ROCKPORT — At its regularly scheduled Nov. 12 meeting, the Rockport Select Board approved a Samoset Resort sewer fee abatement, heard about the town’s requirement to produce another report to the state to meet EMS licensing requirements, and committed to easing municipal costs for developers of a Route 1 affordable housing complex.

The meeting began at 6 p.m. in the Geoffrey Parker Meeting Room at the Rockport Opera House. Because of computer glitches, it was not streamed live. A recording was subsequently posted and is available to watch here.

Sewer fee abatements

While the Select Board, acting as the town’s Wastewater Commissioners, had three complicated abatement requests on the agenda, the board granted just one. That concerned the Samoset Resort, which had requested Rockport assess its municipal sewer fees on the resort's 72 timeshare condominiums using the same formula used for assessing sewer fees on the hotel.

The town office had calculated the number of equivalent users of its hotel rooms and cottages to be 152 but the Samoset argued that be reduced to 102.

Equivalent use is calculated based on the size of a building and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms.

The Samoset said its lodging units are used in the same way whether they be hotel, cottage or condominium rooms, all as nightly rentals. The resort requested the town to revise its calculations to reduce the number of equivalent users is 102.

The Samoset also asked the town to adjust its sewer billing as such for a due date of August 2025 because of the sharp increase in sewer fee assessment this year, and negative effects on the resort's budget.

At the Nov. 12 meeting, the Select Board agreed with the Samoset, reducing the number of equivalent users to 102. 

“I am leaning with the Samoset,” said Rockport Select Board Chair Denise Munger.

Town Manager Jon Duke pointed out that the loss of revenue to the town with the abatement would be approximately $15,000. Without the abatement, the town would have received approximately $29,580 in sewer fee revenue. As a compromise, the Samoset agreed to pay the sewer bill on 71 of the units in 2024. The remainder of the bill associated with 31 other units will be paid in August, 2025, as stipulated in the abatement request.

The Rockport Select Board refused to grant an abatement to another Rockport resident for a sewer fee dispute over bills associated with a house. The Board agreed to consider the abatement again after the homeowner works with the town's code enforcement office to show that the residence consists of one dwelling unit, not two.

The third abatement request, submitted by Paula and Alex Armentrout, was postponed because they were unable to attend the Nov. 12 meeting.

The Select Board also approved a new pump station to be located at the old State of Maine Cheese building on Route 1, where current owners are making renovations and want to add more facilities to the line that already ties into the sewer line there.

EMS license and new fire station update

At the Nov. 12 meeting, Town Manager Duke informed the Rockport Select Board that its application for a waiver in the requirement to submit a consultant study to the Maine Emergency Medical Services System (Maine EMS) was denied Nov. 6. by the Board of Emergency Medical Services.

Rockport had submitted an application to license the Rockport Fire Department as a ground ambulance service at the EMT level, permitted to the paramedic level, in Rockport. The application was considered by Maine EMS to be almost complete, except for one component, a consultancy report that shows that changing the ground ambulance services is in the best interests of the community that Rockport EMS would serve.

Rockport already has a license as a non-transport service, and Rockport firefighters with EMT/paramedic licenses have been hired, said Duke. Firefighters with EMS/paramedic licenses have been responding to emergencies in town since last summer, in anticipation for taking over in April as a full ambulance service licensed to transport patients to hospitals.

The privately-owned North East Mobile Health Services, based in Saco and with a field location in Rockport, is currently licensed in the region to provide ground ambulance service. 

North East, which has been the main ambulance service for Camden, Hope, Lincolnville and Rockport since 2014, is not voluntarily relinquishing its primary response area, according to an Oct. 31 memo to the Maine Board of Emergency Medical Services in preparation for its Nov. 6 meeting.

Rockport’s requirement to produce a consultant’s report, required within 60 days of Rockport’s application for its ground ambulance service, is a necessary part of the licensing process, the Maine EMS Board agreed.

That report is to address whether switching a ground ambulance service is in the best interests of the region; that such a change will maintain or improve patient care; maintain and/or improve patient care quality, and/or improve system efficiencies and use of resources.

Maine EMS Board members voted unanimously against giving Rockport a waiver, despite the town’s submission of two existing reports: one from 2015, the other dated July 2024. Both reports were outside the timeframe, the Board concluded.

“Because North East Mobile Health has elected to oppose Rockport’s request to be the primary transporting provider in our town, Maine EMS rules require the applicant to submit a report which uses data created by Maine EMS, which suggests whether the new service would improve care,” said Town Manager Jon Duke, Nov. 14, in a follow-up communication. “If NEMHS did not oppose this request, the license application could be heard by the Board.

“The cost for this report is approximately $2,000 to $5,000 and will delay the review of Rockport’s application to Maine EMS by at least one month. We are in the process of selecting that individual to complete the report so we can put it back before the Maine EMS Board as soon as possible.” 

At the Nov. 6 EMS Board meeting, a board member asked why the town chose not to produce another study. Rockport Fire Chief Jason Peasley and Town Manager Duke said the expense to the taxpayers for another study would be an additional burden, and said the new study’s conclusions would be similar to the previous studies, specifically regarding the recommendations for regionalization of services.

The emphasis on regionalization of EMS services, as recommended in the July 2024 study, was acknowledged, and both Duke and Peasley said they agree with the concept. Neal Courtney had submitted his report, Knox County Fire Service Review and Emergency Medical Service Assessment Report, last July. It had been commissioned by Knox County, using AARPA funds. (See attached PDF for the two reports)

In it, Courtney concluded that while regionalization is elusive in New England where home rule reigns, he suggested a focus on coordinating separate and autonomous fire and EMS departments. Courtney provided a number of examples, both in Maine and New Hampshire.

“We understand that a third party consultancy report would likely recommend regionalization and we do agree with that concept,” wrote Peasley, in an Oct. 31 letter to the EMS Board. “Several communities in this area, including ours, have completed such studies in recent years that have also supported this idea. In the future we would entertain such discussions. Waiting for a study that tells us what we already know would be futile, wasting taxpayer time and money. Avoiding this was a goal of our suggested transition with NEMHS, which was refused.”

Town Manager Duke noted at the Nov. 6 EMS Board meeting that Rockport had voted overwhelmingly in favor of a municipal transporting EMS service in June 2024. He said the current contract with NEMHS expires in June 2025, “and we’ve informed them of our desire to exit the existing agreement a couple of months early using the 180-day rule to opt out of that service that is in the contract with them. This is done with great care and forthought on our part.”

He said the town is ready with its EMS service, and will start Dec. 2 with full coverage, along with NEMHS continuing its current service to the area.

North East was also present at the EMS Board meeting, and said it endorsed state EMS standards (updated in 2021) for issuing new licenses. The standard in place for the review of Rockport’s licensing application says, in part: 

“The Board shall issue a license with a defined 9-1-1 Primary Response Area when a need is demonstrated based on the following criteria:

A. The Board finds the applicant’s proposed response time(s), enroute time(s), transport time(s), and time-tolerance(s) are sufficient to protect the health, welfare, and safety of the public within the 9-1-1 Primary Response Area based on evidence provided;

“If the 9-1-1 Primary Response Area is currently served by a licensed ground ambulance or non-transporting service, the proposed times above are maintained or improved;

“If the 9-1-1 Primary Response Area is currently served by a licensed ground ambulance or non-transporting service, the proposed times above are maintained or improved;

“Public comment(s) received;

“D. Discipline undertaken by the Board and any Letters of Guidance that have not expired for the ambulance service currently serving the 9-1-1 Primary Response Area, and the service applying to serve the 9-1-1 Primary Response Area;

“E. An evaluation of the potential impact upon existing ground ambulance and non- transporting services; and,

“F. The character of the ownership of a proposed service.

“3. The Board’s decision constitutes final agency action, appealable to the Superior Court in accordance with the Maine Administrative Procedure Act, 5 M.R.S. Ch. 375 Subchapter VII.”

Duke wrote in a separate letter to the EMS Board that while NEMHS does not want to relinquish its role as primary provider, he did not feel it was in the, “best interest of my community.” He cited the will of the voters, and challenged the need for another study.

Rick Petrie, chief operating officer of the Saco-based NEMHS, in an Oct. 15 conversation, explained why his company was not relinquishing the ground ambulance service for Camden, Hope, Lincolnville and Rockport, saying the existing service for the four towns now functioned efficiently.

“Rockport flies in the face of the efficiency,” he said, both financially and from a resource perspective.

“That’s what Maine EMS is trying to get away from,” he said. 

He projected that if NEMHS relinquished Rockport, the costs to the remaining three towns would increase by 78 percent, “because they have to now absorb costs and loss of revenue from Rockport."

North East is not going, “to automatically relinquish to get away from a regional response,” said Petrie. “Regional response is best for citizens and we feel strongly about that.”

The EMS Board acknowledged at its Nov. 6 meeting that the existing reports already submitted by Rockport would not provide the information necessary to to consider the ground ambulance services application, in particular for variations and improvement in response times. That is because they are regional studies and did not focus on Rockport’s specific current situation in relation to North East.

In refusing the waiver request, the EMS Board said it was uncomfortable granting waivers in general for processes and procedures established by rule. Board members agreed they did not want to set a precedent of waiving requirements, such that it would unduly hinder the board of Maine EMS office in its general administration of the Maine EMS system.

The EMS Board, consisting of 15 members but with just nine members voting Nov. 6, agreed it want wanted clarity in reviewing Rockport’s application before making a decision on the application, overall. Maine EMS said it maintains a short list of consultant names that it could provide Rockport to complete the study.

At the Nov. 12 Rockport Select Board meeting, Duke said that while he had hoped: “they [Maine EMS Board] might, given the amount of work this [Select] board had done, the prior board had done, the county work done by Neal Courtney both this year and 10 years ago, that they might back away from the need to fill that [additional study].

“We were a little disappointed to see they still wanted to have that done,” he said. “We are working on that and expect we will probably be back before that group next month in pursuit of trying. That’s the last check box in terms of the policy side and the permitting side of being able to open the doors.”

The doors to the new fire station in West Rockport will be open in mid- to late December, said Duke.

“Maine Coast Construction is working with subcontractors to have that facility completed,” he said. “We are the mercy of subcontractors just like the rest of the building world, but things have moved along quite swiftly, thanks to Farley, Inc., working extra time to get some of the earthwork completed.”

The fire department has secured a trailer to house the firefighters who will begin working 24-hour shifts on Dec. 15.

Board member Jon Viehman asked for clarification of what Rockport’s EMS staff is able to to do, now.

“We have an ambulance,” he said. “What can’t they do that they are going to able able to do?”

“Right now, we are set up as a first responding corps,” said Duke. “We are not the primary transporting authority for Rockport. At present, when there is a call, it goes to Rockport fire and to North East Mobile Health. I won’t say who gets there first most of the time, but Rockport does a good job of getting to the scene pretty quickly. We provide care as a first responder. This is what Camden is doing as well, right now.”

Then, he said, the patient is stabilized and North East can transport the patient.

“So we cannot transport the patient,” asked Viehman.

Duke then explained that North East: “has the opportunity to say, ‘once you get your license, we will relinquish our hold on this area and you guys can ahead and take it from here.’ North East has refused to do that. They do not believe it is in the best interest, despite what this board and the people of the town of Rockport have said at the polls. As a result, that has required us to go through these extra steps through Maine EMS, which will delay our service running to full capacity.”

He added: “We would obviously like to transport patients and take over the service, as is the board and town’s intent, but until we go through this process with Maine EMS, we cannot do it.”

Petrie said Nov. 15 that NEMHS would not walk away from Rockport, if the town did not get a ground ambulance service license.

“Right now we have told Jon and we will put this writing that this is complicated process and we will not abandon Rockport as of April 1, 2025,” Petrie said. “Nobody else is licensed to respond in Rockport, but the expectation would be the contract will be in place until Maine EMS decides on the license. I would hope this is worked out before April.”

He added: “If Maine EMS says no, now they are going to be in a pickle and we will continue to respond until end June 30.”

And if Maine EMS gives Rockport a license, then North East will continue to respond to the three other towns.

“We will not walk away from the Midcoast,” Petrie said.

He again advocated for regionalization, and said North East would pull out if the four towns pulled together.

“Maine needs to take a hard look at benefits of regionalization,” Petrie said. “If all four of those towns, even adding Rockland, came together and came up with a regionalized public safety response, North East would have nothing to say about that. Because it is what is needed.”

Reducing costs for affordable housing developments

At the Nov. 12 Rockport Select Board meeting, members talked with Ed Libby and Caleb Lincoln about fiscal restraints associated with their intended development of former physician offices at Madelyn Lane into 18 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.

The Maine State Housing Authority has added the project to its list of funding awards, but the developers confronted sewer fees in Rockport and calculated that those fees would add another $600 a month to rental costs for renters.

. The MSHA is an independent state agency that provides financing for affordable housing developments. The Madelyn Lane project is listed at the MSHA site. There is no development cost listed for the project.

"Effectively, Maine Housing provides strict guidelines within which developers are to operate, which should reflect baseline operational costs for such a structure," wrote Duke, in his memo, which is included in a premeeting packet. "Unfortunately, the sewer costs alone for this project are more than three times the amount allowed by Maine Housing. 

Libby and Lincoln, who are also renovating and creating affordable housing in apartments in Rockland, explained that workforce housing finance rules stipulate that someone who renting can earn no more than 80 percent of the area median income, and that renters are to spend no more than 30 percent in their income on housing.

"We are held to what we can rent for," said Libby. "Budgets are strict and tight."

Libby said their is an allowance for charging renters for sewer and water.

“We could charge people more, but that wouldn’t feel very good,” said Libby.

"So, you’re saying the only fly in the ointment here is your sewer rate,” asked Select Board member John Viehman.

"Yes," said Libby.

"Are there other Rockport costs that go into the rent," asked Viehman?

"Property taxes," said Libby.

"I would love to see us pull away from focusing on the wastewater costs because the way the ordinance is currently written, if we do anything on that, we are making the sewer uses foot the bill," said Viehman, adding later in the conversation, "There is something fundamentally wrong with the burden moving over to other users to pick up the tab."

He advocated for the town to investigate what other municipal expenses placed on affordable and workforce housing could be mitigated. 

"I am a total fan of what you guys are trying to do," he said.

Libby and Lincoln said Rockland has high property taxes but the sewer fees are a third of Rockport's.

"We could send this in, but doesn’t feel good, because we would have to upcharge the affordable housing people with a $900 charge," said Libby.

Maine Housing allowances need to be updated, he said. This project, he said, "was in a competitive process with 18 projects and six got funding."

The Select Board indicated agreement with reducing municipal costs for the project.

Viehman suggested that Libby and Lincoln share their full budget information with Rockport Planner Orion Thomas and work toward a solution.

Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657