Southwest Harbor Accepts $2 Million for Its Public Works Garage
Modifies Chris' Pond easement, appoints Officer Graham, moves to four-day work week in June
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Edward Jones Financial Advisor: Elise N. Frank.
SOUTHWEST HARBOR—The town officially accepted a $2,415,000 Community Facilities (CDS) Grant for its public works garage off the Seal Cove Road during its Tuesday night select board meeting. The reward requires a match of $805,000. The total cost of the project is $3,220,000. That town match has to be approved by town vote.
That vote might occur in August or September via a special meeting. It will likely go out to bid in June and go out to a bid for a month and hopefully go out for a fall bond timeframe. A vote in 2020 to spend just under $2 million for the garage’s repair failed by nine votes.
There is a timeframe of three years for the town to use the fund after the select board’s acceptance.
Town Manager Karen Reddersen received recent confirmation of approval and obligation from the USDA loan specialist for the noted project, which was awarded March 13.
The plans began being developed in 2006. Soil remediation and other issues have occurred since then. In 2020, Southwest Harbor residents rejected an Oliver Associates’ $1.9 million plan by nine votes. Since then, the town received a $2.41 million congressionally directed spending (CDS) grant. This came through Senator Angus King’s office and will be used for the facility.
There is another grant opportunity for the improvements on Wood Street. That grant application will be made by Oliver Associates. Water tends to run down that street.
“This protects for the long term the work that we’ve completed along the Main Street project,” Vice Chair Natasha Johnson said.
APPOINTMENTS
The town’s select board confirmed the appointment of Charles “Rick” Graham as the town’s new police officer. He is getting re-certified.
“He was here years ago, you may remember him. He worked in Bar Harbor,” Southwest Harbor Police Chief John Hall said.
Chief Hall said Graham was a great addition.
The Maine Criminal Justice Academy can’t finalize new officer Kristin Roulet’s paperwork until Friday. She and her family have moved to Tremont and are settling in.
“We’re very glad to have her onboard,” Chief Hall said.
The department will be up and running this weekend with a full crew.
Reddersen also introduced Aaron Zurek, the interim water and sewer district supervisor.
Zurek has worked in Southwest Harbor for 2.5 years. He previously worked in Castine and Ellsworth.
WARRANT APPROVED AND LEGAL ACCOUNTS
Reddersen asked the select board to review the legal and accounting reserve budget line for the upcoming fiscal year 2026 budget.
The select board members indicated that though there will be upcoming union contract negotiations that they did not wish to increase the amount allocated in the budget. The three-year average for legal expenses from that account is $42,000 a year.
The town approved the warrant for town meeting with some small tweaks.
CHRIS’S POND
The select board signed an amended conservation easement and related documents that involve approximately three acres by Chris’s Pond. The pond hosts skating and other winter recreational activities.
“The boundaries haven’t changed for those three acres,” Assistant Director of Land Protection with Maine Coast Heritage Trust Misha Mytar said.
However, Mytar had contacted Reddersen to indicate the Trust’s willingness and intent to donate the approximate 2.8 acres of easement. It does not include a piece close to Main Street. A small rectangle of nearby land isn’t traditional conservation land and is not included in the easement though the trust intends to donate that land to the town.
“The Conservation Commission Chair and Town Manager reviewed the property and support the proposed donation,” Reddersen wrote.
In May 2023, Southwest Harbor voters authorized the board to accept the gift of land “to be used in conjunction with Chris’s Pond public park, with such boundaries, and on such terms and conditions, as the Select Board deems to be in the best interest of Town.”
In August that same year, the board authorized the acceptance of that land to the town, which Reddersen wrote “clarifies the boundaries and gives authorization to receive the land donation.”
The pond was initially created in 1860 when it was dug out for an ice delivery system and business. An ice business existed at the site for approximately 90 years. It was owned by Christopher Wendell Lawler from 1921 to 1947. The pond was drained in 1939 to put out a large fire in town. In 1947, transients started a fire in the ice barn, burning down the barn and everything within it. This was the end of the business.
It was sold to another man who owned it for just about a decade. That owner sold it to the town, asking that it be called Uncle Bill’s Pond with a provision that it be used for skating with night lighting installed. In March 4, 1957 it was acquired at town meeting. For 30 years, people skated and took care of the surface. It hosted hockey programs throughout the 1970s.
In 1987, people blocked a proposal for a parking lot at the site. The town voted down a plan the next year that would have drained the pond for that lot.
In 1995, a group at Pemetic Elementary School called the “Problem Solvers” worked with Maine Coast Heritage Trust to put a conservation easement on the pond. That same year, the eighth grade class built the warming hut. The entire school came out to watch the hut moved from the school to the pond.
EMERALD ASH BORER
The board also briefly discussed the state’s quarantine of wood on Mount Desert Island due to the discovery of emerald ash borer in trees in Town Hill.
Maine State Forester Patty Cormier officially shared the news about the emerald ash borer, April 1. The Maine Forest Service (MFS) Forest Health and Monitoring Division confirmed that the emerald ash borer (EAB) is on Mount Desert Island (MDI) and it’s not in an area that had been regulated before.
The larvae of the borer eat the ash tree bark’s inner layer. This is the same layer that brings nutrients and waters to the leaves. Untreated trees gradually die when the bark layer is damaged and have roughly a two percent chance of survival.
“Is there anything we can do with signage or something warning people not to bring firewood from home?” select board member James Vallette asked.
Board member Noah Burby asked that there be a DOT sign that states that it’s state law that you can’t bring in firewood.
“It’s assumed that there might be pockets of it here,” Burby said. “It’s a matter of time.”
There is now a quarantine of all ash tree material except for ash chips. The quarantined tree material cannot be transported off the island, but must stay on-site or at MDI-based disposal facilities. This is meant to slow the borer’s spread to other areas.
The ash borer was first found in Maine in 2018. According to a research report from Bartlett Tree Experts, it was first found in Michigan in 2002. It is not native to the continent and arrived via solid wood packing material from Asia.
FOUR-DAY WORK WEEK
After much discussion and an anonymous survey of staff, the select board agreed to run a trial of a four-day work week from June 1 through December 31 for town office staff. The office will be open from 7:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. open for public operation.
It would also reduce overtime for staff when they have to stay for evening meetings, Town Clerk Jennifer LaHaye said.
“This is something that allows flexibility for our existing team,” Reddersen said, stressing that everyone on the staff has gone above and beyond and has been since she arrived, “We’ve got a great team and everybody’s working hard and working to that capacity of hours and then sometimes there’s extra things.”
More than 48 towns and cities in Maine have established four-day work weeks.
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