Council Welcomes New Town Manager

No Moratorium on Transient Accommodations or Outdoor Live Music Restrictions, Water Budget Could Increase by More Than a Third

Oct 18, 2023

BAR HARBOR—Bar Harbor’s new town manager, James Smith, sat in the audience at the Tuesday night Town Council meeting during which his contract was unanimously approved by the council. Councilors Kyle Shank and Maya Caines were not at the meeting.

Council Chair Val Peacock said the council was excited about the professionalism Smith brings to the job, which he’ll begin on November 15. Vice Chair Gary Friedmann said he was really pleased with the hire and that going through two rounds of applications was worth it because of the broad array of experience Smith brings to the job.

In 2012, Smith was appointed Rockland’s city manager. Prior to that, he’d been Brewer’s assistant city manager for the first time. He was city manager in Rockland for two years (2012-2014) before heading back to Brewer. Prior to his first tenure in Brewer, he’d been the town manager of Oakland for one year. Prior to that, he’d been a platoon sergeant for ten years in the Marine Corps.

Smith replaces Kevin Sutherland, who left in January 2022. Since Sutherland’s departure Finance Director Sarah Gilbert and former town manager Cornell Knight have consecutively performed the town manager duties.

Before the meeting, there was a meet-and-greet in the building lobby with the public and Smith.

Councilor Joe Minutolo asked if he should abstain because of his potential conflict of interest. There was no vote, but he was told no verbally. Peacock thanked the department heads and staff, Gilbert, and Knight for their help during the past eight months. Councilor Matt Hochman thanked Peacock for stepping up as well.

Minutolo welcomed Smith. “We have a long road to hoe, but I’m sure we’ll get through it.”

Chamber of Commerce Director Everal Eaton and Smith. Photo: Carrie Jones

OUTDOOR AMPLIFICATION

Councilor Earl Brechlin said he asked for outdoor amplification to be on the agenda because of the past discussion.

Outdoor amplified music originally came under scrutiny at the Town Council’s September 20 meeting and after multiple neighbors complained, a new application by the Bar Harbor Lobster Pound was denied. Many residents spoke against the application. Those opposed to that application included former town manager Dana Reed, who lives nearby. Reed did not speak Tuesday. Three residents in that area did, all hoping that the Council would confine outdoor amplification to the downtown zones.

Brechlin thought it would be good to take a look at hours, decibel level, and zones where it is allowed.

The ordinance was implemented in May 2021 and he didn’t intend for it to sunset after COVID, Hochman said. Hochman asked the police department about outdoor amplification complaints since then and said there have been six complaints, two substantiated, five this year. Of those two that were substantiated, he said, one was close to the decibel level and the other event was over when the officers arrived.

Outdoor music is not allowed after 9 p.m. Most of the places, Hochman believes, are doing it in the afternoon such as Mainely Meat (outside the downtown district) and Ivy Manor (downtown).

“I believe that music and the arts are an integral part to a thriving downtown,” Hochman said.

He said if they lowered the decibel limit, he was unsure if the ordinance would be viable, because it was already low.

“We have a large number of musicians who live and work in town and I don’t think we want to take that away from them,” Hochman said.

Jamie Ward, an acoustic musician who left Bar Harbor in 1994 and recently returned said, “One of the things I noticed when I came back just this summer is a lack of culture.” Town is very plain and very flat, Ward said, adding that when playing music, residents and tourists thank her for bringing culture back to town. “You can’t have too much art.”

Nick Roberts, an Ellsworth resident, who is a musician that plays in Bar Harbor and teaches at SFOA, said that he thinks he’s broken the noise ordinance just by playing the unamplified piano at the gazebo.

“Does the Town Council have the business limiting individuals and businesses as it pertains to the arts?” he asked. The Town Council shouldn’t limit music and the arts, he said.

outdoor music with amplification at the Ivy Manor downtown

Scott Hughes, a Stony Brook Way resident, who spoke a month ago against the Bar Harbor Lobster Pound said outdoor rural areas are different and that he isn’t there to squelch the playing of music, but there should be consideration for the people in those areas. He suggested not allowing outdoor amplified music in rural areas.

Laura Johnson, of Mainely Meat, said she has music from 5 to 8. The lobster company, she said, is new in town and didn’t know the rules when it began having outdoor amplification without a permit. She said she’s never had a complaint at Mainely Meat that she knows of.

“We love our musicians. They support us as well as us supporting them,” Johnson said. “I don’t want to lose it. I really don’t.” She doesn’t bring in extra revenue by bringing in musicians. “I do it because people enjoy it…. Everybody loves it.” They’d really like to keep it going, she said.

Bo Jennings thanked Brechlin for bringing up the issues and he said that they can always do things better as businesses and as neighbors.

“We’ve just got to be able to talk to each other,” he said about when music might seem or be too loud or other smaller issues. “You can tell this town is starved for the arts. If we can do it together, the neighbors do it together, you guys can chill,” he said to the councilors.

Pat North Hughes, also from Stony Brook Way, asked about the accuracy of the town’s police department’s decibel level readers in outdoor settings. These readers are how the officers determine if the level is being exceeded.

Acting Police Chief David Kerns said the noise meter is sensitive and wind has occasionally been a problem. It is a little easier to read the decibel level in a building, but the police department still has the tools it needs to substantiate a complaint.

Musician Lincoln Millstein discussed busking and said he loved the idea that Bar Harbor takes on a kind of bohemian quality. Portland, he says, has that. He urged musicians to check themselves and not expect everyone to love their music.

Charles Sidman said that the night before he was walking across the Village Green and a restaurant was pumping out music well after 10. It was not live, he said.

Mike Hamill said that the decibel level being 72 at the property line seemed really low. He joked that he was going to have to buy a softer drum kit.

THE COUNCIL WEIGHS IN

Peacock felt that they can address individual problems with outdoor amplification when they come up. Brechlin said he was worried about a permit getting complaints and not being revoked for a year. He suggested a probationary period on new licenses to give some power to the residents. Peacock said that there is a process for taking a license away before that renewal time already in the town’s rules.

“I think we have a lot of tools in place,” she said.

“What we saw a couple of weeks ago is that process playing out,” Hochman said, referring to the Lobster Pound’s permit denial.

Friedmann said that he appreciated all the people coming out, speaking with passion about their art. He agreed with Jennings, saying, “I think business people want to do right by their neighbors.”

WATER BUDGET AND SEWER BUDGETS

The Town Council moved both the water and sewer budgets for fiscal year 2024 to a public hearing on November 21.

The water budget has a proposed 34.3% increase. The sewer budget has a proposed 18% increase. If approved, the water rate would increase April 1, and the sewer January 1, both in 2024.

The budget, according to Public Works Director Bethany Leavitt, is driven partially by operational needs and regulatory compliance. There are also projects that are from the 2020 Comprehensive Water System Master Plan. There are also synergies with other public work projects and Maine DOT projects.

There is a shortfall of over $800,000 between the revenue needs and current budget. The rate increase is partially due to inflation, which increased materials, supplies, and contract services, union contract salaries, debt service and capital improvement. But the bulk of the increase is paying the bond’s debt service, which is $744,000. That bond is for repairing the system.

That translates to the lowest rates of $102 per quarter or $34 a month. Leavitt said that cost came to about $149/$150 per quarter for the average family of four or $600 a year.

The cost of the town’s storage tank will be $1.4 million less because of a grant from Senator King’s 2023 direct spending request to Congress.

A town typically wants to replace 1% of the water system per year for a 100-year cycle, but Bar Harbor is now developing age curves for the system, which looks at pieces of the pipe and its stability and current lifespan, Leavitt said. For Bar Harbor, they are an aged system, Leavitt said. Parts are beyond the 100-year cycle.

The budget allows continued operations and maintenance services as well as repair to portions of the system and making sure it complies to regulations. Cleftstone Road, Glen Mary, Shannon Road, and Kennebec Place all have water upgrades. Hancock Street and lower Main Street have water main replacements.

Friedmann said he wanted to note that the water and sewer budgets together are a third of the size of the municipal budget.

“It’s a huge financial ramification for people who are on water and sewer,” he said, but also for all people in town because of hydrant fees. “It’s a major consequence for anyone who lives in the water and sewer district areas.”

Friedmann said he was on board with bringing the system up to the standards, but he asked what the public works department was doing to run as efficiently as possible and try to create savings. Leavitt said maintaining the filtration waiver for the water system is keeping the costs low. Without it, there’d have to be multi-million dollar upgrades. She said that finding projects that replace the infrastructure before they break keeps costs lower. There were, she said, two breaks on Route 3 in one year. The year before that there were two on Main Street. When that happens and the pipes are fixed, the town doesn’t gain value, users just have an expense and the pipe is still just as vulnerable in an area where the break wasn’t patched.

Friedmann wondered if charging everyone the same rate per cubic foot was fair. The town has to build a system to serve a hotel at the maximum peak of the season, he said. Peak demand drives the system’s infrastructure.

Maybe, he suggested, transient accommodations who need that level of water or sewer service should be paying a higher rate because of the extra need. He then extended the argument for short-term rentals. He said there was feeling around town that year-round residents were being squeezed, but he stressed he wasn’t trying to create a business vs resident formula. Gilbert said she could look into it. Leavitt said that the town can look into different structures for billing.

“The common person that lives in our town is feeling the pinch,” Minutolo said, agreeing with Friedmann.

Gilbert thanked Brady Anderson, Jason Alley, Knight, Stan Harmon, and Liz Graves for putting the budget together.

Last year, there were 1,854 metered customers in Bar Harbor. Of those 1372 were residential. About one-fourth of all customers are seasonal. Customers receive quarterly bills from the town, which in 2001 purchased the Water Company.

For fiscal year 2023, sewer customers had an 18% increase for the last two quarters.

CRUISE SHIP RULE MAKING

Peacock quickly presented the cruise ship rule making item on the agenda. There are multiple pieces that allow the changes to conform with the cruise ship disembarkation change which was approved by voters last November and is currently being adjudicated in federal court after several businesses sewed the town over the changes which limits cruise ship disembarkations to 1,000 a day and places the rules within the town’s land use ordinance. Some of those pieces to allow those changes—if the town wins the lawsuit—need the public hearings to be implemented.

“For this evening we’re not really going to talk about the content about this,” Peacock said. Instead, the Town Council scheduled a public hearing for November 21.

The town attorney did not attend the meeting. Peacock said she wasn’t taking public comment about the content now because the council wasn’t set up for it. That would occur November 21, she said.

Speaking from the audience, the lead petitioner and defendant intervenor in the court case, Charles Sidman, said there were two fatal flaws in the documents, but did not discuss them because of Peacock’s earlier statements, but said he could advise the council and town about them.

TRANSIENT ACCOMODATION MORATORIUM

Councilor Matthew Hochman said that his reasoning for wanting to discuss a potential moratorium on transient accommodations (lodgings of multiple types) was to give the town a pause to work through different issues with the land use ordinance and the process. He said since then, thanks to the workshop with the Planning Board and the planning department’s and Planning Board’s work, he is more comfortable that the town is moving toward changes to the land use ordinance. He moved to not move the moratorium forward at this time. Peacock agreed and added that the conversation is also occurring in the creation of the Comprehensive Plan.

Friedmann said he was voting similarly, but that both housing and tourism management were urgent issues. He said he’s voting for the motion because he believes the planning department and Council are putting things to deal with those issues in motion.

Brechlin agreed but said, “If the situation on the ground should radically change, I wouldn’t hesitate.”

There was no public comment. It passed unanimously.

SUB-COMMITTEE TO REVIEW TOWN COMMITTEES

Kyle Shank and Matt Hochman have volunteered for the committee, which will look into the needs, goals, problems and positives, and structure of the town’s boards, task forces, and committees. Peacock said that Shank had volunteered via email.

PUBLIC COMMENT

There was no public comment at the beginning of the meeting about items that were not on the agenda.

PINE TREE ENERGY

The councilors moved potential support of Pine Tree Energy’s ballot initiative off the agenda because Caines, who had sponsored it, was not there and was home sick.

SEPTEMBER FINANCIALS

Finance Director Sarah Gilbert said that the town’s audit field work for FY2023 began last week. She doesn’t expect any significant adjustments from the last report in June.

The parking meter debt service was retired, she said. Parking revenue is at $2.376 million, for money collected from July through September, 76% of the year’s budget. Friedman asked if the parking revenue was on track. She said there is still October 2023, May and June 2024 to collect, and she believes it will exceed the budgeted amount of over $3 million in expected revenue.

CONSENT AGENDA AND GENERAL ASSISTANCE ORDINANCE AMENDMENT

All items on the consent agenda were approved with a unanimous vote. Those items were to allow churches and schools to sound bells on Veterans Day; to allow Open Table MDI to close a portion of Maple Street (between Cottage and Brewer) for a November 4 event; and to declare official intent to take out the school building bond. The general assistance amendments were also adopted as presented unanimously.

TOWN MANAGER COMMENTS

Interim Town Manager Cornell Knight said the councilors have a goal session for Monday, November 6 at 4:30 p.m., most likely in the Machias Savings Bank Conference Room on Cottage Street.

Tuesday’s meeting was Knight’s last council meeting.

“I’ve enjoyed working with you all again. Good luck,” Knight said.

Hochmann, Peacock, and Minutolo thanked Knight for filling in as town manager.

Friedmann did as well, saying, “You made it so easy the last few months.”

COUNCILOR COMMENTS

Brechlin inquired about three giant dead trees on the town’s ball fields behind a couple of lower Ledgelawn properties. Those property owners have reached out to him, he said, because of an early promise by the town to take care of them.

Hochman and Friedmann thanked everyone for speaking about the music. Friedmann said he really liked hearing from Lincoln Millstein about music.

Peacock spoke of the Jesup Memorial Library’s groundbreaking for its $13-million addition, which she said was a highlight for her this past weekend.

LAND USE AMENDMENT LISTENING SESSION

Thursday there will be a listening session at the Bar Harbor Municipal Building on Cottage Street in Council Chambers about potential land use amendments relating to lodging.

FALL FLUSHING

In an effort to increase flow capacities of the water system and provide higher water quality to its customers, the town will be flushing the water mains from Monday, October 30, 2023 through Friday, November 24, 2023. Customers may experience decreased pressure and dirty water anytime during the time. For further information contact the Water Division Office at 288-3555.

EMPLOYEE HOUSING AMENDMENT LISTENING SESSION

According to the town,

“It has come to the attention of the Planning Board and staff, that there is a need to have more areas that allow the creation of employee housing. The two types of housing this amendment refers to are shared accommodations (SA) and employee living quarters (ELQ).
“The effort to allow ELQs and SAs in additional districts, will continue to support Bar Harbor businesses and institutions that struggle to keep and attract workers and students due to the lack of available housing. Some of the major benefits of the proposed amendments would be: 1) more housing options while respecting the rural and residential character of certain districts; 2) on-site housing for farmworkers and other workers; 3) housing a greater percentage of the labor force locally; and 4) hopefully, less shortening of business operating hours.

“The listening session will take place on Thursday, October 26, 2023 from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM in the Town Council Chambers.

“For more information on the Department’s work on the draft amendment, visit https://www.barharbormaine.gov/207/Land-Use-Information or email cmartinez@barharbormaine.gov”

CLEFSTONE AND DEVON ROAD INTERSECTION CLOSURE

On Wednesday, October 18, the Bar Harbor Water Division will be preforming work at the intersection of Cleftstone Road and Devon Road. This work will cause the intersection to be completely closed to thru traffic, so please seek alternate route. Additionally, both Cleftstone Road and Devon Road will be limited to local traffic only. Any questions or concerns please call the Water Division at 288-3555. We thank you for your patience and cooperation.