Likely No Shutdown For Now

Town Council's Agenda Looks to Make Subcommittee to Review Committees

BAR HARBOR AND WASHINGTON, DC—A split U.S. House of Representatives Saturday afternoon voted in favor of a stopgap plan. If also approved by the Senate, the plan would allow government agencies to continue functioning and government employees to be paid. The plan runs through mid-November. It does not include money for the Ukraine.

It passed 335-91.

Tourists and businesses had worried that a government shutdown would close Acadia National Park, a major economic driver for the region.

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TOWN COUNCIL AGENDA FOR TUESDAY MEETING

With new, more open public participation rules, the Town Council is set to meet again on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers at the Municipal Building on Cottage Street. The public can always attend.

The Town Council’s agenda for Tuesday, October 3 includes:

• Appointing Town Clerk Liz Graves as the election warden;

• Potentially approving the 2023 Emergency Operations Plan;

• Accepting a $200,000 grant from the Federal Highway Administration that will hire a consultant “to prepare a safety action plan for Bar Harbor in the Village area and up Route 3, but will have a cursory review through the corridor to Ellsworth;”

• Potentially approve the Chamber of Commerce’s request for a buoy tree fundraiser at Harborview Park;

• Amend the town’s personnel rules so that they comply with federal law.

There will also be a public hearing about the YMCA soil remediation site and the Thirsty Whale’s request to renew its special amusement permit for three or more musicians with mechanical amplification.

In unfinished business the councilors will likely sign the warrant to pay for the town’s bills as is routine and also discuss a pole and easement at the town’s parking lot at 77 Cottage Street. The pole would be for the new lodging being built across from Jordan’s and next to the Black Friar Inn.

In new business the town will hear:

• A Comprehensive Plan update;

• Jackson Laboratory’s yearly report;

• Discussion about creating a subcommittee to review all the other town committees.

• Councilor Maya Caines and Climate Task Force members’ overview of the Pine Tree Power Company’s proposal, which is to create a new state-wide power company. It is on the state’s November 7 ballot.

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CRUISE SHIP WORKING GROUP UPDATE

At the last Council meeting, Councilors disbanded the Cruise Ship Committee, which was made up of volunteers, town staff, as well as cruise ship professionals. At that same meeting, it approved a Cruise Ship Working Group. The group is made up of town staff and councilors and the town attorney: Council Chair Valerie Peacock and Councilor Joe Minutolo, Harbormaster Chris Wharff, Treasurer Sarah Gilbert, and Town Attorney Stephen Wagner. On Friday, the town issued a press release saying that the working group met on Wednesday, September 27 and “continued the discussion concerning future seasons.”

The public can see updates on the Cruise Ship Information page.

Filings in the APPLL v. Town of Bar Harbor lawsuit are posted under the town’s “latest news” section.

The now disbanded advisory committee required 17 members and specified that its members would be:

• One Town Councilor

• Harbormaster

• Deputy Clerk (not currently listed on members list)

•  Police Chief

• Maritime industry representative

• Two downtown business representatives

• Two residents at large

• One Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce representative

• One representative from Cruise Maine

• One member with “working knowledge of the cruise ship industry in the State of Maine”

• One shore excursion company (that works with cruise ships) representative

• One taxi tour industry (that works with cruise ships) representative

• One representative of an entity that receives cruise ship tenders

• One representative of the scientific community (currently vacant)

• One Acadia National Park representative

The committee was asked not to meet earlier this year after a lawsuit about cruise ship disembarkations. The federal lawsuit occurred after a citizens’ petition changed the number of daily disembarkations to 1,000, imposed a fine for more than that, and put those changes into the town’s land use ordinance. Because of the lawsuit, those changes have not been put into effect.

Town Council Chair Valerie Peacock explained during the meeting that while the federal case against the town’s cruise ship limits is in court, the town is running two parallel threads as it tries to determine how to deal with upcoming seasons in two different scenarios.

In the first scenario, the changes are upheld and the town wins the lawsuit. That would mean that the disembarkation rules limiting cruise ship disembarkations to 1,000 or less a day (without fines) are upheld or partially upheld. Those plans have been discussed in executive sessions because of the litigation, but they expect a draft to be made public in October. Town Attorney Stephen Wagner said it will be a stand-alone ordinance and include updates to the Harbor chapter of the land use ordinance as well as updates to standard operating procedures.

In the second scenario, the town loses the case and the changes are not upheld. If that occurs, the town would continue with the new memorandums of agreement (MOAs) that the town began in 2022. Those MOAs also limited cruise ship visitation, but were not based on passenger disembarkations.

The memorandums of agreement are the town’s agreements with cruise lines about when they can visit and other details. These documents are currently being used as the town waits for the federal court decision.

The current MOAs expire at the end of December and have to be renegotiated, Peacock said. The Cruise Ship Working Group is charged with creating new MOAS.

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LINKS TO LEARN MORE

https://barharborstory.substack.com/p/cruise-ship-committee-is-no-more

The Council packet and agenda is here.

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