The state Department of Marine Resources is considering a lease application submitted by Chris Warner that would allow him to seed and harvest four acres of stateowned flats off Bay Point Road. Jay Holt owns the abutting property.
There is a space on the application for either the town’s harbormaster or elected officials — in this case, the Board of Selectmen — to sign off on it.
The operative question: Is that signature necessary in order for Warner to get the lease?
It depends, said Jon Lewis, a biologist for the aquaculture leasing program.
“The DMR can approve the lease if the case is made that those signatures were withheld without cause,” Lewis said.
As matters stand, neither the Board of Selectmen nor the harbormaster has voiced an opinion on the lease.
More should be known Thursday night, when the Georgetown Shellfish Conservation Commission meets at the Town Office.
The Board of Selectmen will be there, too.
So will Holt and his attorney, shell- fish warden Jon Hentz and others interested in the local shellfish resource. The meeting begins at 7 p.m.
Board of Selectmen Chairman Geoffrey Birdsall, who regularly attends Shellfish Conservation Commission meetings, said the entire board is expected to attend because the lease is of interest to the community.
“We’ve only heard idle conversation about it,” Birdsall said. “We haven’t seen the technical details. There’s an awful lot of details that we have to flesh out.”
As Lewis explained it, the experimental lease is one of three offered by the state Department of Marine Resources. A limited-purpose license for smaller-scale plots is renewable every year, and the standard 10-year lease covers up to 100 acres.
Warner’s lease would be for three years, but not renewable. The application will require more scrutiny than the limited-purpose license, Lewis said.
“This would be the first one granted in an intertidal (mud flats) area,” Lewis said. “The others are in deeper water.”
Applications for new leases have been available for a few years, Lewis said, but no one has applied.
Until now. Someone from Harpswell also has shown interest, he said.
“There might be some local controversy in granting it to a private entity,” Lewis said. “The man applying says it’s unused mud flats. He wants to use that and make it his own little farm.”
A DMR lawyer will consider the lease application, Lewis said.
Warner, a commercial clammer from Bath, said that a DMR official will recommend the lease during Thursday night’s meeting.
Originally, Warner wanted to use four consecutive parcels 400 square feet each from Holt, who is an alternate committee member. He said last Friday that he will need a new site plan, because he wants to work a four-acre plot.
“This is a really big opportunity for the shellfish industry,” Warner said. “This would be the first one. This is for the next generation.”
Holt said his flats are great habitat for the seeding and harvesting of clams.
“Georgetown could be recognized as a pioneer of shellfish harvesting in Maine,” he said.
lgrard@timesrecord.com
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