Plus, press releases and a link to last night’s Bar Harbor Town Council forum.
May 12, 2026
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by The Witham Family Hotels Charitable Fund.
BAR HARBOR—The Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) released a draft recommendation, May 11, that the commission investigate Bar Harbor’s new water rates.
The draft recommendation comes after a 10-person citizen complaint to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) asking that Bar Harbor’s approved water rate increases be sent back to the town.
Because it’s a draft recommendation, it is not a done deal.
“Although it is in the form of a draft Commission Notice of Investigation, it does not constitute Commission action. Interested persons may file comments or exceptions to this Recommended Decision on or before May 29, 2026,” the draft, which is a publicly available document announces on its first page.
The lead petitioner of the complaint is Charles Sidman, who also led the citizen’s initiative for the town’s cruise ship disembarkation changes and has been involved in multiple appeals and lawsuits since then, including acting beside the town as a defendant-intervenor in a lawsuit filed against the town’s new cruise ship rules. He is currently running for Town Council.
After Town Council action this winter, following a lengthy study, the town’s water rates increased by approximately 35%. The increase occurred after a decade of no changes.
The increase is meant to cover an approximate $1 million budget shortfall for an approved budget of $3.3 million. The current rate results in $2.2 million in revenue.
Those new rates began as of April 1, 2026.
In March, Sidman and nine others requested the PUC to investigate Bar Harbor’s rates and the process of how it achieved them. The group said that the rates favor those who use more water than residents and that they cause economic hardship to “average citizens.”
Sidman’s initial three-page letter details that the complaint is based on the group’s belief that the town has a “harmfully preferential and discriminatory” water rate structure that negatively impacts smaller users of water and benefits larger consumers of the resource. He also argues that the town was not transparent as it proposed the changes to the public and PUC.
The complaint was signed by Sidman, Nathan Young, David Rapkievian, James O’Connell, Jeffrey Miller, Rick Seabury, James Schramm, Mary Jane Whitney, Dee Karnofsky, and Norah O’Brien. Young is also running for Town Council.
Those water rates were approved by the Town Council this winter. Council Vice Chair Maya Caines and David Kief are also running for reelection. Kief had voted against the rate change. Caines voted in favor.
“The Complainants raise two primary issues. First, the Complainants allege that the Division’s rate structure results in rates that are not just and reasonable in that the declining block rate used by the Division results in per unit usage rates that are smaller, for customers with larger meters and, thus, use more water. Second, the Complainants allege a lack of transparency on the part of the Division regarding the recent rate proceeding,” the draft recommendation reads.
While some of the filings, such as a customer notification, contained all the necessary information, the draft states, there was a problem.
Part of the issue that the PUC found was that a legal notice about the rate change’s public hearing did not include language about appealing.
“While the newspaper notice contains information about the rate change and some customer rights, the newspaper notice does not include information about the ability to petition the Commission and the process to submit petitions and request an investigation,” the document states.
It continues that at a February public hearing, “It is the utility’s burden to show that it has met all the public hearing requirements of section 6104. Here, the Commission finds and concludes that based on the filings in Bar Harbor Water Division, Request for Approval of Rate Change, Docket No. 2026-00013 and the information submitted by the Division that the Division failed to comply with the public hearing provisions in section 6104.”
The utility referenced is the Bar Harbor Water Division.
The draft recommendation also “finds and concludes that the Division’s actions with regard to due process are not ‘in any respect unreasonable or unjustly discriminatory’ and declines to open a formal investigation into the Complainants’ due process allegations.”
The draft found other complaint about the rates being included in the yet to be voter-approved town budget to have no statutory basis because the town is not a utility and therefore it does not have jurisdiction.
It concludes “that the Division failed to comply with the customer notice and public hearing requirements of section 6104, specifically, the provisions notifying customers of their ability to file a petition for Commission review.”
It acknowledges Sidman’s lead complainant status.
It also advises, “While the Commission allows non-attorneys to practice before the Commission, the Commission reminds the Lead Complainant and all non-attorneys who participate in this investigation that, as a condition of that practice, they are required ‘to be familiar with [Chapter 110], the Maine Rules of Civil Procedure where applicable, the Maine Rules of Evidence where applicable, and to abide by Maine Rules of Professional Conduct for attorneys . . . .’ Further, the ‘[f]ailure of a non-attorney representative to abide by these rules may result in appropriate sanctions including temporary or permanent bar from appearing in a representative capacity before the Commission.’ Id. The Commission expects parties to treat each other and the Commission respectfully and to engage in a fact and evidence based inquiry.”
In a footnote, it states that Sidman’s discussion of the case in the filings are hyperbolic and ad hominem attacks.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
To read all the submitted documentation, go here.
To read related state law, go here.
RECENT PRESS RELEASES AND BRIEFS
To see all the press releases, click here. To see our news, click here. For the full archive, click here. All of these are on our dedicated website.
BAR HARBOR CANDIDATE FORUM
The video above is last night’s Bar Harbor Town Council Candidate Forum at the Jesup Memorial Library. We’ll have a story about this Wednesday or Thursday. We would have one today, but we’re trying to not send out more than three stories a day and we’re a bit backlogged.
Also, the brief below is an important town release about Eden Street night work.
BAR HARBOR—Alternating one-way traffic on Eden Street at the entrance to the downtown will move from daytime to overnight hours for the rest of this week.
Due to increased daytime traffic, work and one-way traffic will be from 6 p.m. to 4 a.m. May 12-15 (Tuesday night through Friday night).
The impacted section will be fully open during daytime hours through Sunday, May 17 and daytime work with alternating one-way traffic will resume Monday, May 18.
The work is part of the West Street Dry Weather Pump Station Replacement project. Your patience is appreciated. See also and please share the Town of Bar Harbor’s post on Instagram and/or Facebook. Please call (207) 288-4681 with questions.
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