Shock and awe from Bar Harbor's budget; more fallout from town manager’s short-lived tenure

OTHER NEWS: Bar Harbor generates more trash per capita than any other MRC town; hockey tourney Sunday in NEH

BAR HARBOR, Feb. 4, 2023 - Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse came the news that just before he left town, Kevin Sutherland dropped a bombshell of a proposed budget which called for a 15 percent municipal tax increase and which the Town Council and Warrant Committee began unpacking this week.

Residents were already reeling from a previous disclosure of a 28 percent increase facing taxpayers if a new Conners Emerson K-8 school were approved. Council chair Val Peacock made an impassioned plea to approve the school building.

The QSJ asked if she also knew of Sutherland’s 15 percent increase on top of that when she made her plea for the school spending. Peacock did not respond.

For a median household assessed at $405,000, the Sutherland budget would add $575 a year. Earlier, the council was told a new $68 million school would add another $1,000 to that household. The cost of the $43 million water and sewer improvement approved last year is now being felt in fee increases.

“It is daunting,” council member Gary Friedmann said. He pledged the council will work hard to ensure there will be no 15 percent tax increase.

But it’s all in the details, as the Sutherland budget called for an across-the-board “cost of living” increase for all town employee of 6 percent.

There are also other hard-coded commitments, like a 5 percent raise for Hancock County services and 9 percent increase for the high school.

Sutherland dropped off his budget on Friday Jan. 20. That weekend was filled with intrigue about his continued service which detracted from the content of his budget. On Monday night, Jan. 23, the council entered into an executive session to discuss the cruise ship lawsuit and Sutherland’s performance evaluation.

By Tuesday morning Jan. 24, he was gone, having given his resignation in writing. That night at the joint workshop of the Town Council and Warrant Committee, council chair Val Peacock announced that the town manager would not be joining.

Peacock was Sutherland’s biggest defender in the 13 months he served as town manager.

No one can dispute that the town, in 13 months of their combined leadership, is in one giant mess.

It faces a serious legal challenge from its own cruise-ship reliant businesses for which Sutherland and Peacock’s roles have been questioned about which side they represented and whether they chose the best strategy for the town.

It faces a judge’s decision overturning the council’s changes to the town charter two years ago.

It has brutal infrastructure challenges - not all of them their fault. But did Sutherland consider all the other cost in the pipeline before recommending the town approve $43 million in water and sewer upgrades?

In business parlance, we called this “risk management.” In my years as a corporate executive, we were always on the lookout for unanticipated surprises - lawsuits, un-budgeted contractual obligations, badly forecasted assumptions.

Was Peacock an able checkpoint to Sutherland’s cocky self assurance and his spending spree when he added personnel and new functions which were not fully understood by some council members. (Council Thursday night tried to unpack Sutherland’s request for a “data architect,” for example)

How was it possible that no one discussed the impact of inflation on mandatory cost-of-living wage increases as it was the top story on every cable news channel and newspaper in 2022? Bar Harbor has had a practice of matching wage increases based on inflation which was not an issue when the CPI hovered around 2 percent the last three decades.

Mandated contractual obligations aside, how many non-union municipal workers will get the 6 percent raise proposed in Sutherland’s budget? How many taxpayers are getting a 6 percent raise next year?

At its Dec. 6 meeting, the council ruminated for ways to enact a local lodging tax, which is not allowed in Maine. Only the state may impose such a tax. Previous local efforts have all failed.

But the town allows the tourism trade to impose all sorts of cost on taxpayers - long-term capital as well as operating - without paying its fair share (see next article). Why should Maine taxpayers be asked to subsidize Bar Harbor’s mismanagement?

Why should homeowners pay for sewer and water infrastructure built to handle high volumes from hotels? As council member Joe Minutolo said, “The guy on Ledgelawn doesn’t need a 36-inch pipe.”

Also, why does Bar Harbor give up on important revenue sources, such as not allowing cruise ships to use its public piers for disembarking passengers?

At Thursday night’s workshop, Finance Director Sarah Gilbert, named the interim town manager, was left defenseless to explain parts of Sutherland’s budget.

At one point she said, “Just to let you all know, I didn’t touch that budget. I just presented it as is,” referring to Sutherland’s recommendations for new positions and other costs which ballooned his town manager’s budget by 60 percent to $420,000.

“It’s a little sticky I wish I had a better answer for you,” Gilbert said.

You my read all the budgets and view videos of the workshops here: https://www.barharbormaine.gov/423/Budget

Bar Harbor per capita trash disposal cost highest among all 115 MRC towns

BAR HARBOR - The towns of Hampden, Belfast, Orono - just to name three - have much bigger populations and yet generate far less municipal solid waste than Bar Harbor.

The Municipal Review Committee, the omnibus agency which manages MSW from 115 towns, estimates that Belfast with 7,000 year-round residents produces 700 tons of waste a year, whereas Bar Harbor with 5,500 residents generates 5,056 tons for which the town is seeking a 22 percent budget increase to manage its disposal. That’s almost $200,000 in additional taxes.

Of the 115 MRC towns, Bar Harbor is the third highest producer, next to Bangor and Brewer. Read the list here https://www.mrcmaine.org/waste-data/. But it leads all towns with the highest per capita output of 1,839 pounds a year.

How it that possible?

Because it isn’t the year-round residents generating most of the trash.

Call it the garbage subsidy - another example of how the tourism trade rides on the backs of local taxpayers, as hotels, vacation rentals and restaurants get a free ride.

On Dec. 20, 2022 Finance Director Sarah Gilbert first warned of the spike in cost to manage MSW during the tourism season. By then it had become obvious that the 2021 record tourist season was no fluke and that 2022 produced similar volume.

Public Works Director Bethany Levitt said this week at the joint Town Council/Warrant Committee budget workshop that her department’s assumption the cost would go down after the 2021 record tourism season turned out to be wrong.

She’s proposing to correct that with a FY24 waste management budget which exceeds $1 million for the first time. (Belfast’s solid waste budget is $464,000.)

It isn’t just the cost.

Food waste is responsible for 8 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. And according to ReFED.org, the restaurant industry in the United States generates 11.4 million tons of food waste annually.

The situation locally is made worse by the closure of the regional waste-to-energy plant in Hampden, resulting in an over-reliance on landfills by the 115 member towns since May 28, 2020.

Landfills are the lowest on the hierarchy of waste treatment which, in ascending order, are landfilling, energy recovery, recycling, reuse and reduce waste at the source.

The Juniper Ridge landfill in Alton, about a half hour north of Bangor, is the largest landfill in the state and the principal recipient of MRC waste since May 2020.

The state DEP in its annual report Jan. 5 on the state of waste disposal in Maine stated:

“Landfill disposal capacity for the next 5 years is sufficient for current levels of Maine-generated MSW. However, Maine may see reduced waste disposal capacity after five years if the Juniper Ridge Landfill and the Hatch Hill Landfill do not apply for an expansion and close.”

One easy way to mitigate the burden on taxpayers and the planet is to impose a fee on waste exceeding a certain weight. The average household in the US generates about 7,000 pounds of trash a year. Anything above that could pay a surcharge. That would encourage less waste and put the burden on the heavy producers.

Many municipalities have such fees. But they tend not to be towns where the local government is a subsidiary of the chamber of commerce.

The MRC issued a somber press release this week stating that its latest operating partner of choice to restart the Hampden plant could not meet its financial commitment and that the MRC was again seeking options.

MRC Chair Karen Fussell, finance director in Brewer, stated in an email to the QSJ Friday that this spring could be a breaking point.

“MRC has limited capacity to continue without definitive progress to reopening the plant, which is why we are back to looking at all options. A path forward will need to be identified by this spring. Also, MRC will not let itself get into a position whereby it cannot pay its bills.”

Memo to town sustainability coordinator: Best you start understanding this mess and map a future without the MRC.

The upside? It’s an opportunity to rethink solid waste management from the ground up.

The downside? It’s another drag coefficient that the town doesn’t need, especially with all its other woes.

"Zero waste is a philosophy and a design principle for the 21st Century; it is not simply about putting an end to landfilling,” according to the Institute for Local Self Reliance.

“Aiming for zero waste is not an end-of-pipe solution. That is why it heralds fundamental change. Aiming for zero waste means designing products and packaging with reuse and recycling in mind. It means ending subsidies for wasting. It means closing the gap between landfill prices and their true costs.”

Don’t Waste ME, the citizens group which has been a persistent and loud critic of the MRC, issued a statement this week calling for the MRC to give its members “meaningful control” and remove the waste quotas and guaranteed tonnage language from the contracts.

“Towns should not be penalized for reducing amounts of waste requiring disposal.

“A properly run facility that focuses on legitimate recycling, reduction and diversion of waste from disposal would be an incentive to continue that relationship and invite investment.”

Read its statement here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rqPQCh32g637Fa-iZH88Pgf3uVg35UjB/view?usp=sharing

Even if the MRC is able to secure a white knight at the eleventh hour, it would take almost a year to restart the plant.

Ever since the previous operator defaulted on the plant in 2020, the MRC has pursued only one option: Restart the existing plant. It wasted a year with a dalliance with Delta Thermo Energy even though the QSJ and Bangor Daily News published articles questioning DTE’s resume.

DTE failed in 2021 to raise the needed investment, and the MRC then selected Revere Capital Advisors to be its partner of choice. Revere also failed to raise the necessary investment, resulting in MRC’s announcement this week.

MRC’s lawyer is Eaton Peabody, the same law firm suing Bar Harbor for its land use ordinance imposing a 1,000-a-day cap on cruise ship visitors.

Cruise ship video on Youtube

Some readers could not access the video published last week showing former Town Manager Kevin Sutherland’s appearance in front of the cruise ship committee. I uploaded it to Youtube which should be easier to access.

Hockey tourney Sunday at new community outdoor rink in Northeast Harbor

NORTHEAST HARBOR - The forecast is for temperatures to be in the mid-30s Sunday when the new community ice rink here hosts a hockey tournament with teams coming from as far away as Blue Hill.

The action will run from noon to 4 p.m., according to manager Peter Bronson. The Nor’Easter Lobster Pound and Market up the hill will serve hot toddies, Bronson said.

The skating is free and open to all.

“We are also raising funds to buy materials and equipment and to ensure the future of this community gem,” according to its website. “And right now, thanks to the generosity of the Nor'Easter Pound and Market, we will match all gifts of $100 or less up to a total of $2,500.”

A page on Facebook has daily updates (https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=northeast%20harbor%20skating%20rink).

TRIBUTE: Kathryn Knowles Suminsby

NORTHEAST HARBOR - Kathryn Knowles Suminsby, 88, passed away peacefully in Northeast Harbor on Jan. 29, 2023. Born July 2, 1934, in Ellsworth to Jerome H. Knowles Jr. and Evelyn A. (Farris) Knowles, she graduated from Gould Academy in Bethel in 1952 and Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in 1956.

On Nov. 15, 1957, she married Robert Suminsby of Northeast Harbor. In 1972, she and her husband bought the Knowles Company, her family’s real estate and insurance business, which was established by her grandmother, Belle Smallidge Knowles, in 1898. Kathy worked at the business for 20 years.

Kathy was an exceptionally active member of the local community, and shared her passion for the outdoors, cooking, gardening and education through tireless volunteer work. She served for many years as a leader of the local Girl Scout troop, leading trips to locales from Downeast Maine to as far away as Wyoming. She was president of the local chapter of the American Association of University Women, and active in the Vassar Alumni Association. She was well known by generations of Northeast Harbor children for her homemade caramel apples at Halloween, a tradition she kept up for over 50 years.

In the mid-1970s, she began a long career in emergency medicine, first as an EMT and later as a certified paramedic. She volunteered for many years with the Northeast Harbor Ambulance Service and was later employed by County Ambulance in Ellsworth. As an EMT instructor, she trained many EMTs for Downeast Maine. As president of the MDI Hospital Auxiliary, she founded the MDI Lifeline program to offer remote assistance by telephone for seniors in an emergency.

Kathy took great pride in her garden, and eventually completed the Maine Master Gardener training program. She served as a board member of the Mount Desert Land and Garden Preserve.

Kathy was a lifelong parishioner at the Parish of St. Mary and St. Jude Episcopal Church in Northeast Harbor and Seal Harbor, where she was an active member on numerous committees including the Episcopal Church Women, the Altar Guild and Vestry.

In 2013, the Northeast Harbor Library recognized her long service to the community with the Don E. Coates Distinguished Service Award.

Kathy is survived by her daughter Bethany Reynolds and husband, Dexter Bellows, of Pahoa, Hawaii; son Robert Suminsby Jr. and wife, Celeste, of Albuquerque, N.M.; son Jerome Suminsby of Northeast Harbor; and her three grandsons, Robert Suminsby III and wife, Erin, of Albuquerque, N.M., Samuel Reynolds of Hancock and Benjamin Suminsby of St. Louis, Mo. She was predeceased by her husband, Bob, in 1999.

A memorial service is to be held on July 15, 2023, at St Mary’s by the Sea in Northeast Harbor.

Those who desire may make contributions in Kathy’s memory to Mount Desert Nursing Association, P.O. Box 397, Northeast Harbor, ME 04662, Island Connections, 93 Cottage St., Suite 101, Bar Harbor, ME 04609 or your local food pantry.

Condolences may be expressed at www.jordanfernald.com.

TRIBUTE: Elizabeth Ann "Bette" Gardner

BAR HARBOR - The family of Elizabeth (Bette) Ann Gardner is sad to announce of her peaceful passing on January 30, 2023, at Birch Bay Retirement Village in Bar Harbor, her residence since 2006. She was only twenty days shy of her 100th birthday.

Bette was born on February 19, 1923, in Littleton, the daughter of Marim C. Gentle and Goldie (Colbath) Gentle. She was a resident of Aroostook County for 83 years, having been brought up in Monticello and Houlton where she graduated high school in 1939. Then she lived in Presque Isle for 51 years raising a family and working alongside her husband, C. Holmes Gardner, in their photography business. She was an excellent painter of both portraits and scenics. She moved to Mt. Desert Island in her later years to be closer to her daughter.

She was a past member of the Methodist Church in Presque Isle and Houlton. She was an avid bridge player and she loved to spend time with family and friends dancing, bowling, snow skiing, snowmobiling, fishing, and boating at camps on East Grand Lake and Portage Lake.

Bette is survived by her daughter, Lynne G. Bradford and husband, Rusty, of Bernard, ME and a son Leslie H. Gardner and his wife, Nancy, of Sturbridge, MA. Four grandchildren, Melissa Cullina, Jad Dow, Benjamin Gardner, and John
Gardner(predeceased), along with 8 great grandchildren and many nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her parents, her husband of 56 years, her two sisters, Julia Craigs and Lois Gentle of Houlton.

A private service will be held at a later date. Those who desire to make contributions in Bette's memory may do so to a charity of one's choice.

Arrangements by Jordan-Fernald, 1139 Main St., Mt. Desert. Condolences may be
expressed at www.jordanfemald.com

TRIBUTE: Nahum E. Kelley Jr.

SOUTHWEST HARBOR - Nahum E. Kelley Jr., (9/30/62) of Southwest Harbor, passed away on 1/12/23 to fish the oceans in heaven. He grew up in Southwest Harbor, in a commercial fishing family. He started his fishing career in his 20s, and continued that for over 40 years, starting by hauling traps in his rowing skiff, before moving on to his first boat, the Schooner Bedbug. He lobstered, dragged for scallops and harvested sea cucumbers and urchins. Nahum had a passion for sailing and being on the water. He was well known for his huge heart, his willingness to help others, his booming laugh and his tall tales. He was also known for being able to build a boat out of almost nothing.

Nahum is survived by his loving wife of 25 years, Melissa. He is also survived by his daughter, Ida, her husband, Jonathan, and their son, Johnathon Hagerthy Jr., and by son Nahum E. Kelley III. He is also survived by his brother, David Kelley. He was predeceased by his mother and father, Avis and Nahum Kelley Sr., and older brother Joseph. A memorial service is planned for a later date.

TRIBUTE: Allen W. Murphy

BERNARD - Allen W. Murphy, 87, died Dec. 28, 2022, at an Ellsworth nursing home. He was born in Seal Cove, March 2, 1935, the son of James “Buster” Murphy and Sheila (Carter) Murphy. He will be remembered by most as the caretaker for the Carter Farm property in Seal Cove. Previously his grandparents’ property, it was eventually sold to the Putnam family, which he enjoyed working for until his retirement in 2020.

He was predeceased by his wife of 43 years, Eva Jean Murphy, his brother Carol Murphy and his sister Virginia Blaisdell. He is survived by two sons, Stewart W. Murphy and wife, Amy, of Bass Harbor; Shawn W. Murphy and wife, Jill, of Seal Cove; one daughter, Stacie W. Skinner, and husband, Cliff, of Ohio; seven grandchildren, Parker, Paige, Nicole, Cameron, Nolan, Ethan and Lily; and two great-granddaughters, McKinley and Neveya.

A graveside service will be held in the spring at Center Cemetery, Seal Cove. Friends who desire may make contributions in Allen’s memory to the Southwest Harbor-Tremont Ambulance Service, P.O. Box 437, Southwest Harbor, ME 04679. Condolences may be shared at directcremationofmaine.com.

CORRECTION, AMPLIFICATION and CLARIFICATION

MOUNT DESERT - In a post several weeks ago, I misstated the number of students in a class at Mount Desert Elementary School. I was trying to make a point that some of these classes with declining enrollment would be best served to consolidate like Grade 3 in Southwest Harbor and Tremont. Here are the current enrollment numbers: