BREAKING NEWS: BH council calls workshop to reduce cruise ship visits, halts future permits
BAR HARBOR - Seeking to meet a short deadline to place the question on the November ballot, the town council voted 7-0 Tuesday night to conduct a special workshop to place exact limits on cruise ships, in response to a town-wide poll in which a majority of residents favored such limits.
Council member Gary Friedmann asked each member to come to the workshop with their recommended targets for size of ships, number of ships, number of visits, days per week and anchorage locations.
The council also voted 7-0 to make all future cruise ship permits as “tentative” approvals in case the town wanted to place limits.
The council has until Sept. 3 to come up with questions for voters to limit cruise ships.
The council rebuffed member Matt Hochman’s suggestion to refer the entire matter to the cruise ship committee, which is heavily weighted by industry members.
The council also favored the workshop involving all members instead of a task force of three as first suggested by Friedmann.
Council member and longtime cruise ship supporter Erin Cough mockingly flipped through the survey and said, “Everybody is saying these are great suggestions … no shit, you came up with them,” accusing fellow members of a having strong hand in constructing the questions. She was immediately challenged by Pan Atlantic researcher, Jason Edes, who said, “I just wanted to clear up that the ‘suggestion’ question was an open-ended one.”
Hochman said the town may be on the hook for the 2022 and 2023 seasons with ships already booked. But cruise ship committee chair Eben Salvatore indicated that the relationship with cruise ship operators is “collaborative,” indicating that the industry would comply with limits if imposed.