BATH
City Councilior Mari Eosco was elected chairwoman of the City Council on Wednesday — the first woman to ever hold the post.
Eosco presided over the final approval of an ordinance allowing the Winnegance General Store to operate as a business.
The council Wednesday also accepted the new limits for General Assistance food aid and elected not to go forward with improvements to Waterfront Park dockage because of a cost increase.
Jennifer Greene, owner of the Winnegance Store, said the building has been positioned over its new foundation, and new joists and sills will be added before it’s lowered onto the foundation.
General Assistance limits were decreased for food aid because of new limits in federal guidelines for the SNAP program. Last month, the council was told there was nothing the city could do to change those limits, and that General Assistance would have to conform with federal rules. This week, without comment, the council voted to accept the limits.
A planned improvement to Waterfront Park was scuttled when the cost of materials, primarily marine steel, rose astronomically.
City Planner Andrew Deci sought the council’s permission to apply for a grant to fund half the projected cost of replacing the “dolphins” — piles driven into the riverbed — so some larger yachts might be able to dock. The current docking situation cannot handle larger vessels.
However, since the idea was first brought forward to the council, there has been a large price increase, from $200,000 to $300,000, mostly because of the increased cost of marine steel.
“I’m very uncomfortable with that price increase,” Councilor At-large Andrew Winglass said — a sentiment shared by Councilors Brackett, Lockwood and Paulhus.
Amy Lent of Maine Maritime Museum spoke about the need for the city to increase dockage fees so as not to price the museum out of the dockage market. The institution recently invested half a million dollars in their own dock, Lent told councilors,
The council voted to prevent Deci from submitting the application, and agreed to consider changes to dockage fees in the early part of the new year.
ghamilton@timesrecord.com
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