March 29, 2024
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Board backs revised sewer ordinance

MOUNT DESERT – Selectmen on Monday said they will trust voters to pass a new sewer ordinance at the town meeting in March, including language defining a controversial user fee system, rather than make last-minute changes to the proposal.

By consensus, selectmen rejected the recommendation of the town’s warrant committee to remove the user fee article from the ordinance and hold a separate vote on the item.

Chairman James Bright told other selectmen that the committee was concerned that the proposed ordinance would be defeated at next spring’s town meeting if the user fee article were not removed.

Except for the user fee provision, most people agree a new sewer ordinance to better control the town system is both valuable and needed.

The proposed user fee article would only define the method for assessing and collecting the fees, not authorize them, according to selectmen. That’s because the selectmen, even over the objections of town meeting voters, agreed last year to impose fees under the authority they are granted by state law.

The proposed sewer ordinance would replace an existing vague ordinance and establish myriad new rules for operation of the system.

Selectmen, with one exception, continue strongly to support a fee system. They said Monday that even if the ordinance were defeated, that would not prevent them from implementing the fees.

Selectmen Rick Savage and Jerry Suminsby noted how important a new sewer ordinance is to the town as it tries to control runoffs and pollutants in the system, but agreed the user fee language should be established as part of the ordinance.

“I’m willing to take a chance that the voters [will] face the music and say ‘yes, we need an ordinance and the only way to fund part of the cost is through a fee.'”

The majority of Mount Desert homeowners are not connected to the town’s sewer system, yet they pay for the operation, maintenance and capital debt on the $700,000 annual operation. Under the fee system being developed by selectmen and Town Manager Michael MacDonald, capital expenses for the sewer system will still be paid for through the town’s general fund. The user fees would pay for the operational and maintenance costs.

Mount Desert is one of only four Maine communities that finance their sewer operation through the property tax.

“Our intention is to give nonusers some relief,” said Selectmen Ernest Coombs.

The user fee issue has divided the small town and selectmen seemed resigned Monday to further battles before it’s over. “I say leave [the proposed ordinance] alone,” Savage said. “If the voters vote it down, they vote it down. That doesn’t mean the issue is going to go away.”

Selectmen decided to present the ordinance as written to voters. A public hearing is scheduled for next Monday on the proposal as selectmen run up against a deadline for getting the item on the next town meeting warrant.

Suminsby said if voters reject the entire ordinance because of the user fee article, then selectmen will have to continue amending the language until a majority approves it.

“This is a wound in this town and it’s just bleeding” as long as it goes unresolved, Suminsby said. “Let’s get this thing healed.”

Suminsby said the sewer issue has caused the defeat of town bond issues for village and other infrastructure projects because nonusers won’t agree to pay more until they’re relieved of the burden of the sewer costs. For the selectmen and nonusers, imposing a fee system is the only fair way to finance the operation.

“This stands as a roadblock to other positive changes we need to make in this town,” Suminsby said.

Selectman Emily Damon Pascal was the only member of the board to appear to wobble at the last minute, asking the board whether it really wants to impose a fee system and to do it without voter approval.

“The answer is yes and no,” Suminsby said. “Yes to the first, no to the second.”


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