For 143 Years the VIA Has Taken Care of Bar Harbor Spaces
Shore Path Reconstruction Might Be Completed This Spring, Glen Mary Pool Replacement Proves Costly
BAR HARBOR—Glen Mary pool and woods. The Shore Path. Bar Harbor Village Green. All these properties that the public uses and enjoys depend on a small group of Bar Harbor volunteers.
On Tuesday, November 5, many of those volunteers gathered at the Bar Harbor Village Improvement Association held its 134th annual meeting reporting on its 133rd year since incorporation and gave reports on the projects that have made news for the past few years.
The first recognized meeting of the VIA was held on November 4, 1881, at which time, the association’s officers and executive committee were elected.
On September 27, 1881, “A preliminary meeting of Bar Harbor citizens and others interested in village improvement was held at the Cottage Street schoolhouse pursuant to a published call of the meeting in the Mount Desert Herald. Dr. Hasket Derby was elected chairman and Mr. Joseph Wood, secretary,” according to the annual report archives of the Bar Harbor Village Improvement Association (VIA).
The original association was different than the one we know today and performed much work that is now carried out by the town and its departments. In the late 1800s the town was still organizing and the VIA was responsible for promoting and marshaling many important projects that went way beyond the duties of preservation and maintenance of today’s VIA. The early VIA actually played a large role in the early town government.
According to the VIA’s annual report archives, on February 20, 1882, there was a successful vote “to insert an article in the town warrant that all Buckboard Tax money derived by the town be given the association to be expended on the streets of Bar Harbor, under direction of (the) executive committee.”
It is unclear if that passed at town meeting, but it is clear that the VIA played a huge role in road development, sanitation improvements, the establishment of a village hospital, and many other important milestones.
While history such as this is sometimes lost to time, it is the physical reminders of such work and the milestones and monuments that is created that help a community remember from where it came. It is now the role of this volunteer organization, its members, and most especially its supporters to preserve these historical reminders, some of which have been around since the earliest inception of the VIA and are still used and enjoyed by local residents and persons from around the world.
SHORE PATH REPAIR AND RECONSTRUCTION
Established in 1881, the Shore Path was most likely the first stewardship responsibility of the VIA. Ongoing maintenance of something made from organic materials is always a need and normally an unhurried fight against the slowly methodical march of natural deterioration. But in January 2023, nature brought a show of force to the Maine coast and caused what will assuredly total over $1 million worth of damage to Bar Harbor’s beloved shore path.
Of course, the VIA stepped in, as is its purpose, and began to fight back. Over the course of the last 10 months, money has been raised, seawalls have been replaced, and paths have been rebuilt.
Much progress has been made since last January, considering all of the challenges ranging from weather to financing, to the legalities of working with private landowners, and to the limited room for access and workspace.
During the November 5 annual meeting, VIA Vice President Andrew Shea said that it has been a long, slow project but was excited to say that the week of November 11, MacQuinn Contractors will be moving their equipment from the staging area of the third loop to the staging area of the second loop. MacQuinns will also be working on finalizing the restoration work for the third loop which is the portion behind Devilstone Cottage, where the path meets the Hancock Street access point.
“Big kudos to Janie and Paul Coston. They allowed us to use their property as a staging area for the Wayman Lane section (third loop) and big kudos to the Cumbers (Husein and LeAnna) for allowing us to use their property as a staging for the middle section (second loop),” Shea said.
According to Shea, the loop terminology in reference for the Shore Path is new but was used for the restoration project as a convenient way to describe the sections of the Shore Path in relation to access points. The first loop would be the loop formed by Main Street/Ells Pier entrance to the Shore Path and running to the access point at Albert Meadow. The second loop would be from Albert Meadow to the access point at Hancock Street. The third loop would be from Hancock Street to the access point at Wayman Lane. The first loop running behind the Bar Harbor Inn to Albert Meadow is the only portion of the Shore Path that has been reopened to public access at this point in time and the other two loops are still barricaded.
Shea said that the remaining section, loop two, is the hardest restoration remaining due to the level of damage from the storm and the difficulties of access. If the weather remains good enough, MacQuinns will work into late November, into December, or as long as the weather will allow. The foreman for MacQuinns feels that they can work into December and that hopefully would allow the company to finish the restoration project up in early spring, perhaps by April or May of 2025.
Loop one, the portion of the Shore Path that runs behind the Bar Harbor Inn and is therefore owned by the inn, was finished first because VIA board member and Bar Harbor Inn owner David Witham made it a priority and funded the restoration of that section.
Witham said that the project totaled in excess of $1 million, however, that amount was not spent solely on the Shore Path. In order to make the restoration as easy as possible for MacQuinns, a temporary access road was built across the inn’s back lawn and the rejuvenation of the lawn and gardens was a separate project that was already in planning stages but was expedited because of the Shore Path’s repair. A sizeable portion of the $1 million expenditure was spent on the after-construction landscaping.
During his presentation, Shea recognized new VIA board member Julie Veilleux’s efforts at fundraising for the Shore Path repair via Window Panes, a Bar Harbor store owned by Veilleux and her husband Greg.
Board President Dick “Dickie” Cough said that he wanted to thank all of the Shore Path property owners for their patience and willingness to compromise and work with the VIA during the long reconstruction.
GLEN MARY POOL AND WOODLANDS
Witham is the VIA’s project manager for the Glen Mary pool rebuild project and gave an update on where that project stood. Before Witham spoke, Shea said that he gave Witham “huge kudos” for all of the work that he has been doing on the Glen Mary project while also having to unexpectedly manage the Bar Harbor Inn portion of the Shore Path repair.
The VIA had some momentum going on Glen Mary and was working with Mike Rogers at LARK Studio and but then got derailed by the Shore Path damage Witham said.
Additionally, once they started getting into the project, the VIA realized that it was not just a matter of removing the old pavement and replacing it with concrete. Since Glen Mary pool had last been upgraded, many things have changed such as new life safety codes and ADA regulations. Also, because the ground is so low lying and the water table so high in that area, the groundwork and engineering that needs to be done is more than initially anticipated. The VIA has had to pull together a team of engineers, electrical engineers, site engineers, and hydrology experts due to the water tables in the area.
The pool design company is Watson and Sampson of Reading, Massachusetts.
Witham feels that everyone—the town, the VIA, and the design and engineering team—are all on the same page now and things will start moving forward now that a team has been assembled. On November 4, the day before the annual meeting, core samples were taken so that they all can know what the subsurface ground is really like.
Witham said that over the course of the winter, the plans should all come together and then they can start putting things out to bid. Once they have a more final plan and start to acquire some idea of costs, which according to Cough, will without a doubt be in excess of $1 million, they can talk more seriously about funding.
A three-party funding model with the VIA providing funding, the town providing funding, and fundraising providing funding, is what Witham envisions will be the model. If prices get too high for what is planned, some parts of the build, such as the shade pavilion, could be put off until funding is secured for those pieces.
Betsy Stires, an audience member, asked if the VIA was this far along, if they had a final plan that they were working towards for the pool rebuild. Witham responded that the plan is not final but is probably about 80% finalized.
Stires then asked if the VIA has had any community input to this point. Witham said that the plan was initially spoken about, with community input, at multiple Bar Harbor Parks and Recreation Committee meetings and the LARK concept has been presented to both that committee and the Town Council at public meetings. Witham added that once the plan is formalized, it will be presented again because the VIA definitely wants to have buy in from the town, the community, and the neighbors of the park.
Wondering about community exclusivity, Stires asked if the new pool would be just for community residents. Witham said that it is an asset for the enjoyment of the community and never would any of his hotels advertise it nor would it be showcased in magazines and that limited parking and the fact that it is off of the beaten path should all help keep it more local as far as usage. If it gets to be an issue in the future, then the town and the VIA will have to revisit the usage policies.
Another audience member asked about who actually maintains the wooded area of Glen Mary and if there are any plans to improve the trees and paths in the woods of Glen Mary. Cough said that the VIA did set aside $5,000 at the request of the neighbors to have a forester come in and tell them which trees need to come out and what could be done to improve the trees.
Cough also said that the town was responsible for the pool and then the VIA stepped in and took over to help the project move forward but then with the Shore Path and other maintenance issues both the woodland project and the pool project were set back a bit.
Glen Mary neighbor Ellen Grover said that residents have been talking for years about the contract with the town to maintain the woods and she wanted to know if is there a contract signed with the town indicating who is in charge of maintaining the wooded portion? Grover said that most of the neighbors are very concerned about the health of the trees and grounds and feel like Glen Mary doesn’t get the attention that every other park in town receives. The neighbors have, in the past, done some maintenance in the park but they are “not allowed to do that anymore according to the parks and rec department,” Grover said.
Grover said that to the neighbors, the park is the most important part of the neighborhood and asked again if the town and the VIA have signed a contract regarding maintenance of the woodlands.
The VIA and town have signed a contract, but it was signed by Cornell Knight and then by Kevin Sutherland, and it just keeps getting passed on to new managers, Cough said.
Then when the pool rebuild came up, the town decided that it wanted to amend the contract so that everyone was clear on who was responsible for what between the pool maintenance and the woodland maintenance, Cough said.
Grover asked who was in charge.
Cough explained that the town is responsible for the maintenance of the pool and the woodlands, but the VIA owns the land.
Grover said that the perception is that the VIA is allowing the woodlands to waste away so that it can be used for something else.
The VIA will contact Savage Forest Enterprises and will make sure that the town is in the loop on everything and that when he meets with Town Manager James Smith, he will make sure that he understands that the town is responsible for maintenance of the woodlands Cough assured Grover.
Grover then expressed concern for a whole group of kids using the paths in Glen Mary as a dirt track for their bicycles lately. They are having fun, but it is eroding the pathways, she said.
“I can’t say as I blame them, but it’s not really what the park is for,” she said.
The last concern that Grover expressed for Glen Mary woods was the popularity of dogs being walked in the park and the lack of a dog feces bag dispensers at at least one end of the park, if not both, along with a receptacle for the bags.
VILLAGE GREEN UPDATE
Member Jeff Dobbs gave an update on the Village Green maintenance and said that there is not a lot going on. The current major issue is with complaints of vaping and smoking in the gazebo and he said that Public Works Director Bethany Leavitt is working on addressing that with signage.
The bandstand project, which has been all but forgotten due to the Shore Path damage and the VIA taking over the Glen Mary pool project, will hopefully get revitalized after the Shore Path and Glen Mary pool are finalized.
DEGREGOIRE GREEN
Cough gave an update on DeGregoire Green, the park at the corner of West Street and Eden Street and said that the VIA has finally acquired an easement on the top half of the park to protect it into perpetuity. The VIA is still working on an easement for the bottom half of the park which is working its way through the landowner’s and the VIA’s lawyers for approval.
The town will be expanding upon DeGregoire Green by expanding the sidewalk down West Street to La Rochelle, the home of the Bar Harbor Historical Society, and will be putting in some additional crosswalks. The society has been working with Leavitt and Smith on the project which had gotten postponed until after the sewer pumping station work on that end of West Street was completed.
FINANCES AND FUNDING FOR FUTURE PROJECTS
The VIA’s budget would be functioning as it normally does, except for two major sources of expenditures. The VIA contributed $300,000 to add to the $343,000 that has been raised by the Shore Path restoration GoFundMe drive. In addition, the VIA has spent over $35,000 for planning and design for the Glen Mary pool this year.
The VIA recognizes that it needs to develop an endowment for the Shore Path for ongoing maintenance and storm related damage repair.
“We do know that we need to start an endowment for the Shore Path because this is not the last time this is going to happen,” Cough said.
Adding to that, Shea said that the big project will be to continue to raise funds for an endowment or have annual fundraisers.
Shea said that the VIA is working with Friends of Acadia on strategies for fundraising because if something like this occurs again, “we used a massive part of our funds to help go with David Witham’s and the three hundred and some odd thousand that we have raised for a million-dollar project. It will happen again. So, we have got to figure out a way to consistently raise specific funds.”
Another major event would be a true financial challenge for the VIA and would impact how it can maintain other properties in the future.
One positive thing about January’s damage, Witham noted, is that most of the damaged areas of the Shore Path were the oldest sections of the seawalls that were constructed from stacked stones and mortar. The newer sections of the seawall that were poured concrete survived and the newly repaired sections, which are poured concrete, are even more robust.
One other option that the VIA has talked about is a donation box so that people know that they are walking on and enjoying, hopefully, something that survives on donations. Security is a concern for such a donation mechanism, but Cough said that perhaps it could be placed at the Bar Harbor Inn end of the Shore Path for more security.
Lastly, VIA Treasurer Jon Nicholson gave the budget report and said that the VIA did receive a gift this year of $400,000 from the estate of Robert C. MacCloskey. This money has been placed into a certificate of deposit for now.
ELECTIONS AND RECOGNITION
The first order of business for the annual meeting after of the approval of last year’s meeting minutes, was the approval of the slate of officers which remained the same as last year: President Dick Cough: Vice President Andrew Shea; TreasurerJon Nicholson: and Secretary Kim Swan. The group also approved the Board of Directors which included one new member, Julie Veilleux. The full board is Tom Testa, Jeff Dobbs, David Witham, Helene Harton, Erin Cough, and Julie Veilleux.
During the meeting, the VIA recognized Bar Harbor Inn Director of Marketing Rachel Crater for her hard work and support of Shore Path fundraising. Witham allowed the VIA to use the inn’s email list to email solicitations for donations and Crater was instrumental in making this happen and also took care of media photos and relations for notable donations. For her contribution, Crater was given a gift certificate to the Bar Harbor Inn Spa, which elicited chuckles from most in attendance.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Unless otherwise noted, all images Shaun Farrar or Carrie Jones/Bar Harbor Story.
Correction: The name of Robert C. MacCloskey has been corrected from Robert McCloskey to the correct spelling of Robert C. MacCloskey.
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