It took Edgecomb residents 14 minutes and two seconds to enact a moratorium on floating structures. Twenty-two residents attended the March 27 special town to meeting to prohibit house boats and floating structures within the town’s two rivers while the Ordinance Review and Harbor Master committees draft an ordinance regulating them.

The special town meeting had two articles. The first was electing Boothbay Harbor lawyer Chip Griffin as moderator. The second was enacting the six-month moratorium. There was no debate or discussion on it. Many of the voters previously attended a March 13 public hearing which discussed why the planning board requested the moratorium.

The board received two inquiries about house boats which led to a request to place a moratorium. Neither the town nor the state regulates them, so the board requested a special town meeting on a moratorium. 

The longest single portion of the meeting was Griffin reading the article, which took six minutes and six seconds. The vote to pass the article was unanimous.

The Ordinance Review and Harbor Master committees will meet Thursday, April 20 to begin talks on drafting an ordinance.

“We needed the extra time because there isn’t a lot of information about floating structures,” ORC Chairman Barry Hathorne said. “Nobody seems to know whose jurisdiction they fall under. We’ve contacted the state attorney general’s office and Army Corps of Engineers for an opinion, but nobody really has a sense of how to handle floating structures.”

Hathorne expects to have an ordinance drafted within six months. But he doesn’t envision another special town meeting. He expects the selectmen will  likely enact another six-month moratorium so the proposed ordinance could be decided at the 2018 May 2018 town meeting.