Ayers Island deal approaches completion

ORONO – A University of Maine professor may pass the final hurdle Monday night in the five-year process to acquire a 62-acre town-owned island.

During a special meeting at 7:30 p.m. in council chambers, the Town Council will vote on the proposed deed to transfer Ayers Island to George Markowsky.

Also at Monday night’s meeting, the council will consider for final approval the proposed $13 million municipal and school budget.

Since 1999, Markowsky has had a lease-purchase agreement for Ayers Island and the former Striar Textile Mill, where he hopes to build a research and development park. According to the terms of the five-year lease, Markowsky sent the town a check for $100 on Dec. 31, 2002, with a letter expressing his intent to buy the island.

Legal counsel for Markowsky and the town have been reviewing the agreement, drawn up in February by the town, for the past four months, Town Manager Gerry Kempen said.

Markowsky was out of the state Friday and could not be reached for comment.

Two fixed-position public conservation easements have been removed from the original proposed deed, Kempen said, which would have maintained public access to the island. Public access has been instrumental for the town in obtaining grants, Kempen said, such as the $750,000 allotment from the Environmental Protection Agency to be used as a loan fund for the cleanup of contaminants on the island.

Even without the easements, Markowsky has demonstrated commitment in maintaining public access to the island, Kempen said. Unlike previous tenants of the island, Markowksy has encouraged public use with art shows, concerts, tours and use of nature trails, Kempen said.

“He’s agreed from the start that public access is a part of the island and will be for the future,” Kempen said.

Also part of the deed, any significant development of the island would have to be approached as a planned unit development. Under the town’s land use ordinance, PUDs must maintain 30 percent open space, which could ultimately serve as publicly accessible space, Kempen said.

Other conditions of the proposed deed ensure that the parcel will be forever subject to real estate and personal property taxes, and may be developed only with the designated industrial uses under the town’s land use ordinance. The town would retain the right to buy the island back if a third party attempts to buy the island and Markowsky would be required to reinvest his first $500,000 of profits into capital improvements to the island.

In addition, he would be required to enter the island into a hazardous substance remediation program approved by the Department of Environmental Protection within five years of the sale.