A midcoast town is moving ahead with a plan to remove a sportfishing boat that has been abandoned in its waters for about four months.
During the annual town meeting on Thursday night, residents of Arrowsic approved spending up to $14,000 to remove the boat, which is called Hook, Line and Sinker and has been abandoned in the channel off the shores of the small midcoast town since February.
Other donors have also pledged to help pay for the removal. The town has received three bids to do the work, ranging from $17,500 to a little over $27,000.
More boats have been abandoned off the coast of Maine in recent years, leaving small towns with limited funds to scramble to find ways to remove them. It’s even harder for communities without a harbor master who can oversee the process.
Adding to the challenge is that the vessels often create environmental hazards where they’re left, leaking oil, fuel or other pollution. The boat in Arrowsic has a hole in its keel and is littered with hypodermic needles, leaving town officials at a loss for how to clean it up for months.
According to Walter Briggs, chair of the Arrowsic Select Board chair, the town has obtained the legal authority to remove and dispose of the sportfishing boat through the state Bureau of Parks and Lands.
One anonymous organization has offered to pay half the cost of removing it, Briggs said, and the town is obtaining funding from other sources to help out, including another anonymous donation of $2,000 and a commitment from Bath Iron Works to provide “some financial assistance.”
The remaining costs would require, at most, a $14,000 contribution from the town’s taxpayers, which they approved Thursday night, Briggs said. But, the effort is far from over.
“It’s still a moving target. Hard to know when it will happen,” Briggs said. “Obviously, the sooner the better.”
Next, the Select Board will review the three bids and decide on one. Briggs said it’s too soon to know when the boat could be removed from the mud, but he’s hopeful that it will be over soon. Thankfully, the vessel hasn’t changed since it was abandoned and has produced no new hazards, Briggs added.
“The stress isn’t over. This is just moving into a new phase,” Briggs said.
