Carrie Jones

Apr 25, 2026

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Restaurant Barn.

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MOUNT DESERT — Mount Desert voters have a chance to support town officials in multiple uncontested races, Monday, May 4 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Voting on those candidates happens May 4 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the town office meeting room at 21 Sea Street.

The annual town meeting’s budget approval occurs May 5, beginning at 6 p.m. at the Neighborhood House in Northeast Harbor. Dinner, provided by the Community Café is at 5 p.m.

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THE WARRANT

A warrant is just a town document that organizes the town meeting agenda (things that will be discussed and potentially voted on) as well acts as the official and public notification that the meeting and votes will take place.

Each town in the Mount Desert Island region has a warrant at its annual town meeting, which usually comes in two parts and is spread over two days. One day is secret ballot where people vote on elected officials in their town. The other day is an open floor meeting.

The Mount Desert warrant has 68 warrant articles this year and these articles at the open meeting are where voters approve or tweak the town’s budget.

Work on the warrant is done by the town’s volunteer Warrant Committee, staff, and its Selectboard. Phil Lichtenstein and Jerry Miller co-chair the Warrant Committee. Lauren Kuffler is the committee’s secretary.

Town Clerk Claire Woolfolk and her staff then do extensive work preparing the town meeting and warrant to the town and state presentation standards.

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THE BUDGET AND THE AMENDMENTS

The town’s total budget increases almost 6% to $28 million. The town’s municipal budget increases by $903,301. Most of those increases are due to staffing costs.

The taxable portion elementary school budget is roughly a 7.44% increase from last year’s budget. It is currently set at $5.6 million. Much of the increase is due to a debt service payment of the bond approved by voters last year to repair and upgrade the school building. The total budget for the school is $6.49 million.

The taxable portion of the high school budget increases 3.37% or $144,822 to $4.41 million.

The town property owners also have to pay its portion of the county tax of $1.59 million.

The estimated tax rate itself decreases by 3% while the taxable valuation of the town increased by 9%.

Voters will have a chance to decide on multiple articles and land use ordinance tweaks.

Article 52 would appropriate $412,610 from the Harbor’s Marina Enterprise Fund to finance Survey and Engineering Services for the reconstruction of the Northeast Harbor Municipal Wharf.

According to the town warrant, “The Wharf was constructed in the mid 1950’s. Structural analysis performed in 2020 confirmed the design lifespan for the Wharf has been exceeded. The funds will be used to finance the production of design plans, specifications, bid documents, and bid advertisement for the Wharf reconstruction, in addition to providing engineering services for local, State, and Federal permitting for the Wharf reconstruction.”

Other considerations include updates to the Alewife Ordinance, Harbor Ordinance, Road Standards Ordinance, a change in the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals’ rules, and changes to the Subdivision Ordinance as well as a land use district definition: village residential three.

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UNCONTESTED RACES

Selectboard Secretary Geoff Wood chose not to run for reelection. Chair John Macauley is running for reelection and David MacDonald is running for Wood’s seat.

Katherine Dube is running unopposed to be reelected for her seat on the Mount Desert Elementary School Board.

No one filed papers for the two open seats on the MDI High School Board of Trustees. One seat is for a one-year term, the other is for a three-year term.

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LINK TO LEARN MORE

To read the warrant

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