The state’s working waterfront access program would receive $5.5 million if a bond bill proposed by Speaker of the House Hannah Pingree makes it through the State Legislature and is approved by voters.
The bond bill also includes money to preserve farmland and help create food processing for both the fishing and agriculture industries.
Pingree’s $16 million bill is broken down as follows: $5.5 million for the Working Waterfront Access Pilot Program, $5.5 million to create a fund to preserve farmland, and $5 million to help establish food processing for the fishing and agriculture industries. Other legislators have put forth their own bond bills and Gov. John Baldacci has proposed his own bond package with money for working waterfronts.
“Maine needs to protect traditional industries and maintain the integrity and strength of the Maine Brand,” said North Haven’s Pingree, in a March 11 press release. “This bill provides a comprehensive approach to protecting and promoting agriculture and fishing in Maine in these economic hard times. Most importantly, it will help to preserve and create jobs in Maine’s traditional fishing and farming industries.”
“Over the last four years the Working Waterfront Access Pilot Program has established itself as an integral part of working land preservation on our coast with properties spanning the coast from York to Beals Island,” said Rob Snyder, the Island Institute’s vice president of programs. “With real estate pressure continuing to mount on the coast despite the national economy, and a hard year ahead for our lobster and ground fishermen, the Working Waterfront Access Pilot Program is only becoming more vital. It is essential that we, as a state, continue to invest in this important part of our economy.”
By including funds for food processing, this bill introduces a new element in how conservation land is bonded. Pingree’s bill would provide $3 million in grants and $2 million in loans for commercial fishing and agriculture processing in Maine
“Maine does not have sufficient processing capacity for seafood, particularly lobster, and does not have sufficient organic slaughterhouse capacity to support our current livestock population,” said Pingree. “If we are to continue to support food production in Maine, we should do our best to ensure we create jobs in Maine and produce the best products we can.”
With a depleted fishery, a new market system has to be created to allow fishermen to support themselves with a smaller volume of fish, according to Glen Libby, chairman of the Midcoast Fishermen’s Co-op (MFC) in Port Clyde, “Money for small processing is the next logical step in the working waterfront initiative,” Libby said. With local processing, fishermen can keep more of the profits from their catch. In fact the MFC just received state approval on March 16 to open its own processing plant for shrimp and fish (see “Co-op Opens Fish Processing Plant” in this edition of the Working Waterfront E-Weekly).
The MFC and the Port Clyde lobster co-op have already completed a program using funding from the state’s working waterfront program.
The Port Clyde Fishermen’s Co-op sold a covenant to the state for $345,000 for waterfront land in St. George valued at $845,000. The wharf is used by the 28 members of the lobster co-op and by 10-to-12 groundfishing boats of the Midcoast Fishermen’s Co-op.
The Port Clyde covenant sale helped pay for a $500,000 new wharf that opened in the summer of 2008. In addition to money from the fishermen, additional funds came from the Island Institute’s Affordable Coast Fund, the 1772 Foundation and the Up East, and an in-kind donation by Prock Marine of a percentage of the labor costs.
The state’s Working Waterfront Access Pilot Program began in 2006, after voters in 2005 approved a bond issue that dedicated $5 million for waterfront preservation.
The bond money has been used to buy the land or easements or development rights to protect important working waterfront properties that support commercial fishing activities.
As of February, 11 properties encompassing 25 acres of land with a fair market value over $10 million have been secured, according to the program’s fact sheet. The program has supported more than 300 boats, more than 400 fishing-industry jobs, more than 12 million pounds of seafood landed annually and more than $26 million in income directly dependent on working waterfronts, according to the fact sheet.
The program is one of many responses to the state’s working waterfront crisis. Of the Maine’s 5,300-mile coast, all that is left for working waterfront is 20 miles, according to the Island Institute’s report “The Last 20: Mapping Maine’s Working Waterfront,” published in 2007.
Of the 888 access points that support commercial fishing, 66 percent are privately owned and could be sold, halting fishing access.
Examples of projects already finished also include Holbrook Wharf in Cundy’s Harbor, which was granted $300,000 to buy a covenant on property worth $1.15 million. The property includes a commercial fishing wharf, a snack bar, a general store and a second dock with float for recreational boating access.
Awards totaling $707,500 were just approved March 10 for the Vinalhaven Fishermen’s Co-op in Vinalhaven, the Friendship Lobster and Realty Co-op in Friendship, and the Town of Scarborough for the Pine Point Municipal Pier to preserve commercial fisheries use of these properties. About 250 fishing families use these waterfronts to make their living, according to press release from the state’s Department of Marine Resources.
The covenant purchased from the Vinalhaven Fishermen’s Co-op will help them build a facility for the storage of both the frozen and refrigerated bait. “In addition, the funds from the sale of the covenant will allow us to build a bait cooler which we really need, but would not have done given the uncertainty of the economy and its effect on lobster prices,” said co-op President, Ted Lazaro, according to the release. Waterfront preserved through this covenant include one acre of shoreside facilities and back-lot storage. It also includes 320 feet of deep-water frontage with all-tide access and two piers.
The covenant in Friendship protects .6-acre of waterfront land with 110 feet of shore frontage, a wharf with 22,000 square feet of working area, berthing space for multiple boats, ample parking, fuel and bait storage. The Friendship Lobster and Realty Co-op plan to use the money from the covenant sale to buy a nearby parcel for gear storage and to renovate their wharf, according to Jim Wotton, co-op president.