Shea Doonan will continue to have to wait for a vote from the Marion Board of Selectmen until he has sufficient experience as an oyster farmer before the board will allow Doonan to move forward with his application for a second oyster farm at Mitton’s Flats in Sippican Harbor.
During the original hearing date on January 3, 2017, Doonan faced significant opposition from residents living near the site. He also received opposition from Tabor Academy, which asserted that its rowing and sailing programs would suffer if Doonan was allotted the site he requested because Tabor representatives claim they regularly use that location.
At that time, the selectmen continued the public hearing until September 19 to wait and see if Doonan could demonstrate that he is a skilled, responsible aquaculture farmer. On that night, Doonan asserted that the nine to ten months he has worked the current oyster farm site adequately demonstrates that he is.
“In the time since I first have taken over that [oyster farm], I’ve doubled the amount of equipment on that site and more than tripled the amount of [oysters],” said Doonan. “That’s not just by chance. That was my goal going into it – to make this the best site.”
“I’ve found that I’m very good at doing this,” Doonan said. ”I’ve found nothing but success so far, and I think that moving forward is going to be a great opportunity for me and the Town.”
Doonan defended himself against past accusations that the site was a poor one for oyster farming, because he asked the harbormaster to choose a suitable location for him – Mitton’s Flats. He also said Tabor would still have “a football field in length and width” for its programs in the harbor.
“I thought that I would be able to get it,” Doonan said. “We went over a number of issues, and finally it came down to not having enough experience as far as being an oyster farmer, even though it’s been over two-and-a-half years I’ve been trying to do this.”
Doonan’s experience actually managing an oyster farm has not yet exceeded ten months, he stated.
“I’m very good at what I do, and the only thing that could stifle my growth is the inability to expand,” Doonan said.
However, the issue that arose amongst selectmen and the harbormaster was Doonan’s shortfall in experience as per the regulation which states, as Harbormaster Isaac Perry read, that petitions for an additional oyster farm could be approved if the harbormaster and selectmen consider an applicant’s past aquaculture experience as favorable “after subsequent years” of experience.
“It doesn’t say subsequent ‘months,’” said Perry. “For me, it’s a regulatory issue at this time.”
Perry told the board, “I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves…. I don’t disagree with what Mr. Doonan [has done],” he stated, “I just think it’s too soon.”
Ignoring the regulation’s reference to “subsequent years” when it came to a track record, Perry said, “I just think it’s a bad precedent to set, and I just can’t support this application moving forward at this time.”
Doonan was granted approval to take over Brodeur’s oyster farm back on December 20, 2016. His public hearing for the second site at Mitton’s Flats was January 3, 2017. And although Perry said he has no other problems with Doonan’s application, and observations of Doonan’s work over the past ten months have been quite positive, Perry said, “I would leave that decision up to the board … [but] I don’t want to make it a habit of overlooking certain sections of our regulations because it may be convenient.…”
Doonan argued that although the regulation said ‘years,’ it does not specify a minimum; to Doonan, ‘months’ would suffice and the ‘years’ appears arbitrary.
“It says one year in the rules, but it also says that it can be up to the discretion of decision makers,” said Doonan. “It does leave it up to discussion.”
“I am qualified to do this,” said Doonan, adding that he has since acquired his degree in aquaculture management.
There was one resident from Point Road there to oppose the oyster farm, recounting the residents’ reason and also saying no one from the neighborhood knew about the hearing that night so no one else was able to appear.
“This is the last piece of open water in Sippican Harbor,” said resident Jay Somerville. “I’d just hate to see that last stretch of open water taken up by a bunch of oyster cages that we’re all going to have to look at.”
Selectmen Chairman Jody Dickerson reminded Somerville that any aquaculture license is still likely years away, and this application was simply to allow Doonan to move forward with state and federal review.
Doonan again defended himself and then said, despite the other concerns listed by Somerville, that Somerville had simply stated the real reason for the opposition.
“The actual reason why they’re here – ‘We don’t want to have to look at it,’” said Doonan. “And that’s not, quite frankly, I don’t think that’s a good enough reason to not have an oyster farm there.”
Doonan said he figured the board had already made up its mind and, sensing he was right, agreed to request another continuance for the public hearing rather than face outright denial.
“I personally don’t have any problem with what you’re proposing to do,” said Selectman Norm Hills, “but I think it’s important for the harbormaster to be on your side so I think we should wait.”
“I would have to definitely agree with Mr. Hills on this,” said Dickerson.
“I’m the same,” said Selectman Steve Gonsalves. “I’m going to go with what the harbormaster said. I wouldn’t feel right going against him in this since he knows more about it than I do.”
Regardless, said Town Administrator Paul Dawson, historically the harbormaster has interpreted the regulation to mean what it states – “years” – and the Board of Selectmen historically has enforced it as “years.”
The public hearing was continued until December 19 at 7:05 pm.
“And that’s my birthday, so be careful,” Doonan joked.
In other business, Dawson announced that the Town of Marion has been approved to sign a Community Compact Agreement with the state that will bring in two grants right away for the Town – one for a $15,000 award to create a classification plan and job descriptions for all positions in town and another for $10,000 to fund an independent study of DPW operations. Lieutenant Governor Karen Polito will come to Marion to sign the compact with selectmen. A tentative date for that is Thursday, October 19.
The next meeting of the Marion Board of Selectmen is scheduled for October 3 at 7:00 pm at the Marion Town House.
Marion Board of Selectmen
By Jean Perry