Diane L. Vreeland. Charles Sidman.

Carrie Jones

Oct 26, 2025

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY

We always welcome letter submissions to The Bar Harbor Story.

For details on our policy, please visit our about page and scroll down or just visit here.

As with all newspapers, the beliefs, opinions, and viewpoints expressed by the writers of letters to the editor and included here do not necessarily reflect the beliefs, opinions, and viewpoints or official policies of The Bar Harbor Story. Similarly, we do not fact check those beliefs, opinions, or viewpoints that are espoused in letters to the editor.

We do not have an exclusive submission policy. That means if your letter is published here, it is fine by us if it’s also published in other places and vice versa.

All the past letters to the editor can be found on the Substack site here.

---

Community Feedback Survey: Town Hill Affordable Workforce Housing Project

Before answering this survey, it would be a good idea to learn what the make up of this 55-acre parcel contains before giving comments.

After much reading we have learned that this parcel has not been disturbed for several decades and contains:

• 10 freshwater wetland areas
• 5 streams
• 10 vernal pools and one of significant being
• 2 indicator breeding areas
• large designated critical wildlife habitat area
• 3 species of bats that are protected

So, before trying to max out this delicate area, let’s see how many homes we actually need. Understanding that this project is island wide, let’s make a plan and have each individual community send out a questionnaire to residents who would be interested in affordable workforce housing and get prequalified. Let’s ask them and not us what they would like to see for their homes. Do they or their families want cluster homes or do they want to build on two acres like the other two developments across the street? Some individuals or a young couple just starting out may only be able to start out with a tiny home and the town can have parameters to follow as far as no weekly rentals and how to continue the affordability when selling. We definitely want to have year round families with diverse backgrounds and no seasonal housing.

Let’s understand the extent of collaboration with developers and other towns, as stated. We definitely do not want the town to get involved as developers and how is the cost going to be shared with the other towns? At the moment it appears that Bar Harbor and Friends of Acadia are footing the bill. Let’s set up a fair and equitable arrangement for all participants.

Ourselves and others that we have talked to can not and do not want to subsidize this project. People have also stated we don’t need another trail to maintain in this new neighborhood. What is desperately needed are sidewalks. Sidewalks are safe, make a community and connect people together.

Let’s make this attractive and safe for our new neighbors. Let’s avoid a long road with one entrance, which is not safe. All of this can be achieved with thoughtful and careful planning and respect for our natural resources and the wildlife that live there. We don’t want to see any mores bears killed, and if this is not all possible, then we definitely should not be destroying this sensitive area—period.

Diane L. Vreeland

Town Hill property owner,

---

“Crying Wolf and the Big Lie”

The Bar Harbor Story’s subtitle of its recent article on APPLL’s and the Pilots’ latest brief in their ongoing legal appeal of the town’s new cruise ship limitations, namely, “Groups Say Bar Harbor’s Cruise Cap Doesn’t Ease Crowds, Just Hurts Commerce,” accurately summarizes these plaintiffs’ ongoing “Crying Wolf” and resort to the “Big Lie.”

In fact and reality, while total numbers as assessed by the Park show undiminished visitation to our region, the crowds in downtown Bar Harbor are much more evenly spaced and distributed from early morning to late at night (by avoiding the crush of cruise ship passengers mid-day and negating the plaintiffs’ cavils about a comfortable schedule of cruise shuttle disembarkations.) Residents from across MDI and non-local visitors alike (and we personally speak to over 10,000 of these each year in our downtown business and other local establishments) have commented repeatedly on how much better the town feels on days without cruise passenger crushes. We citizens look forward to further reductions when the last of the grandfathered large ships no longer disembark freely.

More quantitatively, Maine State sales tax figures show that June, July and August of 2025 (the latest figures so far released) have been the best of each of these months ever for Bar Harbor, and the most recent (August) was Bar Harbor’s best month in history for business (i.e. sales tax) totally and in each of the component lodging, restaurant and merchandise subcategories. Many enterprises are having excellent or even record years in 2025. So much for APPLL’s non-stop but here-proven false Crying Wolf that cruise ships and their passengers are essential, or even significant, for Bar Harbor’s economic vitality; commerce is NOT being hurt by our new and long-sought cruise ship limitations! Can anyone doubt that APPLL’s and the Pilots’ Big Lie represents looking out for themselves but dressed up and presented (falsely) as concern for business or resident welfare in general? Some devotion to Local Livelihoods indeed!

Net:net, crowds in Bar Harbor’s downtown have indeed been eased by being spread out, and commerce has been demonstrably reinvigorated rather than hurt, by and under the current cruise limit ordinance. APPLL and the Pilots continue to cost the town as a whole significant time and money with their unworthy and unproductive resistance (which may indeed be recognized in terms of future reputation and patronage) to the will of the citizens. Further, there is a continuing strain in our officialdom that is addicted to unending process and “compromise” (again, consistent with APPLL’s and the Pilots’ legal speculations and complaints that alternative or voluntary approaches to managing cruise visitation should be possible) rather than actual results, whereas the voters have finally, repeatedly and clearly acted after 30 years of not being listened to. Isn’t it time to move onward, with prosperity for most trumping exploitation by and benefit for the few?

Charles Sidman

(long-term resident of Bar Harbor and lawsuit defendant intervenor)