Peaks Island Council — Portland, ME
Date: 2025-12-17
Time: 18:15

Peaks Island Council Monthly Meeting Wednesday,
 December 17th, 2025, 6:15pm

 in person at the Peaks Island Community Center
 and on Zoom - bit.ly/peakscouncilzoom
 Upcoming meetings: January 28, February 25
 full meeting schedule at linktr.ee/peaksislandcouncil

CALL TO ORDER

ROLL CALL

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

ANNOUNCEMENTS

SEATING OF NEW MEMBERS

TREASURER’S REPORT

BRIEF PUBLIC COMMENT
THIS WILL BE LIMITED TO ISSUES THAT REQUIRE BILL TO WEIGH IN, CHAIRS DISCRETION AS TO WHETHER COMMENT
FITS THIS DESCRIPTION.




COMMITTEE REPORTS & UPDATES

 ● Executive
 ● Environment & Sustainability
 ● Ferry Services and Access
 ● Housing & Zoning
 ● Paper Roads
 ● Parking
 ● Parks, Beaches, & Waterfront
 ● Safety Committee (Golf Cart committee, traffic studies, emergency preparedness)

OLD BUSINESS

NEW BUSINESS

 ● Election of 2026 officers

 ● Setting of 2026 meeting schedule
 ● Golf Cart regulatory changes - back on City Council agenda. Recommend City Council refer this
 back to Transportation Committee for input from PIC. Sarah will be in attendance to speak on this ●
 Motion to allocate up to $500 for publishing newspaper notices in re Planning Board Hearing on land
 use amendment application. (KR)
 ● Snow ban parking - Recommend ordinance amendment? (KR)
 ● Zoom subscription (LG)

OPEN PUBLIC COMMENT (any topic, 3 minutes per speaker)

ADJOURNMENT

Public Comment

Public comment will be open on those items marked “public comment”. The PIC is required to take comment on items
we are taking action on (i.e. voting on), although we may take comment on additional items if input is valuable.
Comment on any topic is always welcome during the public comment section at the end of the meeting.

PIC Links

 ● Check out our new "website" at linktr.ee/peaksislandcouncil.
 ● A digital archive of PIC meeting minutes, agendas, and materials is now available on our public Google Drive. ●
 Recent PIC email updates can be found here
 ● Our emails can be found on the City's PIC page. The full council can be reached at pic@portlandmaine.gov.

Zoom Info:

Direct link: http://bit.ly/peakscouncilzoom

Peaks Island Council is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: PIC monthly meeting

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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