The first was an opportunity for Code Enforcement Officer (CEO) Dabney Lewis to give the audience a general summary of changes to the town's codes suggested by the Ordinance Review Committee (ORC). These proposed changes will appear on the warrant at the May 2 Annual Town Meeting as articles 66 through 88.

These changes include: Defining the size of a float (16'x32') to which a mooring can be secured; Defining signs and fine-tuning the regulations that apply to signs; Requiring a permit, obtained from the CEO, to hang banners; Fine-tuning the streets and sidewalks regulations; Including an emergency management mission statement; Recognizing and defining temporary structures; Describing the relationship between common docks and side- and rear-yard setbacks; Distinguishing automobile hobbyists from junkyard owners and adopting state-mandated junkyard regulations; Requiring new multi-family developments to have underground utilities; Requiring site plan approval from the Planning Board for extraction/excavation or filling of land in all zoning districts (except for approved construction of a single-family home or duplex home); Requiring basements with habitable space to have emergency escape openings; and Outlining and improving sight distances for all access onto town ways.

The second public hearing was another chance for the public to ask questions and receive information about the pavilion the BCA and other citizens have proposed to build at Barrett's Park. Mark Keegan, Bruce MacDonald, and Joan Rittall were all on hand to present and answer questions, and they handed out photographs illustrating how the pavilion would fit into the park's scenery.

Arthur Webster announced that the 2nd Annual International Rock Skipping Contest sponsored by Orne's Candy Store would take place on the shore of the Footbridge Parking Lot on July 9 at approximately 4 p.m.

The selectmen approved the code changes suggested by the ORC, as well as warrant articles 1 to 65 A and B.

Douglas Carter protested the increase in his rent of the town's fish market at the Fish Pier complex from $6,000 per year to $12,000 per year - an increase suggested by Town Manager Carlo Pilgrim to Carter in a meeting in Pilgrim's office.

Pilgrim explained how he had arrived at the figure and said upon checking with a local real estate agent, it was confirmed that $12,000 per year for a lease on the fish market was fair.

Carter accused Pilgrim of lying during the lease renewal process, and said he thought the price was unfair compared to what other Fish Pier tenants were paying when square footage of the buildings and water access were factored in.

After much discussion and some arguing between Carter, the audience, the four selectmen present, and Pilgrim, selectman Gary Farnham suggested a lease of $8,000 per year for three years. Carter refused, saying his final offer was $6,700 per year for five years and if they would not accept that, the selectmen should put the property out to public bid. He said he was withdrawing the offer he had made to the town a few weeks back to give it Sea Pier, his waterfront business, on several conditions.

At the end of the meeting, the selectmen voted to offer Carter a renewal of his lease on the fish market for $7,000 per year for three years, with no renewal clause, as a final offer.

Pilgrim then explained the lease the town had drawn up for John Rogers, the new Fish Pier tenant. He said the lease was in three parts: part A described the premises and defined the areas of the lease; part B explained the permitted uses of the premises; and part C was a guarantee.

Pilgrim said Rogers has a three-year lease, will be paying $2,100 per month (total $25,200 per year) with a flat three percent add on per year, at the lease signing will be required to pay three months worth of rent (two months' rent as a security deposit), and will be required to carry $1 million in liability and $2 million in aggregate coverage. Pilgrim said Rogers will pay to lease the area formerly occupied by the blast freezer and that as a condition of his lease, if he can demonstrate a need for a stick-built building on the site of the blast freezer, the town would construct a building no earlier than May 1, 2006 and Rogers' lease will go up to $29,000 per year.

The selectmen approved renewals of liquor licenses for Boothbay Harbor Inn, Boothbay Region Lobstermen's Co-op, Cap'n Fish's Boat Trips, Fisherman's Wharf Inn, Gray's Wharf, McSeagulls Restaurant, Pier One Pizza, and Spruce Point Inn; a new victualer's license for Gaby's Caf (in what used to be Black Kofe Caf); renewals of special amusements licenses for Gray's Wharf and Fisherman's Wharf Inn; a renewal of a coin operated amusements license for Gray's Wharf; an exception to True North's special amusements permit to allow acoustic guitar music on their deck for a Boothbay Harbor Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours Event; and an addition to True North's liquor license to cover the deck for the same event.