The Select Board is meeting with the Belfast City Council on Tuesday, April 2, at 6:00pm, at Belfast City Hall, to discuss the boundary of Northport and Belfast at the Little River.
The Board has received many questions from concerned residents, and this explanation is intended to clear up any concerns about why the Board is meeting with the Belfast City Council.
Q: Why is the Select Board meeting with Belfast City Council?
A: The Northport Select Board requested the upcoming meeting with Belfast. The Board did so because at Belfast’s City Council meeting on March 5, the City Council voted to spend up to $5,000 on a statutory perambulation of the Northport municipal boundary.
Many people may not realize it, but under the statute, when one municipality formally invokes the perambulation process, it becomes mandatory for the other municipality to participate. There is no ability to opt out.
If Belfast were to formally call for a perambulation, Northport would be responsible for half the costs, whether or not we participate, and if we didn’t participate, Belfast would be the sole decider of where the boundary is. (See https://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/statutes/30-a/title30-Asec2851.html for the full text of the perambulation statute.) Ignoring Belfast’s intention to conduct a perambulation would be a serious abrogation of the Select Board’s rights and duties to the Town and its taxpayers.
To date, there has been lots of speculation in the press and by residents about what is going on, but the Select Board and City Council have never spoken to each other about this matter, and no decisions have been made, other than Belfast’s decision to appropriate $5000.
Because they are municipal officers, the only way that the Board and Council can meet, discuss, and reach a decision is in a public meeting.
The best – and really only – way to resolve any issue is for the parties speak face to face, and that is what this meeting is intended to do. The Select Board sees no dispute about the boundary with Belfast, but the Board does want to engage in a dialogue with the City Council to see how a costly perambulation can be avoided. If the Select Board had not reached out to the City Council to request this meeting, the likely next step would have been a 10-day notice from Belfast for a statutory perambulation, which would have left Northport with no choice but to participate and pay half the cost.
We are hopeful that a costly perambulation can be avoided. In their March 5 meeting, one Councilor stated that she wished that they did not have to conduct a perambulation, calling it “insanity,” and another Councilor voted against it. If you haven’t already, please watch the entire City Council discussion of the matter to see what each of them had to say about perambulation. See https://belfastme.new.swagit.com/videos/299141 (Item 10(D), starting at 52:55).
We hope this clarifies our situation. Please feel free to call James Kossuth, the Town Administrator, at 338-3819 x6 or email at [email protected] if you have any questions.