Downtown, Lighthouse, Trash Among Concerns at Bulle Rock Candidate Forum

Patch was live blogging the candidate forum at Bulle Rock Thursday night. It lasted from 6:30 to 9:20 p.m. and covered a range of issues, including the Concord Point property on the ballot and the city's plans to revitalize downtown. Read below to find out what happened.

9:20 p.m. The forum ended. The moderator said that obviously, this was a large community with the capacity to influence the vote. Also, the next forum is on May 1 at City Hall, sponsored by OPAC.

9:13 p.m. Residents have mentioned that traffic coming through Bulle Rock far exceeds the number of people who live here.

Someone else asked why trash was an issue. "I just don't understand why we would have to pay for trash when we pay taxes?" There are voices being raised, folks.

"Back room deals," mayoral hopeful Jim Miller said.

"You won't find my signature on it anywhere," Mayor Wayne Dougherty said. "I don't know where the breakdown was." He said it is false that he was somehow involved, and that this would be an easy thing to fix. He said he deals strictly with the council president. "The problem is whoever's working on it up here. It's a very simple thing to fix." He said the HOA document is what states how to change the policy. A resident said that their HOA has been waiting for the city to help. "It's up here. The problem is up here," the mayor said.

Someone else said that the city could fix it by passing a tax amendment.

"We don't have that authority," the mayor said. "That is done through the state."

9:03 p.m. A woman asked about the referendum regarding the Concord Point property. The mayor said that someone has called him three times asking about buying the house at 701 Concord St. He said it would be the buyer's responsibility to pay for it and dismantle it, and he told the potential buyer that he would discuss the matter after the vote on May 7.

Mayoral candidate Jim Miller said he was in favor of buying the property for the right price. "The problem I have is...we didn't get a good deal on the assessment," Miller said. He said that $1.29 million might had been the price during "a good market in 1996."

8:59 p.m. Citizens asked what candidates would do to advocate for a new high school and a magnet program. There were many responses and ultimately, one person said, "But what are you going to do" as elected officials? Council candidate Fred Cullum said that ultimately, what they could do was advocate.

8:45 p.m.  A woman said she has lived here for a year and a half and she can't shop here, that half the time the stores have been closed. "It's like a sleeping town," she said.

8:43 p.m. A woman made a comment about how there is a need to clean up Havre de Grace and  then it will bring in businesses. There was applause.

8:38 p.m. A woman asked about plans for entertainment.

Mayoral hopeful Jim Miller mentioned the opera house renovation project and how he was on the council when discussions were underway about opening it up for accessibility. In addition to that venue becoming more available for entertainment, he said that the person who owns the old theater has plans for that property.

Council candidate Tom Barnes, head of the Havre de Grace Drama Guild, said the city can't choose who to bring in. "Do we want to bring in a movie house?" He said every time he drives by a garage on Revolution Street, he thinks: "bowling alley." But ultimately, Barnes said: "It takes investors."

8:33 p.m. A woman said that she thought the lighthouse property was more complex than anyone had let on, in terms of the environment and the Harford County master plan for the environment.

The mayor mentioned stormwater and parks as issues of import. Council candidate Fred Cullum said Havre de Grace is one of the few cities that has a regular street sweeping program, which helps contaminants from going into the river. Council hopeful Bob Greene said he wants to do as much as he can to "keep the city running as green as it can, and that's 'Greene' with an 'e,'" he said.

8:20 p.m. Audience members are invited to pose questions. One gentleman asked how the city will address the winter and make Havre de Grace as interesting to people as it is in the summertime. Another asked about services like Verizon coming to Havre de Grace. One woman said that she would like a sandwich shop and wondered how the city could continue to cite demographics as a reason why businesses won't come here, when there is a large community like Bulle Rock living here.

8:15 p.m. It's time for closing remarks.

Patch was taking pictures so we didn't get all of them, but not to fear: we will add comments in later because we were recording. Most of the candidates talked about "the future," how proud they were of Havre de Grace and how dear the city was to them.

8:01 p.m. "What will you do to improve the public image of Havre de Grace?" is the question.

Mayor Wayne Dougherty said that there is a strong tourism department and economic development department, and their job was to promote Havre de Grace. He mentioned a vacant storefront ordinance in Frederick. He said in August, a group would be meeting to discuss vacant storefronts. "If it's not a public safety or health issue, right now, we have nothing. This board I think can come up with incentives for those who don't want to comply," Dougherty said.

"I will bring fair and equitable treatment back to Havre de Grace," mayoral candidate Jim Miller said.

Councilman Randy Craig said, "Right now Bel Air's tax rate has been 50 cents," and he said that hopefully in the very near future, "we will be at 50 cents and we can compete." He said they have the courthouse but we have the waterfront. "We have to use what we have to bring these people in." He said that what he thought was the best part of Havre de Grace were the people.

Councilman John Correri: "I think if you elect the best-looking guy up here..." you would improve the image.

7:53 p.m. The moderator asked: "Does Havre de Grace have a commercial property [maintenance] code?"

Mayoral hopeful Jim Miller said, "We have what I call selective enforcement here in Havre de Grace. If you're my friend, I'll let it go. If not, I'll tear it down." There was laughter in the audience. "I want fair treatment."

Mayor Wayne Dougherty said that everyone was treated equally and fairly. He said a letter is written that gives the person 30 days to correct the problem. Then the person can appeal it and take it to Circuit Court. But when somebody takes something to court, "I don't have to tell you how long an appeal process can last in the circuit court."

Councilman Randy Craig said that code enforcement has been a big problem in Havre de Grace and that the planning department has been given authorization to work on it aggressively. "We did six or seven in the city and the good thing is the police calls go down," Craig said.

Councilman John Correri said that the city took that approach with 7-Eleven, issuing all sorts of fines, and the owner "did the same thing again."

Council candidate Tom Barnes said he would like to see more enforcement but in his neighborhood, some properties were cleaned up. He said that he believed Revolution Street, like Route 40, was a passageway to the downtown and should be improved.

We follow the National Building Code, which has a maintenance code in it, council hopeful Fred Cullum said. "As the mayor said, it's a process the city has to go through, and we have some people that know how to play the game and never do what they need to do."

Bob Greene, running for council, said he didn't have a good answer to the issue but that as a member of the Historic Commission, it was frustrating that they couldn't be more effective in helping to safeguard history and heritage.

7:43 p.m. The moderator asked, "How do you determine what type of retail would be good for Havre de Grace? Would you support techniques like a pedestrian mall or other alternatives?"

Mayor Wayne Dougherty said that he had experience in the travel business and had been to many jurisdictions so he had ideas, but this was not a decision that six people make. He said a study would need to be done. "Who are you impacting? What is the [existing business community's] flavor on it?"

Dougherty said there was a large building on St. John Street that was a Pabst distributing facility, where a developer wanted to put a four-story building there for mixed use.

"There was going to be residences at the top and retail at the bottom. Everything was going well wtih the state, there was demolition money being applied for, it was over $1 million, and it looked like it was going to go and at the last minute, the money backers backed out," Dougherty said. "I think it would've been something fantastic for the downtown. We have the bricks and mortar; what we need are new ideas."

Mayoral candidate Jim Miller said it was not the city's job to determine what retail should be here. He said that there has been mention of RAD loans and facade improvement grants, which can support business development. "We all heard the thing about BRAC coming here," he said. But without a budget being signed for six years, Miller said, buildings were sitting empty. "Once the economy turns around, we're going to be good to go," Miller said.

Councilman Randy Craig said he supports "any innovative approach." He said the job of city council was to work with business owners and create "workarounds...until we can get this rocket launched that we're building." He added: "I'd like to see as little of our money paying for other people's innovative ideas as possible."

Council candidate Fred Cullum said he favors pedestrian-friendly development.

7:38 p.m. The moderator asked: "What is going on with development across the street from Bulle Rock?"

The mayor said: "I have issued a stop work order. They have submitted three site plans [that do not concur with what the city has asked them to do]. I have instructed our attorney to lien the property. They have not made their recoupment payment. That is one of the things holding it up," the mayor said, adding that he had pages on the issue that citizens could review afterward. "Then they had the audacity to come into my office two weeks ago and wanted the city to do a site plan for them," Dougherty said.

All the candidates said that it was difficult working with the developers.

"To me, that's looking like a pretty nice spot with some soccer fields and baseball fields," Councilman John Correri said.

Council candidate Tom Barnes said he would like to place a moratorium on residential development.

7:25 p.m. A question came up about the property acquisition proposal next to the lighthouse. The candidates are asked if the city was going to make private investments, could it have made an investment to keep DuClaw here.

"That's what we need is open space," Mayor Wayne Dougherty said. "The price of that property, $1.29 million, which is one acre, versus over on the corner, non-waterfront-property, as you're looking out toward Concord Point" is a property that's $1.2 million for half an acre, Dougherty said. "The last thing we need is more development on the water" with stormwater regulations coming down, Dougherty said. "We need public parks." There was applause.

Jim Miller said it will be $2.1 million after all is said and done in terms of owner Steve Gamatoria's money from interest and the purchase price, plus the price of making it into open space.

Councilman Randy Craig said, "We don't have the proving ground. We don't have the retail that Bel Air has." He said Havre de Grace had the waterfront.

Councilman John Correri said he supports the purchase of the property next to the lighthouse.

Council candidate Tom Barnes said the waterfront was what brings people to Havre de Grace. "I don't want a TGI Fridays sitting next to a piece of American history," Barnes said.

Council candidate Fred Cullum said a "little old lady chained herself to the fence" on the other side of the lighthouse because she didn't want development there, and that people felt very strongly about preserving waterfront property.

As far as DuClaw, Cullum said it had nothing to do with the city. "As the mayor said, it was a piece of property owned by a corporation," Cullum said. "I don't know what the deal was, I don't know why the deal fell through and it wasn't the city's fault, at least I don't think so."

"Ditto," council candidate Bob Greene said.

7:14 p.m. "There is a law that makes it impossible to have two businesses [under the same ownership] that serve liquor in the city limits," the moderator said. "What will you do?" The moderator said this came up last year.

"I will speak with the delegation," mayoral hopeful Jim Miller said.

Mayor Wayne Dougherty said, "We were somewhat successful with the delegation this year. Many years ago when that was put in there, our population was probably about 5 or 6,000 people at that time." Dougherty said local restaurants didn't want franchises coming in and killing them. "I think the restaurants are solid downtown. They draw a clientele that enjoy what they have, and I don't think competition would be a fear to them now if we were to move in that direction."

Councilman Randy Craig said: "We've been playing defense with these businesses, and it's very difficult with the delegation we have and the climate there. Generally, it's more of a 'please don't do this to us' than 'can we get this done?'"

Councilman John Correri said he was for changing the regulation.

Council hopeful Tom Barnes said that after talking with the youths in this town, "I've got news: They're going to Aberdeen." He said the youths don't want to go out in this town and they need something to do.

Council candidate Fred Cullum said the delegation does not do things to help Havre de Grace. "One of the problems, I think, is they do things for Baltimore County and they could care less about Harford County."

Council candidate Bob Greene said he didn't know much about the delegation.

7:10 p.m. Councilman Randy Craig said that Old Bay Lane had industrial improvements made.

Councilman John Correri said that Deputy Director of Planning and Zoning Jay Bautz told him zoning documents were only 90 percent complete.

Council candidate Tom Barnes said he would require on-the-job training for zoning but he was ready. He said he couldn't speak to zoning since he hadn't served on those commissions and the council.

Council candidate Fred Cullum said that the proposed zoning would help people to get permits for modifications and eliminate red tape. "I think it's a very important issue and we need to get it moving forward," Cullum said.

Council candidate Bob Greene said that "heads need to roll" about lack of progress on some of the issues. There was applause in the audience.

7:05 p.m. Mayoral candidate Jim Miller said that if people wanted to know about economic development, they should ask the current mayor and council members why they voted against expanding the economic development office. Miller said the council took the $40–$45,000 that it would have taken to hire someone for one position to help Economic Development Manager Meghan Simmons. "They took that money and had a party somewhere," Miller said. Simmons is the only full-time employee in the economic development office for the city of Havre de Grace.

7:03 p.m. The moderator asked what is going on with the zoning process. The issue came up last year at the civic league forum and it appears nothing has moved forward.

Mayor Wayne Dougherty said that Upper Chesapeake increased the workload. "I'm very positive that it is moving. It's moving at a deliberate pace" and will be ready for public hearings soon, Dougherty said.

6:55 p.m. Councilman Randy Craig said that when he first started on council, First Fridays was just an idea and now it is something that brings people in and convinces them to come back. He also said the government tried to encourage businesses like DuClaw to come to Havre de Grace but "we don't always hit a home run." In addition, he mentioned tax incentives the city offers to businesses.

Councilman John Correri said: "We don't want the government running downtown. We set the table."

Council candidate Tom Barnes said he would like to see Route 40 cleaned up. There was applause. "It is a direct reflection of what we have downtown, and it hurts downtown." Barnes said in his professional background, he figured out where to put corporate centers. "We need an anchor." Barnes said that we have one and a half people in economic development and he wants to expand that office. As far as businesses, Barnes said: "That's not our job as a city" to manage businesses downtown.

Council hopeful Fred Cullum said that the city offers facade grants and personal property taxes. "I don't think there's an employee that works harder" than Economic Development Manager Meghan Simmons, Cullum said. He said you can't force businesses.

Council candidate Bob Greene said he would like murals around town and make Havre de Grace "art-rageous. We should have an art colony." He said the city should try to make something happen.

6:52 p.m. Mayoral candidate Jim Miller said that many businesses don't have business plans. He said that Havre de Grace was also not business friendly. Mayor Wayne Dougherty said that the economic development office reaches out to businesses that are struggling. He said the city has also worked on the streetscape downtown.

6:50 p.m. The moderator posed the following question: "Downtown Havre de Grace is an underused asset. Why is the economic development office not able to bring businesses into Havre de Grace that are able to sustain their businesses for longer than nine to ten months? What do you see as the problem? What are plans to increase tourism? How do we increase responsible, upscale development along the Route 40 corridor?"

6:45 p.m. Patch was late. Apologies. Bulle Rock is an easy place to get lost, I discovered. Thanks to the man with the dog who helped me figure it out. And Sean for his Mapquest skills.

Patch will be live blogging the candidate forum at Bulle Rock from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Read more election coverage here.