Officials Aim to Strengthen Ties After Parking Discussion

Carrie Jones

Jun 25, 2026

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by the Bar Harbor Historical Society.

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SOUTHWEST HARBOR—Tension and worries between the town and the Coast Guard base over the town’s new paid parking program at the Lower Town Dock bubbled out during the Select Board meeting, June 23.

The tension was about parking, contined into the cost of trash services, and then moved toward agreement that the town and Coast Guard would meet again to try to workshop through some issues and try to make a better partnership.

The discussion began during Town Manager Karen Reddersen’s Parking Management Program report.



”All of the changes that you voted on were made,” Reddersen said and there are no new changes currently.

The program is expected to begin next month. There could be delays related to equipment, Redderson cautioned.

The vendors are currently building that system. There were no additional recommendations from the Harbor Committee for this Select Board meeting about any changes to the program.

However, the Coast Guard’s Kevin Grickis wanted to know if the Coast Guard, as a year-round employer with over 10 full-time employees (It has 80 in the town.) would be able to purchase permits in accordance with the ordinance, which allows businesses to purchase up to 20 and use up to five at any time.

The Coast Guard base is in the direct vicinity of one of the new waterfront paid parking areas. The base itself, Grickis explained, does not have enough spaces for its employees.

“I would say that would have to be taken up the next time we review the ordinance, is my gut instinct on that, because I don’t think that we had talked about governmental agencies,” Vice Chair Natasha Johnson said. “I know that as far as businesses, we were concerned mainly about local businesses and not looking at governmental agencies under the classification of a business.”

“That’s not what it states in here,” Grickis said. “I’m just trying to find out, because I have a bunch of employees that live on base that make $1,500 a month, and we’re going to talk about charging them however much it’s going to cost to park a vehicle.”

Johnson asked what the Coast Guard’s contingency plan would be. “Do you have one?”

“So the question is, if you start enforcing this and we no longer have the ability to park overflow outside of the gate as we have for the last 60 years, you’re screwing us,” Grickis responded.

“So. I would say that part of the conversation that we had down in that area is trying to ease the congestion, is trying to free up those parking spots so that they roll over more frequently,” Johnson said.

Johnson spoke about long-term parking being free and available in other town long-term lots, characterizing some of those lots as an approximate 10-minute walk from the base.

“So, have our search and rescue crews park a mile away from their boats?” Grickis asked.

“Or give them priority parking on your base and have others that aren’t on the search and rescue park from the street,” Johnson answered.

Grickis also worried about permits for special events held on the base. Those mass permits for special events can be granted by the town manager or police chief.

“And then my final question, is there a way to include the Coast Guard in these conversations in the future?” he asked.

During the conversation, Grickis had said he’d reached out to the town and was not responded to.

“You were not ignored,” Town Manager Karen Reddersen stressed later in the meeting.

“I’m sorry this has become contentious,” Grickis said.

Other moments of contention, but also spaces for future collaboration and change, occurred when Johnson spoke about what she described as more meaningful interactions between the Coast Guard and community while she was growing up and then James Vallette spoke to the cost of the Coast Guard’s use of the town’s transfer station.

“How do we become part of this community?” Grickis asked.

“I would love for you to be more involved in our community. I’ve grown up here so far to this date,” Johnson said. “And over my years of growing up here, I have seen the Coast Guard so involved in our community. You guys were the backbone of being able to work with our youth that were here. You were in town doing different projects with them; you were working with the Harbor House out one-on-one almost with kids because there were so many guys or people showing up from the Coast Guard that were helping out doing that haunted house and the hayride and doing your open house at the base and inviting youth to come down and go fishing off your dock and teaching them how to do different things like that. There’s been so many really cool projects that you guys have done.”

One of those things, she cited, was Coast Guard staff volunteering on the area’s ambulances and for the Southwest Harbor Fire Department.

“When growing up here, you guys were always the first people that responded in town, in my recollection. And it was amazing. I remember growing up here seeing you guys as so much of the fabric of our town. And as I have become older, I have seen less participation in the Coast Guard within our community,” Johnson said. “And I would love for you guys to bring that back and be as participatory as you have been in the previous.”

“Every year we cook breakfast at Flamingo Fest, we do the open house at Flamingo Fest, we’re part of every parade that happens, you know, kind of like there’s a little bit of resentment toward the Coast Guard based on the comments and unwillingness to, like, help us out with these new ordinances,” Grickis said.

Parties mentioned working more cooperatively in the future, perhaps having the Coast Guard change of command (which happens generally every four years for commanders) have a more of a passing on about how the town works and opportunities for interaction (for example attending the town’s Harbor Committee’s monthly open and public meetings).

Ryan Donague, a member of the Harbor Committee, said that Coast Guard members have not attended those meetings, but that they could and should.

Johnson recommended setting up a workshop with the commander to have a general conversation “on how to become better partners within our municipality and our community, so we all feel heard, we all get anything that needs to be discussed out in the open,” she said. “I would personally love that, and I would like to see that relationship grow and become stronger as a partnership within our community.”

The changes to the town’s parking ordinance were passed by the Select Board in May. It’s been worked on and consistently discussed for more than a year.

The program 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.

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All photos: BHS file photos.

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