Maine’s media - hooked on stupid - in the tank for Biddeford mayor, University of New England

By Ted Cohen

A group opposing University of New England's proposed “research pier” caught the Maine press swallowing a fairy tale.

To wit, the Mooring Owners organization says it's amazed the press decided the Biddeford college's controversial pier is now a done deal.

What reporters missed while they were going prostrate for Biddeford city officials dropping opposition to the school were the moorings that boaters say are immune from Mayor Liam LaFountain’s rubber stamp.

The mooring holders say the college - despite bogus claims by the media that the project now has a “green light” - simply cannot move forward with the protected moorings in the way of the planned pier.

“It was disheartening to see so much poor reporting by the local media after municipal meetings in Biddeford last week,” Mooring Owners said in a statement Wednesday. “There is no ‘green light”’ for the pier.”

"Under Maine law and Biddeford’s Harbor Ordinance,” the group added, “authority over the placement, assignment and relocation of moorings rests with the duly authorized harbormaster and assistant harbormaster - not developers, private consultants or applicants seeking construction permits.”

“This authority exists for compelling reasons: protecting navigation, preventing conflicts among vessels, safeguarding public safety and ensuring that waterfront access is administered fairly under established rules.”

The college was embroiled in a legal battle with LaFountain over a flip-flop approval by a regional land-use regulatory board known as the Saco Bay River Corridor Commission.

The panel recently ignored a longstanding rule effectively preventing the school from complying with waterfront environmental restrictions.

Now suddenly the University of New England has a “green light” to trample all over Maine’s land-use regulations?

Not so fast sports fans.

“UNE’s obligation to pay the costs of relocating moorings displaced by its proposed pier does not confer authority to decide where those moorings will go,” Mooring Owners said Wednesday. “Financial responsibility is not regulatory authority.”

A planning board’s approval of a pier can't substitute for the harbormaster’s independent responsibilities, the group added.

Any relocation must comply with applicable law and be authorized by the official legally empowered to administer the harbor.

Allowing UNE or its contractors to dictate mooring locations would improperly transfer public regulatory authority to a private institution, the group pointed out.