ROCKLAND, Maine — The Harbor Management Commission is recommending a plan to the City Council that could solve the conflict between the Maine Lobster Festival and three food trucks that also lease space on the waterfront.
The Commission met Tuesday evening at the harbormaster’s office to come up with recommendations.
The meeting was held following a conflict that developed again this past summer. The owners of two seasonal food trucks were sharply critical of what they say were heavy-handed tactics by the Maine Lobster Festival.
The food truck owners pay the city $3,000 each year to operate from April 1 through Nov. 30 at Buoy Park.
The owners of Mac Attack — Richard Curtis and Sierra Cook — said their food truck was moved to a far end of Harbor Park behind a large bounce house and next to portable toilets after they refused to take lobster off their menu during the five-day festival. They have leased space each year from the city for the past five years.
And Omar Hadjaissa, who has operated an Amato’s food truck at Buoy Park for nine years said he had to pay the festival $8 for every lobster roll he sold or a large obstruction would have been placed in front of his truck.
Those truck owners attended the Tuesday meeting and reiterated their concerns.
Curtis and Cook said limiting the products they normally sell violates Maine law on unfair trade practices.
Limiting sales in this way affects both businesses and consumers in the marketplace, they said.
Avi Good from the Lobster Festival Board said the contract that the festival has with the city allowed them the right to move vendors during the festival. She also said that it was a reasonable request to prohibit the food trucks from selling lobsters that one week, the same prohibition that is placed on vendors for the festival.
She also pointed out the festival attracts thousands of visitors to Rockland and provides more traffic to these food trucks than they would otherwise have.
Hadjaissa disagreed and said his business drops during the festival. He said if he is unable to sell lobster during that week, he would lose money.
Former Mayor Louise MacLellan Ruf said the food trucks are wonderful ambassadors for the city. She said the festival acts like they run the entire city. She urged the Commission to support a plan that would keep the food trucks in their spaces and allow them to sell lobster.
Harbor Commission member Sam Ladley said the problem is overlapping contracts that the city has with the food trucks and the festival. He said it should not be difficult to separate the food trucks from the space used by the festival.
After nearly an hour of discussion, that is the recommendation made by the Commission.
“Physically separate food truck park out and the other issues go away,” Ladley said.
In the long term, changes are planned for Buoy Park that could lead to the trucks being located in a different location.
And when festivals contract with the city to use Harbor and Buoy parks, the section used by the food trucks would not be included in that agreement.
The recommendation will be forwarded to the City Council which will make the final decisions.
