Bar Harbor School and Police Work Together For Kids. Plus, The Bus Bike Begins!
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by First National Wealth Management.
BAR HARBOR—It used to be that students from Conners Emerson would take a YMCA bus to the YMCA if they were participating in afterschool programs there.
That service stopped a few years ago though its return keeps being mentioned as a hope during school board meetings.
Now, the school is working with Officer Elias Burne, the school resource officer and a member of the Bar Harbor Mount Desert Police force to try to promote safety for kids walking from the school’s campus, just on the outskirts of downtown proper to the YMCA on Park Street, the Jesup Memorial Library on Mount Desert Street, and Hannaford Grocery on Cottage Street.
Earlier this month, Officer Burne, Principal Dr. Heather Weir Webster, and School Board Chair Marie Yarborough met to discuss the safest routes to those three destinations.
On an upcoming early release day, the students will walk with Officer Burne to practice and learn about sidewalk safety.
“We will be doing a sidewalk practice to the YMCA,” Dr. Webster told the board members, Monday. “We have more first and second graders walking downtown than we ever have and it’s kind of scary.”
There is a list of worries. The YMCA, Jesup Library, and Hannaford are the top three places students go after school.
There is no crosswalk going along one end of Holland Ave. For students to cross there, it’s dangerous, she said. There’s no crosswalk at Roberts.
Vice Chair Misha Mytar spoke of how the sidewalks on one side of Mount Desert are narrower than the other. Some sight lines aren’t as clean for drivers turning onto main streets. That makes it harder for them to see kids, especially shorter ones.
“We’re really trying to get them to know where the safest place to cross is,” Dr. Webster said.
She has emailed Bar Harbor Public Works Director Bethany Leavitt about additional signage, earlier painting of crosswalks and making it so that bushes are not impeding motorists’ view when pulling out. Leavitt has returned her email and they are looking to make improvements.
“That looks super positive and I’m excited about that,” Dr. Webster said.
Friends crossing and calling to each other from one side of the street can cause more safety concerns and feels riskier.
Board member Tracey Neel asked about speed bumps on Mount Desert Street including removable ones and other potential remediation steps.
“We have to spend a lot of time talking about how they are not going to get hit,” Yarborough said. Having the YMCA picking up the kids again would be the safest way to get the kids to the YMCA.
In late August, the town council passed a resolve to adopt a vision-zero goal for roadway safety.
The concept, introduced by Staff Planner Hailey Bondy at the council’s meeting in early August, commits the town to creating a town-wide plan with a goal of having no traffic fatalities or severe injuries in the next ten years. It is part of the Safe Streets for All initiative, for which the town has received federal support.
The Safe Streets project is meant to make everyone safer in town and is driving forward with a draft plan currently being reviewed by staff and an expectation that the plan will be put before the town council and public and finalized by the estimated December 2025 deadline.
Concerns about sidewalks and street safety have quietly made committee and board discussions, both formal and informal, in the last few years.
Back in January 2023, former Town Manager Kevin Sutherland said that he hoped to create a visual representation of sidewalk repair priorities. Those repairs couldn’t come too soon for Jackie Levesque whose then-92-year-old mother lived at Malvern Belmont and wanted to go to the library independently.
“The bumps in the sidewalks make it hard for her to get her walker over,” Levesque said.
Malvern Belmont is on Mount Desert Street, part of the path that some of the students walk after school.
Sutherland stressed that he wanted equity in care for neighborhoods, which is why he wanted the red-yellow-green priority list for sidewalk use. Those priorities can be determined by seeing what’s high use, the type of use, the need for repair. The public works staff does that evaluation of the sidewalks.
Taking care of the neighborhoods, particularly the areas where the elderly are living, was critical, Sutherland and Levesque agreed, but part of the town’s issue, Sutherland said, was getting contractors to come do the work.
Some of those areas are also the paths that Conners Emerson students take to the YMCA, Jesup, and Hannaford.
On October 17, the school will have its second annual School Safety Day.
“Officer Elias will practice sidewalk safety; we will have fire trucks for our younger students and talk about personal safety with our olders,” Dr. Weir Webster said.
They will also do a school-wide lockdown. In the afternoon, they will have a staff lunch provided by Tina Lunt before breaking off into our smaller groups for the afternoon.
“When we talk about shelter-in-place or have a lockdown it just means we’re in the building whereas when we have a fire drill, we go outside the building,” Dr. Webster said. Part of the drill’s purpose, she said, is making sure the students understand that difference and terminology.
Representatives from the school, Chief Kerns, and other public safety representatives meet to create and update safety protocols for each school each year.
THE BIKE BUS BEGINS!
On Thursday morning, Jeremy Dougherty, a local dad and coach, organized The Bar Harbor Bike Bus. The bike bus is meant to be a weekly event (usually on Wednesdays) where kids gather at the ball fields on Park Street and ride together to the Conners Emerson School, just under a mile away.
“It’s a simple concept and one that has rapidly spread across the country (and world) in the last couple years as communities look for ways to get kids more active, and bring more people together,” Dougherty wrote on his social media page.
In Spain, five years ago, two El Petit Miguel teachers in Vic rode to school with nine students.
The streets weren’t quite like Bar Harbor’s route. They were quite busy. There was a bit of pollution. Then there was a pandemic, but after a hiatus, “BusBici” began and it inspired more local infrastructure for bikers.
In Portland, Oregon, a teacher brings approximately 100 students to school a day.
“I love the idea, the energy, the vibes, the exercise, the cool yellow jackets, smiling faces and of course, all the bikes! Bar Harbor is the exact kind of community where an idea like this thrives and grows into something incredible,” Dougherty wrote.
Sarah March led a Bike Bus from the Northeast Harbor Golf Course on Wednesday to Mount Desert Elementary School, as well, Dougherty said.
According to Momentum Mag, “Beyond the evident physical fitness advantages, such as muscle strength and cardiovascular health, cycling contributes significantly to mental well-being by providing a means to de-stress and enhance mood through the release of endorphins. The cognitive benefits are notable as well, with improved motor skills, problem-solving abilities, and spatial awareness. Social interaction, better concentration in school, traffic safety awareness, reduced screen time, and the potential for instilling a lifelong love for cycling further underline the comprehensive benefits of this simple yet impactful activity for youngsters.”
The Bar Harbor event was supported by the Bar Harbor Bike Shop. Dougherty explained bike safety, not to ride on sidewalks, and making sure your helmet fits, before the group headed out, laughing, smiling, and listening to tunes: together.
Photos: Carrie Jones/Bar Harbor Story
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When I first moved to Bar Harbor in the early 1980’s… when the grade school let out there would be a massive exodus of bikes coming down the hill where the lights are now. It was breathtaking…. like a wave of kids and all their noises at the end of the school day. COA had started using the Kids Corner building as a temporary library and it was such an enjoyable moment to break up any studying. I lamented when it stopped. Of course, it probably got to be dangerous. It was just so joyful to watch!