ROCKPORT — Rodney Lynch knows how to make things happen. So much so that you might walk into his office merely looking for a little information, and leave a recruited volunteer for the town. That’s how effective he is (although he’ll probably just laugh and say, “I’m merely a humble public servant”).

A longtime community development director for Rockland, a former town manager, recipient of state awards, and Vietnam vet, Lynch is now helping Rockport stay on track implementing four grants and projects as it goes through the hiring process for another planner and community development director. 

“I am making sure the bills are paid,” said Lynch. “The next person gets to write the new grants.”

Bill Najpauer had filled development director office until this summer, when he resigned and took a similar position in the town of China, closer to his home.

According to Rockport Town Manager Rick Bates, the town is now negotiating with a candidate for the position.

Until a new person is hired, however, Lynch is in the office parttime as a consultant. And because it is work he is good at, and knows well, and because he cares for the town, throws himself 100 percent into the task.

“Bill did a great job for the town, and a number of projects are underway,” he said. “My job is to keep them moving forward.”

The projects range from finishing the sewer extension along Route 1 to new floats and installing dock power at the harbor.

Here’s what the town has going right now:

New floats at the harbor

With a Maine Small Harbor Improvement Grant from the Maine Department of Transportation, Rockport will install four 10-foot by 20-foot floats at Marine Park for public use. This will create space for 25 more dinghies. The location will be in front of the bulkhead that lies near the harbor master’s building and extends into the harbor.

The project includes erecting three new pilings to anchor the floats.

This $53,400 project is a 50/50 financial split between the town and the state DOT. Rockport will kick in $26,700.

The front of the floats will be available to all users, and primarily recreational boaters, the town’s grant application said. 

“Commercial operators will not be prohibited from using the new floats but they will not be afforded any special access nor will they be allowed to take up space when a recreational user requires access to the new floats,” the application said.

The town needs the new floats because the harbor has additional mooring capacity to attract new boaters but lacks space for dinghy tie-ups.

“This will greatly expand the use of the harbor,” the town said.

The town anticipates getting the new floats in the water by Spring 2015, and is now awaiting a Maine Department of Protection permit. Other federal and state agencies have already permitted the project. Once permits are in place, the project will go out to bid.

New lighting and dock power at Marine Park

The town’s harbor is popular with visitors and locals, boaters and tourists arriving by foot and car. The green at Marine Park is increasingly popular for weddings and events, and large tents are periodically set up there for days at a time.

Last year, Najpauer submitted a grant application to the DOT for a Boating Infrastructure Grant (BIG), money which derives from the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife. The U.S. Department of Interior, of which USF&W is part, distributed $16 million in grants to communities across the country for recreational boating.

While the bulk of that money went to large projects in Washington, D.C., Florida and Michigan, the state of Maine received enough money to relegate $95,575 to Rockport to install new power poles and halogen lights at the harbor and at the docks, and to bury the utility wires there.

With a 70/30 cost split, Rockport will kick in $30,000 to the $125,575 project.

The town is contracting with C.C. Electric of Hermon to complete the work, which is to begin Monday.

New trees at the harbor, Memorial Park

With a $4,681 Project Canopy grant from the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, the town hired Rosengren Landscapers, of Freeport, to plant 16 trees, 13 of them on the northeast side of the harbor on the steep bank of a hill there.

The other three were planted in Memorial Park, across the street from the Rockland Public Library.

The plan, according to the grant application, is to plant new trees at Harbor Park and replace older trees in other public parks that have been damaged over the years.

“Rockport is embarking upon a program to improve our public tree inventory in part inspired by the efforts of our neighbors in Camden,” the application said.

Rockport Public Works dug the holes for the trees and Rosengren landscapers arrived in late August to plant the trees.

Trees include:

One Tulip tree

Two Pin oaks

Three Maple Amurs

Three Tree Lilacs

Seven Crapapples

Route 1 sewer extension

The $809,000 extension of the town’s sewer system along a stretch of Route 1 from Elwood Avenue to Sea Light Lane this summer is about complete. All that’s left is construction of a pump station.

The town floated a 20-year $539,000 bond to cover the cost and used money collected from an already-established tax increment financing district to pay installments on the loan. The loan carried .045 percent interest rate. 

The state kicked in a $270,000 Community Development Block Grant for the project.

Rockport Village property owners, as well as a number of homes and businesses along routes 90 and 1 (south from the intersection at the Market Basket to Elwood Ave.), currently send their waste to the Camden system. 

The Glen Cove area, including Penobscot Bay Medical Center, ties into the Rockland system.

Rockport justified the latest extension because:

“The cost of borrowing money (interest rates) is at historic lows,” the town said in a promotional brochure distributed last year to citizens in anticipation of a November 2013 vote on the project. “The construction industry is still recovering from the economic downturn, and bids for construction will likely reflect this by being lower than they might be in future years. It will likely never be cheaper to do this project than it is now.”

And, the town said, connecting the town’s two separate wastewater systems would allow greater flexibility in terms of pumping wastewater to Camden and Rockland.

“In the future, should either of those treatment plants have a reduction in their ability to accept Rockport’s wastewater; the town would then be able to shift more of its waste water to the other plant,” the town said last year.

Businesses along Route 1 are hindered from growth and employing more people because their existing independent sewer systems are too small, the town said.

“By providing sewer service to these businesses, they will be able to continue their operations and perhaps expand,” the brochure said. “If the businesses expand, or if new commercial development occurs in this area, the additional property taxes generated will be captured by the TIF, and these funds will then become available to help with further sewer expansions in the future to ultimately connect the two wastewater systems.”

Operation of the existing sewer systems are currently funded by users. Rockport taxpayers do not fund the system’s operation.

The payoff of the annual bond payments is made with revenue accrued from the Commercial Street (Route 1) TIF plus user fees (also known as debt service fees) from those who own property along the new extension.

Annual payments over the next 20 years for this latest sewer extension, and which include the interest on the bond, will be $29,000. 

That TIF money stream is captured annually from property taxes paid within the Commercial Street TIF zone that was established more than 10 years ago to accommodate the sewer extension to Camden National Bank’s Fox Ridge office complex and the State of Maine Cheese manufacturing facility. The town borrowed approximately $800,000, combined that with a $400,000 grant from the State of Maine, extended the sewer, created a TIF district and is now collecting money from that entire project.

Every year, property owners within the TIF district pay taxes. Whatever growth in assessed value since 1999 (when the TIF was created) on those properties translates to increases in property taxes. It is the differential increase in property taxes from that baseline 1999 value which gets captured into a special TIF fund, not the general fund. Those captured tax dollars theoretically increase as the property value increases, thereby increasing the value of the TIF fund.