Harpswell postponed its annual Town Meeting on Saturday, March 8, as high-profile issues drove turnout that exceeded the capacity of the gym at Harpswell Community School. The polls for the election will remain open until 5 p.m., but the business meeting will be rescheduled and moved to a bigger venue.
John Loyd, the moderator of the meeting, first delayed the start by 15 minutes before announcing the postponement at 10:24 a.m. He said the event might be moved to the Orion Performing Arts Center at Mt. Ararat Middle School in Topsham.
“I’m sorry about this. I know it’s a pain,” Loyd said. “I wish we didn’t have to do it.”
The postponement appeared to be without precedent in recent memory. Harpswell Select Board Chair Kevin Johnson said he has attended Town Meeting every year for about 45 years and has never seen it happen.
Johnson recalled a meeting some 30 years ago that extended from a Saturday into a Sunday because of long debates, but even that meeting didn’t see comparable turnout.
The gym has a capacity of 420. Town staff had checked in 380 voters with dozens more in a line from the gym to the parking lot when Johnson made the call to postpone.
“I think we were going to be closer to 450 to 480,” Johnson said, which gave him no choice but to send the crowd home.
Johnson attributed the turnout to strong interest in proposals to adopt a new comprehensive plan, build a $6 million fire and rescue station, and tear down an aging building at George J. Mitchell Field.
“We’ve never had three contentious issues at once — and big ones,” he said. “There’s a big money one, there’s the comp plan one that a lot of people are riled up about, and then Mitchell Field.”
Johnson expected to make a decision Monday, March 10, about when and where to resume the meeting. He said the town “never anticipated” the capacity issue.
“Not since LNG, which was a separate meeting all by itself, have we had this type of interest,” he said, referring to a debate about whether to allow the construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal at Mitchell Field. Voters rejected that proposal in 2004.
Despite murmurs of disappointment on Saturday, most residents seemed to understand the situation.
“It seems like they didn’t have any choice,” said Ewen McEwen. His wife, Dianne, added: “It’s totally understandable.”
Former Town Planner Mark Eyerman said that as he has gotten older, he has become increasingly concerned about the hazards of overcrowding.
“I said to the fire chief, ‘This is the right call,'” Eyerman said. “If something happened, I wouldn’t want to be one of the people who decided (to ignore the occupancy limit).”
Anne Caldwell said she hopes residents show up to the rescheduled Town Meeting in equally large numbers. “Please, everyone, come to the next meeting,” she said.
