ELLSWORTH, Maine — The Ellsworth City Council is weighing a ban on boats that are moored in lakes across the city overnight—between the hours of 9 p.m. and 4 p.m.
This effort follows a dispute between property owners on Green Lake and Jason Spinney, a local resident who built a house-like structure on a pontoon boat floating roughly 30 yards offshore. He claims he’s within his rights to continue to park the structure there permanently.
"There’s no reason whatsoever we shouldn’t be able to use the water just like everybody else. We’re not doing anything against the law," Spinney said Monday.
Spinney says his floating contraption is a way for him and his family to enjoy the lake without having to own property on its edge, which can be prohibitively expensive. He also claims Maine law surrounding Great Ponds, of which Green Lake is one, allows the public to access waters through undeveloped private property, which best describes the beach near Spinney’s pontoon.
Though nearby residents concede they don’t own the lake, many have complained about the houseboat.
Bill Hammond lives up the road from the site and compares what Spinney is doing to squatting.
"To leave that day in and day out, it would be like parking an RV in front of your house on the street and saying, 'Oh it's public property, I can live here,'" Hammond said on Monday.
This view has drawn sympathy from those in city government. Steven O’Halloran, who serves on the city council, admits, "I don’t like what’s going on in Green Lake. These property owners deserve some peace and tranquility in the property they purchased and pay huge amounts of taxes for."
Still, O’Halloran says he’s not sold on voting in favor of the mooring ordinance—instead, he prefers conflict resolution.
"You can write legislation all you want. But the underlying rift needs to be fixed ahead of any law."
The Ellsworth City Council will hear public input, and possibly vote on the issue this evening.