The Selectboard also addressed a $121,000 funding shortfall for the Jordan Pond Road sewer project, concerns about trash at the town garage.

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Viridian Law.

---

MOUNT DESERT—The town’s Selectboard spoke to beginning work on potential short-term rental registration or regulation and of the future of a full police department merger with Bar Harbor.

During the Monday meeting, Selectboard member Martha Dudman suggested that the town start looking into short-term rental regulation again.

In May 2024, by a vote of 134 to 72, Mount Desert voters rejected legislation to license short-term rentals, seasonal rentals, and vacation rentals.

“I know that this legislation is intended to create more housing for more people, but it could backfire,” Dudman said.

She’s not against people renting pieces of their own home or the home in its entirety if it’s their primary residence.

“That’s an old tradition in our town and I think it’s one that should continue,” she said.

Instead, she is worried about people using housing as investments, she said.

She said Mount Desert should take stock of who owns rentals currently and how many there are.

“We can’t stop there. We need to put some guardrails in place so our town doesn’t turn into a ghost town,” she said.

“I agree 100%,” another Selectboard member said.

Bar Harbor adopted a short-term rental ordinance in 2021. It categorizes rentals as primary residences of owners who are renting and non-primary residences. The short-term rentals that are not owner occupied as primary residences are capped.

Trenton, Tremont, Ellsworth, and Southwest Harbor have all spoken about potential short-term rental registration or regulation in the last month.

On May 13, 2024, Tremont voters had decided not to support a proposed short-term rental (STR) licensing ordinance by two votes, with 118 yes votes and 120 no votes.

LD 2173, An Act to Update the Laws Regarding Housing Developments and Accessory Dwelling Units was approved by Governor Janet Mills and enacted on April 16, 2026, and gives Maine municipalities until July 1, 2027 to come into compliance.

LD 2173 amends and clarifies portions of LD 1829, An Act to Build Housing for Maine Families and Attract Workers to Maine Businesses by Amending the Laws Governing Housing Density. LD 1829 was approved by Governor Mills and enacted on June 20, 2025.

The worry for many is that towns with no governing ordinance in place for STRs are susceptible to unfettered and potentially enormous growth in short-term rental units.

LD 2173 requires municipalities to allow three dwelling units on a lot “in which residential uses are allowed” or four dwelling units on a lot that is “in a designated growth area, as identified in a comprehensive plan.”

---

POLICE MERGER DISCUSSION AND HIRING OF OFFICER

Also at the Monday night meeting, instead of hiring its own police officer directly, Mount Desert agreed for Bar Harbor to hire a police officer who would be assigned to Mount Desert.

The cost of the officer would be billed to Mount Desert by Bar Harbor.

“This is occurring because as we draw very close to the date at which the Mount Desert police department and dispatch become Bar Harbor employees, it will occasionally make more sense to simply have the employee start off with Bar Harbor, rather than changing employees in less than a year,” Town Manager Alex Kimball said in an August 10 letter to the Selectboard.

It’s a “one-off” Kimball explained, August 17. “This is a more experienced person.”

Talks of a full police merger have been known to the public since a joint workshop of the Mount Desert Selectboard and Bar Harbor Town Council in July 2025, where the two towns began exploring whether combining departments could create cost or coverage advantages.

“And this is a great example of where as we draw closer to the date at which we truly merge, you may see us making more and more decisions like this,” Kimball said. “And the way I put it is we are acting under the assumption that this is going to work and that we are going to merge because we’ve seen nothing um that would cause us to feel otherwise in terms of the dealings with the police force the way it’s working between the two towns and mostly just how successfully this police force is running right now. So we really have two paths. We can either assume and and make assumptions like this as if it’s going to occur or we can go the opposite direction. And I think going the opposite direction and acting as if it’s not going to work isn’t really fair to employees (or) to anyone.”

The trickiest part, Kimball said, if the merger goes through is moving current employees over.

“I think it’s a good move,” Selectboard member Rodney King said.

Operationally, Kimball said, residents of either town would not see any difference.

A proposal written by Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Police Chief David Kerns in June 2025 details a plan to fully integrate all police and dispatch personnel under Bar Harbor’s administration while maintaining existing service levels in both communities.

”This proposal outlines the full integration of all police and dispatch personnel under the Town of Bar Harbor’s administration while maintaining existing service levels for both communities. The objective is to streamline administrative functions, eliminate duplication, and create a unified personnel and management structure without altering service delivery,” the document begins.

The departments have been sharing some services for more than a decade. The proposal now is that the organizational sharing deepens.

“We wish to continue the evolution of the police sharing agreement. As you know, it began with the chief, expanded to patrol zones. Same marked police vehicles, common uniforms and badges,” former Town Manager Durlin Lunt had said in 2025 prior to current Town Manager Alex Kimball’s arrival “Last year all command officers were placed in one department. This made sense operationally as well as ensuring that they were paid the same wages and benefits which could be a bone of contention otherwise. We would like to discuss if this should now apply to the patrol officers as well.”

Since 2013, the towns have shared services and some positions. The towns first shared a police chief and since then have integrated services while also maintaining positions that were officially within one town or the other. Since then, the towns have shared its records system, computerized dispatch services, and other aspects of call response and record keeping. It operates on one radio frequency and submits reports to the Maine court system as one department.

At the joint July 28, 2025 meeting, the Town of Mount Desert Selectboard and Bar Harbor Town Council seemed generally supportive of full consolidation of the two towns’ police forces underneath the Town of Bar Harbor.

How exactly those costs would be shared was not yet expressly laid out to the public.

“We really have become a virtual agency as far as the court is concerned and as far as the state’s concerned,” Mount Desert and Bar Harbor Police Chief David Kerns said.

However, the financials for the employees and liabilities haven’t been perfectly combined, he’d said.

A full integration is unlikely to create cost savings, according to the June Kerns’ memo, but would potentially decrease Mount Desert’s expenses for overhead. The reverse could potentially be true for Bar Harbor unless the cost-sharing agreement was tweaked between the two towns.

As of November 2025, the Mount Desert officers currently earn 61 cents less per hour than their Bar Harbor counterparts.

For this new August 2026 hire, Bar Harbor would be responsible for payroll taxes, unemployment, worker’s compensation insurance, and other employee benefits according to the July 20, 2026, agreement included in the Selectboard packet.

Another clause of the agreement reads, “Bar Harbor shall indemnify and hold harmless Mount Desert, its employees, officers and elected or appointed officials, harmless from and against any and all losses, liabilities, claims, demands, damages, injuries, costs and expenses and attorney’s fees, of whatever nature, including but not limited to claims of negligence and employment related claims under local, state and/or federal laws.”

Bar Harbor will also maintain the personnel files and other records for the officer.

The board members approved the Neighborhood House’s use on the Northeast Harbor marina area for a free community barbecue cohosted by the Neighborhood House and the Mount Desert Police Association.

---

---

JORDAN POND SEWER PROJECT EXPENSE

The Jordan Pond Road sewer system upgrade has a funding shortfall of approximately $121,000.

The Selectboard agreed to authorize money from the Public Works account to pay for outstanding costs on the $1.9 million project.

Rodney King asked what it was for.

Public Works Director Brian Henkel explained that the account balance they’d initially looked at didn’t coincide with the amount authorized at the last town meeting. This was discovered by Finance Director Nancy Parsons.

There’s not a shortage in total funds, Henkel said, but the funds had to be moved from the reserves. The next town meeting in 2027 might have to ask the voters to raise funds for that reserve again.

“It’s a rarely used reserve account,” Henkel said.

---

TOWN GARAGE ISSUES

The board also discussed trash issues at the town garage. A plan to potentially move the dumpsters from the town’s garage has not yet been finalized and more community outreach about the plan will occur, the town Selectboard discussed in July.

The plan to potentially remove the dumpsters was first discussed after the Municipal Risk Assessment (MRA) team determined that the dumpsters presented a liability for the town. That liability impacts the town’s insurance.

The dumpsters for household trash and constant access to them have been a mainstay for the community, which also has weekly trash pickup.

The concern after the MRA visit is that there is a significant risk to safety.

At Monday’s meeting Selectboard Chair John Macauley said that nothing is going to happen overnight. There are a lot of folks in town who don’t have the wherewithall to get their garbage out to the end of their private roads.

“We’re still playing with some ideas as is,” Kimball said.

Vice Chair Wendy Littlefield said that some letters had good points. “If you drive by that town garage Sunday night…”

“I feel like we’re making progress getting information out there that we need to do something,” Littlefield said. “And I will say if you drive by that town garage Sunday night?”

“I saw. It’s disgusting,”Dudman said.

“We have to do something. It is beyond uncontrollable,” Littlefield said.

Kimball said a larger chunk of waste than seems rational is passing through the town’s garage. This is potentially because people who do not live in Mount Desert are depositing their trash there.

Henkel said they are still collecting data and working to understand the circumstances.

He asked that people be sent to him with ideas, worries, and concerns.

“I want to hear as many people as I possibly can. I want to understand all the circumstances as much as I possibly can,” Henkel said.

Though he has full faith in Henkel, Selectboard member David MacDonald asked what role the town’s sustainability committee played in the process and decision.

“Actually, I can tell you. None,” Macauley said.

The committee was initially designed to work on LED lights, solar, and sustainability issues and it’s previously had very little involvement in municipal waste, Macauley said. It does, however, have input as an advisory committee, about recycling.

---

LINK TO LEARN MORE

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/us2Aj0JNFfM?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0

---

HELP SUPPORT THE BAR HARBOR STORY

When we started The Bar Harbor Story, we didn’t know if anyone would read it. But you showed up. You shared. You sent tips. Now—over 400,000 views every month later—it’s clear: people here care about their community and each other.

We’ve kept everything free because news should never be out of reach, but every one of our stories takes time to write, and your support keeps The Bar Harbor Story going.

If you value our work, please consider a paid subscription, a founding membership, or a sponsorship.

It truly helps us cover one more meeting, tell one more story, shine one more light.

Even $5 a month makes a difference. Click here to become a one-time supporter now.

Thank you so much for being here.

Founding member information can be found here.

Have questions about sponsorships? Just send Shaun an email at sfarrar86@gmail.com, he’d love to hear from you.