Plus, a lot of briefs.
May 20, 2026
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by The Witham Family Hotels Charitable Fund.
SOUTHWEST HARBOR—Melanie Lisy and Kalie Hess, two newly elected members of the Select Board, had their first taste of board governance, May 12.
One of the the many things they joined the board in deciding was electing Dan Norwood as the new chair and Natasha Johnson as the vice chair.
In the audience were past Select Board members Chapin McFarland and Carolyn Ball.
Ball has said she’d continue to help the board with the language of the town’s parking ordinance, which she created a red-line document with all the board’s past changes and a draft document for readability.
Because the changes impact waterfront areas, the Harbor Committee was involved in the process.
“The Harbor Committee spent some additional time going through additional recommendations. They provided that and they had some additional discussion on that. So that’s in your packet as well. And then we did receive some information from Andrew Blanchard at Hamilton Marine,” explained Town Manager Karen Reddersen.
The changes to the town’s parking ordinance were passed. It basically creates maximum limits of three hours in certain areas with the goal to support local businesses, as well as a tiered permit system for year-round employees.
The board had previously motioned to implement permit fees of $20 per year for commercial fishermen, sternmen, mooring owners, dinghy permit holders, Greenings Island residents, and commercial users. They are not required to purchase a permit if they don’t need one. There is one spot per mooring.
Similarly, the previous board had approved $50 for long-term marine parking per day at Manset and the Upper Town Dock.
Another motion approved a permit fee of $10 per day for overnight inn and rental shoreside accommodation parking.
Another motion had established the metered hourly operations from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at $3 an hour. There would be no cost for the first 15-minutes. Kiosks would provide an English language text receipt. French and Spanish for all services will also be offered at the kiosks.
People could pre-pay for up to two hours so someone could prepay for 6 a.m. if they were in the spot at 4 a.m. The board also spoke about how year-round business permits would be required to submit proof of employment.
There will be no fees for the July Fourth holiday.
LICENSES AND PERMITS
The town renewed the Claremont Hotel’s liquor license and special amusement permit.
The Lindenwood Inn’s liquor license was postponed based on the state statue because James King had been the sole owner and no heir has been identified at this time to take over. The current application is effective until July 15. The state can also grant an extension for the inn.
Eat-A-Pita/Café 2’s liquor license was renewed. Vacationland Coffee also had a special amusement permit renewed.
APPOINTMENTS AND NOMINATIONS.
New Select Board member Hess asked about how members of boards were vetted and discussed.
Though it was not on the agenda, the board made a motion for the town manager to look into it for a future agenda item.
Adam Babbitt was reappointed to the Board of Appeals.
Matt Caldwell and Jeremy Fry were appointed as assessors for the town.
Kristin Hutchins, Kathleen Lindquist, and Kathleen Slack were reappointed to the Conservation Commission.
Katharine N. Walton, Joan Terry, Julie Fernald, and David Scull were reappointed to the Historic Cemetery Committee.
George Jellison Jr. was reappointed to the Shellfish Committee.
Town Manager Karen Reddersen asked board members for nominees for the Maine Municipal Association’s 2026-2028 Legislative Policy Committee. The board took no action.
HARBOR FLOATS AWARD
The town had received three bids for its harbor floats project.
In a memo from Harbormaster Robert Leavitt, he wrote, “Following review, it is the recommendation of the Harbormaster Office to award the project to N.F. Luce, Inc., as the lowest responsive bidder meeting the project specifications and schedule requirements.”
The project received a MaineDOT SHIP matching fund grant appropriation in the amount of $100,000. Another $100k is from the town’s reserves and an additional $28.6k comes from the Manset CIP account.
The total project cost was $228,600.
TOWN MEETING DISCUSSION
The board members also spoke toward the town’s budget growth approved this year. They spoke to the school costs as well as what members deemed insufficient federal reimbursement for the Coast Guard base.
The board will also re-institute a pre-Town Meeting Q&A session and explore potential quarterly “chat with the Select Board” events to help improve public engagement.
RECENT PRESS RELEASES AND BRIEFS
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