LifeFlight's Helipad in Bar Harbor Lands Solid Support in Town Council

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BAR HARBOR—The Bar Harbor Town Council unanimously approved a memorandum of agreement that would allow LifeFlight of Maine to have a helipad on a corner of the town ball field off Park and Main Street.

“It’s a great asset for the community,” Town Manager James Smith said of the nonprofit, which is the state’s only helicopter ambulance service.

The town has been in discussions with LifeFlight about a landing pad at the ball field since before Smith began his job, he said Tuesday night.

Now, he says, it’s time to enter a formal agreement.

LifeFlight is paying for the construction and will deposit an initial $10,000 to create a fund for the pad’s upkeep.

“I’ve been waiting for this for a while,” Councilor Matthew Hochman said.

He cited past worries during times when the area was muddy and wet and the helicopter tried to land on the ball field.

“Having this service available to us in Bar Harbor has saved a lot of lives,” Hochman said.

Those have been lives of locals and of visitors like Doug Mirts.

Doug and Tonya Mirts biked around Acadia National Park in September 2021. They biked all morning and went to Jordan Pond for lunch before they headed back to the trails and carriage roads.

After a bit, Tonya realized Doug wasn’t right behind her. She waited. No Doug. She headed back the way she came and found her husband on the ground.

Strangers had already found him there, had surrounded him, and luckily, one was an emergency room doctor who began CPR.

Tonya called 911 and more help arrived. Acadia personnel used a defibrillator to restart Doug’s heart. An ambulance brought him to the ballfields by the Park Street Playground in Bar Harbor, the LifeFlight landing zone. The crew intubated him, set up the ventilator, and gave him cardio-protective medicine. They flew him to Northern Light, still EMMC then, and Doug survived.

According to LifeFlight, at the hospital, “Tonya recognized the crew members when they came to greet him, saying they were, ‘extremely professional, very talented, and wonderful human beings.’ Doug was discharged from the hospital on September 28, just in time to walk his daughter down the aisle at her wedding.”

“In 1998 when LifeFlight of Maine was founded, there were two helipads in Maine. Today, nearly all of Maine’s 36 hospitals have designated landing areas. We believe in supporting the development of infrastructure that allows for air medical operations. Over the years, we have worked closely with numerous hospitals and communities, offering technical guidance and sharing expertise in following Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations,” said LifeFlight of Maine Director of Communication Henry Frank.

The helicopter often lands on the town’s athletic fields off Park Street. Ambulance personnel take the patients to the helicopter or to the hospital, depending on the need, transferring injured people over the grassy field. This is difficult in the winter and during exceptionally muddy times.

Despite that, the site’s location on the field and Park Street has been considered a “perfect landing site,” because it is so close to the Bar Harbor Fire Station and Mount Desert Island Hospital. Back in September 2020, the Town Council approved building a landing pad on the site, next to the skate park.

According to LifeFlight, “This past year, the LifeFlight Foundation leveraged an opportunity to seek philanthropic support from a generous donor who supports LifeFlight of Maine and various MDI organizations, who was supportive of our collaborative approach to increasing critical healthcare access in this unique community. They contributed funds to support the construction of a year-round helipad in Bar Harbor.”

In 2024, LifeFlight transported 54 patients from MDI Hospital and 214 from Hancock County.

In 2023, LifeFlight transported 69 patients from Bar Harbor. LifeFlight transported a total of 2,521 patients in 2023. In 2021, LifeFlight transported 60 patients from Bar Harbor out of 2,303 total transports. Back in fiscal year 2015 (June 2014-July 2015), LifeFlight transported 47.

“We fully support the construction of this helipad and have been working closely with leadership at MDI Hospital, Bar Harbor Fire Department, and the Town of Bar Harbor. This asset will not only enhance access for LifeFlight of Maine, but also for any other helicopter operator that is requested to perform an evacuation,” Frank said.

The agreement states a local contractor who is involved with the town’s Main Street reconstruction project can do the work within its $225,100 budget. LifeFlight is paying for that construction and will also help create a fund for the helipad’s upkeep and maintenance.

During public comment, Tanya Ivanow asked why it took so long to get the helipad.

“They had to do fundraising and planning and . . . COVID,” Council Chair Valerie Peacock said. “It’s the time it takes to do stuff sometimes.”

“It’s not as simple as it might sound at the surface,” Smith said.

Smith said he couldn’t speak to reasons that preceded his arrival in Bar Harbor, but that work had to be done to investigate what the ground could support and LifeFlight had to fundraise for the project. There were a lot of moving parts, he said.

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LINKS TO LEARN MORE

LifeFlight

The LifeFlight Foundation raises financial support and public awareness of LifeFlight’s mission. Funds raised support capital investments to ensure LifeFlight has the aircraft, medical equipment, and training needed to provide the best care possible. Donations to The LifeFlight Foundation can be made at www.LifeFlightMaine.org/donate.

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