Please Note Next Meeting:

Wednesday, September 24, from 8-9:30 am at Terry Kelley’s Office, MDI Housing Authorities, Mt. Desert Street, Bar Harbor

Present: Hook Wheeler, Zack Steele, Stan MacDonald, Terry Kelley, Sam Coplan, Jill Goldthwait, Lee Worcester, Chris Owen, Marla Major, Cuff Train, Jean Marshall, Mike Siklosi, Sydney Roberts Rockefeller, Ron Beard

Check-in Comments

Cuff and Marla noted that Mount Desert Community Trust has contributed $1000 to the total of $15,000 to be raised for the Community Housing Needs Assessment and Action Plan to be conducted by John Ryan. Letters have gone out to others to raise the remainder.

Jill noted the creation of a Legislative study committee on affordable housing, chaired by Representative Mary Ann Gleason and Senator Tom Sawyer, with an initial meeting on September 26.

Hook noted the recent history of land costs in his rural (suburban) section of Bar Harbor, where a 2 acre house lot sold for $50,000 in the mid 1990s, for $90,000 in 2000 and in 2003, the asking price for a 2 acre parcel is $160,000.

Jean noted the gift of a historic house in Tremont to the MDI Historical Society, with funds to move the house… noting that the Historical Society will be then looking to sell the house in its new location, interested in "affordability covenants" and willing to work with Mount Desert Community Trust and MDI Housing Authorities… discussion noted that we need to set up ready process for "capturing" houses such as this for community housing, as is done routinely on Martha’s Vinyard.

Planning for September 30 MDI Housing Summit

Speakers confirmed

Marla Major and Ron Beard, (setting the stage)

Dennis Damon, State Senator (brief opening remarks)

Chris Owen, MDI Hospital (panel on issues)

Jeannine Ross, Machias Savings Bank (panel on issues)

Terry Kelly, MDI Housing Authority (resources panel)

Mike Finnegan or designee, Maine State Housing Authority (resources panel)

John Abrams, South Mountain Builders, Martha’s Vinyard (Keynote)

John Ryan, Development Cycles consultancy

(preliminary housing assessment and action plan

Speakers to be confirmed

Eric Henry (Hook Wheeler)

Keating Pepper (Ron Beard)

Cliff Vandenbosch( Keating Pepper)

Rep from Coastal Enterprises, Inc (Marla Major)

Location: Neighborhood House

Mike Siklosi made good on his offer to fund the rental fee of $150…

Many thanks, Mike

Set Up: Terry Kelley committed a housing authority crew to help with set up

Committee members volunteered to help with clean up… Thanks, Terry

Catering Mike and Fayelle Anderson will provide full service soup and sandwich

Meal, table settings, and clean-up for $11 per person… Hook Wheeler will confirm, with Marla providing final head count following RSVPs

Friday, Sept 26

Invitations Due to the short time frame, committee members divided up Marla’s list and will call, attempt to get confirmation of attendance, plus name, mailing and email addresses… mail and email invitations will follow from

University of Maine Cooperative Extension… report results to Marla at 288 3340 (thanks to all who are pitching in with these important calls, and my apologies if I have missed any assignments—do your best!)

Jill

Municipal officials in all towns and council /select boards in Bar Harbor, Southwest Harbor and Mount Desert

Hook

Bar Harbor Planning Board, Conservation Commission

Lee

Tremont Planning Board, Southwest Harbor Planning Board, Comp Plan and Conservation Committees

Sydney

Mt. Desert Ordinance Review Committee, Planning Board

Sam and Stan

Developers / Contractors, including Pam Gleichman

Terry

Bankers and mortgage companies

Cuff

Realtors

Chris Owen

Major employers

Other Publicity Marla said she (and others from Mount Desert Community Trust)

Would send a press release for the Thursday, September 25
editions of the weeklies and Bangor Daily News, in case our invitation list is incomplete; press release would set summit in context (MDI Tomorrow State of the Island Report, the work of the Mount Desert Community Trust, the John Ryan Study and action planning process and other details); we are not looking for lots of public involvement at this time, but will welcome those that attend, noting that there may be need for additional volunteers to help with implementation of action plan)

Additional expenses Sam noted that use of a private plane to pick up John Abrams (keynote speaker) would entail $300 (approx) for fuel costs. Since we are asking a $15 donation at the door, anticipating that we will have 100 participants at $15 per head, and food costs at $11 per head, we ought to have 100 x $4 or $400 to cover these fuel costs and other incidentals. Terry Kelley said that MDI Housing Authorities would provide up to $500 if needed for unanticipated expenses. Sam will confirm that John Abrams is donating his time.

Packets for conference Earlier we said we would provide limited copies of the housing section of the MDI Tomorrow State of the Island Report, and email it to those we are able to… other materials to distribute to participants would be background supplied by Mount Desert Community Trust, MDI Housing Authorities and any preliminary materials from John Ryan… Jean Marshall, Sam Coplan and Bill Cohen may be able to summarize Jean’s excellent work to outline how each of the island’s towns encourages (or inadvertently discourages) housing affordable to the community workforce. (Jean provided this "matrix" to the group as a work in progress)

To contact MDI Tomorrow:
MDI Tomorrow, c/o University of Maine Cooperative Extension, 63 Boggy Brook Rd., Ellsworth, ME 04605, 207-288-8212.

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