Town Recently Removed One Message Downtown.
May 28, 2026
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Coastal Kayaking Tours and Acadia Bike.
BAR HARBOR—Earlier this month, the Bar Harbor Public Works Department scrubbed the sidewalk at the corner of Main Street and Cottage Street, the site of some political messaging that had been on the sidewalk for a while.
The Facebook chatter was hot and furious prior to the message’s scrubbing. Was it chalk? Was it paint? Was it a mixture? Was it legal?
Most of the commenters stressed that it wasn’t the message that they were upset about, but that the message seemed too permanent to be temporary. Some said that if the message had been promoting a business or something else, it would have been erased by the town much more quickly.
The town has ordinances that do and don’t allow certain things such as only certain signs allowed, and so on. Those ordinances are typically—but not always—covered by the town’s code enforcement office. Some are covered by the police department.
What the town’s code doesn’t have is an explicit ordinance against chalking or chalk painting its sidewalks or roads.
Annlinn Kruger, a Bar Harbor activist, has been putting messages on sidewalks in Bar Harbor as well as Mount Desert since 2022. Most of her messaging has focused on conservative activist Leonard Leo, who lives in Mount Desert and has been in charge of multiple campaigns to install conservative Supreme Court justices. He purchased his Northeast Harbor home in 2018 and has been the co-chair of the Federalist Society.
Leo’s home was also where a Bar Harbor man had been arrested while protesting. That arrest resulted in a case against two police officers, which was settled. Protests there have been ongoing. Another local woman has trespassed on the property multiple times.
In 2022, a Mount Desert Police Officer had told Kruger that she could potentially face a criminal mischief charge for her messaging on the street. Later, Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Police Chief David Kerns—who was then a captain—asked officers to not charge Kruger or others for leaving messages on public property because of their right to freedom of speech.
Kruger said, “I do my chalk messaging to bring attention to issues that I think are of significant concern to us all.”
She tries to provide clear messages which people can further explore for themselves, she explained.
Kruger emphasized a quote by Marie A. Failinger in which Failinger says, ”By contrast, whether they are chalk art or chalk political messages, chalk drawings on sidewalks communicate ideas, ideas which those who walk over them might find offensive or unsettling. And, when chalking is done in conjunction with a protest that already seems to unsettle people’s everyday habits, such as the protests in Occupy Minneapolis, such a benign practice may seem particularly unsettling. That is to say, chalking might do precisely what the First Amendment expects of the use of public property: it might talk to citizens about our most pressing problems and help citizens decide how they should use their fundamental rights for the betterment of our culture. To prevent the use of this commonly employed medium of expression, to arrest people for drawing in chalk on a sidewalk, evidences an underlying contempt for the value of speech that finds no harbor in Supreme Court jurisprudence.”
The removal by the town’s public works department has nothing to do with the content of the message, Chief Kerns explained, May 28.
The town, he said, has recognized the chalk paint doesn’t seem to be as temporary as it was in the past.
Kruger explained some of the process of marking the letters on the sidewalk and why she believes products like Goof Off, used by the town, don’t work.
“Goof Off is formulated to remove oil from concrete. I worry a bit about the town putting toxic chemicals in the bay. And also their damaging the concrete. I think their efforts at the corner of Cottage and Main have made the concrete more porous—so the chalk particles penetrate deeper,” Kruger said. “It is not the first time the town has used toxic solvents to try to remove my chalk. It is not surprising that they are not effective; there is no oil in my chalk paint.”
She said that people have asserted that there is, but those assertions aren’t true.
“I have always and only used chalk and water solutions, which have evolved over the years. I have experimented with additives such as methyl cellulose which helps disperse the chalk particles evenly in the water and zinc oxide powder which makes the solution more opaque,” she said.
She added that she has some background in materials science.
“My goal is to achieve a chalk paint with staying power. One variable is the color chalk; some colors are worn away more easily than others. Another is the particular sidewalk: the same chalk paint can have greater or lesser staying power on different types of concrete,” she said. “There are no MDI town specifications which define marking materials as permanent or temporary. The closest we come to defining temporary paint, that I know of, are the Rust-Oleum products Bar Harbor and Mount Desert uses for temporary markings. These paints have much stronger/longer staying power than my chalk paint. I have read through the Maine DOT guidelines and could not find specifications for temporary paint. People may believe my chalk paint has more staying power than it actually does; it takes maintenance.”
Kruger was spotted refreshing the message in Bar Harbor just prior to its removal.
She said that she’s previously reached out to Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Police Chief David Kerns about some threats.
“I have a right to share my message in chalk paint on the public sidewalk. Others have the right to share their opinion with me and on social media. There are of course, safety limits. I have never asked for police protection or police action, but about the law and about police protocols,” she said. “In this context, Chief Kerns recently reached out to me. We will continue our conversation. We have spoken over the years. Chief Kerns has always been diligent in the police mission to protect public safety by enforcing the law. He, and Chief Willis before him, have always honored the Constitution, Maine Criminal Code, and local codes while respecting my First Amendment rights. Despite—from what I have observed—pressure by a small number of residents and some town officials to use the police to enforce their personal agendas, rather than the law. Their attitude can be summed up by one recent comment, ‘Our town council lawyer said it was ok … f***k that.’”
Her messaging in Northeast Harbor has often been hosed away by Leonard Leo staff members, she said. Similarly, she said sometimes staff near the harbor have hosed it away.
Most of her chalking, however, is in Bar Harbor. The latest message was at the corner of Main Street and Cottage Street by the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce’s visitor center.
“When I first started my chalk paint messaging, then Town Manager (Kevin) Sutherland and the united Town Council who supported him, seemed intent on diverting town resources to erase my chalk paint messages. It was rather a game of cat and mouse, with town staff even following me around in a truck, hauling out buckets of water. I understand they also used paint remover and some sweeper machinery,” she said. “That stopped for a couple of years, but evidently the town is at it again. I have never found out who actually makes it a priority and how much it costs the town. Then Town Councilor Gary Friedmann pretty much summed it up as ‘we have not answered her questions, we are not answering her questions, and we will never answer her questions.’”
Currently, Kruger has just one active site because it’s early in the season, she’s busy with volunteering.
“I am testing out a new chalk paint and a new message honoring the nation’s 250th anniversary and those who founded and defended it. I only chalk on public sidewalks. After an early misstep, I make it a point to stay away from sidewalks in front of private homes and businesses. (Except for messaging related to the one time Hands Off protest.) I try to pick sites with a lot of foot traffic. Primarily I get a lot of thumbs up and expressions of gratitude from residents and tourists. Many people are happy to share their stories of activism. It is very heartening. Especially when people come back and say they’ve been inspired to look up more information on their own,” she said.
Chief Kerns said that he’ll meet with Kruger before more messages are written and set up parameters about the ease of the messages’ removal.
Kruger said, “We each have something we can do to try to make things better. MDI has an abundance of remarkable activists with amazing abilities. I am just a gadfly—with some chalk, and the Constitution.”
Unless otherwise cited, all photos and video: Shaun Farrar/Bar Harbor Story
TOWN NEWS PAGE FLASH: Fertilizer, Weed/Grub/Fire Ant Applications on Town Parks
Posted on May 28, 2026
BAR HARBOR—Green Thumb Lawn Service will be applying fertilizer, weed and grub control during the early morning hours of Friday, May 29, 2026 (weather permitting), to the following areas: Athletic Field, Village Green, Agamont Park, Grant Park, Barker Park and the Town Hill Playground.
Fire ant control will be applied at the Park Street Playground, the Town Hill Playground, and at Hadley Point Landing.
Signage will indicate timeframe and any precautions that need to be taken in those areas. Product labels and Safety Data Sheet (SDS) information are available upon request. Please call the Highway Division Office at 288-4681 with any questions.
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