Tag Archives: back-to-back January storms
Maine’s wharf owners scramble to repair what they can before lobstering season starts
Contractors are hard to come by amid the mounting demand for work to repair damage from the set of January storms that battered the coast of Maine. Now, as lobstering season begins, many on the working waterfront are patching their own wharves, hoping they can hold out until the real work can be done. Chris Hole was busy at work on a sunny Friday morning, taking apart his commercial fishing wharf like a game of Jenga. After pulling up the surface wooden slats, Hole used a fork lift to lower large wooden beams down to the deck. Josh Saxton, Hole’s right-hand man, would then slip between the large gaps in the deck to put the support beams in place. Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 06:43
Coastal rebuilding in ‘limbo’ as residents await answers
Bailey Island lobsterman and building contractor Guy Baker would like to rebuild the large wharf on his property that was torn to pieces in January’s coastal storms, but there are several unknowns. Nearly six weeks after back-to-back storms struck the Maine coast on Wednesday, Jan. 10, and Saturday, Jan. 13, the Harpswell resident still doesn’t know what sort of emergency funding he will receive, if any, to rebuild. He doesn’t know how long the town might give him to replace a generations-old structure that didn’t conform to current building codes. Baker doesn’t know what replacing the wharf would cost, or how long he’d have to wait for a specialty contractor to take on the job. He assumes prices have skyrocketed as property owners rush to repair millions of dollars’ worth of damage along the Maine coast. Baker isn’t alone. more, >>click to read<< 08:34
