserves, capital improvement programs, and there's quite a few different projects going on that the money's reserved for those projects. And you can see at the bottom, you get that general unassigned fund balance again of that $3,621,830. And then if you go to page 36 of the notes, this will break down all the long-term debt that the townhouse, just in summary format. So if anybody has any questions on those, then you can just see what all the notes and bonds are that you have. I'm going to jump unless anybody's got questions because a lot of the rest of these notes are pensions in OPEB, which are required note disclosures that we have to do. Nobody really cares about. We jump to I should have flagged this to page 73. So, page 73 and 74 gives you budget versus actual for your revenues in the joint funds. And you can see on page 74, you had a positive variance of 386,498. that got added to your unassigned fund balance. Then pages 75 and 76 break down the budget versus actual and expenditure accounts. And you can see you had unfavorable variance of $1,842. So your budget was over at that small amount.

And so you want to jump in and explain the difference between those two? Do you want me to take a stab at it? Just for everyone's sake, you mentioned two things there. One was a positive variance of 386,000. What that means is that, in essence, Instead of dropping and losing $400,000 worth of fund balance, we only lost about $15,000 worth of fund balance. So there was a variation from a budget that was designed to go negative, if that makes any sense. And so an important distinction there, because we did not gain $386,000. We did $386,000 better than losing $400,000, and we lost $14,000. Yep. If you look at page 77, that shows the breakdown. Steve got your revenue surplus, came in at 386, 498.

The expense, the appropriations was 1,000,842 negative. They had a budget surplus of 384,656. But you voted to use 400,000 dollars to reduce your taxes. So, that brought the fund balance down by 15,344. Yep, the next several pages are just grant and reserves and. I usually don't review these unless you've got any questions on the projects or grants or anything else going on. There are quite a few capital projects in the works. And page 88 breaks down your capital improvement funds. So the funds that have been allotted for certain trucks, buildings, reserves. I know that was just a quick synopsis. You guys have any questions?

Just the one for the Marina, 4.8 million, is that what came in?

That was... No, that is their total fund balance that's left. So if you go to page 18, that can show you the revenues that came in. There's three columns here in the actual column. Your total operating revenues came in at $1,159,569. What does that mean? What is 4.8 million?

I don't understand what that means.

That is the balance that's sitting in the fund right now.

Oh, okay.

That's like, takes your beginning fund balance and adds your revenue subtracts that expenses for the year. So it's an ongoing balance that you guys have.

Is that something that they'll be allowed to use towards the top? Correct now that for does that include assets?

That does. So you really only have 1 million, 217,000.

Oh, okay. Okay. Sort of like saying like 4 million includes the value of all the stuff.

I mean, yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Includes the assets.

Well, a lot of it's been around a long time and so it depreciates over time.

Um,

But, yes, the $1 million, the plan is to start spending down some of that on the engineering costs prior to the bond issue. Okay, that's what I was thinking. That's exactly what they're planning to do.

That's going to be, what, $400,000 to $1,000,000, yeah.

Yeah.

This has been a very quick review. I would assume Alex said he's been through this with a fine-tooth comb.

I've been through it with a coarse comb?

Yes. But your comb is over here.

Yes, he's been through it with a fine-tooth comb.

I have many calls with Callie. OK.

I'm jumping in and speaking too much because it's the former job, jumping in on these things.

If you guys ever have any questions, you can just thank you. Thank you.

Good.

Okay, no more questions. So, go entertain a motion to approve the.

Move that we accept it as presented.

2nd, all in favor. Thank you.

Thank you very much so much.

Item F, consider accepting a conditional gift to them out as a fire department from the Northeast Harbor Ambulance Service Association. In the amount of 3,190,000, 3000. 3,190,000, I'm sorry. Thank you 3,000,000. 2nd, all in favor approval and authorizing the town manager to sign an agreement and general release of all claims with CDC holding corporation for the purpose of fire department.

How about this once you go into discussion, I can talk about this once you go into discussion.

Well, move it.

Oh, yeah. This is similar to what occurred back in the fall at Camp Beechcliff for use of that building. They're going to take one last stab at that building to do some more training before it comes down. So they're going to take one more run at it. Just thought I'd mention it. Mike's not in. And the name, you know, at a glance doesn't...

It said no fire.

No fire, yeah. So they're just...

same thing as last time okay yes this is there's no what are they training what without a fire they just are entry methods uh you know you can throw a smoke yeah oh they yeah so they'll have like the the smoke bombs or something yeah exactly just not actual fire yeah that's the old eagles I don't know the answer to that sorry okay all in favor

Would you approve acceptance of bid from MDI Porta Potties and Septic Services LLC for seasonal portable toilet services in a lump sum of $9,200 plus $75 per additional pumping per unit?

Move it. Second.

Any discussion? All in favor? Do you want to prove price proposal from Brad street lawn and garden for a scag tiger cat to 0, turn radius more. In the amount of 14,881 dollars, utilizing funds from the public works equipment, reserve account 4050100 dash 24500 with an approximate unencumbered amount of. 412,999 dollars and 5 cents. 2nd, okay.

So, I want to speak up and really want to thank both Brian. I want to thank Ben Jacobs. I want to thank Alex. The 4 of us really spent a lot of time. Trying to possibly put an electric lawnmower to use unfortunately to go. here which was well researched by ben ben really tried to see if you could make the numbers work to go for a battery operated model which would be much quieter and possibly you know no you know zero admissions uh unfortunately it was twice the price but the industry standard is not there but i just really want to acknowledge the fourth of the three other people involved that they really did everything they could to try to get it over the finish line

Could I ask, Brian, is that a bid price? Have these gone up to bids to other places to buy this machine?

We go and try and get quotes for anything on that we're interested in having on there. This is the only one that came in with a quote. But over 25, then we go through a sealed bid process. Oh, yeah, yeah. Just trying to collect prices where we can.

Right, right. Good, good. Thank you.

Good. Thanks. All in favor? I accept Denningbrook Road and Timber Ridge Road as public roads of the town of Mount Desert pending letter of certification from town council certifying the commitment for title insurance.

We'll move it.

These are up in Farnam's Way?

No, this is off of 102.

Oh, that's right.

Yeah. And then Denningbrook and Timber Ridge goes off of Denningbrook. This has been kind of a long process, companies and it just took time so they finally got their materials together but there is the caveat on the recommendation that i need to take our lawyers yeah and just verify that yeah i'll sign off on that insurance and then we should be good all in favor thank you complicated business yeah

Review and approve the final extension of Administrative Consent Agreement with Peabody Northeast LLC, also known as the Aztec Hotel.

Second.

Any discussion? All in favor? Informational year-to-date budget report through 3-31-2026.

So in your packet was an updated budget report, as promised. You're asked that I come back on a quarterly basis and give you an update of where we were. And you will notice that the fund balance needed to balance the budget has decreased about $200,000. And you think, yeah, great. That's fantastic. Where did that money come from? It is largely because we agreed to put that $200,000 from reserves in. We did not do that, had not done that when I did the December report. But as you remember, Alex reported that he and I looked at it closely. We feel that that is a good, wise use of town funds. We have the resources to do that. It has been done historically. The change of 200,000 is basically that. There's some lines up and down, and I will admit that there's some things that were not completely posted in December. When I did that report, we've gotten caught up now. So I feel this is fairly accurate if we're going to need approximately $100,000 from fund balance more than the 200 from reserves. We had budgeted to use four. Hopefully we won't need any more than 100, but it does point to what the auditor was saying that that fund balance is steadily decreasing, the percentage. Thank you.

But you're comfortable with where it is? Now?

We don't want to keep going in that.

At what percentage are you uncomfortable?

Well, she was saying that 14% is like the lowest threshold that she would recommend. So that's where we are. 100,000 is not going to make a huge difference, but we just don't want to start using, you know, another 600,000 next year, next year, next year. Right. I certainly would want to see it really lower than 12.

Thank you.

This is a big part of the upcoming budget.

what Nancy and I have been talking about where we need the new budget will be intended to stop this right there was a lot to straighten okay thank you thank you demo from the assessor as an intermittent valuation update thank you I just wanted to give you folks an update of the valuation updates that I'm working on I heard from a couple of people after my first presentation who clearly misunderstood what I was doing. So I wanted to come back to you guys to explain it again, hopefully get the word out. The feedback I got was, oh my God, my taxes are going up 20%. Not this time. So I did get into the nitty gritty of changing values and I changed, largely changed land which is only a component of everybody's value. So that schedule that I had laid out where west side is getting 10%, east side is getting 20%, those are land values that I'm adjusting upwards. So there's some information in the memo. The average increase is about 8%. So this is good news for the taxpayers. It's bad news for our ratio. Our ratio, I couldn't get it up over 90% like I had hoped. It's really the intricacy of changing building values, which is really hard to separate between villages. Everybody's got a cape. They're all over the town. measured list which Alex and I are talking about that's coming down the pipe um that's really when we'll be able to retool all those cost schedules to get all the villages more you know equitable um right now the average ratio is 85 that's up from 79 some move in the right direction um What I've done, what I could for this year. Notices of new values will be going out early May. And then that will give folks a chance to review it and discuss it. They feel it's wrong. They can come in and meet with me. And then once those hearings are through the end of May, then we'll be all set for the tax bill cycle. So I just wanted to bring that and bring it in the informational section, which I love on the agenda. It's not really a decision made, but I wanted to verbalize what we're doing. We get some press coverage and try to get the word out. Not impending doom, but that's... Not soon impending doom. What is it?

The state was looking for 90 to 110.

Is that what it was?

No, the state gives us a fair bit more leeway, 70% to 110%. We've got to be somewhere in there. But if your ratio is low, say we're at 70%, we have to adjust certain things when I commit the taxes. Homestead exemption is the big one. So the full value, if we were in the 90 to 100% range, you'd get the full homestead exemption, which is $25,000 off your assessment. When we're at, so we'll say we'll commit at 85% of, you know, our ratio is at 85%, you'll get 85% of that exemption. So you don't get the full amount. That's for all the exemptions, veterans, pensioners, blind, exemptions. So those are taking a hit, which is great. but that's the consequence of where we're at.

Has any property actually gone down?

The only low ball prices I've seen are friends and neighbors selling and that kind of thing. So it's not really a market sale. They're still coming in way above the assessments. Beach Hill is a hot street right now. houses pretty far apart maybe within a mile stretch there all over seven hundred thousand so i'm trying to keep up with that so yeah well i guess that's as cheery as it could be so i told alex it's good news for the taxpayers bad news for the ratio so i think we'll take that okay thanks um

Now we enter into our public comment period.

Speak from a place of scar tissue. I have property on Main Street, and this week Main Street is another leaving project, ripping up project. And it's just, we never received any notice that we were going to be having Main Street ripped up. Again, I know one business today couldn't move a vehicle in and out of their driveway. It's just, it's hard because we've lived this and now we're living it again. It just feels like when will this ever, ever, ever be done? And how much longer? Because it's just, it's horrible.

This is wrapping up very soon because this is warranty work. As you know, it goes on from the original ministry project, the building improvement. Yes, for all of us. And this is the warranty work that's getting completed. We have been working on trying to get this completed for some They are proceeding with a good plan to get this completed. They are moving at a very good pace.

Very pleasant.

Yes. And they should wrap this up. And I'm much more confident in their ability to get this completed and then to not have

water actually gets off the street i guess what i'm saying is the next time we do any kind of a project like this where you're going to lose parking spaces businesses aren't going to be accessible it would be kind if those businesses got a heads up so that they could plan accordingly i mean i've been watching all the delivery trucks try to jockey around it's been cuckoo it's just it's been hard and it just brings up so much emotion with everybody I mean, if you talk to any mainstream merchant this week, they're just going, how much longer? Why again? And with no notice, I think that's the sentiment. Yeah, well, it's not just you. I mean, we should all be aware. I mean, it would have been nice if someone had coordinated with the Chamber so the Chamber could have sent out a blast. You know, if the town had sent out a blast, because picture the little old infirm person trying to get into Pine Tree Market and can't because there's a trench that's uneven. I mean, it's just, it's petros up there.

Wrapping up soon. Sorry.

We heard it before.

The setting is higher than the water, right? Setting them at the closer to the elevations that they were specified in the plan's original minutes.

Imagine. All right. Any more comment from the public? Thanks, Katrina. We're going to move on now to the treasurer's warrants. A approval and signature town invoice AP-2663, AP-2664 and DD-2622 in the amount of $354,550.07. Second. All in favor? Little and signature state fees and payroll benefits ap 2661 dd 2621 ap 2662 and town payroll PR 2624 in the amount of 266,533 dollars and 40 cents. On favor. Acknowledgement school invoice MDS AP 13 and school payroll MDS PR 21 in the amount of $164,388.53. Move acknowledgement. Second. Okay. Take a motion for adjournment.

So move.