Belfast City Council picked an unbiased surveyor? We don't think so.

[Sunday, June 23, 2024. Belfast, Maine] On Tuesday, June 6, the Belfast city councilors voted 3-2 to hire land surveyor Robert A. Yarumian of Maine Boundary Consultants to locate the mouth of the Little River. The councilors voting to use Mr. Yarumian’s services felt the city needed an unbiased surveyor to determine — for at least the fifth time — where the mouth of the little River ends, arguing that Belfast needed a professional with no connection to either side of the Nordic fish factory controversy. But is surveyor Yarumian truly unbiased? Here are three reasons we doubt he is.

One. A review of Mr. Yarumian’s prior jobs reveals that he has been Nordic’s counsel’s expert in the very contentious and protracted litigation that culminated in the Maine Supreme Judicial Court (a.k.a. the Law Court) Almeder decision in 2020.

In that case, the Law Court determined that beachfront landowners lost control of the intertidal lands below the high water mark when they could not demonstrate that their “predecessors in interest” had been given ownership down to the low water mark with a chain of deeds dating back to the original conveyances made by the colonial Proprietors: the intertidal land became the legal property of the municipality.

Two. Mr. Yarumian is reported to have said in a Zoom conference with Belfast attorney Kristin Collins, Northport administrator James Kossuth, and Belfast city manager Erin Herbig on May 28, 2024: “…can’t we test…” the Law Court’s decision in Mabee-1 regarding the definition of the mouth of a brook, river, or stream.

Three. Even more alarming, Mr. Yarumian wrote a book titled The Great Land Grab, published in 2019, advocating against private ownership of the intertidal land in southern Maine and for public entities litigating against private property owners in their communities to terminate private ownership of beach and intertidal property.

How can Mr. Yarumian be unbiased when he wrote a book to argue what he thinks the law should be regarding public vs. private intertidal land ownership — and he has actively advocated for litigation by public entities to eliminate private ownership of intertidal land? Compare his focus on what he would like the law to be with surveyor Don Richards’ written treatises and books with Knud Hermansen on what the law is in Maine, when determining the boundaries of waterfront parcels.

Will Mr. Yarumian use the Belfast survey assignment to further his crusade to eliminate private ownership of intertidal land and expand his efforts to include the Midcoast and Waldo County?

We believe that Surveyor Yarumian’s personal and professional bias and advocacy against privately-owned intertidal land make him a poor choice to do this survey for Belfast and Northport.

In fact, Mr. Yarumian’s selection has the feel of an 11th-hour, bait-and-switch decision, especially since the City originally proposed surveyor Clark Staples, P.L.S. in discussions with Nordic opponent, Upstream Watch. At that time, all Nordic opponents agreed that Mr. Staples has the competence, experience, expertise, objectivity, and honesty to conduct such a survey…if a new one was even necessary.

Sadly, surveyor Staples stated in a June 6, 2024 deposition that no one from the City of Belfast ever contacted him about doing this survey, so how sincere was the City’s proposal to employ him?

The choice of Mr. Yarumian is misguided. It could lead to many more years of litigation involving the City, landowners Mabee and Grace, HLH, and (unfortunately) Northport, to the extent it is involved in a survey that doesn’t follow the Law Court’s directives in Mabee-1. It does nothing to counter the suspicions of many Belfast residents that the councilors continue to hold out the hope that Nordic will prevail...while assuring skeptics that the city is ready to "move on."

It is past time for Belfast to accept the boundary delineated in the 2019 Don Richards’ surveys – which the Law Court has already determined were done using the definition adopted by the Law Court in Mabee-1.

Andrew Stevenson, Press Secretary

Friends of Harriet L. Hartley Conservation Area

Cell: 703-407-2968