Lunt named interim town manager after retirement, with formal search underway.
Aug 19, 2025
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by the Bar Harbor Music Festival.
MOUNT DESERT—Working with the Mount Desert Chamber of Commerce, the Mount Desert Selectboard has approved a letter to send to restaurants and retailers asking the businesses to voluntarily stop selling products containing hemp-derived THC.
“We need to really start making a stand,” Chair John Macauley said during the quick 12-minute meeting that was mostly business with a tiny mix of teasing, August 18.
The Chamber will distribute the letter, which asks retailers and restaurants to cooperate voluntarily about the distribution of products containing hemp-derived tetrahydrocannabionol (THC).
“The Mount Desert Selectboard believes that the well-being of our residents and visitors is paramount. We are asking you to join us in a proactive effort to protect our community by voluntarily refraining from selling any products that contain intoxicating hemp-derived THC,” the letter reads. “We believe this is a crucial step to prevent unintended intoxication, especially among young people, and to ensure that all products sold in our town meet the highest standards of safety and responsibility.”
Currently, people can go to a convenience store, bar, or restaurant in Hancock County and buy a drink that contains hemp-derived Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
The intoxicating products aren’t currently regulated, which is worrying some town officials in the region, particularly in Southwest Harbor and Mount Desert.
The sale of intoxicating hemp-derived drinks and gummies and other products could potentially be paused under a moratorium in multiple MDI towns with Mount Desert and Southwest Harbor leading the way.
Town Manager Durlin Lunt had said at another meeting in early August that the state legislature can only approach regulation of the products once it reconvenes in January 2026.
“It flew under the radar,” Selectboard Secretary Geoff Wood told fellow selectboard members at that same meeting. “It’s not regulated. People are buying it by mistake at gas stations.”
Maine LD 1920, an act prohibiting the sales of potentially intoxicating hemp products to persons under the age of 21, was passed by the state legislature this session. However, there are no state regulations about the sale of the intoxicating products to those over 21.
For Mount Desert to have a moratorium on the sale of the products, it requires a town vote. Town meeting is not until May 2026. The general election is in November.
The select board seemed to have consensus for a special town meeting as soon as possible. For that to happen, there has to first be a draft ordinance, which the League of Towns is working on. The League is a group of government administrators from Mount Desert Island region towns and Ellsworth who typically meet monthly to discuss regional issues.
Southwest Harbor, August 12, placed an ordinance on a moratorium on tobacco stores on the November 4 ballot and moved forward with another measure on that would ban (if approved by voters) potentially intoxicating hemp-derived products with chemically derived THC.
DURLIN LUNT APPOINTED INTERIM TOWN MANAGER
Town Manager Durlin Lunt, who is set to retire on August 31, was appointed as the interim town manager as the town searches for his replacement.
“I’m assuming it will be a rather brief resurrection,” Lunt said.
The board also reminded the community that Durlin Lunt’s retirement party was set for Friday at the Neighborhood House in Northeast Harbor, August 22, at 4 p.m.
Under the agreement, Lunt would work three full days during the week with a pay rate of $575 a day with a cap of $2,875 a week unless the board declares a state of emergency which would require extra hours. He begins September 2.
“So much for retirement, yeah?” Rodney King, board member, joked.
Board member Martha Dudman then teased, “Okay, the party’s is off.”
According to a memo, sent by Lunt to the selectboard in early August, the agreement is “severable by either party with or without cause, by providing 24 hours notice.”
“Every day a manager makes decisions that will impact the direction of their community. Three of the most difficult decisions I have made are to write, send, and request to have this letter accepted by your board. Mount Desert has always been dear to me. It is my home and hopefully will always be so,” Lunt wrote in his resignation letter in February.
In June, Macauley said, that the selectboard will use the Maine Municipal Association for the search for a new town manager.
“It’s going to cost us about $6,600 for this,” Macauley had said.
OTHER BUSINESS
The board accepted a gift of $250 from the Gilbert & Ildiko Butler Family Foundation to the Mount Desert Fire Department and another gift of $100 from Joan Welles and Brett Geeanen in memory of Stuart Burr.
It also accepted two conditional gifts from William C. Trimble Jr. to the Mount Desert Fire Department. Each were $1,000 and the first supports EMS operations. The second supports fire operations.
The town also accepted an $11,480 bid from Kelley and Sons Small Excavation for portable restroom installation work at the Seal Cove comfort stations.
It also reimbursed Kimball Terrace Inn of $797.50 for sewer cleaning services. According to an August 14 from Public Works Director Brian Henkel, two town manholes at the property had accumulated “significant debris,” which caused a wastewater backup in the inn’s laundry room. One manhole was in a deck near the property’s restaurant. Another was in the lawn by the gazebo on the property. The town had believed those were privately owned and part of a private system.
The town researched and found that the manhole by the gazebo was part of the town’s public wastewater collection system. The board agreed to share the cost, which had already been paid by the Kimball Terrace Inn. The $797.50 represents half to the total to remedy the problem.
The board also approved annual ticket sales agreements with Allen Associates and Beal & Bunker as well as accepting into the record the Downeast Community Partners partnership with Aroostook County Action Program Statement.
Noel Musson’s follow up on the April League of Towns elected officials meeting was postponed.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
“It’s Not Okay”
Durlin Lunt Will Retire This August
Mount Desert Does Not Send Committee’s Letter to MDI Hospital
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