Council Approves School Fundraising Funding
Planning Department Focuses on Bar Harbor Street Safety & Needs Your Input
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BAR HARBOR—A quick Bar Harbor Town Council meeting on Tuesday night focused on fundraising for the Conners-Emerson School reconstruction, an update on the town’s transfer station, and quick updates on other projects, as well as a consent agreement about a code violation.
Bar Harbor Town Council Chair Valerie Peacock predicted that the meeting would be quick, Tuesday night, September 17, and it lasted just under 55 minutes. Councilor Kyle Shank was absent.
CONNERS-EMERSON SCHOOL RECONSTRUCTION AND FUNDRAISING
The councilors agreed to a plan help fundraise the school construction project via the same funds the project pays to the town for its local permits. The fees for building permits are approximately $113,000.
“Essentially, it’s all property tax payers’ money, so there’s no sense in taking it out of our left pocket and putting it into our right one,” Town Manager James Smith said.
In June 2023, Bar Harbor voters passed a $58 million bond to rebuild the ailing schools, which support the town’s K-8 population. Broken boilers, rain inundation, a wall pulling away from the foundation, poor air exchanges, limited classroom space, and a lack of insulation are just some of the old buildings’ recent problems.
The hope is to continue the momentum of Stephen Coston’s $100,000 lead gift to the school. Coston is a former town councilor and local businessman, who attended MDI schools. The Conners-Emerson staff, board, and district administration is working with the state Department of Environmental Protection and still is waiting on state permits, which is delaying the project’s start.
Another hope is that by having help toward fundraising, it will bring in enough money to make an impact on the school bond, which will then decrease the burden on the property tax payers.
Last week at the Bar Harbor School Board meeting, School Superintendent Mike Zboray said he appreciated the town code enforcement office’s work and that most of the town permits are done. Construction was originally slated to begin this summer, but has been held up by a higher-than-expected project cost and state permitting times. He also said that, sometime this week, he hopes to meet with someone who could help organize fundraising efforts.
MORE ABOUT THE SCHOOL BOND SALE
The town’s sale of the tax-exempt general obligation bond for the school construction elicited 119 bids, which was unprecedented according to Finance Director Sarah Gilbert.
“A lot of investors were very interested in Bar Harbor,” Gilbert said.
“In preparation for the bond sale, Standard & Poor’s affirmed the Town's AAA rating and Moody’s upgraded the Town’s rating to Aa1 for the first time,” the town said in a press release last week.
That high demand enabled the town to get a true interest cost of just 4.06% for the 30-year bond, Gilbert told the council.
Bond ratings look to things such as a stable tax base, strong management, and manageable debt. Gilbert thanked staff, councilors, and the Warrant Committee members for their help.
“When you’re borrowing 58 million dollars, every tenth of a percent matters to the taxpayers,” Vice Chair Gary Friedmann said.
Smith said the exceptional bond rating was a testament to Gilbert’s leadership. He also thanked her for her work to have 100% of the town’s electricity needs supplied by green energy sources. This is an increase of 40%. It will also save the town $11,800 annually.
GEOTHERMAL AND THE SCHOOL
Geothermal tax credits might help give the new Conners Emerson School a lower cost.
According to an email from David Gibson, the director of energy at College of the Atlantic, the school’s geothermal loop, heat pumps, pumps and piping, heat pumps or fan coils, and VAV boxes or diffusers would all be eligible for the tax credit. This is essentially the entire HVAC system.
“This indicates that for the new school, the clean energy tax credit (40%) could be applied to the entire HVAC system—saving several million more than the upfront cost of the geothermal,” Gibson wrote in a July 30 email.
For rough numbers, if the HVAC is 25% of the system, Gibson said, and the total budget is $62,956,000 with a $15,739,000 HVAC cost, then “the clean energy tax credit alone could save $6.3 million, with the potential for additional 179D and MACRS savings with third-party financing for the geothermal.”
During the Bar Harbor Town Council meeting, Friedmann also said he was concerned because they hadn’t heard anything from the school about a geothermal system.
“I’m concerned that the school has no incentive to do the right thing, which is to reduce their carbon emissions,” Friedmann said.
That, he said, would create savings for the taxpayers. He’d like the school to report back to the council soon.
”We don’t have any control over what the school does at all, but we do sell the bond,” he said.
In a Wednesday email, Zboray said that he’s working with Harriman and Wright Ryan to get the final costing for a geothermal system.
“I have also contacted Efficiency Maine, Maine Power Options, and Sen. King's office for federal funding options. I hope to have some information next week,” Zboray wrote.
YMCA SOIL REMEDIATION WORK
The MDI YMCA, Smith said, is moving toward an expansion project, and the town is helping to apply to Beacon Environmental for a grant application. The grant concerns cleaning up the contaminated soil at the YMCA site.
The plan, Smith said, will be “good for the neighborhood, good for the environment, and it’s good to support a project for the Y.”
There has been no formal application for a YMCA expansion publicly unveiled.
ATLANTIC AVENUE
The town has been working with the final property owner and their representative last week for a potential solution to a waterline issue on Atlantic Avenue.
Standing water is often in the street, and the street becomes ice-covered during colder months. The problem has been occurring for approximately five years.
“I’m still confident that we can get a release and an easement,” Smith said of the multi-year process toward a solution. “It was a long haul.”
PARKING REVENUE
Gilbert told councilors that the town’s parking revenue is almost mirroring last year’s $1.77 million figures which is net of any fees, which are typically 9-10 percent of the total.
CONSENT AGREEMENT VIOLATION
The councilors authorized the town manager to negotiate and sign an administrative consent agreement with Bridge Street Alpha, LLC and Deering Street Beta LLC to settle a code violation. The LLCs come back to a Bar Harbor resident. The violation notice was sent to an individual with the same last name, but different first name.
“We can’t have violations like this,” Smith said, but they’d like to clear it up.
The violation notice, which was sent out in July, alleges that the property owner advertised a dwelling for rent at 5 Jordan Place without permits or approval.
The property owner appealed the violation in August. The appeal is set to be heard by the town’s Board of Appeals in November. The property owner has requested to negotiate with the town again. The councilors agreed to allow Smith or a designee to negotiate and potentially sign an administrative consent agreement with the LLC.
BAR HARBOR ROADS AND SAFETY
The councilors quickly mentioned the Bar Harbor Safety Action Plan, which is meant to help identify safety risks for people on Bar Harbor streets and then create ways to mitigate risks.
Between 2019 and 2023, there were 17 accidents that caused incapacitating injuries and five where people died.
“The roads are dangerous. People are driving way too fast with no consideration to the cyclist,” Councilor Joe Minutolo who said he’s had more close calls on his bicycle last year than in all his 49 other years. Minutolo and his brother owned a bicycle shop in Bar Harbor that they’ve recently sold. “It’s really scary out there. We need to do something.”
Council Chair Valerie Peacock said that more people are commuting on electric scooters and e-bikes as well. Thinking about how to accommodate those commuters as well as getting people from bike shops in town to the carriage roads safely is important. “The increase in electric bikes and the rentals of those is a huge change.”
The meetings are on Tuesday, September 25 at OpenTable MDI from 4 to 6 p.m., the MDI Bio Lab from 6 to 8 p.m., and then pop-up events in Agamont Park and the Village Green on September 25. There is also an online survey.
MANAGER MEMOS NO MORE
There was no town manager memo included in the packet released to the public this past meeting. Manager memos, which give a short synopsis and additional facts about items on a Town Council agenda, are a long tradition in Bar Harbor and in many other towns for their select boards and councils.
In an email, Town Clerk Liz Graves explained, “It used to be that the council agenda packets contained memos from department heads with explanation of a needed council action and a requested motion, then the manager would summarize this information and include the suggested motion in an agenda memo.
”Since we've switched to the council acting by order, that explanatory material is now included in the ‘whereas’ recitals at the beginning of each order. Any supplemental documents included for background can be found immediately following the order in the agenda packet. James still works with staff on the orders and reviews everything before the packet is published.
”The council is, of course, still able to make amendments or motions from the floor of a meeting.”
OTHER BUSINESS
The council accepted an Efficiency Maine grant for the assessing and technology departments’ electric vehicle lease.
The council also scheduled public hearings for a campaign reports ordinance to update campaign report filing procedure and to schedule a public hearing on an annual amendment to General Assistance ordinance for annual revision of maximum benefit levels.
The council also accepted and posted a special town meeting warrant and notice of public Hearing.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
https://barharbormaine.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/3486?html=true
https://barharbormaine.gov/126/Town-Council
https://www.townhallstreams.com/stream.php?location_id=37&id=56476
https://rochesterashrae.org/images/meeting/010824/rochester_ashrae_010824_geo_fed_tax_incentives.pdf
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