Embattled v. Embittered: Belfast councilors and frustrated citizens face off over perambulation
[Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Belfast, Maine.] Feelings ran high and tempers flared at last night’s meeting between officials from Northport and Belfast over Belfast’s request to survey the intertidal boundary line between the two towns. Over 50 citizens – some Belfast, some Northport, some elsewhere – peppered Belfast council members over their continued insistence that the boundary was in doubt and needed to be agreed upon…for tax purposes.
HLH Attorney Kim Ervin Tucker speaks at the podium.
Belfast City Council (BCC) tried to prepare itself for rough sledding with a 5:30 p.m. executive session just before the 6:00 public “work session” with their Northport counterparts. But observers hooted in disbelief when Belfast’s attorney, Kristin Collins:
-- Stated someone raised the boundary issue “externally,” but refused to identify who the person was;
-- Claimed the Maine Supreme Judicial Court never said where the mouth of the Little River is located when, in fact, it did;
-- Implied the Justices on the Court did not understand that municipal boundary issues are “…’way more complicated…” than the Court thought;
-- Never said that town officials walked the boundary 160+ years ago in 1865 with no disputes; and
-- Forgot to mention that municipalities do not tax intertidal land.
Belfast mayor, Eric Sanders, created an even bigger outcry when he suggested that the boundary might have moved due to “climate change.” Sanders fed the incredulity in the crowd by declaring that his concern was “…not about eminent domain…” and he “…didn’t give a damn where the line was…” only that it be established “impartially.” At that point, the torrent of objections from people packed in the council chamber, standing in the hall, and stuffed in an adjacent meeting room was so strong that Sanders – perhaps feeling that the work session was slipping out of his control – screamed “Shut up!”
Councilor Neal Harkness felt the need to double-down on the tax angle by saying he was not sure that surveyor Don Richards’s determination of “true North” on his official surveys was accurate. Councilor Mary Moriarity said a new surveyor with “gravitas” and no local connections needed to step in, even though surveyor Don Richards and Knut Hermansen co-authored the book on how to determine the location of survey points in streams and rivers. Councilor Paul Dean’s only interest was the placing of a physical monument at the mouth of the Little River, despite the fact that modern geo-location techniques can accurately pinpoint any spot on the globe.
Watching the sparring between Belfast councilors and Belfast citizens, the Northport representatives could not help but feel caught in the middle of a fight they did not start and did not want to join. Mayor Sanders offered to have Belfast foot the entire cost of any survey, assuring Northport that they would be “looped into” the exercise.
The 6:00 p.m. work session ended at 6:50 with an offer from Belfast for the two towns to consider their options and set another meeting to hammer out a final decision on the question of hiring a new surveyor and what conditions to set on his or her assignment.
Mayor Sanders – still vibrating from the raucous work session – called a regular City Council meeting to order at 7:00 p.m., announcing that the Council decided it will hold a public meeting on its August 2021 condemnation and seizure of the intertidal land owned by Jeffrey Mabee and Judith Grace…the unacknowledged source of the boundary fracas. Sadly, for Sanders & Company, the date – Tuesday, April 16th – is too late to avoid a new lawsuit against the city. HLH attorney, Kim Ervin Tucker, told the Belfast officials that they have nine days to consider and pass a certificate vacating the condemnation. [Click below.]
