BATH

The City Council approved — with little discussion — a special amusement license Wednesday for the recently opened Front Street Public House.

Members of the public made no comments. Chris Johnston, the owner, told the council that the music would be low-key — “mostly acoustic, solo and dual, mostly one or two people.”

The council granted the Front Street Public House its liquor license last month.

It is at the same Front Street location as The Black Barnacle, which closed in September amid complaints of rowdiness on the part of its patrons. At least one Front Street business owner has said it will close because of the new tavern.

In other news Wednesday, a Ward 3 resident who said he represents a grassroots movement urged the City Council to consider a resolution to combat the influence of money on the political process.

Gerry Provencher, of Winslow Court, aims to overturn a Supreme Court decision that allows for unlimited spending by corporations and special interest groups on elections.

The so-called “Citizens United” decision essentially recognizes corporations as people, Provencher said.

He and others in his Bath group have reserved the City Hall auditorium for a public forum on the issue, at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 21.

Members of Congress, he said, have admitted spending an inordinate amount of their time raising money for their campaigns. “We can no longer tolerate such abuse,” Provencher said. “The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are people, effectively equating money and free speech.”

Provencher said 12 states and 34 communities in Maine have passed measures against the Supreme Court decision. It would take a twothirds vote in Congress and three-quarters of the states to overturn that ruling, he said.

“We believe that Bath should have such a resolution,” he said.

Following Provencher’s statements, the council granted the Bath Freight Shed Alliance permission to sell engraved bricks as part of the city’s Commercial Street sidewalk project.

Wiebke Theodore, chairwoman of the Freight Shed Alliance, told councilors that the group hopes to sell as many as 100 bricks, for $150 each. The money would allow the Freight Shed Alliance to lay the bricks along Commercial Street.

The project would cost $18,000 to $23,000, she told the council.

The sidewalk project, to be funded with federal, state and local money, is planned for the Commercial Street corridor beneath the Sagadahoc Bridge to Waterfront Park, passing by the freight shed.

The city will go out to bid on the project late this spring, and work would begin in early summer.

“We are thrilled with the design that you have come up with for the new project,” Theodore said. “We will use the exact bricks specified in the plan, and have them etched when the city needs them. They will make the surface area even less slippery.”

The Freight Shed Alliance is home to the Bath Winter Farmers’ Market, and to Maine’s First Ship.

lgrard@timesrecord.com

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