HARPSWELL

The Mitchell Field Committee will be discussing whether a boat launch should be built at the 119-acre town-owned property during a public hearing today.

According to committee chairman Rob Roark, the idea and concept for the boat ramp was part of a master plan that was created for the site after the town obtained the property in 2001 with the closing of the fuel depot.

The plan was approved by Harpswell voters in 2007.

After an online survey and several public meetings, Roark said that response from the community has been positive overall.

“We want to make sure it reflects what the town wants,” he said.

Today’s meeting will “regurgitate” and confirm some of the public ideas and opinions that have been expressed about the structure, which includes making it an alltide boat ramp and big enough for lobster boats.

“The idea was to build a boat ramp so people could have a boat launch and access to Middle Bay … adequate for pleasure boats to go fishing, big enough to handle a typical lobster boat and it would be another place that people could haul their boats until a storm passed,” Roark said. “There are multi- ple uses, and we certainly have a feeling that it’s big enough for a commercial launching area too and not just recreation.”

According to Town Administrator Kristi Eiane, a 2011 report revealed that the proposed boat launch was estimated to cost about $287,000, although the exact price for the ramp is yet to be determined.

Roark hopes to have a better idea of the budget after today’s meeting.

“We will take the input we have and the survey results and boil it down and look at it,” he said. “We have some idea of a budget, but fairly soon we’ll present it to the budget committee and start putting some numbers together — how much the town will have to pay.”

Roark also added that the committee is already researching several grant opportunities to finance the boat launch, which may make the space available to both Harpswell and non- Harpswell residents.

“It’s very likely that we will use a grant and there maybe some resistance to that from those who think this should just be for people who live in Harpswell,” he said. “The only way that would happen is if we pay entirely for it ourselves.”

Ramp costs may also be complicated due to the deterioration of a former Naval pier at Mitchell Field, which is adjacent to where the boat launch is expected to be installed.

Roark said the town made the pier open to the public until an engineering report deemed the structure unsafe. A section of the pier also collapsed in 2012.

With two options available for the future of the pier — either to refurbish or demolish the structure, Roark said “both of those carry a fairly high price tag, and that’s going to muddy the waters.”

Especially when it comes to considering what has more priority — the boat launch or the pier.

“The boat launch cost is much less prohibitive than the pier, but I think given the recent collapse of a part of the pier, it really sort of brings this question forward of ‘what do we want to do with the pier?’” Eiane said.

She hoped today’s public discussion will also stimulate some conversation about the future of the pier.

“There’s an interrelationship with the pier and the boat launch,” she added. “Obviously there is a lot of cost associated with the pier and maybe that’s why that’s been put on the back burner.”

The public forum will take place at the Harpswell town office at 6:30 p.m. tonight.

How much for boat launch?

ACCORDING TO Town Administrator Kristi Eiane, a 2011 report revealed that the proposed boat launch was estimated to cost about $287,000, although the exact price for the ramp is yet to be determined.