Brunswick Council Backs Downtown Facade Grants, Tables Land Sale

[0:05] Chair McDonald: Good evening, everyone and welcome to the September 21st 2026 Town Council meeting. I'm officially calling us to order Town clerk was this meeting properly notice? Yes, it was perfect. All councillors are currently Present councillor team Ian Hicks, please. Thank you I'm gonna ask that folks please silence your electronic devices. You can put on airplane mode, whatever is easiest for you, and then please rise if you're willing and able for the Pledge of Allegiance. The United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. As chair, I ask that while we hold this space together, that we treat every person here with respect and compassion as we work to serve our town. Are there any adjustments to the agenda? I know it's a long one tonight. [1:07] Councilor Timmy: Did I read the wrong agenda? Not. Was there sarcasm in that? [1:11] Chair McDonald: there was some sarcasm yeah okay moving along here at the announcements of council councillor teamie is [1:21] Councilor Ellis: your mic on? Thank you, chair. I just wanted to mention that there is a wonderful art exhibit at the lower floor of the Tontine Mall right now. It is fiber art and photographs called The Olive Trees Are Weeping, and I highly recommend people check [1:36] Town Manager: it out while it's in town very cool counselor parole on saturday morning from nine to eleven at the cook's corner fire department there will be a free car seat check and going forward the la the fourth saturday of the month from nine to eleven they'll be available there as [1:58] Chair McDonald: well. Any further announcements from council? Not seeing any. Before we jump into public, before we jump into public comments, I'm going to make just a public service announcement. I know that we have candidates in the room that are running for various offices, whether it be town council or state or house or any of the things. We also probably have some folks on Zoom that also may be running. Thank you for running, first of all. Second of all, please remember that rules of participation is that you are not allowed to campaign in these official proceedings so that means no hats no signs no shirts no going up to the podium saying I'm a running for town council and this is what I think we need to keep all of these things separate please so if you have any photos or shirts and you need to go change and do all those things please feel free to do so now but moving on to public comment as a reminder this is for non-agenda items only you have three minutes per speaker 30 minutes this session we'll have 30 minutes at the end if we need it. Follow the code of conduct that's posted on either side of the room. Share your name, town, pronouns if you'd like, and if you want to follow up there should be a sheet over there. It doesn't look like it's over there, so we'll grab one, and so that way you can fill out your contact information. Without further ado, go ahead. Sorry, can I have you pause first again? Can you push that button so the lights on? Oh, there we go. We just want to make sure that [3:27] Paul Whitcomb, Brunswick resident: microphone's on. Start again. My name is Paul Whitcomb, I'm from Brunswick, and I'd like to urge the council to reject any site plan that is offered to you from the public works task force that includes a fuel station at the site of the former senior gardens because of the recent A considerable study that was done in Quebec and in other places to confirm it. We now have this medical evidence that strongly indicates the correspondence of childhood leukemia with proximity to fuel stations. AND THEY ONLY STUDIED GASOLINE. THAT WAS JUST GASOLINE. AND THEY IDENTIFIED A 35 TO 55% INCREASE WITHIN A THRESHOLD OF 100 METERS. PLEASE HEAVILY SCRUTINIZE THIS ASPECT OF THIS PLANT. THE FUEL STATION SHOULD REMAIN AT ITS PRESENT LOCATION. THERE CAN BE ARRANGEMENTS MADE WHERE THIS DOES NOT INTERFERE WITH TRAFFIC. I FEEL IT IS MY BELIEF THAT THIS ASSERTION OF TRAFFIC CONFLICT AT 9 INDUSTRY ROAD IS A FALLACY. IT IS AN EXAGGERATION. PLEASE SCRUTINIZE THIS. Keep this fuel station away from the daycare center, and I would like to add that senior citizens are also more susceptible to leukemia than adults and young and middle-aged adults, so please do that. Thank you very much. Thank you. [5:44] Chair McDonald: Is there anybody else in the room? We're gonna flip a coin here if you, if I do [5:57] Carol O'Donnell, Brunswick resident: over who's going first here. Carol O'Donnell, resident of Brunswick. So I have recently, just today actually, learned of a couple of situations where people are having challenges with their housing situations, and so I wanted to make people aware, both all of you, in case you have people coming to you saying, where do I go? And for anybody listening in who follows the meeting after tonight, if somebody is struggling with a housing issue in their current housing situation, their first line really should be general assistance. Go to the Brunswick Human Services office and see what general assistance can do to help you, either directly or through connecting you with agencies that can. For families and youth, another good option is Midco Youth Center. They're located in Bath, and they are phenomenal. They do great work in Brunswick as well as in the Bath and Midcoast area. For veterans, Preble Street has support for veterans. They're in Portland, but they have facilities all over the state. Midcoast Veterans Council, they have a list of resources, and they're right on the landing. Funding. Maine Bureau of Veterans Services is another one. United Way of Midcoast Maine has heating assistance information resources, which this winter I'm sure a lot of people will be wondering how they can get assistance with their heating costs. But they also have a community resources directory, which is also 211.org, that lists by category the various resources that are available in the area, including things like Midcoast Hunger Prevention for food assistance, Oasis Free Clinics for any medical or dental assistance. And then finally I want to mention Maine State Housing Authority has various programs, but just today they reopened the eviction prevention program, and you can apply, people can apply for that and find out if they're eligible on the Maine State Housing Authority website. So that's all I've got, but if anybody has any questions I'm happy to answer them. Thank you, Carolyn. [9:04] Ecklund, Brunswick resident: Ecklund, I live in Brunswick. Good evening, town counselors and town manager and town clerk, town clerk whom I wish to thank for her commitment and ex competence in carrying out her administrative duties for the sake of good function of this town, and in particular instilling in Brunswick residents confidence in our elections. Thank you. I would also like to thank town management public works for installing speed bumps on Spring Street for the safety of our children and neighbors who walk and ride. Bicycles along our street, as it's made a difference in our confidence and in safety, and finally cooler temperatures make us all aware that winter isn't too far off. Like to raise awareness and call for support to two very vulnerable groups of neighbors. Oil and food prices are rising in addition to already rising costs for housing. By the way, Tedford Housing has eviction prevention, a whole, a whole person that takes care of eviction prevention and fuel support. So working families, working families whose incomes are not keeping up with the rise in costs, are a vulnerable group. Based in the United Way data, ALICE, which means asset limited income-constrained, employed families. This number is higher in Brunswick than towns surrounding in Brunswick. Families who, through no fault of their own, are vulnerable to losing their housing. As prices rise and wages stagnate, vulnerable families are having difficulty keeping up with housing, medical care, and food costs. Another vulnerable group that I noticed when I volunteered last winter for the Warming Center is a cohort of women in their 50s, 60s, and 70s who live alone and are on limited income. Some of these women have found themselves unable to keep up with rising rent, food costs, and energy costs. There are programs in our nonprofit and public sector to help with funding. Still, through mental and physical decline, some older women have lost housing, and since I'm in that age cohort, I'm particularly sensitive to what happens to, say, a 70 year old woman who lives alone. Please know how important it is for the sake of our town's common good in general, and to reduce the vulnerability of these two groups, families and aging women, that our town really sees them and sees their needs and acknowledge the rising threat of their well-being. And thank you for the support you are currently giving these two vulnerable groups, and as the need grows, and we know it will, I call on your political will and generosity of our neighbors to support town and state funding for their assistance, especially this winter. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else in the room [12:02] Chair McDonald: that would like to speak before I move to Zoom? Going once, going twice. There if you could show me the attendees list, please. Great, we're going to start with Marika. Good evening. [12:21] Marika Guyason, Bay Bridge Estates resident: Marika Guyason, Bay Bridge Estates, to bounce up against what Carol O'Donnell mentioned about housing. Folks here at Bay Bridge Estates have received a rent notice that we believe is does not comply with state law or the local ordinance. We have made you all aware of this in writing. I'm sure you've all seen it at this point. So I really encourage all of you to read what we've written, understand what our position is, and reach out if you have any questions about ways that we can help the town enforce the ordinance that was so hard fought for almost two years. Thank you, that's all. Thank you up [13:16] Chair McDonald: Next we have Jennifer Navarro. Yes [13:25] Jennifer Navarro, Brunswick resident: Good evening, Jennifer Navarro, Brunswick resident, and I want to speak tonight about transparency, accountability, and the burden residents are carrying when municipal land use processes do not produce the findings or record that the law requires. I have spent a significant amount of time involved in the Golick matter at 23 Thomas Point Road. That matter was appealed and it was ultimately remanded because the necessary findings were not adequate adequately established in the decision-making process Tomorrow that matter goes back before the planning board. What troubles me is that this is not the first time I have encountered the same basic problem. A resident, the resident is left trying to reconstruct what happened, what standard was applied, what findings were actually made, and whether its written decision supports the action that was taken. That burden should not continually fall on residents. Boards are given significant authority. With that authority comes a responsibility to make clear findings, explain material decisions, apply our ordinances consistently, and create a record that allows the public, an appellant body, or a court to understand exactly how that decision was reached. When that does not happen, residents are forced to appeal, research, request records, spend countless hours reviewing documents, and sometimes incur significant expense, so simply to obtain the explanation that should have existed in the first place. That raises a broader governance question for this council: who is responsible for ensuring that our appointed boards are consistently following required procedures and producing legally sufficient decisions? I ask that you get back to me with that Information, I understand the respect that the council cannot interfere with individual quasi-judicial decisions. That is not what I am asking. I am asking about oversight of the system. If the same procedural problem occurs more than once, what mechanism exists to identify that pattern, provide training, correct the process, and make sure residents are not continually placed in the position of policing municipal compliance themselves? Transparency is not simply putting documents online. It is making the decision making process understandable, timely, consistent, and accountable. Residents should not have to become land-use lawyers to understand why their local government made a decision, and they certainly should not bear the burden of the expense or have to police the situation. So please get back to me at your soonest convenience about who oversees the planning board specifically, and why has multiple cases had lack of findings, and how to, how we can address that. Thank you very much. Thank you. [15:58] Chair McDonald: Is there anybody else who would like to speak on Zoom? I'll give you a second to see if your hands come up. Not seeing any, I will close the public comment period and I will bring it to [16:13] Town Manager: the town manager for the town manager's report. Thank you, chair McDonald. So I'll be fairly brief here. So financial reports for August, the summary reports are in your packet, and the rep, that's how brief you said you're gonna, 20 seconds, perfect. New [16:38] Chair McDonald: record, okay, no, all right, bringing us back here, bringing us back here. Town [16:45] Town Manager: manager, you have the floor. So financial reports really aren't that exciting, but, and that's good news in this case. What you will see in the revenue report is property taxes were committed, we'll talk about that in the next item, on the non-property tax revenues, state revenue sharing a bit lower than last year but above the anticipated budget in for August, same with excise tax was higher than last year by August, offsetting July which was lower than the previous year. So this is, you know, they come and go, but we do track what we expect historically each month because there is fluctuation for both of those. Expenditure side, nothing surprising. I would just point out 72% of the expenditures in the month of August were for wages and benefits. Again, some months you have other, for example when we pay our debt service, that's going to be a big chunk, and that will come out, and you know, in October, so that'll be coming up. So moving on, the 2026 tax commitment, I mentioned in a, it was literally on the Day of our last council meeting, I believe August 31st, was when taxes, property taxes, are committed, and the tax office got the bills out in record time. I got mine by that Saturday. So one of the things as we were doing, going through this budget process, we did talk about the fact, well, as we were going through last year's revaluation, we talked about the fact that the assessor is not going to let values fall below, but they're not going to just stay stagnant while things are changing. So he will be doing sales analysis every year and making adjustments. This year he made some adjustments to land values, so it's kind of across the board. He made some other adjustments where things were slightly out of whack, but what that meant is that instead of the 1390 per mil per thousand that was estimated in the budget, the actual tax rate was lower, 1350 per thousand. So for some people their taxes actually went down, and that all depends on how things related. We can, in the packet, is an, his memo that also lays out how actually the commercial values are a greater percentage than they were last year, which helps the residential side. So there's a lot of moving parts, and I'm happy to go into more detail if the council needs it. We can have a workshop. We love those. Now we've [19:41] Chair McDonald: got a couple of questions. Counselor Ellis, it's more a [19:43] Councilor Timmy: comment. Like sugar plum fairies in my head, I'm thinking spreadsheets and how I'm going to cut some of this number to take a look at it, but it's, I'm assuming that this is all available now in [19:52] Town Manager: some spreadsheet type form on the, on the, on the website, is the usual spreadsheet by, with every [19:58] Councilor Ecker: tax bill. Okay, thank you. Councillor Ecker. Yes, I completely understand the rationale for why we're doing this yearly after going through these three years of revaluation, but I strongly support some kind of public informational meeting to get the word out, just to take some of the mystery out of what's, what areas are changing and why, and then be able to produce those same use and code analyses that we saw through the evaluation process. I think it just go a long way for public education in that regard and understand why, you know, people were expecting a 5.2 property tax increase and at least the people I've heard from have seen much more than that. They're wondering why, and I got, I got some good explanation why, but people always like to know the why. So I'd support seeing some kind of forum of some kinds for the assessor to do that. [21:02] Speaker K (unidentified): Yeah, great. Continue. [21:07] Town Manager: On okay the next is about absentee ballots it's getting it's getting closer [21:13] Town Clerk: To the time absentee ballots in person voting which will be taking place here in the council chamber will begin on Monday October 5th. That does not mean that you can't request your absentee ballot now. There are multiple ways to do that. You can do it electronically there's a link on the Secretary of State site or on our website. There's also the ability to call our office but you have to be the voter you can't call for someone else and oh and you could do a written request. I do know that there Was a mass mailing that was sent out to pretty much everyone in town that had an application that did not come from the town but we will certainly take those requests and again kind of following up on the fact that some people have been concerned that they've gotten information that they're not registered to vote again that came from an outside organization that was not having an up-to-date list but if you have any concern please call us. You do not have to reregister unless you've moved well You would just update if you've moved but so if you've been on the list you voted all the time you're on the list and I want to say that the most people are probably aware that the Supreme Court upheld previous lower courts stopping the executive order to put some restrictions around mailing absentee ballots. So the good news is a word must be out on the street because we got like since then we went from 700 to 1200 applications so we will be mailing those out as soon as we get the ballots we Are hoping that the ballots might come prior to the week of October 5th but we just can't do in person by state statute until that date. So if anyone has questions about that you can give our office a call. I do want to thank the council for supporting our budget that allows us to order to have extra staff because it's just not possible for four people to do that amount of work. So I do thank you and the people of the community thank you and I thank all of our folks that work elections to help out We asked to looking for a couple of good Republicans and good in the sense that you can do the job it's a busy crazy job on election day so that we can keep the balance between the Democrats and the Republicans and unrolled so just reach out seven to five six five eight if you know somebody so that we can get you trained and ready to go and I can answer any questions counselor Hicks [23:47] Carol O'Donnell, Brunswick resident: So you'll be doing absentee, you'll be taking FC ballots all the way to October 29th. Yes, October [23:53] Town Clerk: 29th, which is the Thursday. We will be here until 7. That is the last day that you can request your ballot in person or any of the other mechanisms that I talked about. That does not mean that you have to have your ballot returned by that date. You must have the ballot returned by the close of election or 8 p.m. on election day. That's not postmarked. That's not anything. It has to be in my office that date. I have been encouraging people, if you are going to use the United States Postal Service, they're slower than they used to be. so please give yourself plenty of time if you've requested that ballot we do have the Dropbox for people that are local that is available 24 hours a day there's a camera on it 's in right here at Town Hall so it's a secure location that if that's easier for folks to return because unfortunately even if you were to mail it and got delayed and I didn't get it until the day after the election I can't count that and I really that makes me sad so [24:55] Carol O'Donnell, Brunswick resident: And but otherwise you'll have election, you'll have election workers in this. Yes, we'll be taking [25:02] Town Clerk: Over, you'll see next time you come it would have taken over the room for those three weeks, for those, yeah, well it's, yes, it's not quite 30 days because we do have a few days there, but yeah, and we will be open. I don't, I apologize, I don't have the hours on Fridays, but it is on our side, probably I will definitely have that for the next meeting, but we normally, the building is closed on Fridays, but we again, we really understand the value of being available for our voters, will really enjoy the Opportunity to absentee vote, so we will be having, they won't be the same hours that our regular office hours are, but we will be having it for the three Fridays prior to between October 5th and the 29th, and I will have that information next time to let folks know. Great, [25:48] Town Manager: Great, continue on. So one quick announcement, Wednesday October 7th is the fire department open house. I'll probably announce it at the fifth as well. I do encourage families to go to that. It's a fun event. It's held at Emerson station, four to seven on Wednesday October 7th, and the last thing on the managers report, I have coastal resource manager Dan Devereaux who's going to give us an update on the phytoplankton bloom that most of you have been reading about. [26:34] Dan Devereaux, Coastal Resource Manager: So I just wanted to, I'm Dan Devereaux, the town's coastal resource manager. Thank you for inviting me to give you guys an update. I have been trying to update weekly through email, so they're quite lengthy, and sometimes they get a little too detailed about getting in the weeds, but I just wanted to give a brief overview of where we are with the bloom. Everybody knows just based on the news that we've had, we've had a large bloom in Casco Bay, and the bloom actually extends from Cape Ann, which is on the North Shore of Cape Cod all the way up to Port Clyde and it's offshore some so they're tracking Noah's tracking it with a satellite imagery and in different things like that unfortunately it landed in Brunswick and Harpswell and Freeport in this northeastern section of Casco Bay pretty hard and we had a significant dense softshell clam bed and softshell clams or the clams that are impacted most by this type of phytoplankton this type of phytoplankton isn't a preferred food for them it's it clogs up their gills it slows their breathing down it slows their feeding down so they would just rather not feed on it oysters quahogs and some other shellfish that can close completely avoid a lot of mortality by just shutting down their systems and using the glucose that they've stored up over the course of the summer to live off during that time so next slide Larry and hit play so this was when the bloom first came in that's the western mere point peninsula shore you can see the it if I was to track this all the way up, it would be nice bright sort of a green brown color. Next slide, oh, next one, Larry, that's the same one, sorry. So this is McCoy Bay, and this is sort of, if you can just click the play button, so this is McCoy Bay, and this is what a flat, McCoy Bay flats would normally look like. It's, it's flat, you can see the clam holes here, this is a healthy McCoy Bay, and I think it was either November or December 2025. Next slide, Larry, oh that's, there we go. So early on in the bloom, because we're now monitoring phytoplankton, we, this is the first year we actually did it, we're pretty lucky that we did it. This type of phytoplankton is, it showed up here around 2017, we think, so we get it, but just not in abundance in our, in our thing, in our phytoplankton counts, and you can push play, very, and so these are some of the impacts that we're seeing now on the flat. You can see how it's getting dividend, it's a little bit More dark clams are really stressed out. If you look close, those little things hanging out, our clam necks that are hanging out, normally those are way down in the mud at low tide. They're hanging out because they're stressed, looking for oxygen, trying to find food, and it's incredibly dense, and particularly McCoy Bay and in Middle Bay. So this was on September 8th, probably four or five days after we noticed the colors changing in the water. We had a lot of report from offshore fishermen and other folks like something's going on because the water doesn't normally look like this. We got a report today that a guy fishing off of Muir Point hauling pogies called up 30 dead flounder. So the dissolved oxygen in the bottom of the ocean is really low right now, critically low, and we're monitoring it with different types of real-time buoys that are out further on the oyster farms, and then we've got buoys that are up in closer to the flats, and then we've got a guy that comes out and does dissolved oxygen right over the clam beds so we can know exactly what's going on. Next slide, Larry. So this is about three, four days later. You can see the mud start to black and there's a lot of decaying of clams that are going on. When the decay happens, that sucks some of the oxygen out of the water and puts more stress on clams that are already stressed. That's why on Saturday, last Wednesday the shellfish committee held an emergency meeting, requested that the Maine Department of Marine Resources enact an emergency closure on McCoy Bay and part of the Middle Bay, and they did that on Saturday. And then it doesn't happen, you don't get that bureaucracy to turn things around that quick, and they did it this time, so kudos to the Commissioner and kudos to DMR for supporting the town's program. Next slide, Lyric. So these are all aerial imagery of McCoy Bay right now. That's the same slide. So this is Bunganuck. This shows it more from the ground level up, and you can see the devastation. There's probably around a total of McCoy Bay and Bunganuck, probably around 650 acres, and I would estimate, and this is just an estimate, we won't know until we actually get out there and look at the Biomass, we won't know what it, what kind of losses we have. But my guess, based on my experience, and I've been doing this for 30 plus years, is that we've lost probably 80 to 90 percent of the clams in McCoy Bay. You're looking at a similar incident probably in 1987 when McCoy Bay went anoxic and everything died in the mud flats in McCoy Bay that time. So we're looking at similar types of instances. So you could see all the black, that's all decaying matter. The bloom is decays, the bloom falls down that decomposition process, prop, process sucks the oxygen out of the water, and then of Kent, and then of course the clams dying, also the decay sucks the oxygen out of the water. So it's almost like a double-edged sword. Next slide. And this is Thomas Point Beach. So uniquely, each one of our bays have bloomed at different times, which makes it twice as hard to kind of get to, but it does give us the opportunity to look at each bay. So cell counts are coming down. Last week cell counts for 15 million cells per liter. Phytoplankton is good, it's what clams and everything eat to stay surviving, but this type of phytoplankton and these numbers just are not healthy. So there were 15 million cells per liter in McCoy last week. It's down to 500 000 now, but we're seeing under the scope the actual cells are starting to decay themselves, which is of course that takes up oxygen. So we're monitoring Thomas Point Beach very closely. That's our next gem where we have a huge biomass clams there. And this picture is from Thomas Point Beach and it's showing the same symptoms early on symptoms that it showed and what we would call Western Brunswick which is McCoyton Middle Bay I think one more slide Larry is there might be it but I just wanted to number one show you guys I think that's the same slide and if that might be the last one oh so this there's this is this is Middle Bay and you can see the discoloration of the water when you see an algal bloom do this and you can actually see the color change there is massive amounts of cells in the water, and that's what's changing the water, and you can see as you go out the bloom sort of dissipates. This was taken about a week ago, and it's starting to break up now, thank goodness, but the ecological impacts come after the bloom leaves and breaks up from the decaying matter and everything else. Next slide, Larry. So that's it. So, what we're doing is we're continuing to monitor. We have been on the horn with so many people from all different parts of this country And over in Europe and in Ireland. They had a similar incident over there talking to folks in Japan where the Karenia actually was first found in Japan in 1935. It doesn't mean that it came here from Japan. It just means that it was found in Japan in 1935. We don't want to get into that. So what we're doing is we're making sure that we have the monitoring in the right spot. We are spending a little bit of money to try to get DO counts over top of the flats. Not a lot, but a little bit. And we'll continue to monitor, and we'll wait for those dissolved oxygen counts to come back up. And then we'll go from there to try to assess how much of the biomass of soft shell clams that we lost. I suspect millions of dollars worth of clams have been lost and that triggers another conversation that we're having with the Maine Coast Fishermen's Association the Gulf of Maine Research Institute economists and some other folks to try to figure out what is the impact to our local harvesters and see if there's a way to get some sort of disaster relief funding for them there are areas in the town of Brunswick that are still harvestable. It hasn't hit all the areas. It seemed to completely miss the upper middle bay around Miller Creek and Catlin Shore. There are some impacts, but I hate to say that it's not impacted because we lost millions of clams overnight in McCoy Bay. It was that fast. It was like that. One day I was out there at low tide. Died the next day I come out and all the clams have popped up and now the winds pushed them against the western side of Muir Point Neck and I'm sure some of the residents any residents here from the western side you don't leave your windows open on the western side of Muir Point because the smell is atrocious so that's kind of where we are I'll continue to do the updates as you know the email updates and y'all can read them if you want try to make them a little less sciency more straightforward So got a question from counselor Wilson yeah [37:55] Speaker N (unidentified): Thank you for coming in yeah thank you for coming so what's behind this is it global warming or is there something individuals can do I [38:07] Dan Devereaux, Coastal Resource Manager: Know, you know, I mean, the first thing somebody wants to do in an incident like this is point fingers, and I'm not that person. And you can see from past we've had small blooms. I think Chair McDonald, when the clamors were arguing about a small bloom, I didn't get too excited about this one. I'm very excited about because it's a big bloom, and there are, there are numerous vectors that it could get here. You know, Woods Hole says that. But, you know, Carinia gets moved around by bilges in cruise ships and in freighter ships. They pick the ballast up and they, you know, they, I guess it's ballast water, it's not bilge water, but they pick their ballast up and then they dump it somewhere and that has a bunch of Carinia in it. Or it could be, you know, the Merrimack River had a really large sewer spill this year. Billions of gallons went into the river and out to sea. It was that part of the problem. Them so there, but pointing fingers is, we can't, we can't point fingers right now, and I just don't think that it's healthy to point fingers at this point. We just need to get our heads around this, and we're working with Bigelow Lab doing genomics on the actual Carinia itself and what the impacts are on the soft shell clams, because it doesn't, it bothers other shellfish by them closing up and not feeding, so they could starve to death if it's around long enough. Off, but it doesn't impact that like it does soft-shell clams and it, you're [39:40] Councilor Ecker: welcome. Other questions? Council Record? Yes, thank you, Dan. What's, what's the prognosis for the rebound in terms of coming back from this over the next year, [39:58] Dan Devereaux, Coastal Resource Manager: two years, three years? Well, if I mean, if we continue to get the sets that we, the soft shell clam sets that we've seen over the last three or four years, if those continue to come, then you're looking at two or three years down the road from a clam that's this big to find its way onto your table. It takes about two and a half to three years to grow those out. So in some areas, the mud is so anoxic that you might not get clam settlement there. I mean, the mud is black. It's usually have a nice little brown oxygenated layer on the top of the mudflats, but that's, that's slimmed right down, and if you step on the mudflats, just completely black, [40:44] Councilor Ecker: so it's anoxic at this point. One more question. I know you wanted to steer away from pointing fingers, but is there anything locally that could have contributed to this in terms of runoff or lack of runoff or [41:02] Dan Devereaux, Coastal Resource Manager: Yeah, this is a, this is one of those drought tolerant species that likes to act, likes to bloom in colder water. You know, we always get these in the fall when you see the water temperature drop, and like I said, we get, we'll get small blooms, and they may knock out five to six acres of flats, but we have sixteen hundred acres flats. When we start to close, you know, upwards of a thousand acres because of that, really hurts the people that depend on those, but you're looking at a significant recovery, a significant amount of time for recovery for that back. All right. [41:38] Chair McDonald: thank you 're welcome further questions from council is it I guess question on my side is it safe to assume that with the partners that you're working with both you know nonprofits government tackling some of these issues will there be something maybe from manager or from you coming to council on any of those potential disaster relief updates anything we can [42:04] Dan Devereaux, Coastal Resource Manager: do to support those efforts? We're right in the beginning, you know, I mean, it's a slow process because now we have to assess what we lost, you know, and we're really good, and they're gonna use Brunswick as a town because we have 30 years of inventory, we know exactly what was there last, you know, we had 60,000 bushel in McCoy Bay last in our last harvestable bushels. They've, we've got landings reports that we make them report at landings now. These are the really critical times they fought, we fought really hard for that as a town to get them to report. This is really critical for them so they can, now we know how much of that biomass has been already taken, so then we can go out reassess, come back with some solid numbers, but you're not looking until probably winter time, December sometime, before we get those, but those conversations will continue with the Maine Coast Fishermen's Association about how do we get disaster relief, number one, for maybe it's only a small amount of people, if it's only a couple hundred people, it's hard to get the feds to flip the switch on disaster. At that point, we'll push them, we'll push them, I promise. I'm sure that our council is, I [43:18] Chair McDonald: I don't speak for our council, but I'll say that I'm sure that we're probably willing to do some type of resolution of support in those efforts or applications. So thank you for your presentation. [43:28] Town Manager: Thank you. 're welcome back to the town manager. So one last thing, and this is something I mentioned in the workshop, but this is officially on the record. The town of Brunswick comprehensive plan has been selected as plan of the year by the Northern New England chapter of the American Planning Association, and some of our staff will be going to the annual conference in Manchester, New Hampshire on October 22nd to accept the award. But this is great news. Our comprehensive plan was a really good one and it's being recognized. So just wanted to formally announce that. I thank you to [44:07] Chair McDonald: OUR STAFF OUR COMMITTEE THAT HELD ON FOR SO LONG THE MANY ITERATIONS OF THE committee that held on to get that across the finish line great let's move on to new business we're going to move to item number 113 the town council will consider approving the request from the brunswick development corporation for 50 000 in downtown tiff revenues to support the facade improvement grant program or fig that will be available to businesses located downtown TOWN WILL TAKE ANY APPROPRIATE ACTION I'M GOING to turn this over to Economic and Development, Economic and Community Development Director Costello to introduce the item. Looks like she's squaring away the presentation. Thank [44:52] Sally Costello, Director of Economic and Community Development: you, Chair McDonald. Sally Costello, Director of Economic and Community Development and staff to the Brunswick Development Corporation. I'm here with Larissa Darcy, who's the president, and I also staff the Brunswick Downtown Association. And Riley Kahn is here as well. So this is actually a partnership between those two organizations. We are looking to, we are requesting $50,000 in downtown TIF revenues for a facade improvement grant, or in other words, it's called FIG program, grant program, and loan program. And so when I say that, it is because the grant is one part of this, and the loan is something that we are hoping that some downtown businesses might take advantage of because the full amount, the top level for the grant is up to $10,000. And so we know that these improvements may be more than that. So the BDC is offering a low interest loan that could match with this grant. Grant, so this map up here is the area of which we are offering the grant and loan program to these businesses, which is basically our downtown core. As you know, there's been lots of investment downtown, and I think hopefully you've had a chance to read my memo and a little bit about the program rationale, but there's been lots of investment that we'd like to build on over these last several months. And as we finish up one of our last blocks, we have been hearing more and more from local businesses about some of the maintenance that they need to do and some of the really accessibility improvements that they'd like to make to their storefronts. We've actually been working on this for about six months as a team, I would say, to come up with a program that would mimic something that happened back in 2013, because that was a very successful facade improvement grant program. It's the BDC also working with the BDA that leveraged, it was 250,000 that was a grant that would leveraged 1.25 million, so it really is taking those dollars and providing some seed money to then leverage a lot more money that really is impactful. I'm, I can answer any questions. I will answer first of all one just proactively that it is, we do have enough money in the TIF revenue account. This is 50,000 and we have a hundred and fifty eight thousand. We are very, we asked a very prudent request given what's available, but also because we would like to make sure that we are using this money wisely. If it is a very productive grant program, maybe we would come back and ask for more, but at this point we are just asking for 50,000. What else can I tell you about the, it is allowable use in the TIF account, so it very specifically says that it can be used for facade improvement grants and street improvements, streetscape improvements, so it is in with within the eligibility. Let's see what else can I tell you. It's on a first-come first-served basis, and again like I said it's up to ten thousand dollars, and you may say well is this going to be enough. We do have a pipeline. I'm gonna let, if you have questions about that pipeline Riley's here, and mainly what the BDA is going to be doing is working with us to develop the pipeline and then help us get the applications, which will then come to the BDC and they will come for review and the BDC will make, as the fiscal agent will make the determination about whether or not this is eligible and whether they'd like to fund. So with that I'll take any questions. Perfect, thank you. Let's start with questions. [49:00] Carol O'Donnell, Brunswick resident: Counselor Hicks, you were saying that it's a first come first serve. Will there be, I mean, if there are some storefronts or businesses that show that they have some sort of real need and that they might be more of a priority, is that a consideration in your decision, or is it strictly first come? [49:21] Sally Costello, Director of Economic and Community Development: First serve? You know, it's not strictly first come first serve. I think there is, there's a whole list of things that are eligible, but I think some things might rise to the top, particularly accessibility things and safety. You know, I think Riley can speak a little bit more about some of the specific, you know, requests, but some are really related to getting people and customers, you know, safely and effectively, you know, into your building, and some, in some cases, there's not either a great, there might be a little bit of a step up, or it's, it's just not wide enough, or you know, there are different reasons why the BDC and the BDA would decide to fund one application over another. I did not mention that if the Town Council approves this, we're hoping to start taking applications on October 1st. Just a follow-up, if it's something around compliance [50:15] Carol O'Donnell, Brunswick resident: that they, the store or the business hasn't complied with something that's required, is that still, is that eligible, or is that something that you would, you would rather they pay because they're not in compliance? So we, as I said, it's a [50:29] Sally Costello, Director of Economic and Community Development: matching grant, so they will have to put up at least as much. We would like, we would like to fund the things that are really going to help with commerce, right, too, but and so we would, we would want their funds to be, me to be directed to some of the things that they need to do to be compliant. It just depends on how expensive those things are. We would also, again, encourage them to do all of those things. I mean, if there's any code issues and anything like that, those would be kind of the first things we will want to see done, but we would like them to use their matching funds to do those first. Further [51:06] Councilor Ellis: questions? Counselor Timmy? Yeah, I'd, I mean, I think I'd just love to hear more specifics of what types of, like, under the maintenance category that you mentioned, like, obviously the accessibility improvements is one thing, but you know, there's certainly a piece of me that feels like, you know, if you own a building, you should be maintaining it, and that should be your responsibility as the owner of a building. In many cases, that's not the business because a lot of businesses rent their space, but you Know whoever owns the building should be doing that. Yeah, that being said, when it does come to accessibility, I would support the town, you know, helping make Main Street a lot more accessible. I've actually heard that from a lot of people, that getting into businesses on Main Street can be a huge issue. That's a [51:56] Sally Costello, Director of Economic and Community Development: very good question. It's the typical things you would think about, like signage, awnings, restoration of, you know, the windows, doors. Let's see what we don't want to do, for example. We've been hearing from, just as Riley's out there and I'm out there just talking to people and businesses about their needs, we do not really want to do deferred maintenance and something maybe on the second floor. We're saying we really like to do something at the storefront level that's really going to encourage customers in other words, if you just haven't, I'm not saying they're neglecting it for on purpose, they may not have funds to be able to do that, but we'd, we'd like for you to use your funds to do that and maybe our funds to help with something on the ground floor level. So I think there'll be preference for things that are, you know, visibility, you know, signage, safety and accessibility. I think those three things rise to the top, not as much deferred maintenance, if that makes sense. If Riley wants to come up he can talk about a few of the food of the interested parties, not the names, but just kind of the maybe the scope of work. [53:05] Riley Kahn, Executive Director of Brunswick Downtown Association: Riley Khan's executive director of the Brunswick Downtown Town Association. As Sally mentioned, the role that the BDA has taken in the last six months that we've been working on this project is just really being the distribution to all of our downtown and Main Street businesses and educating them about this potential program and what it could look like and mean. In my year and a half that I've been with the BDA, we're constantly pitching new programs and initiatives and trying to respond to the needs of our business community, and this one's being really well received. I think a lot of our businesses that had to endure the streetscape project over the last couple of summers, where many of them did lose a lot of revenue because of that project, a lot of them see a lot of hope in what this facade improvement grant could mean for their business. And as Sally mentioned, a lot of it is wayfinding, signage, awnings, peeling paint, things that just haven't BEEN TOUCHED IN A LONG TIME. AND A LOT OF THESE BUSINESSES ARE TENANTS, NOT BUSINESS OWNERS, AND I THINK THIS GRANT WOULD HELP GET THE BUY IN FROM THE BUSINESS, EXCUSE ME, THE BUILDING OWNERS OF THESE PROPERTIES. SO HAPPY TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS AS IT KIND OF RELATES TO WHAT I'M SEEING. WE'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT IT IN OUR MONTHLY BUSINESS OWNERS MEETINGS FOR, AGAIN, THE BETTER PART OF HALF A YEAR. AND WE'VE HAD 10 TO 15 BUSINESSES REACH OUT SPECIFICALLY ABOUT THE PROGRAM TO ASK QUESTIONS. I HAVE EIGHT RIGHT NOW THAT FILLED OUT A FORM JUST TO STATE THEIR INTEREST, ALL OF THEM BUT ONE BEING MAIN STREET BUSINESSES, FIRST FLOOR. AND YEAH, THEY'RE ALL INCREDIBLY GOOD CANDIDATES BASED ON THE MATERIALS THAT WERE PROVIDED WITH THE AGENDA ITEM. AND YEAH, HAPPY TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE. [54:56] Chair McDonald: A question that I have to kind of continue on with Counselor Teamy's thought line and get your feedback being out there and talking to folks is around, have you received interest from business owners on the accessibility piece? Because I do know that the, it's fun to do things that are gonna be more flashy and give the facelift. I can wholeheartedly appreciate that as somebody who loves interior design, exterior design, all of those things. But the one thing I've heard over and over again from various constituents in different demographics is that those with a wheelchair can't access a majority of downtowns, and we have beautiful sidewalks and they just can't do anything on besides use those sidewalks. And so I'm curious if you're hearing, if where this is going to be geared more towards, what should we expect from [55:50] Riley Kahn, Executive Director of Brunswick Downtown Association: our dollars, I suppose. Yeah, it's, it's pretty balanced. There is, I pulled up a couple of quotes actually from the form that I've solicited. So one person said, you know, we would like to improve our entrance to make the business more accessible, this would greatly help our aging guests. We had another respondent say, we would like to address a trip and fall hazard and create a more inviting outdoor space. We also have a non-ADA compliant step and would like to make our entrance more accessible. We are Undertaking a third person. We are undertaking a major accessibility project that will create a new entrance and replace an outdated and unwelcoming ramp. We'd put facade grant funds specifically toward the new accessible ramp. So that's just three examples that I pulled from the form that we solicited. I was actually kind of surprised to see so many ADA requests, thinking that it was mostly going to be with signage and awnings and things like that. But yeah, no, it seems like it's a equal share ADA. Projects, yeah. [56:54] Chair McDonald: great i appreciate that insight other questions of council i'm [57:01] Councilor Timmy: just giving people time to ask why i have a few that i could jump in on i keep taking a different approach i'm letting other people talk and then i'm coming in if they haven't asked yeah counselor ellis what do you got for us so as staff knows i sent over a list of questions and i appreciate director costello answered the first one right off the bat and so specific to the tiff authorization this being an authorized use just confirming that and i would not have presumed otherwise but just it seemed a question that needed to be asked in regards to the process that's brought us to this point with this request how did the bdc consider whether these funds should be new funds requested from the town as versus funds that might come from the current cash reserves that the bdc itself maintains in its unrestricted cash slash net position and so that was one of [57:54] Chair McDonald: the questions that i had i'll have you pause on that question so she can show up for it so we'll [57:59] Councilor Timmy: do them one at a time and that's that's perfect now i'll line up the questions that larissa [58:04] Larissa Darcy, Acting President of Brunswick Development Corporation: might be best at answering thank you good evening counselors my name is larissa darcy and i'm here on behalf of the brunswick development corporation as their acting president how do we come to that conclusion you know over the years we've you know used our funds to help businesses in brunswick whether it's through the pandemic emergency loan where we just gave money out to businesses interest-free for two years with just one payment after 12 months of half the principal and then another Payment at the end, that was a real critical need at that time. Those are some of the things that we do. We did a facade improvement program as Sally mentioned back in 2013. It was extremely successful, and in that we put 250,000 of our own money forward, and over 1.2 million dollars of private equity went into fixing downtown. So we do everything we can to help with the Brunswick businesses and grow those here in town, and this seemed like the right time. There's the need. We just did the sidewalk project and it's beautiful everyone loves it but as you know when something is nice and shiny and new what's next to it looks like oh it needs a little help so i think it's really motivated a lot of business owners to reach out and address some of these issues primarily accessibility as you've heard earlier today and so when we look at our funds we have very limited funds right now and tiff funds are one of the ways that we get capitalized and then we then turn around and redistribute that money out so in the form of deciding we thought that the tif funds could be used for the grant program and our private capital could be used for the loan program so when a loan request comes in we will entertain that we'll give them a low interest loan but again one of the things we have to do is we have no idea how much that's going to be so there's a balancing act so the tip funds seemed the appropriate use and that's why we're asking for a modest amount today of 50 000. [1:00:34] Councilor Timmy: Well, thank you for asking. Sorry my mic wasn't on, but I'm sure, yeah. Let me just say that, what sort of steps has the BDC taken to bolster conflict of interest guidelines and ensure that applicants, you know, don't face a conflict of interest in the requests [1:00:54] Larissa Darcy, Acting President of Brunswick Development Corporation: Thank you for asking. We do have a very strong code of conduct policy as well as a code of ethics policy, and those we have all of our board members comply with that. We just had our annual meeting in July and they've all signed it and it And it very specifically talks about no self-interest, nothing that impacts family or their businesses. So it's very, clear in the actual code of conduct, and I have it with me if you'd like me to read some of the sections. But we have a very, clear code of conduct policy in place that we adhere to and there's no self-dealing allowed. [1:01:38] Councilor Timmy: And I don't know whether this is more a town question or if you have the answer to this, would be fine as well. Well, but and it sounds like it might be unlikely, but if there are unused funds that come out of this, if they aren't used, how are those handled? Are they just absorbed into BDC funds? Is there a collaboration where there's discussions where maybe that money can be used for other things? Because one of the things that you noted, these TIF funds fund a lot of things in the downtown. And certainly we talked a little bit tonight about potentially another block that's going to need bricks and what have you. And that's going to cost us something. And so balancing out which need to apply these funds to, I'm trying to get at with that money, if it's not used, what's the typical procedure for how that's handled? [1:02:20] Larissa Darcy, Acting President of Brunswick Development Corporation: Yeah, well, again, today we're coming in with a modest request of $50,000. In most cases, these programs get oversubscribed. As you said, there's already a pipeline of eight. If all eight of them do $10,000, we're at $80,000. We're only asking for $50,000. So, again, normally they're oversubscribed. We try to be conservative in our ask, knowing that there are limited funds, and in the event that we are oversubscribed, we will evaluate those, we'll make those awards, and if deemed necessary we may come back and say there were four more absolutely worthy grant recipients who we did not have enough funds for, and we may ask for more funds. So we will look at that on a case-by-case basis, but under no circumstance would we use those funds or anything other than the facade program? So we'll either, you know, if it is, we would either return those funds or we would ask the council formally for any other permission to use those funds. But we wouldn't do it without permission. [1:03:29] Councilor Ecker: Councilor Ecker? Yes. Maybe while you're up there, Larissa. And I may not be understanding it right, but this program that was done back in 2013, it was like a leverage of four to one, if I understood it. [1:03:44] Larissa Darcy, Acting President of Brunswick Development Corporation: Yeah, it was a one to one, just like this one is. So we would give $10,000, and they would have to put $10,000 of their own funds in. What resulted was our $10,000 grant ended up being a stimulus, saying, okay, I'm going to put my $10,000 into that $10,000, but you know what, I'm also going to do this. And this at the same time, so what happened was business owners were investing more than the ten thousand they were required to put in. So it ended up producing a lot more than we ever anticipated. But it was only a one-to-one grant is all that was required. It was a one-to-one, like it was a one-to-one, it was a one-to-one. So okay, so that's why we considered that an extremely successful program when there was that kind of private investment. Okay, great. And maybe this [1:04:30] Councilor Ecker: one's for town manager maybe and if you don't have the answers that's okay so just stepping back on this roughly how much is that downtown tiff taking in each year i [1:04:48] Town Manager: can see her moving towards, yeah, she might have it. Yes, I have that. So the year we're in, 26, 27, it's 1.3, 1, 273, 968. [1:05:00] Councilor Ecker: Okay, almost 1.3 million. Okay, and do you have handy also at your fingertips the acceptable uses [1:05:09] Town Manager: for these funds? Is that defined? I do, yes. So it has in the development program is a number of different sections. One of the major ones is in support of the downtown master plan, which was mentioned this point downtown and outer means outer Pleasant Street master plan, which specifically calls out business assistance in terms of grant or loon programs and facade improvements, actually signage, lighting, downtown, as well as infrastructure, roads, sidewalks, [1:05:43] Councilor Ecker: everything in that and within the district okay but not like the mirror tiff no services associated with that so what do you mean by services isn't one of our other tips it allows us to use money for like police schools oh right so the in the brunswick executive airport and brunswick [1:06:06] Town Manager: Landing tips and the Seahawk TIF all allow for the because when that when the Naval Air Station was closed and being redeveloped, the awareness was that it was going to put pressure on public safety. And so that it allows for use of TIF funds for public safety vehicles specifically. Yeah, but did this [1:06:32] Councilor Ecker: TIF is risk is more restrictive it well it 's different it is also a transit [1:06:38] Town Manager: oriented TIF, so it is what helps subsidize our train station, it pays the subsidies for our buses, so that's what it does. It can be used for roads, the major transit lanes, so not just within the TIF district, but also outer Pleasant Street and Bath Road, because those are major transit. So it's a transit oriented omnibus TIF. It can also have credit enhancement agreements if there's a developer who comes and needs some assistance, they can request that. So it has a number of different things, of course. All of them allow for economic development in general, in a more general terms, so supporting economic development staff, for example. Yep, all right, thank you. Further questions, I'm going to [1:07:29] Chair McDonald: I'm going to grab Councilor Peralta and then I'll come back to you, Ellis, and then I want to get to public comment. [1:07:34] Town Manager: Not a question, but a comment that I think this is an important thing to do after the downtown businesses have been affected over the last couple of summers. And I think this is a small bit of recognition for that and to add some support to them. [1:07:54] Councilor Timmy: Councilor Ellis? So I had something that was a question. I'm going to change it into more of a request. It's more for Sally, I think, than anybody, or Director Costello, excuse me. One of the questions that I had was related to the, how will we measure the success of this? And so one of the things that I've heard tonight that interests me is that leveraging side of it. That for me, and you and I have had conversations about this before, economic development is a new thing for me. And so, this concept of investing public dollars to the benefit of businesses where there could be potentially a perception that why isn't the business paying for that is something not that I struggle with, but something that I'm trying to become more familiar with and understand when it makes sense to do it and when it doesn't. For me, when it clearly makes sense is when you have things like Larissa noted where you're flipping a $250,000 investment into $1.2 million in improvements downtown because it's less of town tax dollars paying for it, and more of town tax dollars encouraging behavior that multiplies beyond what your investment was. And so my request would be, and it's purely this, and I know, again, town manager could say no, we don't want to do that. But I would love to hear, as this rolls out, that type of reporting on how this has been from a success perspective and the types of wins that we're seeing within this. To again just reaffirm that these investments are worthwhile even once we get past this meeting in this vote that we'll have tonight, so all the full [1:09:29] Sally Costello, Director of Economic and Community Development: Scopes and applications will be brought to the BDC so we'll be able to see exactly what's being proposed and what's being invested. But for sure we're leveraging 50%, right? So because they have to match, you know, up to 10,000, so we know we're leveraging at least 50% of whatever they're investing. But beyond that we'll definitely be tracking. We have to monitor to make sure everything's in place, so we got to make sure that our money's being spent, and so we have to go out there and, you know, do inspect. And make sure all of the work is being done, so we can, we will absolutely be tracking that for not just, you know, that for the town council, but also the BDC. We want to see how these programs are working so we can make any adjustments, you know, that we need to make. But yeah, we can absolutely bring those numbers back. And this is more of a question, it's a [1:10:13] Councilor Timmy: technicality that really doesn't have much to do with my decision, so I don't know why I'm asking it, but you had mentioned on the applicant side. I'm curious who is the applicant. Is it the business owner or the building owner? But if it is the [1:10:25] Sally Costello, Director of Economic and Community Development: business, they have to get the approval from the property owner, so we'll need both. So we need an indication that is acceptable. Thank you. All right, I'm [1:10:34] Chair McDonald: gonna shepherd us over to public comment here, so I'm gonna open the floor for public comment. If anyone would like to speak on this item, please come up to the podium or raise your hand on Zoom. You'll have followed the same rules as our public comment, three minutes per speaker, follow the code of conduct. Not seeing any in the room jumping up, not seeing any hands on Zoom, so I'm going to bring it back to council for a motion. Would somebody like to make a motion? Counselor Hicks. [1:11:14] Carol O'Donnell, Brunswick resident: i moved to approve a request from the brunswick development corporation for fifty thousand dollars in downtown tiff revenues news to support the facade improvement grant program that will be available to [1:11:26] Chair McDonald: business located downtown. That is a motion by Councillor Hicks, second by Councillor Wilson. Any further discussion on this motion before we take a vote? Not seeing any, I'll call the vote. Councillor Ellis? Yes. Councillor Ecker? Yes. Councillor Anderson? Yes. Councillor Peral? Yes. Councillor Hicks? Yes. Councillor Timmy? Yes. Councillor Weems? Yes. Councillor Wilson? Yes. The chair is a yes. That is unanimous of the council. The motion passes. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming in. Moving on to item number 114. The town council will consider a resolution authorizing the disposition of tax acquired property and will take any appropriate action. I'm going to turn this over. [1:12:08] Town Manager: The town manager. Thank you, Chair McDonald. So this is something that used to happen more often. We haven't done this in a while, and this is the request to the council to dispose of some tax acquired property. I will say the finance committee considered this on, when was that, it was a few weeks ago now, August 31st. So on August 31st I did a presentation, and the finance committee looked at each of these four properties and recommended that they be sold, and they're passing that recommendation on to the town council. The, I don't know how much I should go into the whole tax foreclosure process. There is a, in your packet is a memo that has a timeline to explain the multiple years that go into this. It doesn't happen overnight. Between when taxes are committed and when actual foreclosure is almost three years. So this is a long process. We try to avoid it at all costs. It is the really what we don't want to do, and even when we do foreclose for lack of payment of taxes, we then work with the original owner to return to give them every opportunity we can before we then come to the council. I will say that these are four relatively small parcels of land, just vacant land, and in every case the choice not to pay taxes and have the town foreclosed was deliberate. The taxpayer chose not to pay the taxes because they didn't want to deal with the land, and even though I really at the time encouraged them to try to contact the butters, try to give it away, try to sell it, they just, these taxpayers did not want, they just wanted to walk away. So you'll note that these were foreclosed in February of 22, which is quite a while ago. There's been a number of changes in the laws around tax acquired property in between, and so typically what we used to always do was just put these properties up for auction and then a sealed bid auction process that was spelled out, and we advertise and we notify everybody. Due to some Supreme Court cases, we can't do that anymore. We have to now offer these properties for sale through a realtor. So the next step here would be to engage a realtor who would then attempt to sell the properties on the market. The point of this is, of the Supreme Court cases, was that any proceeds above the amount that is owed to the town has to be repaid back to the original owner. And so this needs to go through a different sale process. And so the way also in your packet is a copy of our tax acquired policy, real estate property policy, which spells out, you know, the steps to go through, but it also references Maine statute, which is really what we need to be flexible with, because that's what's been changing over the last few years, and we want to stay, we want to say keep our process in accordance with that. So in this case, I am asking the council to authorize me to move forward with disposition of these properties. The first step would be to try to engage a realtor. I would reach out to a number of them and see if anyone's interested. Historically, many times they're not, because this is not something that it's very profitable for a realtor, but we would try. If I can't find a realtor, or if a realtor cannot sell the property within a certain amount of time, we then can go to a sealed bid process. So what I'm asking the council now is just to allow me to authorize me to head into this process and dispose of these properties. Happy to answer any questions about the individual properties. There's maps in your packet, some the field cards are in there as well, as the amount that is owed on each property. You'll notice taxes have been very low on these properties, so there's not a lot [1:16:53] Sally Costello, Director of Economic and Community Development: owed. Questions? [1:16:56] Chair McDonald: Great questions. I'm going to ask one right off the bat here, and then I'll jump around. When we get to the, if we get to a sealed bid process, I'm assuming the same rules apply that after whatever the offers are, if it hits the whatever it pays off for us, the rest goes to whoever's still in that process as well? Yes, that's true. Got it, okay. Other questions? [1:17:20] Carol O'Donnell, Brunswick resident: Counselor Hicks. Also the cost, not just the taxes, but whatever we spent to sell the property. [1:17:27] Town Manager: We get paid. Yes, get that covered. Yes, we can recover legal costs and we generally not staff time so much as legal costs, realtor costs, all that. [1:17:40] Chair McDonald: Other questions? [1:17:41] Councilor Ellis: Of counsel, Councillor Timmy. Why is this four acre property only worth like sixty five hundred dollars? It seems kind of ridiculous. So I will say that what [1:17:54] Town Manager: you're looking at probably is, which one is the four acre one? It's one of the two on Coombs Road. You know, that one is, I don't believe it's buildable, and it does seem like it would be worth more, but that's [1:18:13] Councilor Timmy: what it's valued at. Thank you. Is that the one with the pit? [1:18:20] Town Manager: Well, there's two on Coombs Road, right? There's, there's on Greenwood Road is a parcel that is basically a pond, and on Coombs Road there is also a parcel that is basically a pond. [1:18:39] Chair McDonald: Other questions? Not seeing any, I'll open the floor to public comment. If you'd like to speak on this item, you have three minutes. Say your name, town of residence, follow the code of conduct. Steve [1:19:01] Steve Walker, 900 River Road, professional ecologist: Walker, 900 River Road. I'm a professional ecologist. I am here tonight to offer different perspective these several of these properties, three of the four anyway, provides significant environmental or ecosystem services that are costly to replace in terms of water quality protections that are naturally provided and habitat protections that are actually provided. The first I'll start with the East the Bath Road parcel. This is at the northern edge, northern end of one of the large unfragmented blocks that was prioritized in 2003 by this town through the rural Brunswick smart growth model. It's also entirely located over a significant sand and gravel aquifer that drains to Woodard Cove, one of our clam flats that has so far been spared by the algal bloom. This is also the same aquifer that's been stressed by previous PFAS spills. Given the sandy soils, it is highly likely to support rare, threatened, endangered plants and animals. I have not personally been on this property myself but have been on parcels nearby where you do have pitch pine and especially pitch pine dominated wetland conditions. Nine Greenwood Road is a headwater wetland for Bunganuck Stream, also at the end of one of the prioritized unfragmented blocks, Coombs Road. The four acre parcel that has been discussed central in that is a wetland of special significance and a headwater stream that flows to Buttermilk Cove, again a very valuable clam flat. You do have the option to go through all of what Manager Hennessey said which is a lot of staff time, a lot of legal time, and probably a lot of conversations with reluctant realtors, or you can simply keep these and keep maintain the Eagles ecosystem services they provide free of charge. It's much better to do that than a situation like Mayor Brook where you're suddenly spending gobs of money to restore conditions that have lost. Once you lose control of these parcels, it's anyone's guess what could happen to them. They could be incorrectly developed, they could someone could not follow the ordinance standards, which is not unlikely, unfortunately. I think it's a no regret solution to keep those three, especially when you recently adopted climate action plan calls for 40 percent land conservation for this purpose by the year 2050. We are currently at between 11 and 12 percent, so there's a lot of land that could be conserved. These are a very cheap option for very clear benefit, so I encourage you to think twice before you just put them on a market unsuccessfully. Thank [1:22:18] Jennifer Navarro, Brunswick resident: Yes. Good evening. Jennifer Navarro, Brunswick resident. I've followed this issue for quite a few years now on the finance committee, the discussions about what happens if somebody inherits land and they don't want it. And so I have first to clarify that the cost and for the second parcel, I think it's 3811, 11 it says this 56 or whatever like few thousand and then it goes to 69,000 if that could be explained I could shape my public comment easier around that and why there's such a huge price Trump and then also how much money while we while these have sat in our care since 2022 have we put towards oversight and a nice cost to that would be appropriate but YEAH, SO MY CONCERN IS THAT WHY WAS IT SUCH AN ISSUE WITH GOING BACK FOR AMENDMENTS WITH THE TYLER THING AND SHOULD IT NECESSARILY BE RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC ANYHOW OR OPEN BID AND WITH THE EXCESS MONEY THAT IS AFTERWARDS, DOES IT MATTER HOW WE GO ABOUT FINDING THE PRICE THAT WE SELL IT FOR? IS IT FROM THE ASSESSMENT RE-EVALUATION OR DOES IT MINUS WHAT WE HAVE INCURRENT COSTS while we go through this process so i guess i would just have to wait for that pricing error in the agenda to really go about my next question thank you thank [1:23:43] Town Manager: you so i can address the first so i will tell you that this table that i put at the beginning of this at the beginning of your packet i now see that i this was done in back in 23 before the reval so the change in the price between what's in the table that's at the attached to my packet and the actual field cards that is the result of the reveal the change in the reveal so the field cards have the most current and I should have changed that column I did change the amount that 's due with attack With the inch in interest that has increased over time, the other to another point is that we, if the town were to retain these parcels, the town does have to comply with state law and it means it, which says if a municipality chooses to retain a tax acquired property for municipal use, the municipality shall procure an appraisal report from an appraiser licensed, and we would, so we would then have to take that appraised value, take out the amount of taxes and outstanding obligations on the property And pay the difference to the original owner, so it isn't that we can just keep the parcel without paying the original owner in accordance with state law. I'm [1:25:09] Chair McDonald: Gonna bring us back to public comment. Is there anybody else that would like to speak? I thought that was the end too, but okay, not seeing anyone in the room and nobody on zoom, I will bring it back to council for a motion and then we can have further discussion after that point. You know, you want to make motion. COUNSELOR WILSON, IS YOUR MICROPHONE ON? WELL I'LL MAKE THE MOTION, YOU, I'LL MAKE [1:25:34] Speaker N (unidentified): A MOTION TO ADOPT A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE DISPOSITION OF TAX [1:25:39] Chair McDonald: ACQUIRED PROPERTY. MOTION BY COUNSELOR WILSON. IS THERE A SECOND? SECONDED BY COUNSELOR PERROLL. OKAY, NOW DISCUSSION. IS THERE ANY FURTHER INFORMATION YOU WANTED TO PUT OUT THERE BEFORE I TURN TO COUNSELORS? SORRY, JUMPED AGAIN THERE. That's okay, I understand, counselor Teamie, so [1:25:58] Councilor Ellis: The town manager was just describing the alternate path of having to basically pay the difference to acquire the properties. Does that mean that until we do that we don't own the property, like we just kind of have like a lean on it at the moment? And so we, what I'm wondering is basically, is there a way to put like some sort of conservation easement on these properties before they then get sold, which would accomplish the preservation goals without, you know, having them end up just as pieces of town Land and definitely that we wouldn't be intending to do anything with, and still allowing us to both recoup the amount that we're hoping to get from it, hopefully depending on what the decreased value after an easement would be, and also potentially getting the, you know, additional costs then back to the original owners. I hadn't considered a conservation [1:27:02] Town Manager: Easement, but I don't see a reason we couldn't. Obviously it's something we would have legal costs to do, and then the town would hold that conservation easement and monitor it as we do with others. Further [1:27:19] Chair McDonald: Discussion or questions? It looks like Counselor Weems, I'll jump in on this. [1:27:30] Speaker K (unidentified): Because this has come before you as a with a recommendation from the Finance Committee, which I share, and there are two members of the committee in the room to support the motion that's on the table. I will say that we didn't in the discussion on this, to my recollection, have any input or even discuss the ecological significance of the parcels. We looked at potential other values of the parcel, but I don't remember anything of that nature discussed at the Finance Committee level, and no input on it either at that time. So we weren't prodded to think about it. Does make me wonder whether there's another better plan than just putting them on the market right now. I'm intrigued by Counselor Tami's idea about an easement. During the Finance Committee meeting, we did have some discussion about potential quote workarounds in quote that if the town wanted to retain the process we could. That idea didn't come up, and I like it, but I wonder whether there's some legal prohibitions against decreasing the value of the property before it's sold, which an easement would do. So I don't know if I think that it would maybe be a good idea to table it and look at some of these the environmental issues here that haven't haven't come up until this evening. Counselor [1:29:16] Chair McDonald: else if [1:29:17] Councilor Timmy: we're going to do that, I would also recommend that we look at the actual current assessed value, like what the thing is. I mean, adding up these numbers here, it's about 54-ish in that neighborhood, and just looking at the first parcel, that one was reassessed at 70 some odd thousand. And so if you were to look at the combined values of these at that same ratio, we're talking about 114 to 115,000 in land. I'm not so enamored with the thought of spending 115,000 on land in these small pockets that I'm I'm uncertain as to the ecological effects, and it's not because I doubt former Counselor his recommendation on that particular purchase, but I would want to hear more about that before I would contemplate spending 115,000 on purchasing sing the land, because that is not an insignificant amount. Counselor Wilson. Thank you. I actually [1:30:14] Speaker N (unidentified): I kind of tend to agree with Counselor Williams that maybe we should table it and look into this, because I hadn't even thought about what Steve Walker said, and I do believe that is something we should be taking into consideration every move we make. So I'm not against this, but I do think we should table it and look into it more. Thank you. I'm going to go to Counselor Parole. [1:30:44] Chair McDonald: Oh, you don't have anything, you were just so eager at the microphone here, I thought you had a question. I'm gonna, I'm gonna pause this for a point of order on question for the town manager. If we were to table this, so thinking about the ways to make definitives for resolutions here, if we were to table this, what do you do, you believe it would be an appropriate venue to direct you to consult with legal also? Should we put in that motion? I guess broader question that might be up for debate would it be appropriate for us to direct town staff to evaluate the ecological, since we have an environmental planner like side of it, or should we be trying to loop in the Conservation Commission who also does this type of work with land planning? That's why we're tabling it. I know, but if we're going to table it, I want to make sure that we're directing the appropriate parties to actually do the work for us to come back to us, because we don't want it to be tabled and then come back to us with like needing more people to input on it. I would say [1:31:46] Town Manager: yes, I mean obviously the environmental planner is staffed to the Conservation Commission and the Conservation Commission is the one that oversees conservation easements, but I will also be asking the question of whether we could put a conservation easement on it, and then so having the conservation value assessed by the commission would be good. [1:32:14] Chair McDonald: Counselor Eckerd, did you have something? I'm just going to start drafting some motions here. Yes, no. [1:32:18] Councilor Ecker: I think that's good, I think the thinking's good, and I think one thing I'm learning out of this is Steve Walker should show up at the Finance Committee meetings. I think, I think we should definitely table this. I think the Conservation Commission is a great idea to have them evaluate it. I also question the values here. These people gave this up because they couldn't do anything with these lands, so I know we got a great Assessor, I know he's on top of stuff, but these are kind of some unique situations where you know I don't know if they really are worth yeah 115 000 and a question for the town manager the foreclosure dates that closes the gate on when we can allocate taxes that weren't paid right in other words the only value that we can net against purchasing these things is that total due as of [1:33:22] Town Manager: 22? Yes, exactly, because there were no taxes committed after the town acquired it. Yeah, okay. [1:33:31] Councilor Ecker: All right, thank you. Counselor Ellis. [1:33:35] Councilor Timmy: I'm having vague recollections and maybe mixing conversations we've had but I thought with these two parcels we also talked about the owner may have approached land trusts with these or am I misremembering that like it was something that the land trust didn't want these parcels yes so there were the two parcels [1:33:54] Town Manager: on the Coombs Road there were also two parcels on Granite Road that those all four of them had been foreclosed previously and I as tax collector worked with the previous owner to facilitate an agreement with Brunswick Topsom Land Trust and they purchased two of them paid off all the taxes on all four and then the owner stopped paying the taxes again and so we foreclosed on the remaining two so yes this we've that's that's this history but yeah just [1:34:32] Councilor Ecker: one final since you're busy drafting that motion I know so Mr. Walker was talking about three parcels and did not mention the third one would oh three eight dash eleven Coombs Road so I don't know if we just throw all four of these over the Conservation Commission that's why I would tape yeah oh I thought it was the I thought it was the one with the pond marker is the waterway that comes through that yeah that's this one okay [1:35:07] Chair McDonald: so counselor Weems yeah I'm going to give you some more time to draft your motion I'm having council clerk review here to make sure we got well I do have a couple of quick things to say one [1:35:19] Speaker K (unidentified): one is there was some discussion at the finance committee about whether or not the land trust would be interested in at least one of the parcels and I can't speak for the land trust but I know enough about the land trust to say that they might not be interested but it doesn't mean that it doesn't have ecological significance sometimes Land Trust just cannot find a way to manage small parcels here and there and it just doesn't make sense for them to put it in their portfolio the other point I Make is that all these parcels are a piece of the land that people are just walking away from, so they're not liable to have a lot of market value. So if there is some significance here, we might well be able to afford it. [1:36:14] Chair McDonald: Councilor Wilson, and then I have a motion for you. All should I withdraw my motion? Nope, you're good. We're STILL DEBATING. NO WE'RE ALL SET. THIS WILL STACK ON TOP OF IT. ALL RIGHT WE'LL AMEND IT COUNCILOR. [1:36:25] Town Manager: PARALLE JUST UM COUNCILOR ECKERT MENTIONED UM SOMETHING AND I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE SO LIKE I THINK OUR ASSESSOR SHOULD BE LOOKING AT THE PIECES OF PROPERTY WITH THE SETBACKS AND EVERYTHING TO SEE IF THEY WERE BUILDABLE AT ALL AND THE ONE THAT WAS COMPLETELY LANDLOCKED I MEAN THE VALUE of those are pretty small when you can't even access it by if there's no roads or anything. So yeah to reevaluate that whole piece for actual buildability because two of them clearly have water visible on the site and the setbacks that go with that versus any that the things that mr. Walker referenced about like if there's access to the aquifers or whatever from that site and just to be sure that we are evaluating them properly for whatever however reason before we make our final decision if for some reason if we're we're trying to do it to the conservation easement or however we're going to value this not to I don't do this in an effort to hurt the current owners but to make sure that the town isn't overpaying if we choose to purchase the property I want to make sure that we're getting the best value or the appropriate value that we should be spending. So I'll just be clear to distinguish between the assessed value and appraised value if we choose to if the town chooses to retain these we need to get an appraiser which is different than but your point is taken right I mean because to remind the appraiser oh of these things as well because sometimes you know if you've been involved in real estate over the last few years [1:38:24] Chair McDonald: maybe not things taken into account that should be okay so I'm gonna make a motion to take here we go to table this item until such a date where the town manager has time to investigate the legal options with these properties and if appropriate send to relevant staff and committees for input coming back to the council no later than december 21st 2026 council meeting second by councillor wilson does that satisfy everyone yep cool so you have liberty to figure out these options for us and then by At least by the end of the year we'll have a report back. Great for discussion on the current motion to table. No discussion there. All right, let's go ahead and call the vote. Councillor Ellis? Yes. Councillor Ecker? Yes. Councillor Anderson? Yes. Councillor Brault? Yes. Councillor Hicks? Yes. Councillor Timmy? Yes. Councillor Weems? Yes. Councillor Wilson? Yes. The chair is a yes. That is unanimous of the council. The motion passes. I'll make a motion to adjourn. I want to do one last check here just because we do have some folks here who weren't part of public comment number one. Does anybody wanted to be part of public comment number two? Is there anyone that wanted to speak that didn't get to speak before? Not seeing any, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. I'll make a motion to ensure motion to adjourn by Councillor Wilson, seconded by Councillor Teamie. All those in favor show of hands. That is unanimous. Thank you, everyone. Have a good night.