Biddeford may ‘step away’ from review of UNE pier proposal

City official resigns, releases video regarding Saco River

Originally published in Saco Bay News, July 1, 2024

By RANDY SEAVER

Biddeford Mayor Marty Grohman said this week that the city may not be included in the review process of a new pier that the University of New England wants to build on the Saco River.

According to city ordinances, such a project generally must first be approved and facilitated by the city’s harbormaster before any other regulatory agency can conduct its own review of the proposal, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Saco River Corridor Commission.

However, because of actions by the city’s harbormaster and the chair of the Biddeford Harbor Commission, Grohman said the only way for a “fair review of the application” might now include the city withdrawing itself from the review process entirely.

“At this point, they [UNE] are holding all the cards,” Grohman said. “I don’t know how we can get them back to the table.”

On Friday, John Schafer abruptly resigned his position as chair of the Biddeford Harbor Commission.

Schafer told Saco Bay News that he felt “shackled” in his attempt to provide “clarity and transparency” to the discussions surrounding the university’s proposal.

Schafer admits that he should not have played an advocacy role in the review process, but says he was angered by the university’s threat of litigation against the city if their new pier and its specific location is not approved.

According to documents obtained by Saco Bay News, the university began raising threats of litigation months before their pier proposal was formally submitted to the city in June.

“Talk about putting the cart before the horse,” Schafer said. “You had UNE bullying the city with threats of litigation even before they submitted their proposal.”

Several months before the university formally submitted its proposal, Ron Schneider, the university’s general counsel and vice president of legal affairs, sent a letter to the city’s attorney, arguing that the proposed location for the pier was already a “settled issue.”

“It is our position that the planned location of the GMSC Pier is a settled issue,” Schneider wrote. “Mr. Lariviere, and by extension the city, is estopped from reversing course at this time and mandating a different location for the pier.”

In his letter, Schneider says that both Lariviere and former harbormaster Marshall Alexander “specifically told university representatives” in 2015 that the proposed pier should not be built in the location that Lariviere is now suggesting as a more appropriate location.

Lariviere denied Schneider’s assertions about the location of the pier. “That is a complete fabrication,” he said. The harbormaster also says the city’s ongoing actions in removing him and the assistant harbormaster from the approval process violates several state laws.

Grohman says the situation has become a “real mess for the city,” and is causing “unfortunate delays” for the university.

“I’m not sure how we can proceed from this point,” the mayor said during a telephone interview on Sunday.

“There’s really nothing in our ordinances about how to proceed in this situation,” Grohman said. “We have been put into a difficult position.”

Although City Manager James Bennett has previously declined to say whether the university has threatened the city with possible litigation, two letters from Schneider to City Attorney Harry Center make clear that the university is prepared to use litigation if the city does not approve their proposed location for the new pier.

In his Feb. 13 letter, Schneider wrote that Lariviere’s “continued inappropriate obstruction would result in delay that would adversely affect Biddeford, would cause project delay, and would significantly increase expense to the university.”

“It is our sincere hope that UNE is not forced to resort to litigation to avoid the delay and expense that will result if Mr. Lariviere were to insist on obstructing the building of the pier,” Schneider wrote.

Schneider said the university “cherishes its relationship with the city and its people and only wishes to continue being a valuable member of the community.”

Grohman said the University of New England is one of the top-ten academic institutions in the world in field of marine research.

“What they are hoping to do with their pier will result in a lot of positive outcomes,” the mayor said.

As part of his resignation letter to the mayor and all members of the city council, Schafer included a brief video he produced that affirms what the city’s harbormaster, assistant harbormaster and others have been saying about the river depth where the university wants to build its pier.

In the video, depth measurement equipment clearly shows that the river is, in fact, deeper closer to the shore than in the location proposed by the university.

[Click here to see the video] https://youtu.be/EjNWnmvpMyU

Lack of adequate mooring depth has been one pf the primary concerns raised by Biddeford’s harbormaster in connection to the university’s proposal.

UNE representatives, however, say the water depth is better in their proposed location, citing research from engineering firms they hired to study the issue.

Grohman said he has a high opinion of Schafer and his abilities. “I am sorry to see him step down, but I do think it was the appropriate thing to do,” he said.

“The best and fairest way to move forward may be to have the city withdraw from the approval process and see what other agencies have to say about the project,” Grohman said. “One way or another, we have got to get this thing figured out.”

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