Peaks Island Council

Peaks Island Council MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 19, 2025, 6:15 p.m. Hybrid ZOOM/in-person meeting in the Community Center NEXT Regular Monthly PIC Meeting December 17, 2025 CALL TO ORDER: 6:14 p.m. ROLL CALL Present: Laura Glendening, Fred Somers, Scott Mohler, Karsten Rees, Norm Proulx, Shelagh Reiser Absent: Jess Burton Number of Audience Members (AM) in attendance: 8 in person APPROVAL OF MINUTES Unanimous approval of minutes from October 22nd PIC meeting with the change that PIC has decided to elect committee chairs in December when the new councilors are sworn in. ANNOUNCEMENTS Mohler publicly thanked island police and other organizations for their work to locate Wiley Davi. TREASURER’S REPORT Patnaude said the only expenditure was $79.50 to Laura Glendening for Mailchimp. Current Balance is $7,335.50 Board approved Treasurer’s Report. PUBLIC COMMENT (beginning of meeting) AM asked if boat is going to be removed from ferry beach. Patnaude said that the city has talked to the owner and come to an agreement that the boat will be removed in the spring. This agreement means the cost of moving the boat will fall on the owner versus the city. AM said that there is no guarantee that the owner will move the boat. AM said that PEAT will be cleaning up the beach. Glendening said that the PIC Parks and Recreation committee is going to be working on a solution for kayak and dinghy storage. Glendening asked Patnaude about the deer cull. Patnaude said that one deer has been taken on Peaks Island. Hunting takes place during the day. 61 deer have been taken off the Diamond Islands. Patnaude said that Dickie Newcomb has trapped and shot 28 raccoons. Reiser asked what happens to the deer that are killed. Patnaude said that none of the deer are wasted. Glendening asked if PIC should advertise when the culling is happening. Patnaude said he will send Glendening what days the hunter will be on the island. Somers asked Patnaude about the trees cut down on Island Avenue. Patnaude said that the trees were taken down so that the sidewalk clearing machine will fit down the sidewalk. Patnaude said that the arborist confirmed that the trees were not healthy. PIC November 19, 2025 Meeting Minutes, DRAFT. Page 1 COMMITTEE REPORTS & UPDATES • Executive Committee – No update. • Environmental and Sustainability No update because the committee has not been formed yet. • Parks and Rec Committee Timmi Sellers said PEAT will have a beach cleanup on ferry beach this weekend. • Ferry Service Somers said the CBL finance committee is looking at commercial rates. • Housing and Zoning Committee – ReCode Zoning survey Rees said the Housing and Zoning committee is preparing to file the application for the Land Use code amendments. The committee is also talking about how the city regulates short term rentals of ADUs. • Island Assessment – This will now fall under Environmental and Sustainability committee. No update. • Paper Roads Norm Proulx said the committee wants to develop a map system that is similar to the tax parcel map, that would allow the public to see where the paper roads are and what is on each paper road. • Parking Reiser said that the city is increasing the ticket fee for parking ban tickets to $130 (instead of $40), and $175 if you get towed. Patnaude said that the $130 fee was approved by the City Council but the $175 fee for towing did not get approved. Reiser said the city has added six more parking ban parking lots. Reiser said that PIC Parking Committee member Mike Richards has drafted a letter to remind islanders about island parking guidelines. The parking committee will get the island police to approve the reminder letter and then it will be posted. • Golf cart No update. • Election Committee No update. OLD BUSINESS • Committee chair appointments This item will be added to the December agenda. PIC November 19, 2025 Meeting Minutes, DRAFT. Page 2 NEW BUSINESS ● Caity Hager, Emergency Management Coordinator, City of Portland Hager said that a new emergency operations base plan has been written and approved by the city’s Health and Human Services and Public Safety Committee and is going to be approved by the city council in January or soon after. Hager asked for input from the Peaks Island community via portlandmaine.gov/emergencyplanning. There is a survey that she asks islanders to take until the end of November. Hager is looking for community member concerns about severe summer weather, severe winter storms, extreme heat and cold, flooding, multi-structure fires, hazardous material release, transportation mass casualty incident, infectious disease outbreak, cyber incidents, terrorism or mass violence. She is also interested in what issues islanders are thinking about for emergency planning. Glendenning suggested handing out hard copy surveys from a table at the library on Saturdays. Glendenning asked what the best way is to alert people and whether the city has evacuation plans and when they would be used. Somers said that evacuations related to fires should be integrated into an emergency response plan. Hager said a past workshop on the topic can be incorporated into the plan. Reiser said that the city has also issued a community survey and there is some confusion about that. Hager said there are two separate surveys. Reiser said that there are occasional loud sirens and there are no instructions about what to do. Patnaude said that the fire department sirens on all the islands are from World War II and testing them may be the source of the siren sound. Hager said there is no city-wide use of sirens to notify people about emergencies. Hager said there are Notify Me city alerts and people can sign up to get emergency alerts via phone. Cumberland County has Code Red, which is what the Portland Water District uses to communicate boil water orders, so you need to sign up for that as well. There is also a federal emergency alert system on cell phones. That system is geolocated and goes to everyone’s phone within the affected certain area. No sign up is required for the federal emergency alert system. AM said the CERT team is also concerned about fire evacuation plan for the island. Hager said there is no written fire evacuation plan in place, but they will work on it. Glendening asked Hager to send links to Notify ME and Code Red so they can be posted in PIC newsletter. • Joey Brunelle, Portland Climate Action team, makes presentation about solar on our schools Brunelle said the Portland Climate Action team is working to encourage the city and the Portland school board to place solar panels on roofs of schools and public buildings, including the Peaks Island School. Brunelle said that Westbrook is putting solar panels on two of their schools which will save 49% on the schools’ energy costs. Westbrook bonded $3 million to install the solar panels and it will pay for itself in two years. Next steps: Brunelle said there is an online petition that supporters can sign, please email your city councilor to ask them to support the effort. PIC November 19, 2025 Meeting Minutes, DRAFT. Page 3  He also suggested that PIC pass a resolution for a feasibility study, and that PIC help get the word out about the positive economics for installing solar panels. For more information, contact Joey Brunelle, joey.brunelle@gmail.com. • Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) PIC councilors discussed improvements required about sidewalks on Welch Street and on Island Avenue near the boat. Patnaude said sidewalk improvment is a good project for the CIP. He said that roads that need to be re-paved is another good CIP project, but Marty Mulkern is selecting roads that will require repaving (not including the road repair that will be funded by FEMA). Somers said public restrooms is another big issue. Patnaude said that the city is trying to site a public restroom on city land near Echo Pond. Somers said that the temporary restrooms in the island parking lot should be replaced with permanent restrooms. Patnaude said that is a good CIP project. Reiser said the CIP request letter last year mentioned road infrastructure and drainage, sidewalk infrastructure, recommendations from island landside study, electric charging system for taxi and public, public restrooms. AM said the island ballfield is getting upgraded and needs a restroom. Rees said he would be in favor of adding CIP recommendation for a permanent restroom at the ballfield. Glendening asked Somers to add a CIP recommendation for a public electric car charging station. Somers said that this year’s CIP request list would be road and sidewalk infrastructure, public restrooms including a restroom at the ballfield, a public electric car charging station, infrastructure recommendations from the island landside study. Rees made a motion to adopt the list of CIP recommendations stated by Somers. Norm seconded. Motion passed unanimously. ● Rees made a motion for PIC to make a recommendation to Portland Parks and Recreation Department to add electronic keypads to entry. Mohler seconded it. Rees said that hosting events in the community room is difficult with physical keys. An electronic keypad will make access to the room easier. Somers suggested that Portland Facilities should be contacted about adding a keypad to the door. Motion passed unanimously. ● Pest Control and its impact on island pets Somers said he was approached by pet owner who lost a cat that ate a poisoned mouse, asking that PIC make an island-wide ban on use of mouse poison. Somers said there is a restriction on the use of pesticides in the city (Land Care Ordinance) but there is an exception for rodents. Somers said he hasn’t talked to anyone in the Sustainability Office yet but will do so and get back to the PIC. Reiser said that wild animals that eat rodents are also affected by rodenticides. She added that rodent control is important, but the issue is complex. Glendening said inviting Troy Moon out to the island to discuss and educate the public about the Land Care Ordinance. Somers said he will contact Troy Moon. Mohler suggested asking Hannigans to stock the MouseX poison which kills the mice but doesn’t hurt animals that eat the mice. PUBLIC COMMENT PIC November 19, 2025 Meeting Minutes, DRAFT. Page 4 AM said that they would get in touch with the city attorneys about the abandoned boat on ferry beach. They asked PIC to add to the December agenda that PIC write a letter of support to move the boat removal date forward. Somers made a motion to adjourn. Reiser seconded. Motion passed unanimously. ANNOUNCEMENTS/UPDATES Next PIC Meeting: Wednesday, December 17, 2025, at 6:15 pm in the community room and on Zoom. Meeting Adjournment: 7:53 p.m. PIC November 19, 2025 Meeting Minutes, DRAFT. Page 5