McKenzie Jewett and Ben Harper Head to Select Board.

Shaun Farrar

May 12, 2026

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Viridian Law.

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TREMONT—The voters of Tremont approved a limited deer hunt in its town with a vote of 314-227, Monday.

The town also approved a new public safety building, 332-206.

There were two open seats on the Tremont Select Board and three contenders to fill those seats.

Voters returned McKenzie Jewett to her Select Board seat for another three-year term, and they also elected Ben Harper, who received 318 votes. Mike Reynolds received 167 votes.

Howard “Howdy” Goodwin’s term expired this year and he had chosen not to run again. Vice Chair McKenzie Jewett’s term also expired this year and she was running for reelection.

Patricia Thurlow and Jessica Stewart were both elected to the School Committee, gathering 395 votes and 315 votes respectively.

There was no candidate for the MDI School District Trustee.

A total of 545 ballots were cast in the election.

The open floor portion of town meeting will be tonight, May 12, at 6:30 p.m.

Articles 1-46 will be voted on the Town Meeting floor at the Town Office in the Harvey Kelley Meeting Room. This will be where the town’s budget is decided.

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DEER HUNT

The voters’ approval of the deer management plan culminates over a year of discussion and planning.

On April 3, 2025, Maine House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor) presented a bill, LD 1438, that he was sponsoring to the Committee on Inland Fisheries and Wildlife that would make it legal to hunt deer on Mount Desert Island.

On May 7 at an IFW Committee meeting, the committee unanimously voted that the bill ought not to pass (ONTP), which “killed the bill in committee.”

Since that decision was made, the Tremont Select Board had been refining plans to hold a special deer hunt in Tremont as a way to attempt to reduce the number of deer-involved car crashes, destruction of private property through deer grazing, and instances of Lyme disease in humans.

According to Nathan Webb, wildlife division director of IFW, the present ban on deer hunting was implemented by the 85th Maine Legislature and reference to a closed season on deer on Mount Desert Island (MDI) first appeared in 1931.

All other animals that can be legally hunted in Maine can also currently be hunted on MDI.

The Tremont plan includes the following:

• All hunting will be archery and shotgun only.
• Hunting can only take placed from a fixed position, ground blind or elevated stand.
• Landowners must provide stand locations.
• Only property owners and Tremont residents may hunt.
• Only anterless deer may be taken. An anterless deer is defined by the state as any deer having antlers less than three inches in length as measured from the skull.
• Hunters will be required to register with the town office to prove residency or land ownership and will be given a permission slip which must be shown when tagging a deer at the mandated tagging station.
• The tagging station location will be either Gott’s Store in Southwest Harbor or Hansen’s Outpost in Tremont, location to be decided.
• The special hunt will take place during the month of November beginning with the 2026 hunting season and will last for a total three years.
• All other applicable state hunting rules and guidelines must be followed including shooting distance from dwellings.

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PUBLIC SAFETY BUILDING

Voters also approved a future bond of approximately $2 million to support a new public safety building that is planned to be built in the same area as the town office building and highway department garage.

The estimated construction was tweaked to approximately $6 million by the Select Board in March.

The Public Safety Building Committee is applying for a Congressionally Directed Spending grant through Senator Susan Collins’ office that will hopefully pay for approximately 75% of the new building.