Republican Initiative Saves Bond for Working Waterfront

AUGUSTA – During the late-hour negotiations over the state bond proposal, Republican legislators employed an inventive strategy to save a $2-million bond item to help preserve Maine’s working waterfront.

 

Rep. Steve Bowen (R-Rockport) crafted a plan to place the working waterfront money into the Land for Maine’s Future (LMF) program, which traditionally buys land for conservation and public recreation. Working with the Department of Marine Resources and LMF officials, he developed a compromise to set up a pilot program, using the $2-million bond as “gap money” to help fishermen and investors buy piers, wharves and real estate where lobstermen and fisherman land their catches.

 

“Rather than create a new program, we decided to use Land for Maine’s Future as an umbrella,” said Rep. Bowen, a member of the bond-writing Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee. “The LMF board will decide where the money goes, and we’ll be able to capitalize on their land-purchasing expertise. The Department of Marine Resources will supply its knowledge of marine matters. It also will create an advisory group of real estate experts and people who understand the needs of fishing communities. That will help the program maximize its resources.”

 

Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, in Kennebunk, said saving the $2-million bond is crucial for Maine’s fishing industry. “This is do or die for us,” she said. “Development pressure along the coast is fierce, and wharves and piers are disappearing fast. The timing is critical.”

 

“This problem did not exist five years ago,” McCarron added. “I know Steve [Bowen] has gone to the mat for this. But anyone who supported him should be proud. They are preserving a unique characteristic of the Maine way of life, and establishing a legacy for our future.”

 

McCarron said that without financial help to save working waterfront property, it would all be gone in 25 years. “Maine would no longer be Maine,” she said. “There would not be a next generation of fisherman, because they would have no place to land their catch. Where today you have wharves and docks, you’d have condos and houses.”

 

While the bond money requires a one-to-one funding match from the private sector, McCarron predicts the program will draw four or five dollars for every bond dollar allocated. She said 39,000 jobs are directly linked to working waterfront access, and the industry has an annual value of $740 million.

 

Rep. Bowen said the $2-million bond and matching funds will pay for three or four projects to demonstrate that the pilot program works as hoped. He said the piers, wharves and associated buildings and real estate would remain privately owned. The selection criteria would favor sites “over which a lot of marine product travels,” Rep. Bowen said, and would follow LMF rules that require a willing seller.

 

He added that the working waterfront plan he spearheaded drew bipartisan support from fellow legislators. “This is a tight bond proposal – $83 million,” he said. “I’m very glad we were able to carve out money for this program, because it’s going to mean a lot to fishing communities all up and down the Maine coast. This is a very powerful idea, that we can retain a valuable and irreplaceable asset to our state.”

 

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