New Irrigation, Expanding Tournaments, and Park Repairs Shape Recreation Talks.
May 23, 2026
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Thrive Juice Bar & Kitchen.
BAR HARBOR—As youth sports programs expand and town parks see heavy seasonal use, Bar Harbor officials are planning upgrades ranging from ballfield rehabilitation to bathroom repairs and playground improvements.
At its meeting on May 18, Vice President of Acadian Youth Sports (AYS) Andy Shea gave the Parks and Recreation Committee an annual update on AYS.
Shea said that the irrigation system that was installed on the western side fields a few years ago has made a substantial difference in the quality of the grass field and if someone stands in the ballfield parking lot and looks on either side it is very easy to tell which side is irrigated and which is not. That system had been donated by local businessman Stephen Coston.
In fact, the irrigation system has worked so well that the rate of growth for the irrigated grass outpaces the contractual number of mowings. Shea said that AYS representatives recently met with Town Manager James Smith and Public Works Director Bethany Leavitt to discuss the mowing issue, and some other issues, and “are navigating a few of those (issues).”
AYS installed sun shades over the scorers table in April. Shea also said that the town and AYS have an agreement where one entity buys a pallet of field chalk and then the other entity purchases the next pallet and that arrangement has been working out well.
Smith, Leavitt, and AYS representatives have met to talk about fields three, four, and five, the east side fields, and spoken about mutual participation in a project to potentially rehabilitate the east side fields.
The Marty Lyons Tournament is in its 27th year. According to Shea, the tournament has expanded to include girls softball. The softball tournament will take place the week prior to the little league tournament and will start off as a one day tournament until expansion is necessary.
Committee Vice Chair Jeff Dobbs asked if parking was ever an issue and Shea said that it is not much of an issue and that the town police and highway departments work well with them, especially during tournament events.
The one thing Shea said that they would do differently, if the chance ever arises, is to move the snack shack back further to the south so that people who are lined up to order are not in the parking lot area.
PARKS UPDATE
The town is working on creating a master plan for the entirety of the town’s ballfield area and seeking input for planning purposes. Leavitt gave the Parks and Recreation Committee some updates regarding town parks and asked if committee members had questions or input of their own.
“We have hired someone for the seasonal groundskeeper position. This position is to augment the work of the contractors,” Leavitt said, before beginning the parks discussion. “We really look forward to his support in some of those things like Andy was talking about not having enough service compared to the growth rate of the grass.”
This seasonal groundskeeper position is in the upcoming FY26/27 budget which has yet to be approved by voters.
“Given the timing of the season and the operational demands associated with those facilities, the town moved forward with a temporary seasonal hire to address immediate operational needs during the current season,” Smith said, “The upcoming Town Meeting vote relates to whether funding for this seasonal operational position will continue as a recurring seasonal position as part of the FY 27 budget.”
Leavitt said that the ballfields have been very wet so far this year and it is hard to do much until they dry out some. The town is going to come up with an overall maintenance plan but for right now the town is looking at renting equipment, such as an aerator, to help improve the condition of the ballfields that are not maintained by AYS. It will also be filling in some of the low spots in the fields to make them more level.
The tennis and pickleball courts will be getting a new sign up board. As far as painting the additional pickleball courts that were inadvertently left out when the tennis courts were resurfaced in 2025, Leavitt said the town has been working with the company that did the line work but has not been able to firm up a schedule yet.
Immediate improvements to the bathrooms at the ballfields will include sprucing up the exterior to include replacing the two entry doors, repainting, and figuring out how to make the bathrooms ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant.
Dobbs asked if the town had thought about doing anything with the bathroom floors stating that the floors are one of the “grim” aspects of the bathrooms. Leavitt added that to the list of possible improvements.
“I think that making sure that we work with the Y, especially if they are still talking about the athletic center that Ann had mentioned in here,” said Secretary Erin Cough.
The MDI YMCA has been slowly unrolling what could potentially be a $13-million plan to expand and update its Park Street building and offerings.
MDI YMCA CEO & Executive Director Ann Tikkanen, who also sits on the Parks & Recreation Committee, has said that the Y has been working for two years developing ideas to improve and expand the campus.
Cough also asked about the condition of the Park Street Playground, a community funded and volunteer built playground on Park Street in Bar Harbor.
Leavitt said that the town still needs to fix the fence around the perimeter of the playground because when the original fence was installed the company did not use pressure treated wood for the horizontal support of the donor pickets. It is on the list but the department did not have enough staff to get to the work last year and it is still not fully staffed.
When Cough asked if those donor pickets will be put back up, Leavitt replied, “We still have to figure out something for that.”
When the playground was rebuilt, those pickets were part of the Bar Harbor (MDI) Rotary Club’s fundraising efforts. People that purchased a picket were donating money to the playground via those purchases and being recognized as donors via the pickets themselves.
Leavitt said that at the Town Hill playground, the town has placed a trash can near the portable toilet which is in a new, more accessible location, with the hopes that the toilet is more convenient to use and people will not put trash in it.
Member John Kelly asked about the lease for the property that the Town Hill playground resides on and Leavitt said that the lease is up this year and needs to be renewed. Leavitt also said that the leaseholder, Camden National Bank, had been mentioning how people from the playground had been coming into the bank to use the bathroom so the town felt it was a good first step to remedy that potential issue before trying to renew the lease.
Committee Chair Greg Veilleux and member Ann Tikkanen both had excused absences for the May 18 meeting.
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All photos: Shaun Farrar/Carrie Jones/ Bar Harbor Story
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