Ann Caswell. Matthew Hochman. Lynn Gregorski. Nathan Young.

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Look at the Bigger Picture This Election

To those of you who are considering voting again for Susan Collins because she’s “done so much for Maine,” I ask you to look at the bigger picture. It is essential for the future of our democracy to deprive the Senate of its current GOP majority if only to restore Justice to the Supreme Court. Under Chief Justice John Roberts, there have been many decisions that are of detriment to our democracy. I’ll only mention a few: Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission has allowed corporations and billionaires to buy elections. Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health took away the right of women to control our own bodies. West Virginia vs. EPA took away the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate emissions of fossil fuels like coal. Trump vs. US granted immunity from criminal prosecution of a president if his actions are considered official. Would you really want the next Supreme Court Justice to be confirmed by this Senate? (Remember Collins’ role in confirming Kavanaugh?) Please vote to remove Collins from the Senate so we can begin to bring justice back to the Court.

Ann Caswell

Seal Cove

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Cruise Ship Management: Let’s Not Reinvent the Wheel

As a former Bar Harbor Town Councilor and a citizen of Bar Harbor, I recently saw a post from Councilor Earl mentioning that the Council was discussing how to move forward with cruise ship management following the federal court’s ruling on the citizens’ initiative. The constitutional concerns were something I warned about from the beginning, but I digress.

I would urge the Council not to reinvent the wheel.

A previous Council spent nearly a year developing a viable alternative to the citizens’ initiative. That proposal failed by just 65 votes — 1,779 opposed to 1,714 in favor, following a hand recount. That narrow margin demonstrated substantial community support for the Council’s approach.

This was a carefully developed plan, negotiated with the cruise lines and building upon years of work with CLIA. I still believe it could have served as a model for cruise ports worldwide struggling to balance cruise tourism, land-based tourism, and residents’ quality of life.

The plan offered real, tangible reductions in cruise visitation: an annual cap of 200,000 passengers, a daily cap of 3,200, and numerous ship-free days, including ten guaranteed days in both September and October. It addressed residents’ concerns while recognizing tourism’s importance to our economy.

Perhaps most importantly, it could have spared our community years of costly litigation, uncertainty, and division.

The 2024 referendum was not a choice between regulating cruise ships and allowing unrestricted visitation. It was a choice between two different approaches to managing cruise tourism, and nearly half of voters supported the Council’s alternative.

The Council already has a starting point.

I encourage current Council members to revisit that proposal and reach out to former Councilors who helped develop it. Tremendous time, research, discussion, and compromise went into creating a workable solution.

I remain convinced it was a good plan, unfortunately overshadowed by a citizens’ initiative whose constitutional shortcomings have now been demonstrated in federal court.

We cannot undo the past several years, but we can learn from them. Let’s build upon the work already done rather than start over.

Matthew Hochman

Former Bar Harbor Town Councilor

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A Letter to Senator Angus King from a Resident About Losing the Ability to Enjoy Acadia National Park (And Shared With Us As Well).

I’m writing as a year-round resident of Downeast Maine who lives just outside Acadia National Park. I know there are many urgent issues facing Maine, but I hope you will consider one that is increasingly discussed among my friends, neighbors, and other local residents: we are losing our ability to enjoy Acadia and the communities surrounding it because of increasing overcrowding.

During peak season, roads and towns are congested, parking is extremely difficult, trails and carriage roads are crowded, and simply accessing the park can be challenging. The experience of living near Acadia has changed significantly. Some year-round residents I know are even questioning whether they want to continue living here.

Tourism is enormously important to our region, but year-round residents support these communities, businesses, and restaurants throughout the entire year. I believe there needs to be a better balance between welcoming visitors and preserving access and quality of life for the people who call this area home.

I would ask you to consider working with the National Park Service and local communities to explore solutions such as:

• Maine resident access days or designated resident hours during peak season.
• Daily vehicle-entry limits and advance reservations during the busiest periods, similar to systems that have been used at other parks.
• A portion of reservations reserved or prioritized for Maine residents, so local residents retain reasonable access to Acadia.

Acadia is a national treasure, but it is also our backyard. I would very much like to know whether you would support exploring these ideas and how residents can help move this conversation forward. Should we organize a petition, form a local advocacy group, or work directly with the National Park Service and our elected officials?

Thank you for considering the concerns of those of us who live here year-round. I would sincerely appreciate hearing your thoughts and what steps you believe could be taken.

Lynn Gregorski

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Affordability Requires Scrutiny of Town Spending

Bar Harbor residents should expect elected officials to question spending proposals, consider alternatives, and require evidence that additional expenses are necessary. As residents struggle to keep up with the cost of living, the growing cost of town government deserves closer scrutiny.

My review of publicly available records shows the municipal General Fund operating appropriations rising from approximately $7.49 million in FY2014 to $16.08 million in the FY2027 request—an increase of 114.5%. These figures exclude schools, county assessments, enterprise funds, and separate capital and debt accounts.

Even before that request, the FY2026 operating comparison showed a 99.4% increase over FY2014. National consumer prices rose approximately 40.1% from June 2014 through June 2026. Those figures do not establish that every increase was unnecessary. They do require an explanation of what drove the growth and what residents received in return.

The recent article about further consolidation of the Bar Harbor and Mount Desert police departments illustrates why that oversight matters.

I served Bar Harbor for 29 years, including 22 years as police chief. Some may question my motives for examining police spending and further consolidation. However, my concerns are the same ones I expressed when I ran for Town Council: the growth of municipal spending, the need for accountability and residents’ ability to afford living here. My experience gives me a basis for asking these questions, and the same scrutiny should apply to every department.

The consolidation arrangement has been developing for more than a decade. During that period, Bar Harbor’s actual police operating expenditures increased from approximately $920,000 in FY2014 to $1.74 million in FY2025—an increase of 89%, excluding pooled employee benefits and separate capital spending. Reported police incidents were essentially unchanged: 4,102 in 2014 and 4,061 in 2025.

Incident counts do not capture every responsibility or the complexity of police work, and reporting practices have changed. Nor does spending growth prove that consolidation caused every increase. But residents deserve to know what additional needs justified the growing personnel, vehicle, and equipment commitments.

For FY2026, the published police budgets were $2,019,868 for Bar Harbor and $1,126,308 for Mount Desert. Together, they total $3,146,176, compared with Ellsworth’s reported police budget of $2,891,171 – a difference of approximately $255,000, or 8.8%.

Beyond its operating budget, Bar Harbor’s January FY2026 capital plan identified another $176,240 for police cruiser replacement, cruiser equipment, and officer-safety equipment.

The operating figures are the published budget totals, excluding separate dispatch budgets. Shared payments between the towns and differences in accounting must be reconciled before calling them a comparison of net costs. Elected officials should obtain that accounting and explain the results to residents.

Ellsworth reported 9,412 calls for service in FY2025. Bar Harbor and Mount Desert reported 4,061 and 1,340 incidents, respectively, for calendar 2025. Reporting periods and definitions differ, and possible overlap between the two towns’ figures needs checking. These figures reinforce the need for elected officials to compare the full workload and cost of the departments before approving further consolidation.

Maine’s 2024 Uniform Crime Reporting statistics provide a standardized measure of reported crime: 608 Group A offenses for Ellsworth, compared with 88 under the Bar Harbor reporting entry for the shared operation. These figures measure reported offenses rather than total calls for service. They belong alongside the broader workload figures when officials evaluate staffing and spending.

Consolidation should produce savings, demonstrably better service for the money spent, or both. In February 2025, Town Manager James Smith suggested shared island services could become more efficient and robust without producing true savings. The recent article likewise offers no firm promise of lower costs and anticipates essentially unchanged service.

If efficiency is the justification, show residents what expenses will be avoided, what time will be saved and what practical improvements will result. After more than a decade, residents deserve evidence of what the existing arrangement has delivered before the next phase is approved.

This responsibility extends throughout town government. Department heads recommend expenditures. Elected officials must independently examine those requests and determine what the community can reasonably afford. Every added position or vehicle creates obligations that continue into future budgets.

Additional revenue helps pay the bills, but it does not demonstrate that spending is under control. Opportunities to ease residents’ tax burden deserve the same attention as proposals to spend more.

If our elected officials are going to speak about affordability, they must put it into practice when managing the Town’s own spending. That means questioning requests, weighing less costly alternatives and demonstrating why additional expenses are necessary before approving them. Residents are expected to make difficult choices to live within their means. They should expect the same practical discipline from their town government.

I’m willing to explain things to people; however, I cannot understand it for them.

Nathan Young

Bar Harbor

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