SEARSPORT, Maine — A near-capacity crowd listened carefully Thursday night as panels composed of project neighbors, business owners and Islesboro residents outlined their deep concerns about the proposed liquid propane gas terminal and storage tank that a Denver company wants to build at the Mack Point industrial zone.
It was the Searsport Planning Board’s fourth of five public hearings scheduled to take place this week in the Searsport District High School cafeteria. The board members have heard testimony from opposition groups such as Thanks But No Tank, Denver-based company DCP Midstream, project neighbors and other residents.
The worries that some of those neighbors and residents discussed Thursday included a major anticipated drop in property value, a depressed housing market, far fewer tourists than usual, safety concerns, light pollution and more. The $40 million, 23 million-gallon project would include a tank that would stretch 138 feet high and about 200 feet wide.
“If the tank is built, the natural beauty of the area will be forever altered,” said Diane Stevens, who lives close to the tank site. “We love our home, our little gardens. Our property would lose value if the tank is built. We don’t want to give up our assets so some big company can make a profit. If the tank were built, there’d be many changes to our way of life.”
Another project neighbor, Jeannie Lucas, said that her home was appraised in 2009, before the project began, and again this year. It lost $100,000 in equity and value, or 23 percent of its total value, in that time, she said.
“The DCP megatank is already taking a toll on the housing market,” she said. “Let them buy up the affected areas. Don’t make us pay for it.”
Resident Ted Kessler said that he and his wife chose to retire to Searsport in 2003 and noted that “just the possibility” of the tank has had a detrimental affect on the housing market.
“My family will be saddled with a significant financial loss,” he said. “For folks in our age bracket, this is especially acute … please don’t approve this project.”
After each panel made its presentation, DCP Midstream attorney Jamie Kilbreth asked questions and asked for clarifications. One of the exchanges grew a little testy when he challenged Lucas’ assertion that no one would want to live in an industrial zone.
“Are you aware that this is in an industrial zone?” the attorney asked.
“My house is not an industrial zone, nor do I want it to become one,” she said.
Bruce Probert, chairman of the planning board, worked to tamp down crowd noise, including laughter and other sounds from the estimated 250 people in the room. There was not another incident like the one that occurred on Wednesday night, when police escorted Searsport resident Ben Crimaudo out of the room after an exchange of some sort with an officer. Crimaudo, 75, came back to the hearings on Thursday.
Another panel included local business owners who are concerned about negative consequences of the tank.
Brenda Liston, one of the owners of the Captain A.V. Nicholls Inn on Route 1, said that she and her husband have invested about $500,000 in fixing up the sea captain’s house since they purchased it in early 2011. This past summer, they hired 10 people to work in the restaurant and hosted guests from all over the country.
“Our hope was to grow the business even further,” Liston said. “We can’t do that if we’re talking about being in the middle of an industrialized community.”
Steven Tanguay, who runs Searsport Shores Campground, described Searsport now as “a spider web of support.” If the project drives some businesses away from town, it will weaken the area’s economy, he said.
“The community needs each other,” Tanguay said.
After hearing from Liston, Tanguay and other concerned business owners, Kilbreth addressed the planning board members, who are tasked with deciding if the project’s application meets the town’s land use standards.
“When, in any of the ordinances, is tourism listed as a performance standard?” he asked.
The public hearing process continues at 6 p.m. Friday at the high school.
When, in any of the ordinances, is tourism listed as a performance standard?” he asked” DCP’s attorney to the planning board
Unimaginable arrogance and disdain and complete ignorance about the role of tourism in Maine’s economy and especially Searsport
Tourism pumps $10- to $13 billion into the state economy each year and employs 140,000 workers, which is nearly 22 percent of the state’s workforce, according to the Maine Office of Tourism. Ecotourism (whale watches, nature cruises,etc) is playing an ever-increasing role in Maine’s overall economy.
The role of tourism in Searsport economy is apparent even to someone driving through ..all those elegant manicured B&B’s..the antiques malls and fancy antiques galleries, the character of its historic old maine street and the presence of the museum.
That DCP’s arrogant rude attorney could not be aware that “economic impact” in Searsport referred importantly to tourism reflects not just on DCP ( and the local reps they have hired to represent them, like TRC Solutionns in South Portland ) but on the Town Manager the selectmen, and most of all on the Town Manager.
That moment in last nights hearing really sas it all about DCP and about whether town officials have been faithful to the economic base of the town and their interests in this matter.
How is it even possible that the attorney could turn earnestly to the planning board members and ask “what has tourism go do with this”
Think about it.
What does that suggest to you?
It’s not in ordinances; usually in a towns comprehensive plan.
The term “ordinances” was used by the DCP attorney..(I was quoting him as quoted in the newspaper article we are all commenting on.) There is adefined process for the planning board’s consideration of applications..I elieve that is in ordinance form and in this case it does address economic impacts and in this case tourism is a major pillar of Searsports economic base.
Missing the opportunity to be the only real 21th Century working waterfront between BIW and the marginal port operation in Eastport is short sighted folly, driven by the wanna be rusticators. .
If you think the working port in Eastport is “marginal” then you haven’t been in Eastport for a long time.
You should visit sometime.
What’s going on in Eastport is impressive, especially the port!
“Problem is that this development is notgoing to add to this port in a way that benefits Maine or this community.”
Yeah, it would means having the ability for ships coming in, regularly.
Good on Eastport, but still it’s dependent on what, bulk pulp wood, even as alternatives are being developed everywhere ?
“FORT KENT, Maine — The Center for Rural Sustainable Development at the University of Maine at Fort Kent has received a $62,334 grant to study farmer interest in large-scale grass biomass production, as well as the economic and market feasibility of grass biomass in the St. John Valley.”
http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/community/umfks-center-for-rural-sustainable-development-faculty-to-study-grass-biomass-feasibility-in-st-john-valley/
Yesterday there was a ship at the Estes Head Pier loading pulp.
At the same time there was another ship at the breakwater loading cows bound for Russia (I believe Eastport is the ONLY port in the U.S. that has been approved to ship that cargo).
At the same time there was a third ship at anchor in the bay awaiting to dock.
There is a new conveyer system to ship pellets, and the port itself has increased in size 4-fold the last few years.
Again, there is nothing “marginal” about the port in Eastport. It is thriving.
Come visit. See for yourself.
At the same time there was another ship at the breakwater loading cows bound for Russia (I believe Eastport THE EASTERN MOST POINT IN USA , COULD BE NOT FURTHER AWAY FROM THE SOURCE OF THIS SAD BUSINESS… DROUGHT WRECKED FARMERS SELLING OF THEIR HERDS… is the ONLY port in the U.S. that has been approved ( BIG GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS, RIGHT ?) to ship that cargo.
It IS bones thrown to gullible.
BUT GOOD LUCK, TOO.
I’m sincere in that last.
Nope. Wrong. The cows are mostly from New England. Nice fat healthy cows from healthy farms and healthy farmers. This is a dynamic, growing business creating a lot of work for longshoremen in Eastport.
Believe it or not there is a shortage of cows in many parts of Europe.
Eastport was approved for the cow cargo because it is the closest U.S. port to Europe which makes the journey easier on the cows.
Sometimes the simple answers are the right ones, Mitt.
Have a nice weekend.
Hi Mitt,
No question that Searsport is an important port.
Problem is that this development is notgoing to add to this port in a way that benefits Maine or this community. The very prseence of this 14 story tank ( it would be the highest structure in Maine and would result in loss of all that tree buffer that makes Mack Point and its port acaivities invisible to and compatible with the towns other economic base in tourism. That tank will be sitting naked looming up behind Anglers and all of a sudden the vista there will be of Mack point. Loss of that visual buffer is a critically important negative aspect of this project.
Also as I have posted elsewhere, according to DCP itself their Chesapeake facility has had only one tanker stop by to use their facility there.
Also Maine is expereiencing a loss of activity at all its harbors due to global consilidation of the container industry. That will accelerate dramatically with completion of the Panama canal widening in 2014. All northeast ports will suffer an immense loss of acivity when that happens. Consolidation will be to a few southern ports near large population centers and the plan/vision is that super large conatiners will be warehouses in the Caribbean and not come ashore at all or consolidated remote desert locations on the west coast.
rather than spending mega bucks to derdge for this project and for other ships that will never come we need to Make Maine’s ports a first priority for post panama planning. We need to completely re imagine all Maine ports and figure out how we are going to keep the smaller ships and smaller loads we need to service our economic needs moving in and out of our ports.
I’m not worried about property values in Searsport. I’m worried about the cost of energy. Build it!
Chill out !
It’ll be much cheaper to heat your home when the envirowhackjobs and Algorians get us all moved into caves.
“Another project neighbor, Jeannie Lucas, said that her home was appraised in 2009, before the project began, and again this year. It lost $100,000 in equity and value, or 23 percent of its total value, in that time, she said.
“The DCP megatank is already taking a toll on the housing market,”
she said. “Let them buy up the affected areas. Don’t make us pay for
it.”
I am not sure if Jeannie Lucas has been living in a bubble for the last several years but there has been this little thing happening that we like to call a RECESSION. She is lucky that her home has only dropped 23% in value over this time, since many have experienced 50% or more decline in value. The drop in home value has absolutely nothing to do with this proposal and to bring this up shows just how backwards and uninformed the opponents of this project are. How would adding one more tank to an existing TANK FARM, be detrimental to area property values? I could see if we where talking about adding an entirely new industrial area or talking about putting this tank in a residential area, but isn’t an industrial area supposed to be for industry?? Has anyone noticed that there is also a large shipping port with tall cranes and a large chemical plant in the adjacent area? When this project gets underway and is built you will see that this has been much to do about nothing. This will not have the doomsday impact that the No Tanks people want you to believe. It will be business as usual and one tall tank isn’t going to deter folks from exploring our beautiful coastline and interior.
What Maine needs is Gov like our last one who felt that for the best interest of the state we needed a a dump in Old Town. Since we ALL create trash we need to get rid of it, we had to find a place. No one likes it in their backyard, but it needs to go somewhere. Aren’t we as citizens obligated to think beyond ourselves and of everyone in the state? We need to lower the cost of fuel for everyone in the state. That way we aren’t not dependent on the government to keep our homes warm.
The residents of Searsport sound like well off yuppies who for the most part are thinking about their own pocketbooks and no one else’s.
letstrythisagain
The current price of foreign propane is about $1 more per gallon at present. Market trends have changed rapidly in the energy market with the new technologies in the industry along with a shale gas boom, making the US a world-wide source for LPG.
letstrythisagain
There is a simple solution to this. In order to save the all important seasonal tourism industry, the State should sell off Sears Island (afterall, it was purchased for expansion of the Mack Point industrial area) to Six Flags which should then build a large theme park therby providing a boost to the tourism industry, and jobs with wages that compete with the other ‘living wage’ touism based operations in the region. Nothing screams tourism like a theme park!
Although I’m not convinced that is a SIMPLE solution it perhaps is a very interesting one to consider. It is a wonderful thing that there are folks like yourself that can “think outside the box”. I feel as though Searsport has kind of been “putting all their eggs in one basket” and putting too much emphasis on expanding the towns industry … to the point that it has obviously torn this little community apart. It is now quite clear that the industry that currently resides in this unique village is NOT the “HOLY Grail” as if it were there would be little unemployment in the area and no where near the amount of homes for sale in the town that there currently is. I always thought that more effort should be made on trying to capture the opportunities available through the towns rich maritime history…. the Maritime museum is already there … why not use that as the catalyst. Just look at the transition that is currently taking place in Belfast. They have “seen the light”. The poultry processing plants are gone and the town has embraced the harbor …. and it is paying off for them big time now. I’m not suggesting that Searsport remove the industry that is currently there … just suggesting NOT “putting all the eggs in one basket”.
Though I am glad that the Bangor Daily is following the story, I think they missed the boat on a couple points. Firstly, people are concerned about their safety if they live in close proximity to the tank. Although there is a financial part to that, (not being able to afford to move away) the primary part is being worried about being harmed and exposing friends and family to danger. The other point that was made by many of the business owners is that they employ people. It sounded like quite a few jobs, more than the ten or fifteen that DCP has mentioned. So where is the gain for Searsport if people are afraid to live in the area, won’t visit the area, lose their jobs that were in the area? Thanks for reading this and following the story!
Permitting this project to proceed, would be a terrible blow to the future of Searsport.
Long after the recession has ended, the industrial park would remain, a blight on the town, and an economic drag on the community.
Send the carpetbaggers back to Colorado.
Just my opinion.
It’s a “PORT” . A place to land and distribute products.
you weren’t around when we were fighting the Old Town land fill years ago, so your on you own.. Personally I hope they put the tank in.. Good Jobs Good Tax Base.. 35 hundred miles of Maine coastline few areas can take large ships.. Live with it or move..