I’m
writing to let you know of a situation in Castine,
regarding the confrontation between the Town of Castine and
the Maine Maritime Academy Board of Trustees. It is a
situation that requires your attention in your role as
members of the Education Committee.
On September 27, 2007, the MMA Board of Trustees spent
$1,450,000 for a property known as the Abbott House or
Pulliam House. This historic property, located across the
street from current MMA President’s House, encompasses
about 6.5 acres and includes the house, an ell, and a few
small outbuildings. At least 4 of these acres are forest
and field. The house was built around 1804 and is smaller
and more fragile than the current MMA president’s house and
is already in need of maintenance.
There are several problems with this purchase, chief among
them being that the sale is in direct violation of
Castine’s zoning ordinances. The residential zone in which
the Abbott House sits does not permit any institutional
use. Yet the MMA Board of Trustees has decided that using
Abbott House as another president’s house – for housing,
entertaining, and hosting events - and also counting its
acreage as part of their “green space” formula, doesn’t
constitute institutional use. The Town Selectmen saw the
purchase for what it was – breaking both the letter and the
spirit of the town’s ordinances – and were opposed to the
purchase and are staunchly opposed, on legal grounds, to
any use of the Abbott House property by the Academy.
Hundreds of taxpayers and residents of Castine have joined
in support of the Selectmen’s decision. The confrontation
has appeared in the Bangor Daily News, the Ellsworth
American, the Boston Globe, has generated three opposition
websites – one of them by MMA students - and shows no signs
of going diminishing.
There are additional details that cast an even darker
shadow over the MMA Board’s dubious decision.
In a July 2007 letter
to
neighbors of one of the Academy-owned properties,
President Tyler stated that the MMA was carrying
$11,000,000 in deferred maintenance, and for that
reason, he would not be able to make the necessary
repairs on the property in question. One month later,
the Board voted unanimously, in secret Executive
Session, to spend the $1,450,000 on a second President’s
House. There seems to be a discrepancy here between what
was said and what was spent.
In the upcoming November 6 Referendum, there is a line item
of $1,500,000 allocated to the Maine Maritime Academy. The
amount is curiously similar to the cost of the second
President’s House - $1,450,000. Do
you think that Maine taxpayers would want their tax dollars
spent on such unneeded items as a second President’s House,
when the current President’s House has undergone, and is
still undergoing, renovations costing tens of thousands of
dollars, and particularly when the whole University of
Maine system, with which the Academy competes for funds, is
suffering from budget shortfalls? The recently
purchased second President’s House is old, will need
significant maintenance, and will cost upwards of $80,000 a
year to maintain – a grotesque waste of taxpayer’s money.
As some MMA students have pointed out, the Academy seems
unable to maintain the buildings it owns, let alone
purchase additional property. The Propeller
House, one of the
largest private home owned by the MMA, is an eyesore.
Property is not the only thing that is neglected by the
MMA Board. That $1.45 million, if invested at 5%, would
provide enough interest to fund full tuition for 10
in-state students at MMA. In a recent statement,
President Tyler expressed concern about being able to
provide enough spaces for Maine students who want to
attend the Academy. Yet, when given the chance to help
Maine students, the Board and the MMA Administration
purchased a second President’s House instead. This
expression of concern for Maine students also seems less
than candid in light of the fact that MMA accepts over
30% of its students from out-of-state.
Finally, in choosing to purchase Abbott House, the MMA
Board of Trustees voted unanimously to violate the Town of
Castine’s zoning ordinances. Their action strikes at the
heart of a small town’s right to govern itself in
accordance with the laws and ordinances it creates for the
benefit of all of its citizens. The MMA Board has instead
decided that the best way to deal with a law that it
doesn’t like is simply to break it.
All of these allegations are documented on the website
www.mmawatch.org and I would encourage you, in your
capacity as members of the Education Committee to acquaint
yourself with this issue and to act to bring the MMA Board
in line with the rule of law and fiscal responsibility and
to divest itself of this wasteful purchase.
Regards,
Bill Prindle
bill.prindle@gmail.com
www.mmawatch.org
