Wells Select Board to review proposed lodging‑fee increases after industry pushback

The Wells Select Board opened a public hearing on April 7 to review a cost‑of‑service study that would change how the town charges lodging businesses. Jim and Kathy, a board subcommittee, explained the methodology and recommended maximum fee figures; lodging operators and campground owners pushed back forcefully during the public comment period.

The presenters walked the board through schedules that itemize processing time ($275.78 for application processing), registry inspections, legal costs, and allocations of police, fire and EMS calls. They said the town expects to hire a life‑safety inspector next fiscal year to handle annual inspections more efficiently and that, as presented, the headline cost numbers were $68.72 per hotel/motel unit and $2,129 per campsite. Presenters said fees would not begin until the inspector is hired and appropriate implementation steps were complete.

Multiple operators said those allocations double‑count services already paid for through property taxes and argued the proposed fees would be unfair and unlawful. "You're going to supplement more," Jason Tvy of CV Campground told the board, saying campgrounds already pay substantial property taxes and questioning why the town would add a separate charge. Jacob Moody of Gunka Farm RV Resort and others noted campgrounds already pay state inspection fees and flagged the industry’s contribution of roughly $6 million a year in property taxes to the town.

Katie Kelly, who manages Lafayette's oceanfront resort, told the board the proposed schedule effectively functions like a local options lodging tax and said, "in Maine, that is illegal," urging the board to limit the fee to actual administrative costs and to apply separate inspection fees if needed rather than a broad industry surcharge.

Board members said the presentation was the first comprehensive public showing of the data and that more work was needed to decide which line items fairly belong in a lodging fee. A motion to schedule a workshop to review the fee calculation (using the presented numbers as upper bounds) passed unanimously; the board did not adopt final fees at the meeting.

Next steps: the board scheduled a dedicated workshop where staff, committee members and stakeholders will revisit the spreadsheets, eligibility (including whether to cap charges for large operations) and which public‑safety costs should be included.