Trenton Select Board Supports Non-Profits, Fills Seats (and Potholes), and Approves Improvements to Its Butterfly Garden
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Ironbound Restaurant – Inn – Gatherings.
TRENTON—At its June 24 meeting, the Trenton Select Board divvied up its voter approved nonprofit spending allotment of $26,905 for nonprofit public service agencies. The select board only entertained giving money to agencies that sent in a written request and those agencies are listed below with the requested amount listed first followed by the amount decided upon and approved by the select board.
Friends in Action - $0.00 - $2,000
Downeast Horizons - $1,000 - $1,000
WIC - $1,150 - $1,150
Eastern Area on Aging - $1,100 - $1,100
Northern Light Home Health Care - $500 - $500
Ellsworth Public Library - $9,504 - $3,000
Bar Harbor Food Pantry - $3,500 - $4,000
Hospice of Hancock County - $1,500 - $1,500
Loaves & Fisheries - $4,000 - $4,000
Life Flight of Maine - $800 - $800
Trenton Grange - $1,500 - $2,855
Ellsworth Free Medical Clinic - $1,500 - $3000
Families First Community Center - $500 - $500
Mount Desert Nursing Association - $3,000 - $500
Fishermen’s Association - $1,500 - $500
Sweetster Mental Health Recovery - $250 - $500
The original Ellsworth Public Library ask of $9,504 was for a direct contribution to the library. The $3,000 that the select board obligated does not go to the library but goes into the town’s fund to reimburse residents that have to pay the library’s $30 library card fee.
The ask for $1,500 by the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) was the biggest receiver of debate. One select board member said that they had checked the state’s lobster fishermen’s license database and found that there are 16 licensed lobstermen that reside in Trenton.
NEFSA has drawn previous debate during at least one town meeting in the Acadia region when due to voter sentiment a $5,000 request made by the organization was removed at the Mount Desert annual town meeting. At that meeting, Gail Marshall defined NEFSA as a political action group.
There was similar sentiment among audience members during the Trenton Select Board meeting.
NEFSA’s Director of Development Dustin Colson was at the select board meeting via Zoom and said that NEFSA is not a lobbying group but rather an advocacy group that was started by, is run by, and is operated by commercial fisherman who represent all fishermen.
Colson also said that the primary use of this money is to advocate for the fisherman in a community and that NEFSA spends a lot of time performing this advocacy in front of both state and federal bodies of government.
The remarks regarding the use of funding was in response to a statement made by an attendee that after doing research, they found that approximately 75% of the money NEFSA raises is spent on the organization’s salaries, primarily paying the people occupying the top two leadership positions.
Colson justified this by saying that these people need to earn a living wage and took a big loss in income when they gave up fishing for a living to run the advocacy group.
One audience member asked Colson what the organization has done directly for the people of Trenton.
To this question, Colson talked about how the group had advocated for fishermen in the recent fight against the proposed Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's proposed increase in the size of a legal lobster by 1/16 of an inch.
Colson said that Maine’s Department of Marine Resources commissioner was on board to support this change but after NEFSA intervened and presented “flawed data that did not represent what fishermen are seeing on the water,” the commissioner withdrew his support of compliance.
Select board member Judy Sproule said that she would like to go on record that she is not comfortable allocating our money to an organization that does not provide direct services.
NEFSA has been supporting thier generation of fisherman for all of these years and she was in support of giving them the $1,500, board member Susan Sargent said.
An audience member did make a comment in support of NEFSA and said that the organization’s impact goes beyond just fishermen and without that base level of support of fishermen, the repercussions would expand to lobster pounds, transporters, buyers and sellers, and restaurants.
In the end, their was an initial informal vote to see how the select board members would likely vote on the $1,500 ask. Member John Bennett abstained because he holds a lobster fishing license. Select Board Chair Fred Erhlenbach and Sproule both said that they would not approve. Danielle Cole and Sargent both said that they would approve.
After all of the conversation and distribution of money, with some groups getting more than they had requested, the board decided, as a majority, that they would give NEFSA $500.
COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS
The appointments of the following people for the listed positions were unanimously approved by the select board as one “as listed” vote.
For the position of animal control officer (ACO), the town does not have its own ACO but utilizes the county’s ACO who is Daniel McKay. Daniel can be reached by cell phone at (207) 460-0623 or by email at hancockaco@hancockcountymaine.gov.
Henry Muise - road commissioner
Animal Control Officer – Hancock County ACO
John Bennett - E 911 addressing officer
John Bennett - local health officer
Angie Chamberlain- CEO, LPI, sign control officer
Steve Heckman - fire chief
Kevin Hallett - assistant fire chief
John Bennett - harbormaster
Martha Higgins - representative to Acadia Disposal District
RJD Associates (Rob Duplisea) - assessor
Charles Swanson - surveyor of wood, bark, and lumber
Floyd Ober - fence viewer
Ann Luther - solid waste committee
Christina Heiniger - solid waste committee
Maggie Harling - solid waste committee
Michael Gilmartin - solid waste committee
Ed Meadows - solid waste committee
Martha Higgins - solid waste committee
Jamie Abbott - deputy treasurer, deputy tax collector
BUTTERFLY GARDEN
One audience member who wished to make some information public started to speak and was asked to come to the microphone.
“I am not dressed for this,” she said to chuckles.
But she did come up to the microphone and informed everyone at that Emily and Leroy Muise had donated a bench to the butterfly garden. She also said that Hammond Lumber also donated a bench to the butterfly garden so now there are places to sit and relax.
Another audience member asked permission to install a Little Free Library at the butterfly garden. Cole asked if there would be an issue, as far as liability, regarding the pond at the site, if the town continues to make the butterfly garden a more attractive place with a sitting area for people to hang out.
Ehrlenbach said that the pond is previously existing and it has never been an issue before when the town’s insurer, Maine Municipal Association, comes to visit for its regular insurance checks and updates.
The Little Free Library was unanimously approved.
Trenton Days and the Butterfly Festival will be this Saturday, June 28 from 9 to 2 at the Trenton Elementary School.
OTHER BUSINESS
Pothole Filling Bid Request
The town had put out a request for proposals (RFP) seeking bids to patch potholes on the Goose
Cove Road and Industrial Way and specified that it would prefer hot patch rather than cold patch. There was only one company that returned a bid.
Rings Paving submitted a bid for $27,200 and it was unanimously approved.
Fire Chief’s Update
Fire Chief Steve Heckman said that he and Assistant Fire Chief Kevin Hallett attended the Maine Fire Chiefs meeting in Bar Harbor and learned about a potential new change to construction codes that is being proposed by a state legislator, LD 1829. This change, if passed, would allow the addition of an extra 14 feet in height above any local height restrictions.
This potential legislation only applies to affordable housing. On May 27, 2025, it was voted “ought to pass” by the Committee on Housing and Economic Development.
Chief Heckman also said that the ladder truck had come back to the town on June 24 and that the weekend previous to the select board meeting, the fire department had held its first pancake breakfast fundraiser.
Quitclaim Deed
The select board also unanimously approved a quitclaim deed.
The next meeting of the Trenton Select Board is scheduled for July 7, 2025, at 7 p.m., at the town office.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's
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