Mount Desert Selectboard Says No To Proposed Fitness Classes on Tennis Courts
Selectboard member urges drivers to slow down, budget reconfigured after losing shared deputy fire chief
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MOUNT DESERT—The Mount Desert Selectboard earlier this week turned down Henry Newhall’s proposal to use the marina parking lot and tennis courts in Northeast Harbor Village Green for fitness classes.
“It’s something I’m really passionate about,” Newhall told the board members.
The town benefits explained in his letter to the board were to expand fitness options within the town and increase community bonds.
The proposal was to use the courts and some parking to hold an equipment trailer from June 21 through August 30, from Monday through Saturday, and from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Newhall had hoped to run three or four classes on the tennis courts in the morning hours and also use 1-2 parking spaces for trailers.
James Bright, a member of the town’s harbor committee, said the proposal hadn’t come before that committee. Though, he said he doesn’t believe the harbormaster or committee is in favor of it.
“The high school would be better,” Bright said of where to hold the class. “We’re maxed down there.”
Putting the fitness class at the high school would take it out of the village and require most attendees to drive there, Newhall said.
“The goal of this would be a lot of walking there in the morning, biking there,” he said.
The proposal is partially because the Neighborhood House doesn’t have a lot of space to host the class.
“I feel like looking into the elementary school would be a much better option for you,” Selectboard Vice Chair Wendy Littlefield said. “That marina is maxed out.”
The Mount Desert Elementary School is a great option, Newhall said when it was suggested, but the high school is a bit harder to work to. He wanted to stress the encouragement to walk and bike to the class to promote fitness.
Public Works Director Brian Henkel said that there are fitness classes that do use the Mount Desert Elementary School and Newhall could reach out to the school for that.
“I think what you’re trying to do is amazing,” Littlefield added.
It was unanimously agreed to not allow the use.
Immediately after that discussion, some members of the public expressed worries about the ice skating rink’s proposed compressors. Brian Henkel said that he’d bring an update on the project onto a future agenda.
Attendees also discussed a potentially different location for the skating rink, where they worried the ice wasn’t consistently good enough and also suggested a covering.
“It seems like the tennis courts are a strange location for it,” one man said. The high school, he suggested, might be a better one.
PLEASE SLOW DOWN, DRIVERS
Selectboard member Martha Dudman wants drivers to slow down.
“People drive too fast in this town,” she said during selectboard member comments. “It’s very dangerous. I walk a lot, especially on Millbrook Road where there’s not a sidewalk. Even the town trucks go whizzing by me.”
She said she’d talked to a community member who worried that on the Jordan Pond Road there was also fast traffic.
“People just drive too fast and I think they should start getting tickets,” Dudman said.
BAR HARBOR AND MOUNT DESERT WILL NO LONGER SHARE DEPUTY FIRE CHIEF
A need for additional support in Bar Harbor’s fire department has led to the two towns no longer sharing a deputy fire chief, a position held by John Lennon.
“We recognized the need for additional support in Bar Harbor’s Fire Department, as having John split time between Bar Harbor and Mount Desert created operational gaps that impacted our staffing flexibility,” Bar Harbor Town Manager James Smith said in an email earlier this week. “We saw this as the most appropriate time to allow this transition to happen.”
The change came after the Mount Desert Fire Department had submitted its proposed budget and required the department to tweak its figures and shift personnel.
“Last week, Bar Harbor Fire Department informed me that as of July 1, 2025, they will be withdrawing from our shared deputy fire chief (DC) agreement. As a result of losing this shared position, I felt it necessary to make some late changes to the fire department operating budget and staffing levels in order to maintain a continuity of operations in delivery emergency medical services (EMS) to the town,” Mount Desert Fire Chief Mike Bender wrote in a memo to the selectboard.
Chief Bender proposed changing the assistant chief position to a new position that would “primarily have administrative responsibilities shared with the fire chief and may be called upon to fill the role of shift officer if an open shift cannot be filled.”
He used funds intended for the deputy chief position, as well as other adjustments, to hold the fire department’s budget to an additional $12,777.00 more than the budget presented January 6. That change creates a 1.69% rise in the overall municipal budget.
“The loss of the deputy chief (who is) running our EMS division is quite a setback,” Bender said. It also required tweaking of other positions.
APPOINTMENTS AND TOWN MEETING
The selectboard appointed Alice Fernald as a paid on-call firefighter for the Mount Desert Fire Department, effective February 4, 2025, at a starting pay of $18.00 an hour.
The board appointed Stephanie Kelley-Reece to the Comprehensive Plan Committee. Noel Musson feels the committee is pretty full, Town Clerk Claire Woolcock said after Kelley-Reece’s appointment.
Bill Ferm will moderate town meeting.
NORTHEAST HARBOR AMBULANCE SERVICE PURCHASE
The board approved a carry-forward of unexpended conditional donation of $20,000 from the Northeast Harbor Ambulance Service for purchase of a Lund University cardiopulmonary assist system.
OTHER BUSINESS
Town Clerk Claire Woolfolk will now be sending in approved liquor license applications to the state’s new digital system.
The board approved the purchase of the solar energy installation on the town garage from Revision Investments in the amount of $105,274. It also authorized drafting and submitting testimony in opposition to LD 32 and LD 257, acts to repeal and eliminate net energy billing.
Net energy billing (NEB) lets municipalities that produce energy (like through a solar energy array) to “save up” produced energy as credits to the town’s meter. That can be used when solar energy production is lower.
“The financial viability of solar energy installations is significantly hampered by the absence of NEB,” Public Works Director Brian Henkel wrote in a January 30 memo to the board.
The board agreed.
BUDGETS PRESENTED
The fiscal year 2026 begins July 1, 2025 and ends on June 30, 2026. It currently recommends the salary increases derived from a salary survey by Zach Harris, who is a human resources officer for the town. The 7.83% salary increase that is requested is partially offset by reducing the general government by 3.1%, according to a December memo from Town Manager Durlin Lunt. That same memo explains that contracted and municipal services section of the budget increased by 27.5% because multiple agency requests were moved out of third-party requests this year and into the section for contracted municipal services.
In January, the warrant committee members briefly spoke about agencies working with memorandums of agreement as opposed to third-party requests and the differences. Those agencies with MOAs become a line item in the administrative budget. Mount Desert Chamber of Commerce, Island Explorer, Neighborhood House, the various Mount Desert libraries, and Great Harbor Museum would be examples of the agencies that are now line items. The warrant committee’s work continued this week.
It’s next meeting is Tuesday, February 11, beginning at 6 p.m. The committee is scheduled to look at the code enforcement budget review and LUZO (land use zoning ordinance) articles.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
FY 26 CIP - General Fund Summary and Detail Budgets
FY 26 General Government/Administration Budgets
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