The consensus among Town Councilors at a workshop Thursday was that a majority would not support charging entrance fees at Fort Williams Park.

Following a two-hour public forum, only two of the seven-member council indicated they would support charging some form of fee for residents and non-residents to drive into Fort Williams. One of those councilors, Mary Ann Lynch, had proposed a $5 seasonal entrance fee for anyone driving into the park, and $40 for buses. Estimates showed the Town could generate as much as $200,000 annually from the fees to offset the $120,000 annual cost to taxpayers to operate the park.

Lynch said she made the proposal because, in her role as Finance Committee chairwoman this year, she felt a need for the town to explore all avenues of revenue generation in this difficult economy. "We are obligated to find out what the people who have elected us want us to do to soften the blow" of rising taxes and diminished services, she said.

After the public comment, and after councilors Henry Berry, Carol Fritz, Jack Roberts and John McGinty said they would not support the fees, Lynch said, "I won't say anything other than 'I can count to four.' "

The workshop effectively closed the latest of several town inquiries into charging to enter Fort Williams. The previous considerations were rejected, as was this one, because of sentimental, logistical and physical reasons.

"Every time this issue comes up, I don't like the idea of fees at the Fort," said councilor Carol Fritz. "I think Fort Williams is the most important thing we have in town, and sharing it with the region is a wonderful thing."

Fritz and the other councilors opposed to the fee, including councilor Penny Carson, echoed the sentiments of the majority of the 37 speakers who addressed the council.

Of those, 28 said they opposed the fee proposal, and their reasons were almost as numerous as their numbers. Some speakers, including two from the tourism industry, argued that charging fees would discourage tour buses from visiting the Museum at Portland Head Light and the gift shop, which has generated a steady revenue since their opening in 1992. Others, including museum director Jeanne Gross, said the myriad volunteers who have so generously given their time, talents and money to support Fort Williams over the years would be less likely to give if the town were charging a fee.

Others offered that the Fort Williams Charitable Foundation, established in 1999 in an effort to make Fort Williams self-supporting, be given a chance to work toward its goal of building and endowment fund for the park.

Council Chairman Jack Roberts reiterated some of the more physical and logistical problems brought forth by the public, including traffic backups, illegal parking in surrounding neighborhoods, and the need to discern which users should be charged.

The only supporter of at least some of Lynch's proposal was Anne Swift-Kayatta. She proposed a one-year trial period of charging only non-residents, and that the revenue generated be returned to operation of Fort Williams. "We have to be good fiscal stewards of this park," said Swift-Kayatta. She said charging those who use the park would be a means of preserving the Fort in the long term, adding that the Fort Williams Charitable Foundation might not be necessary if the Fort truly were self-sustaining.

While councilors indicated they do not support the proposal, they were open to alternatives for revenue resources and lauded many that were suggested by the public. These included expanding the hours and perhaps the size of the lighthouse gift shop; donation boxes at the Fort entrance asking for help in maintaining the park; selling water, soft drinks, coffee or light snacks near the lighthouse; and, fining those people who fail to leave the park after the gates close at sunset.

One speaker, lighthouse volunteer Bill Lowell, suggested a "Friends of the Fort", but Charitable Foundation treasurer Jack Kennealy said supporters can already make contributions as a Friend of the Fort through the foundation's website.

At least two speakers who said they opposed fees said they had initially come to the forum undecided. And, of the nine who said they favored fees, two said they only favored charging non-residents and tour buses.

Others who said they opposed the fees cited the lack of commercial tax base in the community. Elaine Moloney, who is chairwoman of the finance committee of the Cape Elizabeth School Board, said she favored generating more revenue from the Fort, and called for more creativity in generating municipal revenue.

"Last night I heard concerns from your councilors that range from pending war to concerns for helping people on fixed incomes remain in their homes," she said, referring to a separate hearing on a $1.5 million addition to the Pond Cove School. "These concerns, along with a need to delve deeper into the schools' proposed project, led the council to delay action on our proposals. It is these very same concerns which should lead them to increase the revenues at Fort Williams," Moloney said.

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