Building a Road to Bring More Homes
Mount Desert Commits to Ripples Housing Phase 3, Discusses Budget, and Appoints Shelby O'Neil to the Police Force
MOUNT DESERT—The Ripples Hill neighborhood has been expanding housing in Mount Desert in phases. Now, the Island Housing Trust’s promise to finish a neighborhood in town has received two significant leaps forward.
The Island Housing Trust asked the town to provide financial support for construction of the roadway and sanitary sewer infrastructure for the Ripples Hill Phase III development.
That phase received planning board approval earlier in January.
During discussion at the selectboard’s January 20 meeting, Public Works Director Brian Henkel said that he lives in the area and wanted the board to be aware of that. He wrote in a memo and also in an email that the road will “be private and effectively an extension of a public road. That mix of both public and private roadways will create operational difficulties.”
If the Island Housing Trust were to build the road on its own and fund it on its own, that’s seven other houses that don’t get built, they reasoned. The road extends Farnham’s Way and Sydney’s Way. Both are public roads.
In a January 16 memo, Henkel wrote, “The expansion also extends the existing public wastewater collection system through the length of the Sydney’s Way extension.”
Henkel said the project is doubling the number of houses in his neighborhood.
Costs for the project’s third phase have been anticipated to be just below $2 million.
Increasing the number of homes—be they houses or apartments—in the region is considered a need by both state, local, and regional governments and groups. In a report commissioned by the Bar Harbor comprehensive planning committee, Mount Desert was projected to have 1,024 households in 2038. It currently is estimated to have just one more than that by that same source.
“There is a huge need” for housing, Erik Woyciesjes, a market analyst with RKG Associates said. He added that as things change that number could also change. Housing constraints could stymie the population increase, Woyciesjes said in 2023.
The cost to build and extend the road and sewer is estimated to be “up to $470,000,” according to a letter from the IHT Executive Director Marla O’Byrne to the town.
“The requested funds would cover the cost of the necessary earthwork, site improvements, retaining walls, and stormwater management needed to safely extend the existing sewer and road,” the letter reads.
The Ripples Hill neighborhood is on land initially donated by the town in 2006 for the intention of cluster development. It is located off the Beech Hill Road.
There are nine homes there currently. Those were built between 2008 and 2016. The children there go to MDI High School and Mount Desert Elementary School. Homeowners are employed throughout MDI.
THE BUDGET
The numbers are in, and the proposed draft municipal budget is $15,303,704. That’s a proposed increase of 1.60%.
“This is before the application of anticipated revenues to reduce taxation,” Town Manager Durlin Lunt wrote in a January 16 memo to the town’s selectboard. Last year’s revenues are estimated at $2,509,644. He expects to have the numbers at the end of January.
Voters have the final say on the budget at the town meeting.
The municipal budget includes capital improvements (CIP) as well as Maine Paid Family Leave Act funding and the new salaries for multiple positions so that they are in the 90th to 95th percentile according to data complied by Zach Harris, the town’s human resources consultant. Positions not within that range were the town manager, public works director, finance director/treasurer, fire chief, assessor, code enforcement officer, town clerk, and harbor master.
During the January 20 meeting, Public Works Director Brian Henkel talked about the proposed public works budget while Town Manager Durlin Lunt spoke of the municipal budget. The public works budget was the last of the department head budgets for the selectboard to investigate.
The town has an annual 3% capital improvement project (CIP) cap. There was some discussion about inflation’s future impact on those numbers. That will be discussed in the future.
SHELBY O’NEIL APPOINTED AS FULL TIME POLICE OFFICER
Bar Harbor’s Shelby O’Neil was appointed as a full-time patrol officer for the Town of Mount Desert as of Monday, January 27. O’Neil’s father was a patrol officer in Bar Harbor.
Officer O’Neil has already undergone training and certification to be a part-time patrol officer and has done both that duty and dispatched for the town over the last three years.
According to Police Chief David Kerns, “Shelby expressed an interest in becoming a full-time patrol officer and we are recommending that she be hired for this position.”
She will be required to attend the Maine Criminal Justice Academy Basic Law Enforcement Training Program within the first year of her employment to be certified as a full-time law enforcement officer.
Her starting hourly rate will be $29.29 increasing to the full budgeted rate for a full-time patrol officer after successful completion of the probationary period outlined in her employment offer.
A WEDDING AND A FARMERS’ MARKET
The Mount Desert Farmers’ Market request to use the Northeast Harbor Village Green from June 19-August 28, 2025 was approved as was a request for Suminsby Park to be used for the McFarland wedding ceremony on June 21, 2025. The policy currently requires only paying once per application, not per use.
RURAL WASTEWATER REBATE DECISIONS
The selectboard considered the appeals of Rural Wastewater Rebate decisions for two people. The board approved the appeals of both women.
BIDS AND CHANGE ORDERS
The town reviewed and approved a bid from Viking-Cives in the amount of $129,711 to equip the new 2025 International truck and chassis utilizing funds from Public Works Equipment Reserve account, which has an unencumbered balance of $445,718.67.
The selectboard members approved a request to solicit bids for a new line painting machine.
The board approved a change order with Gardner Concrete to reduce the contract price from $747,451.00 to $557,559.30, a reduction of $189.891.70.
It also released $3,543.30, from the Fire Equipment/Engine Reserve Account to use for repairs to the fire department’s 2013 International/Ferrara fire truck.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
To read the packet and some budget items
To read the housing report commissioned by Bar Harbor in full, go here.
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