Bristol Select Board member Kristine Poland votes to approve a motion at the Wednesday, Nov. 6 meeting. Bristol Select Board members set Wednesday, Dec. 4 as the date of a special town meeting at which voters will decide whether to declare a structure in New Harbor as dangerous and to pay for its removal. (Johnathan Riley photo)
The fate of a derelict fish house and dock in New Harbor will be decided by Bristol residents at a special town meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 4.
Voters will consider whether to declare the fish house and dock a dangerous structure and then to appropriate $211,121 from surplus to pay for its removal. The Bristol Select Board scheduled the vote during its Wednesday, Nov. 6 meeting.
“I really don’t want to put this off any longer than we have to,” said Bristol Select Board Chair Chad Hanna.
The fish house and dock, owned by Sandy Brackett, was identified by harbor committee members as one of three docks in New Harbor “in disrepair” as early as January 2023, according to committee meeting minutes.
According to Brackett, back-to-back storms Jan. 10 and Jan. 13 that brought record-breaking tides and surge further damaged the structure.
Harbor committee members noted in their March 28 minutes the structure’s disrepair but added that it presented danger to the harbor were to collapse.
Voters will also decide whether to allow the town to enter into a contract with Atlantic Coast Tug and Marine based in Hampstead, N.H. for the removal of the structure. Brackett had previously reached out to the business to get a quote for removal.
Approval of this article allows the town to forgo the bidding process usually associated with work paid for by the town. Hanna said it was important to get the work done quickly by someone with the proper equipment before the structure
“Basically, they indicated availability and they have the equipment necessary. I don’t believe we have any local contractors with equipment big enough, I think the barge they plan on bringing is like 90 feet,” Hanna said.
Elsewhere on the warrant, voters will decide whether to pay for the $207,146.90 cost of January storm debris removal from New Harbor from surplus, according to Bristol Town Administrator Rachel Bizarro.
After the January storms, Bizarro said approximately 304.8 tons, or 609,600 pounds, of material was removed from New Harbor.
“That’s the approximately the same weight as a Boeing 747,” she said.
Contractors involved in the removal of structural debris from New Harbor include Gordon Libby Forest Products, Grimmel Industries, Hagar Enterprises, Latlong Fisheries, Midcoast Marine, Nathan Hanna, New Harbor Co-op, New Harbor Marine, Ocean’s Edge Marine Construction, O.W. Holmes Inc., R. Pendleton Inc., and Shaw’s Fish and Lobster Wharf.
In other news, select board members approved the name of a new road off of Hanly Farm Road.
The new road, named Zaccadelli Ridge Road, connects Hanly Farm Road to Ocean’s Edge Marine Construction property located at 1392 Bristol Road.
The select board’s next scheduled meeting is at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 19 at the town office.
