CHEBEAGUE — This winter, Chebeague Transportation Company stakeholders thought they had found a promising way to raise funds for a new ferry.
The private company recently applied for non-profit status and then began collaborating with Rep. Stephen Moriarty, D-Cumberland, on legislation that would have reorganized the ferry service as a public transit district. The goal, CTC board president Susan Stranahan said, was to better position the ferry service to compete for federal grant money.
The legislation was crafted with input from Yarmouth town officials with an aim toward avoiding the thorny issue of eminent domain, especially for the town’s Harmony Hills neighborhood of Cousins Island, where the CTC ferry lands.
Eminent domain has been a source of conflict between the two communities in the past. In 2001, for example, the Maine State Supreme Court upheld a ruling that gave the ferry service 1.4 acres of land owned by Cousins Island resident Nancy Blanchard. But by making it explicitly clear that the legislation wouldn’t give Chebeague the power of eminent domain over land in Yarmouth, Stranahan and other stakeholders hoped to allay the fears of Cousins Island residents.
Things didn’t go as planned.
When the proposed legislation went public, an opposition group, Cousins Island Neighbors United, quickly formed and called for its defeat. Blanchard also retained an attorney. In March, Moriarty withdrew the legislation.
“We were surprised of the level of opposition,” Stranahan said. “We felt that we really had attempted to incorporate all the issues that all the Harmony Hills neighbors were concerned about.”
The organized opposition took many by surprise, including Yarmouth town manager Nat Tupper. He said Yarmouth officials worked with Moriarty and the ferry service to craft something that would work for all parties involved. Once language was inserted protecting Yarmouth’s boundaries from infringement, Yarmouth officials were satisfied.
“We actually all had an agreement that it would be fine,” Tupper said.
But some Cousins Island residents who lived near the ferry felt disenfranchised by the process, said James Cohen, the attorney retained by Blanchard. In fact, they didn’t even know about the bill until mid-March. When they did learn of the legislation, they worried it would put local decision-making in the hands of Augusta lawmakers, he said.
Multiple calls seeking comment for this story from Cousins Island residents were not returned by press time.
“It would require the neighbors to be ever-vigilant,” Cohen said.
Cousins and Chebeague residents came together at a public forum after the legislation was announced, and Cohen said the event sparked meaningful dialogue that he hopes will continue in the future between the two islands.
“Having regular dialogue is productive and helps parties better understand each other’s needs,” said Cohen.
Stranahan said there have been past efforts to reach out to Cousins Island residents who might be concerned about the impact of the ferry service. And CTC already operates under an enormous amount of restrictions to address the concerns of neighbors of the ferry landing, she added.
But the process has taught her that more must be done to foster communication between the two islands, she said.
“I think what this demonstrated to us is that we need to do some bridge-building, and that’s a figurative term, with the community over there,” Stranahan said.
Luckily, there is no sense of urgency to reintroduce the legislation, she said. The grant money CTC seeks is to replace its backup ferry, and the belt-tightening in Washington makes Stranahan skeptical there are public funds available right now for such a purchase.
“There really isn’t any federal grant money out there anyway,” she said.
For his part, Moriarty expressed optimism that the attempt at legislation could lead to deeper understanding between Chebeague and Cousins residents about issues that concern them both. He has no plans to introduce similar legislation in this session. He says there must be work done to help overcome what’s been keeping the two groups apart.
“There needs to be more communication before it’s done again, it seems to me. Otherwise, we’ll encounter the same source of resistance and concerns,” Moriarty said.