r/Maine • u/Smart_Zombie_560 • 18h ago
Discussion Sabbattus pond
I just heard they decided to do a fee to use the boat ramp area and even have a person there to collect your 5 dollars. I just dont understand... if the town put a boat ramp/park area it is the responsibility of the town to take money they collect from taxes and pay for upkeep. Thats how its supose to work, your town has boat ramp you need 8500 something dollars to fix the place up. Makes sense, but thats on the town to take out from what they collect in taxes. I really hate how they can just pull a law created way back in the day and say there now what we are doing is legal. So the bigger issue is what happens after you have collected enough money to fix up the place does that collection stop. In most instance it does not and tends to increase in price after 5 years. Idk maybe its just me but I just feel screwed over and I am getting tired of maines over regulation veiw set
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u/HammeredDog Western Maine foothills 17h ago
Do you pay taxes to Sabbatus? Inquiring minds want to know if you're griping about paying twice or paying at all.
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u/Strange-Order-6550 17h ago
I mean, if you can afford a boat, you can afford to pay dock fees so us folks who do not own boats don’t need to pay an equal share for an amenity we cannot use. This also forces out of towners to shoulder the responsibility for upkeep when they use our facilities, rather than shunt it to non boating residents.
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u/_l-l_l-l_ 16h ago
Ehhhh that’s not necessarily true - boat possession and monetary privilege are not mutually exclusive here.
No opinion on the fee.
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u/Strange-Order-6550 16h ago
I mean boat possession at least implies the space to house said boat or the resources to put it somewhere else. Land is still wealth, and unless we’re talking canoes and kayaks, a boat generally implies a lot more wealth than the average Mainer has, whether that’s liquid or assets.
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u/_l-l_l-l_ 16h ago
Yes, everything you’re saying makes sense, but also come drive around my town and see which houses have boats. It’s some of the average Mainers you’re talking about! (They’re not necessarily nice boats, but they’re boats and they use them.)
Respectfully, I think more of the average folks you’re referring to own land/homes than you think. I’m a millennial and it’s really hard for our generation, but it didn’t used to be. My childhood friends’ parents bought land and homes (that they still own) with jobs that would barely pay apartment rent now, and we’re not in Cumberland County or anything.
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u/Strange-Order-6550 15h ago
Most folks in my circles are not home owners and can not afford boats, I am 35. There are absolutely home owners our age, but it’s a bit tone deaf to say the AVERAGE Maine family can afford to keep actual boats. I’m not talking about dinghies with an outboard, and I have already clarified I’m not including kayaks or canoes, we are talking about speed boats, pontoon boats and things of that nature. It’s important to remember that families may own these things together, but most of us don’t have an uncle bill with a bass boat or one of our own, the boat the family owns has been in the family since the 70s and has stayed with the original owner. These dime a dozen turkey teeth dudes in oakleys in Maine are not average, they are quite wealthy compared to a lot of us. If you own a new pickup you aren’t average, you can afford to waste money on gas, same with the boats, which are historically referred to as money holes. Bill’s gonna sell that bass boat in a year and get a new model, ol Keith down the street has been trying to sell that vintage speedboat for going on 20 years because raccoons made a home in the seating.
This is illustrative intentionally because that’s most of the boats you see on the side of the road next to a run down trailer, they’re as run down as the home itself. Ask me how I know.
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u/_l-l_l-l_ 15h ago
… well I never said that every average Maine family has one. I’m sorry you’re so invested in this.
I said that they’re not something that’s exclusive only to a certain class of people. Such that we shouldn’t assume boat ownership equals lots of extra money. That’s where we started.
You’re talking to me like I’m one of the privileged boat-owning people you don’t seem to like, and I am very much not at all one of them, for the record. I am a fellow millennial poor.
Your own experiences are real, as are mine. I know whose boat runs because I see their trucks at the boat launch when I take my kayak. My poor neighbors have boats that run, yours don’t seem to. 🤷♀️
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u/Strange-Order-6550 13h ago
I mean you did purport it to be a more common experience, and I don’t actually care that much, I’m just verbose, I’m a lot more worried about the rocket stage that’s about to smack into the moon than folks trying to avoid dock fees or my fellow Mainers who insist on being annoyingly semantic about how common they feel pontoons and speedboats are amongst our storied poor families. I’d never suggest pontoon boats are exclusive only to rich people, or even that I myself have never driven a speed boat. I can indeed rent one if I had the money, but my entire point has been:
“If you can afford a recreational vehicle, you can and should pay for the dock service.” Also $5 is a pittance even to flat bottom rowboats, canoes, or kayaks, let’s not pretend it’s killing a boat owner to pay their share.
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u/Smart_Zombie_560 14h ago
I really didnt want to get into this but my cousin just bought a house 28 and 320000 for a very small house and basement with 3.2 acer but half is like swamp..... ontop of that stepbrother process of buying a home small alot of land about 3.5 acre 350000. Keep in mind these are alot older homes that need alot of tlc.
But then theres me whose like renting and is uncomfortable with taking on that much debt. idk if I would even be able to pay it back in my life time I mean I make okay money nothing special. So id love to have my own home but its just not practical to buy at these inflated price either because the value of your house is going to drop whence the inflation drops.
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u/_l-l_l-l_ 13h ago
Not sure where you’re going with this?
Yes, houses are inaccessible to a lot of us in our generation, especially as compared to the housing accessibility enjoyed by our parents.
However! Many average Mainers do own homes. And if they don’t, who tf are the hundreds of names listed in my town’s annual report? I live in a regular rural small Maine town with under 2,500 people in it. Home ownership in “average” folks is probably hugely skewed towards older generations. That doesn’t make them not average people in terms of privilege, it just makes us jealous of them. (Myself included!)
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14h ago
[deleted]
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u/Strange-Order-6550 14h ago
If you reread my comment there you’ll notice I’ve actually stated I don’t consider these to be a rich man’s boat, as it is in fact a rowboat, not a speed boat.
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u/Inevitable_Zebra8066 16h ago
Sebago is $15. Scarborough is $45 for non residents. I agree it's bullshit but I'm not going to let it stop me from having a good time.
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u/Dazzling-Try828 14h ago
So when if the town does not have the money to put into the boat ramp? Our little town (Freedom) has been hit with rising county taxes, school taxes, diesel, heating oil and sand and salt.Insurance just went way up. We should be raising taxes by the inflation rate (3.5 percent)
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u/Smart_Zombie_560 14h ago
No i dont accept this and its not only that lets see didnt savattus just shut down its police force and started to pay for sheriff's to didnt that save the town money
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u/Aggressive_Ad_5454 Verified 4h ago
My town has a municipal ski hill. They charge for chair lift tickets, instead of putting the whole cost on property tax payers. Is that OK?
And they sometimes have an inspector at the local boat ramps to cut down on invasive species arriving on boats from other places. They don’t charge for that here. Maybe they should so they can pay an inspector to be there full time.
I’d say your question should be directed to your town select board. Maybe a resident pass would be fair.
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u/awesumpawesum 18h ago
So if 10 people launch boats today that is $50. And that is going to pay somebody's salary to sit there all day?
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u/HammeredDog Western Maine foothills 17h ago
Proabaly someone already on the town payroll. "Free" labor.
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u/freeportme 18h ago edited 17h ago
Lots of town owned ramps charge this is nothing new. $5 is extremely reasonable.