UPDATE: Full version of citizen's letter

BAR HARBOR, June 23, 2024 - My last post of the letter by Guy Dunphey omitted the following passages, caused either by a cut-and-paste error or a problem with the Substack platform.

Here are the two passages:

“It’s been repeated over and over that Bar Harbor does not allow cruise ships on holidays. However, cruise ships are allowed to disembark on days surrounding the holidays. This is often when the town is extremely busy.

Examples:

Memorial Day weekend 2024 -

1 ship with 1,432 passengers on 5/24 (Friday) and 1 ship with 1,432 passengers on 5/26 (Sunday).

4^th of July 2024 (Probably the busiest weekend in Bar Harbor) 1 ship 7/3 (Wednesday) with 100 passengers.

1 ship 7/5 (Friday) with 1,432 passengers, 1 ship 7/6 (Saturday) with 109 passengers 1 ship 7/7 (Sunday) with 1,432 passengers.”

And the second passage:

“Additional points and suggestions that should be considered for any talks with the cruise ship industry and its partners going forward.

• Monitor parking spaces used and charge the land-based tour groups per space for the maximum daily charge. I counted 30 parking spaces one time being tied up with bus/tour parking or blocked for GEM cars.

*The above statement might be done already. Be it through the disembarkation fees or other fees. However, if it is paid for by the disembarkation fees it shouldn’t be. The loss of parking space fees should not come out of the town disembarkation fees. It should come out of the pocket of whomever is using the spaces.

• All tour busses should be required to apply and pay for a yearly certificate of operation license rated at a cost/day fee to operate in town. Again, some form of this might be in place now, but if not, it will help to offset the damage the bus traffic is causing on Bar Harbor’s infrastructure.

•  Cruise ship disembarkation fees should be at least equal to land-based parking fees.

I attempted to obtain the number of $2.00 spaces and the number of $4.00 spaces there are, but nobody that I contacted knows those numbers. I was told there are roughly 900 total spots and the town will perform an audit and publish those numbers.”

FOOTNOTE: You may access the entire version here on Google Drive.