BREAKING NEWS: Anti-cruise ship activists up the stakes for 2022 ahead of Bar Harbor council meeting tomorrow ...
BAR HARBOR - Dec. 20, 2021 - The new sheriff in town served notice today in an email to the Town Council which is meeting tomorrow night that he is ready to step on the gas to prevent the town from being overrun by cruise ship passengers next year.
Charles Sidman, angel investor, former warrant committee member and leader of the citizens movement in 2019 which defeated the industry’s desire to park their behemoths on town docks, wrote in a strongly worded email tonight that if the town council does not have the spine to limit cruise ship visitations in 2022, his citizens group will.
“I think that most will agree that Council has now reached a point of paralysis (by analysis, continued reliance on non-reciprocated ‘negotiation’, futile desire for Council and community consensus, etc.) The Council is truly between a rock and a hard place.”
Sidman stated that his citizens group is poised to seek a townwide referendum as early as June for a sharp curtailing of cruise ship visits, if not an outright ban. Maine state law is friendly to these citizen petitions including allowing them to seek a special town meeting.
“Should the Council not move to limit 2022 landings to much lower levels than those pertaining in 2019, measures being discussed for the Initiative include degrees of limitation possibly to the point of a total ban on large cruise ship landings, and speeding up the process to enable a June vote and thus impact starting in the 2022 season.
“Recognizing these facts, might the Council and industry not act now to preserve at least some large cruise ship traffic next year and onward by reducing 2022 visitation to a level significantly below that of 2019? Such a demonstration of good faith, recognition of clear local Bar Harbor sentiment, and both desire and ability to ameliorate what many expect to be a severely overcrowded 2022 season might significantly impact responses when the Initiative comes up for vote,” Sidman wrote.
“Or, does the industry prefer to fan the flames by continuing to flout voters with ongoing denials of any and all meaningful accommodation now? CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association) will have to lie in the bed that they themselves make. They are now "persona non grata” to many voters in Bar Harbor, who no longer value their business more than the multifarious damages that are associated. Bar Harbor’s right to regulate and prioritize its own welfare trumps the cruise industry’s presumption and exploitation of others for its own benefit.”
The council meeting is streamed tomorrow at 7.
I live in Tremont and never go to Bar Harbor in the cruise ship season anymore. Like many islanders I shop in Ellsworth ,it's the same distance,where I have more Choices and free parking. So Sad that just a few unelected people can rule this town.
One of thre few bright spots during these last awful 2 years was enjoying a cruise ship free view from Bar Harbor and Door and Cadillac Mtns. Good Luck