Town officials purchase more flags for roadside utility poles and conduct other business.

Shaun Farrar

just now

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Bar Harbor Bicycle Shop.

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TREMONT—There is currently no fee to use the Seal Cove Picnic Area in Tremont for the day other than for fishing or maritime related activities. But after Gail Gladstone applied for a facilities use permit for the Seal Cove Picnic Area for Selkie Sauna three months in a row, the Select Board decided that there should be one.

Selkie Sauna is a mobile sauna that, according to its website, allows users to “pair a refreshing plunge in the sea or lake with the warmth of our gorgeous sauna, perched at some of the most scenic spots on Mount Desert Island.”

When the sauna is located at locations such as the Seal Cove Picnic Area, users can book time slots online for $35 for a one hour session or $50 for an hour and a half session.

Other community locations listed on its website include Hadley Point Beach in Bar Harbor, Lamoine Beach Park, Seal Harbor, and Long Pond.

Gladstone had applied for and been granted a facilities use permit for the Seal Cove Picnic Area for earlier in September of this year. The applications in front of the board at its September 21 meeting were for October 11 and November 15.

Vice Chair McKenzie Jewett asked how the September event went and Town Manager Jesse Dunbar responded that he didn’t have any complaints or feedback.

“But she is running her business off of the town property essentially?” asked member Eric Eaton. “I thought it was a one time thing and now it’s gonna be twice a month, or once a month, whatever, and it takes away from fisherman access and stuff like that. Maybe it doesn’t.”

An audience member commented that Gladstone always parks the sauna in the same place and it is away from the designated fisherman’s area.

Chair Jamie Thurlow said, “I do see what you are getting at though Eric. If you’re running a business out of there, I am very pro-business, I want to help business any way I can. But, if we are charging use permits for the property for everyone else, we probably should start thinking about putting a use on that, even if it’s, you know, it doesn’t have too be huge, but just something just to get a little bit of reimbursement for it.”

After some discussion about use permit fees for different waterfront uses, the Select Board decided to institute a $10 per day use fee but approved the current facilities use applications for October 11 and November 15 with no fees attached.

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AMERICAN FLAG PURCHASES

Last year, the town purchased 24 American flags via a matching grant program through the Galen Cole Foundation in Bangor. The town paid for 12 flags and the foundation paid for 12 flags. The flags were installed on utility poles along Route 102 for the summer season. According to the grant program, the flags must be installed from Memorial Day through Labor Day at the earliest.

At its September 21 meeting, Dunbar asked the Select Board if it would like to take advantage of the matching grant opportunity again and purchase additional flags.

“We did receive many compliments this year when they went up. We did have one resident who was very adamant that as the town did not install them all the way through town to Seal Cove, that they should not install them at all,” Dunbar said. “I told him that we were going to look at purchasing more for next year.”

The foundation will cover the cost of up to 24 flags per grant cycle and the cost last year was $60 per flag kit.

“I love them, I think they are great,” Jewett said.

After some discussion, it was decided, unanimously, that the town would purchase an additional 24 flags and with the addition of the 24 flags that the foundation would pay for would have a total of 48 new flags for next year.

There was also some discussion about flag spacing to try and cover more distance until more flags can be purchased in future years or grant cycles.

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SNOW PLOW REPLACEMENT

When the town purchased one of its newer plow trucks, that truck inherited the sander and plow from its predecessor. That truck recently went to Allied Equipment to have some work done on the sander and plow in preparation for the upcoming winter. Allied Equipment told Town manager Jesse Dunbar that the sander is repaired and ready to go to work but the existing plow is in rough shape and not worth repairing.

Dunbar had received prices on two different replacement plows, a 10-foot XLS plow with folding wings priced at $9,860 and a 10-foot HC plow with a straight blade for $7,250.

After discussion by the Select Board about what type of plowing jobs this particular truck performs and what kind of plows are in the town’s inventory, the Select Board unanimously decided to authorize Dunbar to purchase the HC 10-foot straight blade plow for $7,250 while also keeping the plow that it is replacing as an emergency backup.

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NOVEMBER 3 SPECIAL TOWN MEETING PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE

The Select Board unanimously voted to set a public hearing date of October 19, 2026, to have a public hearing for questions 1-5 that will be on the November 3 ballot.

Question 1 School Reorganization Plan: Do you favor approving the school administrative reorganization plan prepared by the MDIRSS-AOS #91 Reorganization Planning Committee to reorganize Trenton, Bar Harbor, Southwest Harbor, Tremont, Mount Desert, Swan’s Island, Cranberry Isles, and Frenchboro into a Regional School Unit with an effective date of 7/1/2028?

Question 2 Land Use Ordinance & Site Plan Review Ordinance: Shall an amendment to the Land Use Ordinance and a repeal of the Site Plan Review Ordinance entitled “Site Plan Review” be enacted?

Question 3 Board of Appeals Ordinance: Shall an amendment to the Board of Appeals Ordinance entitled “Board of Appeals” be enacted?

Question 4 Land Use Ordinance- Appeals: Shall an amendment to the Land Use Ordinance entitled “Appeals” be enacted?

Question 5 Land Use Ordinance- Living Shoreline: Shall an amendment to the Land Use Ordinance entitled “Living Shoreline” be enacted?

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CEMETERY DEED CORRECTION

A cemetery lot in the Hillside Cemetery purchased in 2012 by George and Beth Lawson had the wrong lot number recorded on the original deed compared to what is shown on the town’s map.

The error was recently discovered and the Select Board unanimously voted to execute a corrected deed for the Lawsons showing the accurate lot number of 229.

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GENERAL ASSISTANCE ORDINANCE APPENDICES A-H

Maine state law requires that municipal officers amend towns’ General Assistance Ordinances on a regular basis to stay current with local prices for food, housing, and other cost centers covered under the general assistance program. Most maine municipalities do this in the fall of each year.

The Select Board unanimously approved a motion to “adopt and sign the October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027 Appendices A-H of the General Assistance Ordinance, pending a public hearing.”

The next Tremont Select Board meeting will be October 5, 2026 at 5 p.m., in the Harvey Kelley Meeting Room at the town office.

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