VIA Seeks Partnership With Town To Rebuild Beloved Wading Pool
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Acadia Psychiatry.
BAR HARBOR—The rehabilitation of the Glen Mary Pool is in a bit of a holding pattern as the town looks over a new amped-down version of the pool’s potential revamp.
“It’s been over a two-year process,” David Witham, representing the Bar Harbor Village Improvement Association (VIA) said. “I want everyone to trust that it’s been a very active process.”
That said, rising costs, other needs (such as the rehabilitation of the Shore Path) and the complications of the project, which involves VIA land and a town lease, has made it slow going.
The wading pool at Glen Mary Park (located on 7.5 acres off Glen Mary Road and Waldron Road) was last upgraded in 2009 and by 2022 was no longer waterproof thanks to multiple broken PVC and black pipes beneath it and is in need of repairs.
When the 2022 closure was announced, residents expressed their concerns about both the lack of a place for young families to socialize as well as a safe and shallow place for so many kids to learn how to swim, sharing personal anecdotes of how they learned to swim there or how their children or grandchildren did as well. They also expressed displeasure that the wading pool had deteriorated so much that such a shut-down occurred.
The Village Improvement Association has been leasing the pool and surrounding woodland park to the town since 1995 and 2014 respectively. The lease for the pool expired in 2024 and its renegotiation was one of the components needed to move forward.
“We’re not where we had hoped to be,” Witham told the council, October 21.
The VIA members are, however, still optimistic that they can recreate Glen Mary.
“We’re committed emotionally, mentally, physically and financially. So, we’re all in,” Witham said of the volunteer organization.
But how to pay for it, will there be grants available to help, and is the project’s newest iteration viable are questions the VIA has been trying to explore. Now the VIA, with over 100 years of helping create and preserve many of Bar Harbor’s public places, is hoping to see what the town government is looking toward, too.
“The success of this project is going to hinge on the VIA and the town’s partnership. This truly is a partnership. The VIA can’t do it alone and the town can’t do it alone,” Witham said.
Everyone has the same goal of a refurbished and open Glen Mary Pool, Witham said, the decisions now are how to achieve that. So, the VIA is looking to the council and town for direction.
“The VIA is committed to this product. We’re excited about it,” Witham said.
However, he said, mentioning the school bond and costly town infrastructure projects as well as rising construction costs “the timing to be here couldn’t be worse.”
The original concept was too expensive, so the VIA went back to the drawing board. He passed out a flyer to councilors that depicted the new iteration of the plan.
Witham also said that the plan is beholden to state and local codes. The splash area is very shallow with low bubbling features that a two-year old can run their hand through. The pool size was decreased by more than 60%, Witham believes.
“It’s greatly scaled back,” Witham said. “We’re almost at the point where if we get even smaller why even have a pool.”
“There’s a lot of history there. There’s a lot of memories there,” Witham said of the site, and that generational feel to it is something that the VIA wants to keep going for Bar Harbor residents.
The Bar Harbor Town Council had given a general nod for the approval of the conceptual layout for the return of the Glen Mary Wading Pool during a meeting in July 2024.
”I feel like we should clap!” one woman yelled from the audience after that 2024 presentation from Lark Studios.
The system’s 2009 upgrade was before Public Works Director Bethany Leavitt’s time in Bar Harbor. When Town Manager James Smith was hired in fall of 2023, the process of redesigning the pool was already underway.
The town has traditionally performed the maintenance on the property as long as there is open access to the public. The VIA has worked on the design.
There have been hundreds of hours of meetings about the pool. The VIA has spent $130,000 on engineer fees, design fees, Witham said.
However, at $5 million, the last plans were deemed too costly by the VIA. A scaled-down design is still likely to cost approximately $3.2-3.6 million. The VIA has asked if the town could be a potential financial partner.
Witham said the VIA, which just completed the rebuilding of the Shore Path and fundraised for that after the devastating January 2024 storms, is committed to fundraising for $1 million to help the build as well as adding additional funds. The hope is that the town would pay for the other half, an estimated $1.6 million.
That didn’t sit well with Barbara Dunphey. During public comment, she thanked Witham and Andy Shea, who was also representing the VIA.
“We seem to blue sky everything about (sic) a project,” she said. “We are bleeding our residents to the point where they are not going to be able able to live here. Me included,” she said.
Dunphey was concerned about what capital costs might be coming to the town and what the operating dollars would be. She suggested looking at the minimal amount to make the project happen and then adding bells and whistles.
“I hope we’re all here and not having to leave, find other homes, move. It’s just terrible to see this, month after month and year after year,” she said.
Through the VIA, Wright-Ryan has done value engineering on the newest version of the Glen Mary Pool project.
The pool would still be shallow with a maximum depth of three feet. There would also be ramps on the side for ADA accessibility. There are no changes to parking.
The new plan has no skating in the winter and a limited splash area. Instead, the VIA suggested looking at creating skating opportunities at the ball fields off Park Street, which has been a historical use of that site.
Others from the Glen Mary neighborhood spoke to their hopes that the project will be quiet and simple.
Ellen Grover appreciated that the scaled-down version understands that the park is in a residential area.
Grover said, “There are many of us who live there who really care about it who have taken care of that area for many, many years, if not decades.”
She said the whole community was upset when the pool and skating area was closed and met with the town many times.
“We’re a simple community, a simple park,” Grover said. “It doesn’t have to be fancy. It doesn’t have to be anything other than a local gathering place.”
She also stressed that the area not be for tourists or be advertised.
Smith wants to make sure that simple rehabilitation isn’t a potential option. The VIA is open to having another contractor come in to make apples-to-apples comparisons, representatives said. That could potentially take 4-6 weeks.
Smith thanked the VIA and Lark Studios for all the work that has been done. Part of that discussion with the outside contractor is because he just wants to loop off any questions about if there could just be a simple rehabilitation of the site.
“We owe that to the public,” he said.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Town Council Packet for the meeting
Glen Mary Wading Pool Plan Is a Splash
Nobody Has Ever Said Let’s “Get Rid of Glen Mary”
Village Improvement Association Unveils Glen Mary Pool Concept
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