Parking Kiosks, Hazardous Trees Dominate Southwest Harbor Meeting

Carrie Jones

Mar 30, 2026

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by The Witham Family Hotels Charitable Fund.

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SOUTHWEST HARBOR—Paid parking at three sites in town and hazardous trees took up most of the over two-hour Southwest Harbor Select Board meeting, March 24.

Multiple parking consultants and business representatives attended via Zoom to answer questions as the town honed out its program, which one member of the Harbor Committee stressed wasn’t to earn revenue, but to enforce and monitor parking limits at the three waterfront spaces—Manset Pier, the Upper Town Dock, and Lower Town Dock and potentially a small portion of the Clark Point Road.

“That’s essentially where this has come from. The Harbor Committee has been driving force to the Select Board with this because our three or four areas are congested, they’re hard to monitor, and they’re hard to enforce,” said Harbor Committee Chair Nicholas Madeira. “So that’s our number one focus. It’s not the revenue. We’re not trying to turn this into a money grab.”

The need, he explained, is dire. He gave examples.

“This past summer in Manset Dock, someone took the time to rebuild the front end of their car over a two-week period. It was on jack stands, no tires, and in a similar situation with the Upper Town Dock, there was a car there with flat tires, parked off on the side, no ownership recognized,” Madeira explained. “So people are taking advantage of our town facilities. Those are just two examples, abandoned trailers, things beyond the Harbormaster’s control.”

To have kiosks, the town has to tweak its parking rules; it will have to enforce the spots and determine the costs and levels of permits, what will change and what won’t.

“There’s a lot of moving parts,” Town Manager Karen Reddersen said about the system.

There are hopes to finalize it by the summer season. There may need to be a Select Board meeting devoted to it hammering out specific details.

John Burke has worked with multiple seasonal demand communities.

“You had plenty of unlawful parking” he said of the street by Manset Pier. “Upper Town Lot is your lowest demand lot of the three.”

Members of the public attending worried about impact to recreational boaters at the Upper Town Dock, and the potential of the parking kiosks the town has invested in being outdated in five years because of technology advancements. Others stressed that there really should be something done for fishermen who need a place to park.

The town’s Parking Ordinance, fee schedule and administrative parking management processes will have to be updated and integrated with various departments to accommodate the new program.

“The Harbor Committee will be providing recommendations after their meeting in April. Factors to consider are potential hourly rates, potential paid and unpaid permit holders, and enforcement, among others,” Redderson wrote her in manager’s packet.

She continued, “This discussion will be ongoing so that we can be prepared as a Town, to implement the paid parking system during the busy summer months. It is also important to remember that many towns implement a parking system and make adjustments as necessary once the system is operational.”

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HAZARDOUS TREES

The town’s Conservation Commission presented a draft for how the town would identify and remove hazardous trees.

Kristin Hutchins from the Conservation Commission presented the draft, but said, “I just want to acknowledge that Commission Member Kathryn Strand did most of the heavy lifting on this.”

Part of the issue is the cost of removing hazardous trees.

“I think that the voters give us $2,500 every year to take care of our trees and we go ahead and raise another $10,000 to $15,000,” Hutchins said. “Taking down a tree can be expensive like that big elm. You see when a big tree like that comes down it’s a pretty big deal and $2,500 isn’t going to cover it.”

A hazardous tree is one that is dead or structurally unsound, with severe decay or instability, major cracks or significant leaning, broken or hanging limbs posing imminent risk, diseased or infested in a way that compromises stability, one that’s likely to fail and cause damage or injury per the town’s assessment.

The next step for the draft is for Reddersen to send it to the Maine Municipal Association for review and then return it back to the Conservation Commission for potential tweaks and then back to the Select Board.

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TOWN WARRANT MOTIONS

The Board moved multiple budget items to the town warrant. The town’s voters will approve, or not, the following at the May 4, 2026, Town Meeting.

Revenue

$1,751,330 for (Non-Property Tax Revenues)

$229,202 for (State Revenue Sharing)

$145,000 for (Unassigned Fund Balance Used)

Municipal Operations

$723,893 for (Administration)

$124,477 for (Code Enforcement)

$5,000 for (Boards & Committees)

$841,089 for (Contracted Services)

$52,900 for (Insurance)

$52,395 for (Municipal Buildings)

$404,942 for (Highway Department)

$1,158,395 for (Police Department)

$484,648 for (Dispatch Division)

$397,069 for (Fire Department)

$178,700 for (Harbor)

Community Service Organizations

$75,000 for the (SWH Public Library)

$70,950 for (Harbor House Community Center)

$218,000 for the (SWH-Tremont Nursing Services)

$10,000 for (Downeast Transportation)

$27,374 for (Other Community Service Organizations)

Reserve & CIP Funds

$664,403 for (Reserved & Restricted Funds)

$249,827 for (CIP)

Debt

$1,405,459 for (Debt Service)

Education

$7,077,432 for (Schools Appropriations)

County Tax

$558,580 for (County Tax)

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DOBBS PRODUCTIONS

The Board granted permission to Dobbs Productions, Inc. for the Public Access channel use of Public Access Channels 2 & 1301 on MDI for summer 2026 & winter 2027, to broadcast The Acadia Channel and all MDI TV Public Access related programming.

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TOWN ANNUAL REPORT

The Board was strongly in favor of dedicating the report to Code Enforcement Officer John Larson and in memoriam of bus driver Larry Alley, who both passed this year.

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LINKS TO LEARN MORE

Select Board Packet

Southwest Harbor Moves a Step Forward With Paid Parking.

Carrie Jones

Mar 12

Read full story

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