BELFAST — The new waterfront pedestrian and biking path known as the Belfast Harbor Walk has been well received since workers broke ground early this summer. But on Sept. 17, residents and city officials raised concerns about some details, particularly the lighting along the path and what one resident called “the loss of the night sky.”

Bill Kao of Commercial Street said a report from the Harbor Walk lighting engineer didn’t match his own experience, or that of 19 neighbors who signed a letter to the Council expressing concern about the lights. Where the engineer found  “lighting goals being met satisfactorily,” Kao saw it as excessive.

“Knowing that our officials are enlightened and well intentioned, it is hard to believe that they intended the extreme and garish result in the Steamboat Landing and Boathouse areas,” he said.

The current lighting, he said, suggests a shopping center parking lot, where the emphasis is on security. Around Steamboat Landing, he said, the same security concerns don’t exist. Instead, he said, residents were “losing the beauty of the harbor” at night.

Roy Rodgers of Union Street also asked the Council to tone down the lights near Steamboat Landing.

“I’m just thinking about the long winter nights when there’s nobody around,” he said “... If we’re going to have light there, I’d just like to see some way of controlling it in a better fashion.”

Councilor Roger Lee said the engineer originally told him the lights would be “full cut-off” — meaning the light is directed at the walkway only — but said this wasn’t the case at all.

He also questioned the decsion to have such a high security standard with regard to facial recognition. He compared the 2.5 foot-candle rating of the current lighting to some parking lots in which 1/4 of 1 foot-candle is considered adequate.

Changing the illumination would likely be expensive.

One resident gave a figure of $1,600 per fixture to change the bulbs. City Councilor Mike Hurley said there was a similar cost when the city retrofitted the lamps on Main Street in order to make them brighter.

Hurley said the success of the Harbor Walk, based on his observations, should trump the concerns of abutters. He compared the situation to previous debates about the city’s rangeways and conversion of the railroad corridor to a recreational path. If it were up to the abutters, neither of those systems would be open to the public, he said.

Hurley has been outspoken in the past about the need for lighting on Front Street and in the area of Front Street.

“I’m looking forward to straightening this out a little,” he said. “But it’s not going to be pitch black. It’s not going back to that.”

City Planner Wayne Marshall urged the Council to “look at the whole picture,” which he said included new tree plantings scheduled for that area, before making any changes.

Councilor Eric Sanders suggested the Council visit the waterfront as a group to look at the lighting. The Council agreed on the idea.

In another aspect of the walkway, the Council approved spending an additional $10,000 related to the grates surrounding the bases of trees. Marshall said the cost would not change the fact that the Harbor Walk remains under budget. The change, he said, was related to the switch to granite curbing.

On the curbing itself, Hurley questioned the purpose of some of new nodes and other protrusions that were added along with new parking spaces by Heritage Park. 

“Both of them really feel like they’re sticking out into the road,” he said.

Mayor Walter Ash, who owns East Side Garage, said he’d answered calls for three flat tires related to the new curbs.

“They hit those and they’re some sharp,” he said.

Marshall said stormwater drainage is a consideration in the design of the curbing.

The Council considered several designs for bollards to keep vehicles off the Harbor Walk, including cylinders, pyramids, spheres and a joking mention of concrete bears. No decision was made.

Hurley asked how many garbage cans there were on the walkway and said the ones he had seen were small and overflowing. Marshall said there are curently four garbage cans. There seemed to be agreement that more were needed.

In other business, the Council:

• Set the city’s mill rate (tax rate) at 20.8 (dollars per $1,000 of property value). City Manager Joe Slocum noted that on property tax bills, municipal government accounts for 29 percent, school and county taxes account for the remaining 71 percent. Slocum said tax bills should go out by the end of September.

• Directed the city manager to draft a 25-year lease to Brooks Preservation Society for use of a portion of the railroad corridor between City Point Station and the Waldo town line for the organization’s excursion rail service. The lease would be contingent upon continued railroad operations.

• Held closed door sessions on real estate and economic development but took no action.

• Voted to contribute $2,000 toward maintaining and removing trees near First Church and the Belfast Police Department. 

• Approved naming rights along portions of the city rail trail to support the fundraising campaign. Slocum gave a hypothetical example of a $100,000 donation garnering naming rights for the rail bridge near City Point. Councilor Nancy Hamilton noted that the trail itself would not be subject to naming rights.

Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com