Southwest Harbor Ponders Limited Paid Parking
Fire Department Gets the Go-Ahead for Training Site
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by First National Bank.
SOUTHWEST HARBOR—At its April 22 meeting, the Southwest Harbor Select Board took a first look at a potential paid parking ordinance that would possibly impact parking at the town’s harbor areas.
Across the island, Bar Harbor already has paid parking in the summer months in its downtown area, using kiosks, which are also recommended in Southwest Harbor’s proposal. Bar Harbor’s rates range from $2.00 per hour to $4.00 per hour and covers a much larger area than Southwest Harbor’s proposal, which focuses on the town docks and harbor areas.
Bar Harbor’s parking fees brought in just over $2 million net in 2022, and then $3.4 million in 2023, and between May 15, 2024 and Oct. 30, 2024, the town brought in approximately $4.1 million.
The potential for paid parking at the harbor sites was brought up by the Southwest Harbor Harbor Committee a few years ago as a deterrent to people taking up spaces for extended periods of time and creating bottlenecks in the areas. It was characterized as more of an enforcement situation than a revenue creator.
Speaking over Zoom, Michael Levesque, resident and planning board member, said it was incredibly unfair to single out the recreational and harbor uses rather than apply fees to the whole town.
“The harbor (committee) asked for this, but you may be quite correct that perhaps it should be townwide,” Select Board Chair Carolyn Ball said.
Levesque advocated it being more fair.
Select board member Noah Burby said it could be a two-phase or more system, beginning at the harbor areas with the potential for expansions.
As currently proposed, it would be for one permit per car with sliding fees for residents compared to non-residents, commercial fishing professionals, and mooring owners.
Fees proposed would generally be doubled for non-residents. Residents who are commercial fishermen, mooring owners, and sternmen of commercial fishermen would be $30 a year, nonresidents would be $60 for multiple areas. The municipal lot would be $5 a day or $250 for a season for residents and $500 for non-residents.
Hourly rates for the upper and lower town dock and Manset town dock’s dirt lot are currently proposed at $2 an hour.
It is just the first draft of the document that is expected to undergo revision, public comment, and vetting. On Tuesday, one member of the community worried about already having to pay a dinghy fee and a mooring fee and now another yearly fee to use the area. Select board member Chapin McFarland suggested residents working in the town not have any fee for the permit. He also suggested that the current parking violation fees were too low and not enough of a deterrent. A similar issue has been brought up in Bar Harbor in reference to its own parking violation fees.
Other discussion included that kiosks rather than meters would be used and that Clark Point Road near the lower town dock often has little parking space turnover because of the ferry and tour boat passengers using spots for multiple hours.
The draft ordinance was passed back to the Harbor Committee for review.
NEW FIREFIGHTER TRAINING SITE
A new ⅔-acre site of town-owned land adjacent to the fire station was approved for a potential training site for the Southwest Harbor Fire Department.
The site would hold a structure that “would be used to conduct a variety of essential training operations, including ladder operations, search and rescue drills, and basic firefighting tactics,” Town Manager Karen Reddersen wrote in her manager’s memo.
There is no cost to taxpayers for the structure, which the Southwest Harbor Fire Association will fund.
Fire Chief Tom Chisholm said, “One of the big shortfalls that we’ve noticed is that bringing anyone off the street and into the fire service requires a substantial amount of training.”
The only structure to train at, unless a property owner volunteers their own, is at the Hancock County Fire Academy on the Ellsworth-Hancock line, off island, and many miles away.
Other fire chiefs on the island have a similar struggle, Chief Chisholm said, and added “It might be a way to bring us all together a little better.”
It wouldn’t be paved or constructed on site, Chief Chisholm said, but there would be an area to set up training props and the structure. It also wouldn’t be a high-volume use area since the department’s trainings are biweekly and all of them would not occur at the site.
The structure would be nestled off in a corner of the location.
Select board member James Vallette asked about chemicals being used in training burns. The only materials that would be burned inside are untreated pallets and hay.
“There would be no other chemicals used,” Chief Chisholm said. They also would use 50 gallons or less of water for each training. The metal nature of the modular structure allows the burns to be better controlled as well.
There are some people who go 5-7 years without being exposed to fires, he said. This sort of training helps volunteers especially become used to dealing with their own personal protection equipment and fire’s nature and their suppression systems and devices.
McFarland said he appreciated the packet of information Chief Chisholm submitted with the project, which he said was informative and cuts down on meeting time and questions.
“It should be the gold standard in my opinion,” McFarland said.
2004 INTERNATIONAL DUMP TRUCK
The select board unanimously approved the highway supervisor’s request to designate the town’s 2004 International Dump Truck as excess property. It will be sold through public auction at the upcoming Spring Equipment and Consignment Auction on April 26, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. through the Central Maine Auction Center.
A Freightliner truck and a recently purchased Ford truck, which serves as the primary Highway Department vehicle, have replaced the International, Reddersen’s memo states.
OFFICER ROULET IS OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL
Officer Kristen Roulet’s appointment as constable was officially confirmed. She has already been sworn in. It was unanimous.
LICENSES AND PERMITS
The board renewed the liquor license and special amusement permit for the Claremont Hotel at 22 Claremont Road. It did the same for The Next Level, which is located at 386 Main Street and granted a new license and permit for Vacationland Coffee Inc., which is located at 11 Apple Lane.
“It’s nice to have another business in town,” Ball said of Vacationland Coffee, which began in Bar Harbor before the new location.
PUBLIC HEARINGS ON ORDINANCES
The select board held public hearings on amendments to the shellfish, 911-addressing, and subdivision ordinances.
The shellfish ordinance change is to comply with the state about junior licenses as a separate category. Children had always been able to dig shellfish in the town, however.
The 911-addressing ordinance “in an ongoing effort to make all the ordinances the same format, we’re just reformatting the 911 ordinance,” Code Enforcement Officer John Larson explained via Zoom.
Larson said, “That is the same. The ordinance hasn’t changed. We’re only changing the format.” It is also adding legislative history onto the document. There was also a tweak about the timing for the board of appeals materials.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
http://www.southwestharbormaine.org/uploads/1/1/7/4/117405999/sb_packet_4.22.25.pdf
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