Board also honors trail volunteer Cliff Olson, approves school climate grant, and authorizes salt purchase and new public works vehicle.
Jun 03, 2026
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Restaurant Barn.
MOUNT DESERT—A new assistant fire chief is officially coming to Mount Desert.
Kyle Stewart is on his way from Utah and will begin working for the town, June 8. The town has also hired John Wells as a full-time firefighter/EMT beginning June 2.
Stewart will come in to meet the board.
The board also confirmed Korey Kinney as buildings and grounds custodian. Kinney begins June 15.
Fire Chief Michael Bender announced his retirement this February. He expects his last day to be November 2, 2026.
Stewart retired from West Valley City Fire Department in 2025.
”Kyle was hired in the summer of 2005, after spending time at Ogden City Fire. Kyle attended paramedic school in 2007 at Weber State University. Throughout his career he prided himself on his extensive emergency medical knowledge and was able to help pass this on to the many junior paramedics who rotated through his stations over the years,” according to the West Valley City Fire Department’s social media.
GRANT APPROVED
The Selectboard approved that the town submit a grant on behalf of A Climate to Thrive (ACTT) and the Green Schools Working Group (GSWG).
“In 2025, A Climate to Thrive (ACTT) and the Green Schools Working Group (GSWG) developed a climate resolution entitled AOS 91 Won’t Wait which was unanimously passed by the school board. This resolution commits the AOS to carbon neutrality by 2030 and carbon negativity by 2050. The resolution also states that AOS 91 will integrate opportunities for comprehensive climate education throughout every school in the AOS. This policy resolved to officially create a Green Schools Working Group to craft a strategic plan and to assist with implementing priority projects to meet these goals. This grant application funds the following two priority strategy areas within the developing Strategic Plan,” according to a document included in the Selectboard’s packet.
The plan calls for two tasks. One is an energy audit for the schools in the district and one is support for eco-teams and climate curriculum implementation.
Both tasks are expected to cost approximately $32,000.
APPOINTMENTS
The board members appointed Dennis Shubert to the Investment Committee and Michael Ellis to the Warrant Committee.
SPIRIT OF AMERICA PLAQUE
Cliff Olson’s Spirit of America plaque has arrived and was convivially given to his wife, Kathy.
The award was officially announced during the Mount Desert Town Meeting at the Neighborhood House in May.
“The work that you both put in on those trails, I appreciate every day,” Martha Dudman said, June 1.
Kathy Olson said, “It wasn’t really work. It was a pleasure to do it. I miss my partner and being his sherpa.”
The award was given posthumously. The couple had celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary last year.
That award is called the Spirit of America. It’s a tribute and a celebration of people who go above and beyond.
“Volunteers are really the difference between a good town and a great town,” Kimball had said at the May meeting.
A Mount Desert man got it in his mind to improve the network of trails that in some areas of Northeast Harbor were barely traceable between the village and Lower Hadlock.
Cliff and Kathy then spent years and years and years pulling together friends, staff and volunteers from various organizations (Friends of Acadia, Acadia National Park, the Land and Garden Preserve, the village improvement society) to bring those trails back from mere whisperings of paths to real trails again, places to jaunt and places to meander, places to find peace.
“Cliff was my guidance counselor at the high school,” Vice Chair Wendy Littlefield said.
Olson thanked them all for the award.
LEAGUE OF TOWNS MEETING
Littlefield would like to lower the age of students serving on committees for non-elected positions after attending a League of Towns meeting where encouraging civic involvement was mentioned.
If a lobsterman at the high school is under 18, she’d encourage them to be on the Harbor Committee. That committee, according to Selectboard member Rodney King, already has a wait list, but maybe they could have junior members.
“They can go to the meeting, but I think it would be really exciting to have them join the committee,” Littlefield said.
She hoped that they could discuss changing the requirements to encourage more high school students to do civic duties.
Littlefield said it was a great elected officials meeting that the town was well represented at.
UTILITY POLES
The Selectboard approved multiple utility permit requests from Versant Power for utility pole replacements on Hall Quarry Road and Indian Point Road. Those were approved.
The conversation moved to how previous poles are owned by Consolidated and not taken away from Versant. This means that two poles might be situated close together.
“There is a broader conversation” that needs to happen, Town Manager Alex Kimball said about that sort of situation.
“It’s a mess,” Selectboard member Martha Dudman said.
“Invariably when you see that, it’s not Versant,” Kimball said.
It’s been three years, he said, since the town has checked on all the poles that Versant has placed. It was a bit like a treasure hunt finding them all, he added.
SALT BIDS AND NEW MULTI-USE VEHICLE
The board approved purchasing 1,700 tons of salt at a purchase price of $76.06 per ton.
The contract is with New England Salt. The company was the lowest bidder in a League of Towns (LOT) collective salt bid process. Ellsworth sent out those bids.
Three were returned: Morton Salt, Inc at $94.18 per ton, Eastern Salt Co at $91.00 per ton, and New England Salt at $76.06 per ton.
It is unknown if it will arrive before or after the new salt shed is built. The salt will be delivered to the highway garage.
According to an email from Public Works Director Brian Henkel, “New England Salt was also the lowest bidder for the Towns’ salt purchase this current fiscal year. That purchase was completed through the State of Maine Bureau of Purchases bid process. While the State bid process is still open, at least one of the respondents to the LoT bid request, Eastern Salt, stated that the current LOT bid price is void should a town accept the State bid.”
The board also approved $175,626 for outfitting a 2025 International Navistar multi-use vehicle.
Henkel said he’d like to keep one of those in the cycle of public works’ vehicles. This is the first the town owns.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/PZi9495jpAY?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0
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