“Lobster prices are horrible, and I wondered what I could do to keep fishing going. I talked to a bunch of people around town about the idea of a crab-picking operation and most thought it sounded like a good idea,” said Ilesboro resident Seth Wilbur. “Nobody had anything bad to say.”
Current crab-picking regulations have driven many small-time pickers out of business. It used to be that island and coastal women picked crab seasonally in their kitchens, selling to neighbors, summer people and in some instances to local markets. With fewer people picking, even the market for live crabs has declined significantly over the past few years.
Wilbur’s proposal for a home crab picking operation is now before the Islesboro Planning Board. Wilbur was just elected to the Board of Selectmen at the May 9 Town Meeting. Wilbur has proposed a crab-picking operation on his property in what is commonly called The Colony near Dark Harbor. Seth Wilbur intends to operate year round. However, objections were raised by neighbors at public hearings on May 4 and 9.
Abutters to the property include the Islesboro Central School, Wilbur’s uncle Merle Pendleton, Sharon Hall, Carleton Page, and Barry Sax. The Sax property is owned by two couples and three of the individuals spoke in opposition at the hearing, plus their lawyer Christopher McLain of Camden. Hall and Colony residents Jonathan Pardee and Barbara Pendleton also spoke at the first meeting. Planning Board Chair Alice Fay observed that the board had received many letters most opposing the project.
The town ordinance governing the proposed business mainly is concerned with quantifiable effects on water, air, soil, and traffic, and the more subjectively measured effects on historic, neighborhood, or scenic qualities. State regulations of seafood processing facilities set requirements that surpass most of the water, air, soil and waste-handling concerns of the Islesboro ordinance.
Abutters comments most often cited traffic, smell, flies, seagulls, and possible groundwater and run-off problems.
Preserving the quiet neighborhood character of the Colony and their property values also was on their minds. Hall described the Colony as a “safe haven,” that “has withstood the test of time and remained a quiet, quaint, and cozy street for our islanders.” She herself is a third-generation Colony resident and two of her grandchildren living two doors away constitute a fifth generation Colony dwellers.
Among those speaking in favor of the operation mentioned Wilbur’s energy and enterprise, and noted that Islesboro needs small businesses not entirely dependent on summer residents. Comprehensive Plan Committee member Jim Mitchell observed that the committee has discussed the need for a section of town where businesses like this could be conducted. Fishermen Erik Wuori and Tara Leach spoke in favor of the enterprise.
David Mahan, owner of the Island Market said in a phone interview, “It’s a good business to develop on the island to use local resources.” He said there was definitely a market for crab in the summer, and added, “I don’t know about the location.”
The Colony, a cluster of 13 houses on the loop road off Babbidge Road, was begun around 1900. Boat captains and caretakers for summer residents lived there where some of their descendants still reside. Seven are year-round homes, including one family with teenagers and Sharon’s Hall’s house, which is visited by teenage and younger grandchildren. Over the past ten or so years, two houses have been purchased for summer or weekend vacation homes, including one directly across from Seth Wilbur’s and another nearby.
To operate a home crab-picking business, Wilbur has to meet the relatively new set of requirements from the Maine State Department of Agriculture governing water quality tests, equipment, and procedures. Wilbur is required to install stainless sinks, cement flooring, and provide two rooms, one for cooking the crabs, and another for picking. He will also have to take an on-line course on food handling cleaning, and preventing cross-contamination. The premises will have to pass a state inspection. He figures it will cost about $15,000 to do this.
Wilbur’s application is for a home business, though he does not live on the property, which is his boyhood home owned before her death by his mother Susie Wilbur and which he now rents out. He intends to convert and expand a building he erected a few years ago on the property for drying lumber. When completed, the building will encompass 784 square feet.
In response to Planning Board comments, Wilbur shifted plans to place the cooking room away from the road side to the back of the building. The board recommended off-road parking spots for employees. Islesboro ordinances recognize a home-based business as one with low traffic, no more than two employees, with no retail sales.
Wilbur said he plans to collect 100 to 200 pounds of live crabs daily, in the late afternoon, from floating storage at the shore. He will carry the crates into the building and cook the crabs immediately, in a process that will take about an hour, and emit cooking steam for that time. He will then chill the crabs down, break them up into bodies, claws and legs, and refrigerate them overnight.
The next morning, he anticipates, two employees will come to work and pick all day, coming and going in cars at lunchtime and leaving at the end of the day. He expects they will produce 14 to 17 pounds of crab a day, which he or an employee will pick up daily together with the waste shells, and deliver to the two island markets and possibly the Tarrantine Club kitchens. He will take the waste to a dump area on land up-island owned by Phil Berry where he will cover it with lime and dirt each day.
A final decision on the application is pending.