From the pull-out of the poultry industry to the loss of a large credit firm, downtown Belfast has weathered financial storms in the past. It’s taken creative thinking and planning among multiple administrations to keep Belfast shops full, but the effort has worked, according to Mayor Walter Ash.
But while Belfast’s downtown bustles, its waterfront has maintained a sleepier feel. A restaurant has remained shuttered for years, and walkways along the water are limited. That may be about to change. In 2011, a high-end shipyard opened at a vacant cannery on the waterfront, and it recently announced plans to expand. In addition, the city is undertaking a major waterfront renovation to construct a walkway that will connect to the downtown. The renovation, which will cost well over $1 million, was expected to be partly funded by a $400,000 competitive grant awarded to Belfast by the Communities for Maine’s Future program.
But now that project is in limbo, along with several others in Maine waterfront communities. In June, Gov. Paul LePage announced that he will not immediately sell the bonds to raise funds for all the projects earmarked by the Communities for Maine’s Future program. LePage has since said he would eventually sell the bonds before they expire in 2015, and has promised funding for three community projects, but other communities don’t know when funding might become available. Belfast already has committed $240,000 to the project, Ash said, and may need to sell bonds to raise the $400,000 itself.
“We’re kind of left here out to dry,” Ash said.
The governor’s decision to delay issuance of the bonds has confused state and local lawmakers, and sent many communities scrambling to find alternative sources of funding or asking the governor if there’s a procedure to get the funds released. Three of the 11 communities have received the promise of bond sales for funding, including Eastport, which will receive a $190,000 grant to help with façade work in its downtown district. Those three communities needed to have the funds released because their projects were very far along, said Doug Ray, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development.
“They had contracts that were well under way,” Ray said.
Eastport city councilors signed paperwork in early August to accept the money, which will pay for half of the exterior renovation costs for downtown landowners, said councilor Bob Peacock. Peacock expressed relief that the money will be released.
“We didn’t know what was held up and what wasn’t,” he said.
Other communities are feeling squeezed by the economic uncertainty, according to Eric Conrad, a spokesman for the Maine Municipal Association.
“Many of the communities have already invested six figures or more on some of these projects,” he said.
While some communities, including Belfast, are tentatively exploring legal action to see if there’s a way to expedite the release of funding, Conrad said the association currently believes it’s in the governor’s power to withhold the sale of bonds.
It’s not unprecedented for a governor to withhold bond money, said Adrienne Bennett, Gov. LePage’s spokeswoman. There are bonds that still haven’t been issued from the previous Baldacci administration, she said. The governor feels it is imprudent to sell the bonds given the fact that the state of Maine already has some $100 million in general bond obligations in 2013 and while the economic outlook for the state is so bleak, she added. LePage has said that communities that demonstrate they can secure funding from other sources and prove that their projects have a strong return on investment will have the money released.
“We’re not worried about this affecting economic development,” Bennett said. “It’s not fiscally prudent to sell these bonds.”
Of the coastal communities waiting for funding, Rockland may be in the most comfortable position. The city expected a grant of more than $200,000 to renovate a large parking lot to help further develop its downtown district, said Rockland Mayor Brian Harden. But the city has yet to invest in the project, he said.
“We have not said very much so far because we haven’t started the work,” Harden said.
While the mayor believes the governor shouldn’t be holding up the funds, Rockland city councilor Will Clayton believes it is LePage’s responsibility to step back and look at the state’s larger financial picture. Still, Clayton believes it’s important for the governor to communicate a plan.
“If it’s a carte blanche to hold it back, it’s going to be a little bit harder to swallow,” Clayton said.
Sometimes the affected project takes on a symbolic importance, as in Bath, which is seeking funds to renovate its Customs House, a historic building long viewed as an important center of the community. The building has been renovated in recent years by a quasi-public nonprofit for small-business use.
“It’s been a great story because it’s such a jewel,” said Andrew Deci, Bath’s planning director.
The city has undertaken a $150,000 renovation project to replace the building’s historic windows, which fail at times to keep out harsh winter winds, Deci said. Under the grant program, Bath was to receive $70,000, but that money is being held up.
Halcyon Blake, a downtown business owner and former Bath city councilor, says that such cost-cutting may end up costing more in the long run. This was the kind of renovation that would have prevented emergency measures for the historic building down the road, as well as put Maine craftsmen to work making windows to fit the building’s historic exterior, she said.
“It’s the kind of foolish, shortsighted cost-cutting that has become so common,” Blake said.