‘Shot Across The Bow:’ Maine Boaters Vow To Stand Ground Against Waterfront College’s Planned Pier Construction

A mariner’s association representing boaters is girding for battle with the University of New England over the school’s so-called research pier.

The scene of the standoff is the Saco River running between that city and Biddeford in Maine’s southernmost county.

“Experienced mariners and commercial fisherman who for many years have legally held moorings on the Saco River, in the same spot where the university wants to build an obtrusive pier, have renewed their permits for another year,” the group announced Sunday.

The permits are good for a year, arguably delaying the school’s pier plans for the next 12 months at least.

The college “cannot begin construction in the river location they covet” in the face of those mooring placements, the boaters argue.

University officials, meanwhile, are sticking to their guns, moving forward on their pier plans in what could become a Mexican standoff – all bets off on the outcome.

“We will redouble our efforts to keep residents informed as this project moves forward and to provide clear, fact-based information about the project and its benefits,” university President James Herbert said in a statement earlier this month.

Hebert said he was responding to critics of the proposal to build an 80-foot pier on the banks of the Saco.

The public debate, he charged, “has included anonymous attacks, misinformation and reckless accusations circulating through social media and emails from untraceable and unresponsive sources.”

Mooring owners who claim Hebert’s plans would effectively remove their boats from the river are threatening legal action, saying recently, “we’re not moving.”

But Hebert scored a big legal victory last week when a York County judge tossed out a lawsuit the city lodged against him.

Biddeford officials were seeking a judicial review of the permit issued the school by the Saco River Corridor Commission.

The permit, which the commission issued less than two years ago, allowed the project to go forward, according to BiddefordBuzz.com.

A commission decision 25 years ago required the school maintain a 250-foot-wide vegetative buffer along the shoreline.

City officials claimed in their lawsuit the new permit failed to recognize the required buffer zone.