Steel Tariffs Could Impact New Bar Harbor School Construction
Future of 40 Eden Street, adjacent properties, and lodging moratorium discussed
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by The Witham Family Hotels Charitable Fund.
BAR HARBOR—Tariffs on Canadian steel could potentially increase the cost to the Conners Emerson School rebuild, a multi-million dollar project that voters approved a $58 million bond for in June 2023.
On Tuesday, February 10, President Trump signed a duo of proclamations. Those imposed a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum. The tariffs would be for all countries.
The school project is using steel from Quebec, Canada.
The conversation occurred during the Bar Harbor School Committee’s meeting when Conners Emerson Vice Principal Michael Fournier gave a building update. The foundation work is being completed and some steel beams will be up shortly.
Superintendent Mike Zboray said that the construction company the school is using, Wright Ryan has a contract with a company in Quebec that is fabricating the steel for the build. He’s unsure if there will be a tariff on it and hopes to find more information this week about if this will impact the project.
The New York Times has reported “no exclusions to the tariffs for American companies that rely on foreign steel and aluminum will be allowed.”
The project broke ground in November 2024.
In June 2023, Bar Harbor voters passed a $58 million bond to rebuild the ailing schools and support the town’s K-8 population. Broken boilers, rain inundation, a wall pulling away from the foundation, poor air exchanges, limited classroom space, and a lack of insulation are just some of the buildings’ recent problems.
The bond passed 1,005 to 502.
According to the project’s website, “The cost of building a new structure is projected to be 2.49% more than renovation.”
During the February 10 meeting, Chair Lilea Simis said she felt stymied in her efforts to fundraise for the school. The committee decided to direct Zboray to talk to Town Manager James Smith about efforts to find a fundraising consultant or similar position funded by the school’s refunded building permit fees. Hotelier and former town councilor Stephen Coston gave a $100,000 gift this summer and some other smaller gifts have trickled in.
LODGING MORATORIUM
Also during the meeting, Simis said that during the town council meeting where it enacted the lodging moratorium, she asked for the opportunity for the school committee (herself or another member) to sit at the table during the moratorium discussions.
“Hopefully, they are going to take that time seriously to really think about all the different things to be addressed all over the town,” she said of the 180-day pause for all lodging construction and expansion throughout town.
“The council approved extending the moratorium for another 180 days. The chair spoke quite eloquently, I thought, about the areas we’re going to be involved in. Things like density issues downtown, things like building height, whether or not some forms of lodging should be allowed close to schools, those sorts of issues,” Planning Board Chair Millard Dority told planning board members at the board’s February 5 meeting.
The moratorium began as an emergency moratorium (after two prior attempts) after plans to develop 40 Eden Street as a lodging surfaced this fall.
“In fact, many folks in town feel that the prevention of the 40 Eden Street proposal is the primary reason for the moratorium. Despite the council chair's repeated suggestions that this process/conversation is not supposed to be punitive or personal, Pathmaker was referred to by one councilor last night as a ‘behemoth,’ and our businesses were once again generally blamed for all the Town's alleged crises be they water, traffic, etc.,” Coston said the day after the moratorium was enacted.
“The council has made it very clear they don't care about the facts as they continuously ignore all of the erroneous whereases in their documents while simultaneously refusing to acknowledge that 40 Eden was reduced from 30 rooms to 25 and thus meets the new lodging standards that just passed in November, could be constructed in a way in which no windows face the school, that I have offered to pay for additional sidewalk, additional fencing, and additional trees on the school property, and that the proposal includes as much housing as currently exists on the site—three apartments now, three apartments in the proposal,” Coston added.
In response to a question about if the project was moving forward, he said, “In a town where moving the goal posts every other Tuesday has become something of a municipal pastime, no, I don't have a lot of enthusiasm about pursuing a project they're looking to stifle anyway, which would lead me to entertain letting the 40 Eden parcel go.”
During Monday’s school committee meeting, Simis said that it was important for the community to know that the committee is talking about zoning around the school and are concerned about any potential buildings at properties adjacent to the school.
“All the things around us had been the same for so long,” Simis said, so it didn’t occur to them when developing the new school plan that those things could change. “I think it’s a really important issue for us to talk about—as a school board—what happens adjacent to our elementary school campus.”
Committee member Misha Mytar mentioned that there are town planning board workshops that will be scheduled around the issues. Dority said that those workshops—expressly meant for the board to work on the moratorium—will likely be scheduled today, February 11. They will be open to the public.
Mytar said, and others agreed, that it was important for the school committee to track the process to ensure members knew when they had an opportunity to participate.
PTSA UPDATE VIA TIGERTALK
CLYNK for Classrooms!
Introducing our "CLYNK for Classrooms!" PTSA program! It’s an easy way to support our school while recycling for our planet! Here's how it works:
- Sign up on this CLYNK for Classrooms! order form to receive pre-tagged CLYNK bags.
- Pre-tagged CLYNK bags will be delivered to your student at school (via their homeroom teacher's school mailbox).
- Fill the CLYNK bags with returnable cans & bottles and return them to your closest CLYNK receptacle at Hannaford.
- The funds raised will be used for various CES PTSA events to support teachers, staff, students, and community!
For more information & instructions for CLYNK recycling, visit www.clynk.com. Thank you for your support, and thank you to homeroom teachers for their help with this program! CLYNK for Classrooms! order form.
HOW TO DONATE TO THE SCHOOL
If you would like to support the school rebuild, you can write a check payable to the Town of Bar Harbor and mail it to Sarah Gilbert, Treasurer, 93 Cottage Street, Bar Harbor, ME 04609.
Questions can be sent to Gilbert here.
Questions can also be sent to Simis here.
If you’d like to donate to help support us, you can, but no pressure! Just click here (about how you can give) or here (a direct link), which is the same as the button below.
If you’d like to sponsor the Bar Harbor Story, you can! Learn more here.
Over priced to start with now this? Raise the parking rates!
Tariffs or no tariffs, build with native wood. It has a proven lifespan of centuries. Leave exposed beams and wood paneled walls...much warmer and more pleasing an environment than steel and drywall. Hire local artisans, craftsmen home-builders, even shipwrights. Contract with Maine lumberyards. Good for Maine's employment and economy.
Make the school a monument to education that MDI can be proud of; make it a symbol of Mainers' hardiness and independence. Allow the building itself to begin educating the children; teaching strong Maine values.