Vettes Show Approved, Tennis & Basketball Courts Work Complete. Parks & Recreation Committee Elects Officers.
BAR HARBOR—Two residents from the Hadley Point area asked the town’s parks and recreation committee, Monday, what was happening with the town’s ordinance for commercial use at Hadley Point Beach.
The beach, referred to as Hadley Point Landing in the town’s ordinances, is one of only two public access boat launch areas with an actual ramp on the eastern side of Bar Harbor.
William “Bill” and Sue Hersey live just a little bit down Bay View Drive from Hadley Point and have been talking to town staff about what they believe is a marked uptick in commercial use of the beach’s water access.
This activity ranged from kayak tours to commercial shellfish farmers offloading, to a construction contractor loading and offloading heavy equipment onto a barge for a construction project on Ironbound Island.
Public Works Director Bethany Leavitt said over Zoom during the meeting that the town has been looking at the ordinance and if there needs to be tweaks.
“It seems to me that there was enough language to prohibit commercialization, which we have been doing,” she said.
They will discuss it at the upcoming parks and recreation committee meeting, likely delving into uses that are allowed, language of the ordinance, and enforcement responsibilities, she said.
“I think we should make that a little more clear at our next meeting, what exactly will be discussed about Hadley Point language” in the ordinance, Leavitt said.
Committee member John Kelly said he wasn’t sure if that was land use enforcement under the Code Enforcement Officer Mike Gurtler’s purview or the police department’s, but when it comes to enforcement?
“I’m clear on the need,” he said.
Leavitt said that if the committee wants to make changes to the ordinance that it could suggest or recommend those changes. The actual change would need to come from planning if it’s going to be a change in the land use ordinance, she said.
Kelly suggested talking to the Police Chief David Kerns about whether he has the tools to prohibit commercial use.
Leavitt said she’d talk to the chief and potentially have him attend the next meeting.
“What we had happening worked,” Leavitt said of earlier issues. “We were able to solve that problem and we had the tools necessary.”
Leavitt added that she could talk to Gurtler and Chief Kerns about if they’d like to see any changes to the ordinances related to the property.
Concrete decking elements of the boat launch at the site had been quantified and shown to FEMA after storm damage. The town met with a contractor last week to get pricing to come through and replace only the elements of the landing pad that FEMA approved.
“Anything above and beyond that would have to come out of a town budget,” Leavitt said.
Repairs also have to be timed with the tide and the concrete pieces have to be made, fabricated, and shipped to the town. She hopes the repairs will occur this fall.
“It will meet the amount that FEMA has agreed to pay for,” Leavitt said of that cost.
She is also aware the road to the beach needs to be paved as well.
“We have a long laundry list of roads that need to be done,” she said.
She is concerned that there might need to be permits issued by DEP to regrade the beach area. The town in the past changed the natural topography there because when it regraded the beach it would move material on the beach from one end to another.
PUBLIC WORKS
The tennis courts and basketball courts have been resurfaced in accordance with the town’s five-year maintenance plan.
“That’s keeping up with the asset we have now,” Leavitt said. “I think the outcome is really good.”
The landing pad for LifeFlight helicopters is nearly complete. In order to make the facility active, the town has to put in a wind sock and energize the lighting and electrical that’s embedded in the pad.
“We’re working on painting the emblem that is required by LifeFlight. It is an ‘H’ in a pattern,” Leavitt said.
Of the timeline for completion, she said, “We’re shooting for the end of this month. A lot of things still have to come together as they always do.”
ELECTIONS
Greg Veilleux and Kelly attended in person. Ann Tikkanen was on Zoom. Erin Cough and Jeff Dobbs did not attend initially. Dobbs had an excused absence for a medical reason, but attended about 12 minutes into the meeting.
Leavitt, who was ill, was on Zoom as was Bruce of Vettes of Coastal Maine, which was sponsored by the Wonder View Inn. Staff and Housing Planner Cali Martinez managed the Zoom for the meeting.
The board members who were there and allowed to vote elected Greg Veilleux to chair the committee. He was nominated by Kelly. There was no other nominations. He was unanimously elected chair.
Veilleux nominated Dobbs as vice chair and Cough as secretary. Each were elected unanimously by Veilleux and Kelly. Tikkanen could not vote, though she represents the MDI YMCA on the committee, because she isn’t a Bar Harbor resident.
VETTES OF COASTAL MAINE
The board approved Vettes of Coastal Maine’s annual car display on the the town’s athletic field from 8:00 a.m., to Noon on Saturday, May 30, 2026.
The group put in its application in June and had a representative that appeared in person at multiple meetings. But, because there had not been a quorum at those past meetings, the group’s application couldn’t be officially approved.
“They have been here,” Veilleux said.
A quorum is the minimum amount of committee members that have to be at a meeting for the town to conduct official business and it’s usually defined in the committee and/or town bylaws.
It’s meant to make sure that there is enough representation and opinion when groups make decisions.
BROWNFIELD PROJECT AT THE MDI YMCA
Tikkanen asked about the timing of the brownfield project at the MDI YMCA where dangerous chemicals, including lead, arsenic and coal ash, had been found in the soil of the property, which is actually owned by the town and used by the YMCA.
Leavitt said the committee wasn’t an appropriate forum for an update on the remediation efforts, but that they did have an update meeting with a representative from the state environmental protection agency. The next step, she said, is to develop the RFP (request for proposal) for the QMP (qualified environmental manager).
“I just feel like I’m last in line,” Tikkanen said of the project. “I can’t think of anything more in the interest of the public than soil remediation.”
Leavitt said she saw it as a public works process not a committee process.
“We have no say or purview” over the YMCA because it isn’t a town park, Kelly said of the committee’s duties.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Feature: The Beauty of the Fields
Coal Ash, Lead, and Arsenic in YMCA Soil
Commercial Uses at Hadley Point Landing Come Under Scrutiny
When Is a Site a Brownfield?
Town Will Apply for EPA Grant to Clean Up Brownfield at MDI YMCA
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