📰BIDDEFORD | UNE PIER | Grohman kicks hornet’s nest, voters organize special city meeting

📰BIDDEFORD | UNE PIER | Grohman kicks hornet’s nest, voters organize special city meeting

Carole Alexander (right) drops off more than 100 signatures of registered voters to Biddeford City Manager Truc Dever (Seaver photo)

PRESS RELEASE | MEDIA CONTACT: Kyle Noble, noblehouse@maine.rr.com

(Biddeford, Maine) An illegal regulatory process pushed by Biddeford Mayor Martin Grohman has sparked outrage among residents, and a call for a special city meeting.

The issue at stake is a pier on the Saco River proposed by the University of New England (UNE). This morning, a citizen organizer arrived at Biddeford City Hall to submit more than 150 signatures from registered voters on a petition that calls for a rarely invoked “General Meeting of the Citizens.” Such a meeting is allowed by the city charter, if 100 valid signatures are gathered. The mechanics of a General Meeting require the city council to listen and not speak as citizens fully air grievances about the topic at hand. The signatures were collected in four days.

“We could have collected a thousand signatures if we had to,” said Kyle Noble, a resident of Hills Beach and a former Biddeford city councilor. “In all my years of public service, I can’t remember any issue galvanizing people like this one has.”

Residents delivered the petition to Biddeford’s new city manager, Truc Dever. It reads, “The purpose of the meeting is to redress grievances related to the city’s regulatory review of a pier proposed to be built on the Saco River by the University of New England. The purpose is also to consult upon the public good…”

The central issue in the controversy is whether or not Biddeford’s harbor ordinance requires a certified and fully trained harbormaster to approve UNE’s proposal. Advised by Biddeford’s city solicitor, Grohman’s position is that it does not. Those with local knowledge of the lower Saco River disagree, and say the ordinance does require approval by a professional harbormaster employed by the city. They point to clear language that states, “Permission for the construction of any new wharf or pier within the jurisdictional limits of the City shall not be granted without approval of the Harbormaster…”

To smooth the way for the pier’s approval, Grohman and former city manager Jim Bennett arranged for the silencing of harbormaster Paul Lariviere in May of 2024. They accused him of bias against UNE, even though Lariviere had previously approved another pier application for the university.

Grohman staunchly defends the novel theory that Biddeford’s harbormaster holds strictly a facilitating role, and does not approve new piers. He is an admirer of UNE’s status and power, and has made it clear to various parties that he wants the university to have a pier in the location they want. Almost a year before UNE submitted an application to the Biddeford Planning Board, he told the Saco Bay News, “At this point, they [UNE] are holding all the cards.” That was a couple months after UNE attorney Ron Schneider threatened the city with a lawsuit, writing to the city solicitor that any attempt by Biddeford to change the location UNE wants for its pier would be an “illegal act.”

Sixteen months later, the planning board approved the UNE application. Since then Grohman has tried to duck the consequences of the approval secured by his regulatory manipulation. Asked whether city government will move current mooring owners out of the way so that UNE can begin pier construction this fall, the mayor refused to answer. In contrast, his two opponents in the current mayoral contest provided full and detailed answers.

Last month a planning board member publicly objected to a “tainted” regulatory process. Grohman acted quickly to have him removed from the board, provoking widespread anger in the community. The city council overwhelmingly rejected the maneuver by refusing to provide a second to a motion for removal made by one of the nine councilors, a known UNE ally.

Proponents of a better location for the UNE pier say Bennett and Grohman put the city in violation of the city’s harbor ordinance. Noble said an email from the Maine Harbor Masters Association in June of 2024 was all the professional guidance the mayor needed to avoid the situation he finds himself in now.

“He and Jim Bennett were told by the professionals that what they were trying to pull off, going around the harbormaster, was illegal. What he’ll hear at the general meeting is that the role of Biddeford’s harbormaster is critical, and can’t be tossed aside on a whim. The pier will affect the heavy marine traffic on that river, which requires an experienced harbormaster doing his job,” Noble said.

The petitioners expect to hear from the city soon about an official date for the General Meeting.