Without adequate working waterfronts, one of the state’s economic engines is in trouble, fathoms-deep.
Holbrook’s Wharf is the heart of Cundy’s Harbor at the end of Great Island in Harpswell. The wharf has been an anchor of community life for over 150 years. Cundy’s Harbor is the oldest commercial lobstering village in Maine, and it’s imperative that the existing docks remain to serve the fishermen.

Ed Handel and Robert Fitzpatrick, from Cape Cod, bought the property with the hope of using the wharf as a landing place for tuna fishing, Fitzpatrick’s side business. It soon became apparent that the real estate value of the land versus a working wharf’s economic potential were too far apart financially. They put the land up for sale for $1.3 million.

By the summer of 2004, the price had been lowered to $1.150 million. The Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national land preservation organization with a field office in Portland, approached the owners to discuss purchasing the land in the hopes of turning it over to local residents who would form a nonprofit foundation to run it. TPL bought an option giving it the right to buy the property by April, 2006. Coastal Enterprises, Inc., Maine Coast Heritage Trust and the Island Institute were brought in to work with Cundy’s Harbor’s residents on fundraising, and the Land for Maine’s Future ballot measure, which voters approved Nov. 8, could provide funds. ($2 million is allocated for working waterfronts in the measure.)

Wolf Tone, Project Manager for TPL in Portland, is optimistic that private and public funds can be generated to purchase the land. “Holbrook’s wharf is a model, a poster child, for working waterfronts,” he said. “The wharf is an investment in our communities, and it defines Maine’s unique coastline character.”

The land boasts of a general store, a snack bar, two apartments in the Holbrook family house, four moorings as well as commercial fishing activities. Summer and year-round residents, fishermen, and tourists all connect on this small piece of acreage. During the ice storm of 1998, the general store was the gathering place for the community – sharing generators and chain saws bound citizens together.

Last month a group of concerned residents formed a committee to keep the wharf working and to honor the Holbrooks who had owned the land for 100 years. Sue Hawkes, a Maine native born in Cundy’s Harbor, is chair. Her maternal side of the family has been fishermen and sea captains for generations, and her husband and sons are lobstermen and shrimpers now. Their working wharf is next to Holbrook’s. “I cannot imagine Holbrook’s wharf not being available to the community,” she comments. “We must tell the story and get people involved. The passion is there, and we have faith that the land will be purchased.”

Another committee member, Howard Nannen, is a local contractor. He sees local businesses, the Town of Harpswell, and suppliers to the resource industries and organizations who want to keep working waterfronts for commercial fishermen all responding to the campaign. “The wharf is the traction in the community,” Nannen states. In the first weeks of the campaign, more than $50,000.00 was pledged or raised.

The New Meadows River harbor has seven docks used by commercial fishermen. Gills, hard shells and urchins used to find a place on Holbrook’s dock, which has the capacity to work with a lot of fish. There’s a winch system on the wharf, and a stainless steel shed with coolers.

Question 7, which voters also approved in November, will play a role as well. It amended the state constitution to allow local property taxes to be based on the current use of fishermen’s waterfront, not on the residential potential of the coastal land.

Rob Snyder, Programs Vice President at the Island Institute, worked on the campaign to pass the amendment and bond issue. His reaction to the positive election results was ecstatic. “The entire state sent such a strong message of support. The citizens realized the importance of our state’s natural resources – timber, agriculture and fishing – and they approved the amendment with a 73 percent mandate. Economically and historically, commercial fishermen are critical to our state’s future.”

Cundy’s Harbor residents are likewise pleased with the favorable election results. “It’s remarkable,” Hawkes exclaims. “Groups who told the story about Measure 5 and the property tax change for working waterfront told it well. Constitutional amendments don’t usually happen. This one did.”

To make a tax-deductible contribution to the Campaign to Keep Holbrook’s Wharf, contact the Trust for Public Land, 377 Fore Street, Portland, ME 04101.