Minutes of Chamber board action show clear support for APPLL lawsuit

Other news: Jackson Labs targeted by scientist group for use of carcinogen

BAR HARBOR, June 24, 2023 - Minutes of the April 25 Chamber of Commerce board meeting revealed that the Chamber joined APPLL to support its lawsuit against the town, contrary to public comments made by board members in emails and at the town meeting that the primary motivation was to support APPLL’s advertising campaign, “Bar Harbor for all.”

The motion that was passed by the board 7-1 with one abstention doesn’t even mention the campaign.

Instead it stated,

“To join APPLL and express support for their efforts in overturning the citizens petition through the active lawsuit; to work on messaging to members, the Town, and staff; and to consider Chamber membership in APPLL quarterly.”

The motion was made by Heather Sorokin and seconded by Brenda Fernald. Others who voted in favor were:

John Bench, Stephanie Clement, Victoria Conner, Bo Jennings and Lauren Tucker. James Allen opposed and Eben Salvatore abstained.

Click here to read the entire minutes of the meeting.

In May, Jennings stated in an email to the QSJ, “The Chamber Board of Directors voted to join APPLL in support of their Bar Harbor Welcomes All campaign. Bar Harbor is (and should remain) a welcoming place for all regardless of race, religion, physical ability, gender preference, or means of arrival.”

He went on.

“The Chamber Board made it clear to APPLL that the Chamber is not affiliated with the lawsuit, as the suit was filed several months before we joined. We were assured by the APPLL Board that the Chamber is not a part of the lawsuit.  The Chamber Board also noted (during our vote to join APPLL's Bar Harbor Welcomes All efforts) that we would be evaluating our membership quarterly, as a checks and balances to a new organization.”

The chamber is not a named plaintiff. But the minutes of the actual vote appeared to validate citizens concerns that the chamber was aligned with APPLL on the lawsuit. Former warrant committee member Cara Ryan made the motion to strip all cruise ship funding - $60,000 - from the chamber which was overwhelmingly approved at the June 6 town meeting.

After reading the minutes today, Ryan stated in an email, “They clearly considered a lot of angles, knew this move had the potential for significant trouble (both among their own membership and in their relations with the town), and they did it anyway--even hoping to keep it quiet.

“So why take this step, at this moment, jeopardizing town funding & trust? Must be the court dates - however quiet they wanted to keep this in the media, you can be sure it would have been used in court,” she stated. “Chamber members should have been consulted.”

Ryan was referring to one paragraph in the minutes in which Eben Salvatore was quoted as stating “the Chamber’s membership does not have to be broadcast widely in the media.” The minutes added, “He also thought that anyone who might get upset at the Chamber’s membership is already lost.”

Such was the influence of Salvatore, who participated in virtually every question posed by board members about joining APPLL. Salvatore is the chief operations manager in town for Ocean Properties, which owns hotels and the only commercial dock and tender service to ferry and disembark cruise ship passengers.

He was the long-time chair of the Town Council’s Cruise Ship Committee until he became a member of the Warrant Committee and participated in cruise ship matters even though he was a named plaintiff suing the town.

Besides Salvatore, APPLL board members who attended were Tom Testa, owner of the restaurant Testa’s, Heather Davis, owner of Geddy’s, and Shawn Porter, who along with her husband owns several trinket shops in town.

They are at the epicenter of the cruise ship business - with direct access to the thousands of passengers who disembark at Ocean Properties’ pier on West Street.

The QSJ first disclosed the chamber membership in APPLL on May 26, one month after the board vote.

According to the minutes, “Eben indicated that through the lawsuit, APPLL is actively supporting the Town Council’s process for negotiating MOA’s with the cruise lines.”

That begs the question of what would happen if APPLL wins the lawsuit. Not only would the citizens ordinance capping cruise ship visitors at 1,000 a day be declared unconstitutional, but would the current memorandum of agreement with the industry which caps passengers at 4,000 be voided? Would the industry be able to land as many passengers as it would like? Would the passenger bans and moratoriums in Northeast Harbor, Southwest Harbor and Tremont be similarly declared to be unconstitutional?

Salvatore has rebuffed all of the QSJ’s request for comment, including one in person at a YWCA candidates forum.

The QSJ emailed Jennings and Chamber Director Everal Eaton for comments about contents of the minutes but did not get a reply.

Nate Young resigns from Chamber to protest APPLL membership

In a related matter, former police chief Nate Young, who ran but lost in the June 13 election for Town Council, has withdrawn his membership from the Chamber of Commerce saying he is tired of the chamber “running roughshod over the town.”

Young, who owns Emery’s Cottages on the Shore, said he has better use for his $2,500 annual membership fee.

In an email to Everal Eaton, chamber director, Young stated his protestation of the chamber board’s recent vote to join the Association to Preserve and Protect Local Livelihoods, the tourism businesses suing the town over the citizens ordinance to cap cruise ship visitation at 1,000 a day.

“It goes without saying that I do not believe that the board is taking this issue serious enough. Dragging their feet on making the right decision is an abject failure as far as I’m concerned, and therefore, I am withdrawing my membership effective immediately.”

He said, “When the citizens spoke on the floor of the town meeting and stripped them of their funding - if that was not a signal to do the right thing and take corrective action - it was immediate corrective action in my book.

“The chamber in general does a great job doing what they do. This is not diminishing the staff’s capabilities.

“But the board is not serving the interests of the membership. If they were, simply put, they would have put that vote out to the membership that would have received pushback and that decision would have been different.”

Scientists group want stricter EPA guidelines for handling of carcinogen by Jackson Labs, others

BAR HARBOR - The Jackson Laboratory’s two Maine facilities have been targeted by the Union of Concerned Scientists, an influential advocacy group, as one of 104 sites in the country using a chemical which has been labeled a carcinogen since 2016.

The JAX research plants here and in Ellsworth were cited as the only such facilities in Maine using ethylene oxide (EtO). The UCS wants the EPA to develop stricter guidelines for its use. A reader alerted the QSJ to UCS’s interactive map which showed the presence of the chemical used to sterilize medical equipment.

The deadline for public comments for EPA’s consideration of new rules is Tuesday.

“Chronic exposure to EtO—inhaled throughout a person’s life—is associated with the development of cancers of the white blood cells, such as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, myeloma, and lymphocytic leukemia,” the UCS stated. “Studies have also shown a relationship between EtO exposure and breast cancer in women.

“Also, because EtO is mutagenic—meaning it can change a cell’s DNA—children may be especially susceptible to its effects because their cells divide more rapidly as they grow. People who live, work, and attend school near facilities that release EtO into the air are at risk of unsafe exposures even when the facilities are using the best available technologies to handle and contain it.”

The UCS pointed out that in Bar Harbor, “3,815 persons live within five miles of the facility, including three schools or childcare centers.” JAX is building a day care center on its campus here which will serve 50 children when fully staffed after its opening in 2024.

In Ellsworth, at 21 Kingsland Crossing, there are “7,413 persons within five-miles and 20 schools,” the UCS reported.

“We used the five-mile radius because in EPA’s 2022 risk assessments there were some facilities that were estimated to contribute to excess cancer risks more than five miles from the facility, so to be inclusive of elevated risks and consistent across all facilities, we used a five mile radius,” stated UCS’s senior analyst, Darya Minovi.

Jackson Labs declined a request by the QSJ for an interview but issued this statement by John Fitzpatrick, senior director, Facilities Services:

“The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) is an independent, nonprofit biomedical research institution with a mission to discover precise genomic solutions for disease and empower the global biomedical community in our shared quest to improve human health. To that end, our work requires sterile environments to both conduct biomedical research and ensure the optimal health of our pathogen-free research models.

“The primary method for sterilizing materials in our production facilities in Maine is using steam autoclaves, which use high temperatures to eliminate potential pathogens. Not all materials can withstand the high temperature and humidity required to achieve full sterilization, and for those incompatible materials, JAX utilizes EtO in very minimal amounts for sterilizing.

“The Jackson Laboratory is in full compliance with strict Maine Department of Environmental Protection and national Environmental Protection Agency standards. JAX maintains complete records of EtO used, and adheres to a comprehensive maintenance, safety and testing program on all EtO-related equipment. Exhaust from each EtO sterilization unit is abated through equipment which converts discharged EtO into inert byproducts of CO2 and water vapor. These units convert 99.9% of EtO used in each cycle, resulting in total emissions of EtO which are well below what is considered ‘insignificant’ by Maine DEP standards.”

In 2019, a bipartisan Congressional effort began as the ethylene oxide task force to detect facilities in their communities.

That motivated UCS to develop its research and analysis resulting in the interactive map, said Minovi. “There are many communities around the country that are slowly learning about the existence of this sterilizer and didn't know it was there.”

She said the sterilization of medical devices is also regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. “And they're actually undergoing a process of identifying alternatives and then seeing if it's possible to use smaller amounts of ethylene oxide to safely sterilize medical equipment.

“So until we have approved alternatives, and we're stuck with this substance.”

Conversations in Advanced Care Planning

BAR HARBOR - Conversations in Advance Care Planning is free and open to the public, hosted by Patrick Ainsworth, RN and Heather Sinclair, LSW from MDI Hospital. On June 27 from 9:30 – 11AM at Havana in Bar Harbor, this group of experts will introduce and define palliative care and care management, walk through the specifics surrounding management of care, and answer any questions the audience might have.

Patrick and Heather will be joined by Cookie Horner, who worked at MDI Hospital in Labor & Delivery for 16 years and MDI High School as their nurse for 17 years. Since retiring as a nurse, Cookie has volunteered for Hospice Volunteers of Hancock County, lending her experience and knowledge to the community. She has also been teaching community groups about end of life issues for the past 15 years and recently became a certified End of Life Doula through the University of Vermont Medical School. 

Cookie says of this topic, “I think it is so important that people are educated about their choices and prepared for end of life long before they get there. When you have a plan in place for how you want things to go, it gives you control, reduces anxiety and helps those who care for you to give you the best possible exit from this life.”

The group will go over the specialized care someone who is in hospice needs, how to be a good agent for their medical wishes, how to manage their comfort, and how to care for yourself throughout the duration of palliative care of a loved one.

Annual Wine & Whiskers Event to Support the SPCA of Hancock County

TRENTON – Support the animals while enjoying live music, wonderful food and bidding on amazing auction items at the SPCA of Hancock County’s 10th Annual Wine & Whiskers fundraiser.

The summer fun begins at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday July 18 at the Bar Harbor Club on West Street in Bar Harbor.  The cost is $150 per person ($75 of which is tax deductible) and will include hors d’oeuvres and a three-course dinner. There will be a cash bar. All the proceeds from the evening support the operation of the non-profit organization’s animal shelter.

In addition to music and great food, the festive event will include live music by the Ann Delaney Trio and silent and live auctions with radio personality Chris Popper serving as the auctioneer.

This year’s Wine & Whiskers event is in honor of Michele Abbott-Croan, a beloved SPCA volunteer and former board member, who lost her brave battle with cancer last August.

To make your reservation, to pre-bid on auction items or to find out how you can make a donation or become a sponsor, please contact Jamie O’Keefe at (207) 299-8732. You can also make your reservations or become a sponsor by visiting www.spcahancockcounty.org

Photos of Beach Hill Farm’s addition

Beech Hill Farm doubled the size of its store. Summer hours are Tuesday - Saturday, 9 am - 4 pm

Beer and wine now for sale

PUBLISHER’S NOTE:

For about a year now, readers have been attempting to pay for subscriptions to the Quietside Journal, but I had no way to accept the money. Recently, I turned on the paid subscription platform on Substack to allow for paid subscriptions on a voluntary basis. The money will help defray cost, including a very expensive libel insurance policy. I also plan to engage several paid interns to help me with research and features. It is my wish that the QSJ becomes sustainable beyond my tenure. Thank you for your continued support for the kind of journalism I do.