Freeport voters could decide whether long-landlocked ship gets to see the ocean
The Island Rover, an 80-ton steel ship, sits in a neighborhood in Freeport. (Derek Davis/Staff Photographer)
A group of Freeport residents is seeking signatures to put a referendum on the ballot that would allow an 80-ton ship that’s been landlocked in a forested neighborhood for decades to finally float.
This is the second time that supporters of the schooner, the Island Rover, have pursued a ballot measure. In June, they failed to collect enough valid signatures to qualify for the primary ballot.
The Freeport Town Council had a chance to vote on the citizens’ proposed ordinance, which calls for a temporary boat launch at 0 Shore Drive, at its Aug. 18 meeting, but instead decided to send it through the referendum process.
Some neighbors have opposed a launch off Lower Flying Point Road, worried about coastal erosion, the well-being of wildlife and that the ship could get stuck in the mud.
Supporters of the Island Rover launch were allowed to start gathering signatures on Monday. They have 30 days to collect signatures from 10% of the qualified voters in town for the issue to appear on the November ballot, according to town Attorney Amy Tchao.
Harold Arndt started building the Island Rover more than 30 years ago using scrap materials he got through his job at Bath Iron Works. His dream was to take a group of college students on a trip to the Arctic while showing them creative ways to reuse materials.
Advertisement
Related
An 80-ton ship has been landlocked in Freeport for years. Here’s why.
But that hasn’t happened yet, and Arndt, now in his 80s, and his business partner have been involved in legal battles with the town for years. The story was the focus of a documentary in 2023.
Harold Arndt, seen with the Island Rover in 2012. (John Ewing/Staff Photographer)
‘ORDINANCE TO LAUNCH THE ISLAND ROVER VESSEL’
The ordinance proposed through citizens’ initiative would allow temporary, non-commercial boat launching facilities to be built in the zoning district containing the planned launch site, 0 Shore Drive, which is owned by Arndt’s business partner, Carter Becker.
It would give Becker and Arndt two years to launch the ship, and specifies that boat launches cannot remain in the water for more than seven months out of a year.
Other private property owners have denied Arndt’s requests to use nearby locations over the years.
“We think that the voters would say, ‘Let’s just get this boat out of there,’” Arndt’s attorney, Twain Braden, said Monday. “Let’s vote on a petition that does not require the boat to have a (town) permit, simply to transport it to the water.”
The proposed launch plan would include hauling the ship on a dolly system from the private right-of-way it sits on, onto a public road and then to Becker’s property. Bags filled with stone and covered with wooden planks would be used to smooth out the shoreline. Once in the shallow water, the ship would be supported by air bags.
Advertisement
If Island Rover supporters gather enough valid signatures, the Town Council will be required to hold a public hearing on the proposed ordinance before it goes to voters.
Last year, the Freeport Coastal Waters Commission denied a temporary boat launch for the roughly 90-foot schooner in the residential area — where the water in Raspberry Cove’s mudflat only reaches about 6 feet at the highest astronomical tide — for environmental reasons, including possible impacts to the cove’s coastal species.
Braden, however, maintains that the launch would be carried out in the winter when animals like horseshoe crabs and clams are dormant, therefore not impacting the wildlife.
The Island Rover’s launch would still need approval from the state Department of Environmental Protection, even if a referendum is passed.
“It’s our expectation … that DEP will have a difficult time exempting this kind of use from the requirement that the temporary boat launching facility does not have an adverse impact on wildlife,” Tchao said.
Tchao also said that the ordinance could allow anyone, not just the Island Rover team, to construct a temporary, non-commercial boat launch in the area while skipping over town environmental review.
Advertisement
“Even though this purports to be, and states that it is an ordinance to facilitate the one-time launch of this one vessel, that’s not what this ordinance actually does,” she said.
Braden argued that it would be unlikely for another landowner to build a temporary launch that they would have to take down in two years when the ordinance sunsets.
Raspberry Cove in Freeport, where there has been a proposal to launch the Island Rover, an 80-ton steel ship. (Derek Davis/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
ONGOING LITIGATION
Arndt’s legal troubles began in 2004, when town officials accused him of violating rules against “manufacturing use” in a residential zone after he formed the Island Rover Foundation, a nonprofit.
Most recently, Arndt sued Freeport in February, claiming the town has spent more than 20 years fighting him in court to get the schooner removed, imposing thousands of dollars in fines, while rejecting his efforts to launch the ship. The town has asked a federal judge to dismiss the case, while Arndt’s representation is requesting it be remanded to state court.
Judges have repeatedly found Arndt violated court-imposed deadlines to move the ship. In 2014, he agreed once again to move the Island Rover out of the neighborhood within two years or cede ownership to the town.
Braden, Arndt’s attorney, says the ship still hasn’t been moved because town officials repeatedly “(moved) the goalposts.”
Advertisement
“If anyone in a position of authority at the town had ever said to our clients, ‘How can I help?’ this schooner would have been in the water a decade ago,” he said.
Meanwhile, the vessel’s ownership is still being debated.
Arndt hired Becker, a local businessman, in 2016 to help finish construction and champion the Island Rover’s launch. When the town learned the following year that Arndt had mortgaged his property and granted a security interest in the ship to Becker, officials sued them both, alleging fraudulent transfer and claiming that the town is the owner of the ship and the land it sits on.
The case concerning the ownership of the Island Rover is set to go to trial in December, Tchao said.
**The Times Record Sustaining Sponsor
**We believe a community must be informed to thrive. bowdoin.edu
Copy the Story Link
Tagged: Boating, Times Record, Times Record News
Katie covers Brunswick, Bath and Freeport for the Times Record. She was previously the weekend reporter at the Portland Press Herald and is originally from the Hudson Valley region of upstate New York. More by Katie Langley
