CAPE ELIZABETH — Snow cover or not, it is the middle of winter.
What better time to look ahead to the summer season at Fort Williams Park, the
crown jewel of Cape Elizabeth.
At their Monday meeting, town councilors gave
Town Manager Michael McGovern the go-ahead on changes to the vendor program and
“bus fee” plan, including the hiring of a “greeter” to collect the fees. They
also scheduled a public hearing to take comment on a 94-page master plan for
the park.
That hearing will take place Monday, Feb. 13, at
7 p.m., following workshop review by councilors Jan. 11.
The vendor program launched this past summer,
with a program that allowed into the park food carts – a total of five over the
course of the season –for the first time in its 47-year history under town
ownership.
Next year only four vendor licenses will be
issued, lasting the full season, from May 1 to Oct. 31. Applicants will have to
pay $4,000 to set up in one of two sites at Portland Head Light, or at “Ship
Channel Overlook.” The fourth permit, for Ship Cove Beach, will cost $2,500.
Although a menu plan must be submitted for consideration with all applications,
the beach vendor will be required to carry “cold beverages and ice cream.”
Applicants also must now show proof of $7.9
million in insurance coverage, including $5 million in personal and bodily
injury liability, $1 million in automobile liability and $1.5 million in
worker’s compensation and employer’s liability, as well as a certificate of
insurance listing the town as an “additionally named insured” for at least
$400,000.
Last season, Cape Elizabeth made $11,000 off the vendor
program, charging four concession stands $2,000 each for half-season permits
and one $3,000 for a full-season.
Applications for 2012 are due to the town office by 2 p.m.
on Jan. 26 and will be awarded by Feb. 15.
“This continues to be a pilot program, with no guarantees
that it will continue in perpetuity,” McGovern said Tuesday.
The bus fees, set in November at $40 per trip for any tour
bus to enter the park (so-called trolley cars will be assessed $1,500 for the
full season), are expected to net $35,860, based on 2010 traffic. However, the
plan caused great debate among councilors and not a few catcalls from residents
because voters have twice rejected parking fees at Fort Williams. However, by a
5-2 vote, the council decided that commercial enterprises are not bound by
those referendum results.
“We must drive revenue
to support the park now and in the future,” said Councilor Frank Governali at
the time. “Costs will rise inevitably and we cannot continue to put that burden
on Cape Elizabeth taxpayers forever.”
Some tour operators, like Gregg Isherwood, owner
of Custom Coach and Limousine, promised to give the park a miss in 2012, vowing
to shuttle their customers elsewhere for an authentic taste of Maine.
“Some of that I think was the heat of the
moment,” said McGovern, “but since then, everyone’s been terrific.”
Recently, McGovern has been in talks with
several trolley, tour bus and cruise operators, trying to hammer out what he
calls “a new arrangement so that both sides benefit.”
He is offering a $5 discount per bus to any charter service
that promises to bring 100 buses per year into the park, if they will also
provide the town with the “additional insured” certificate required of vendors.
“We want to work with the motor coach community.
It’s in everybody’s interest,” said McGovern, adding that being able to depend
on coverage from the bus service for any patron who has a tumble “is worth more
than that $5 to us.”
McGovern also is working on a solution to
another lingering problem: The question of who the town intends to collect the
new bus fee. The plan now calls for the hiring of a part-time “greeter,” to
meet tourists and offer directions (including to businesses in town, when
appropriate), as well as to collect the bus fees and, on occasion, remind
drivers of the rules against leaving bus engines running while waiting for his
or her charges to return.
A wage has yet to be set for the greeter,
although McGovern says whatever it ends up being will be shared equally between
the park and the Head Light museum.
“Having a pleasant person there to meet people
is something we’ve needed to do anyway,” said McGovern.
The new master plan, prepared by Mitchell and
Associates Landscape Architects, of Portland, at the behest of the Fort
Williams Advisory Commission, lists 10 priorities. In order, the are:
• Expand the Ship Cover parking area and build a
turn-around area at its end,
• Upgrade the Ship Cover picnic area, to include
a canopy,
• Review the feasibility of creating a “group
reception area” at the west end of the overflow parking area, above the parade
grounds,
• Evaluate possible safety improvements to the
Cliff Walk, including relocation of the path,
• Improve vehicle and pedestrian access at the
intersection of Ocean and Wheatley Roads,
• Repair the central power station,
• Look at ways to improve the intersection of
Powers Road and the Ship Cove parking lot,,
• Reconfigure parking areas near the maintenance
buildings to improve traffic circulation,
• Plan for a second picnic shelter to be located
west of Merriam Road, near the multi-purpose field,
• Reconfigure the parking lot near the current
picnic shelter.
The council also on Monday agreed to lease a
150-sqaure-foot storage area at Building 326 in the park to Behavioral Health
Resources for $37 per month. Income to the town from all tenants of the
building is now $28,032 per year.
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