Would Mount Desert help fund Bar Harbor's proposed new school?
Other news: SWH to hear complaint about vacation rentals; towns respond to conflict issues; group wants Mills oversight in MRC; tributes to Sherman's owner, Island grocer
BAR HARBOR, Dec. 10, 2022 - The design firm presenting the plan for a new school here got some much needed adult supervision Tuesday night from MDI school superintendent Mike Zboray, who made it clear the facility may need to serve other towns and not just Bar Harbor.
The estimated cost for a new Conners Emerson School has gone from $40 million two years ago to $60 million Tuesday night, an exact inverse to enrollment which plummeted from 490 in 1998 to 334 students today.
“When we started the work in thinking about the Conners Emerson project, I was pretty upfront with the Harriman people (design firm) about flexibility, and what that means in terms of what students can be served by a project like this, recognizing that the need was now but also that there's a future,” Zboray told the Town Council.
Zboray has been working with a consultant and a schools subcommittee on crafting a more regional approach to streamline the administration and the number of schools, including a possible regional middle school, like the high school.
You may watch his appearance on Town Hall Streams, starting at 1:38 into the meeting.
https://townhallstreams.com/stream.php?location_id=37&id=42168
“When thinking about that combined middle school conversation, would that be part of this thing?” Zboray said. “And then there's also talk about potentially collaborating with other communities, even in elementary school.”
Short of a regional middle school, other considerations include sharing two middle schools, one in Southwest Harbor and one in Northeast Harbor, or sharing elementary schools.
Until Zboray’s intervention, the school committee here was pursuing a singular vision to build a new K-8 school only for Bar Harbor, even in the face of huge capital costs in town from sewer and water projects to potentially a new police station to replace the one which was found to be inadequate 10 years ago and a $26 million update of the high school.
There is no doubt improvements are needed, as virtually every aspect of the two existing buildings are at a breaking point - but at what price to serve a declining constituency?
Zboray inherited the effort to reorganize the school district when he was named superintendent March 14. The conversations are now back on track after a pandemic hiatus, with the subcommittee poised to make its recommendation early next year.
Zboray seemed to favor doubling up on existing schools instead of building a new middle school for MDI, which he said would be expensive.
A combined middle or elementary school, would benefit Bar Harbor financially as well because of an existing revenue sharing formula used at the high school where each town pays one third the cost based on enrollment and two thirds based on valuation.
Mount Desert’s valuation is about $2 billion, slightly more than Bar Harbor’s $1.9 billion, but BH has almost three times as many elementary students, 222-82.
Similarly, BH has 119 middle grade students compared with 63 MD students.
A new elementary school in Bar Harbor serving both towns would certainly ease the cost for BH residents who wouldn’t have to shoulder everything on their own. (Middle school students would share the school in Northeast Harbor).
But would Mount Desert, with fewer families with school age children, support such a plan? It has a structurally sound building which was built as a high school, facing the same decline in enrollment. So it has plenty of room. Does it need Bar Harbor?
An argument may be made that consolidation is in the best interest of the children. More students and teachers in each grade fortify the pedagogical foundation of the schools, as Zboray pointed out.
The idea of a $60 million or more to support a steeply declining enrollment is dead of arrival in a town which has no money to repair even its Glen Mary wading pool which was closed last summer. The QSJ reported on how three towns in southern Maine rejected bond proposals for school buildings on Nov. 8.
“We’ve been focusing so much on serving the tourism industry that we forgot about serving our residents,” said council member Joe Minutolo after the Tuesday meeting. “Do homeowners on Ledgelawn need a 36-inch pipe? I don’t think so,” Minutolo said, in reference to the large infrastructure demands of hotels and restaurants. (The town has turned lower Agamont Park and West Street abutting the waterfront into essentially an annex for the cruise ship tender company to disembark passengers and board them on tour buses.)
Could the upper Emerson school be repaired to serve as an elementary school for both Bar Harbor and Mount Desert? Tuesday was a good start to a responsible vetting of all considerations.
More residents complain about vacation rentals ‘destroying our sense of community’
SOUTHWEST HARBOR - Monday night Beth Dilley will join the long line of island residents pleading to their respective municipal authorities to stanch the growth of short-term vacation rentals which, she said, is destroying the sense of community on MDI.
“When we moved here in January 1, 1993, there were nine houses in our in our visible stretch, five across the street and four on our side, and every single one had year round residents. Four of the houses had kids going to Pemetic (school) and one had a senior in the high school,” said Dilley who lives on Seal Cove Road.
“Today, there are only four year-round residents. And there are six seasonal rentals.”
At the select board meeting Monday night, Dilley plans to mention loss of a feeling of safety because at one time she knew who owned all the houses.
“I also think about the loss of volunteers or people who run for school board,” said Dilley, who served on the school board and was a teacher at the high school.
“I want to hear from them what the policies are, and what has been done and what hasn't been done.
“I don't think they can change things because you can't tell all these people who are now doing seasonal rentals that have to stop. But anyways, that's my intent.
Dilley said she will ask about the lack of zoning in town.
“We do this piecemeal stuff to protect the working harbor, which I think is way good, but is it time to have some zoning?” she said.
Two week ago, the Tremont select board heard from 23 residents requesting an ordinance to define what short-term rentals are and that residents who rent their properties to vacationers be required to obtain a permit from the town for a fee.
The discussion ended with a board vote asking the Planning Board to look into possible ordinances to address the issue.
In Mount Desert, resident Diana Mei has appeared before the Land Use Zoning Ordinance advisory committee twice to seek to bar non owner-occupied vacation rentals in residential zones.
SWH unable to settle conflict-of-interest charge; Mount Desert seeks code of ethics
SOUTHWEST HARBOR - The appeals board Tuesday set aside its decision earlier in the evening clearing Planning Board vice chair Lee Worcester of a conflict of interest after citizen Mike Levesque gave members of the appeals board a civics lesson on its own rules.
As a result, the three members reversed its 2-1 vote originally in Worcester’s favor as a motion which failed because the board’s own rules require three affirmative votes to pass any motion.
The issue was continued to its meeting in January which will be the third meeting to take up the matter.
Levesque isn’t just any citizen. He is a Planning Board member. He was the second PB member to question how that board treated a subdivision application on a lot which Worcester still had legal rights and owned the access road. Chris Blaine had similar questions and resigned in protest of PB procedures at a meeting Oct. 20.
Levesque urged the appeals board to settle the question of whether Worcester had a conflict instead of just dealing with the issue on a technicality.
Appeals chair John Izenour and member Jane Peabody were content with just determining that the PB had remedied its Oct. 20 error when it took no action on the conflict question but voted on Nov. 3 to declare Worcester had no conflict.
But Levesque pushed them to deal with the actual question: Was Worcester conflicted or not?
Resident Ken Rozsahegyi, abutter to the lot at 4 Blueberry Lane in the Long Pond Road area of town and a member of the town’s comprehensive plan task force, was the instigator who triggered this investigation.
Rozsahegyi appealed the Planning Board’s actions Oct. 20, citing a conduct policy adopted by the select board in August which stated, “Members with a conflict of interest or an appearance of a conflict of interest should disclose to entire board or committee and shall not vote on any matter in which it is deemed a financial interest, personal interest, or benefit.”
Worcester and his family businesses are among the largest landowners in town, if not the largest. They founded the Smuggler’s Den Campgrounds on Rt. 102 in 1969 and still run it. They are one of the town’s largest vendors, Eastern Maine Recycling (E.M.R.), which hauls all the town’s garbage to various disposal sites.
In addition to his role on the Planning Board, he chairs the water and sewer board and the town’s housing commission.
Mount Desert seeks code of ethics
NORTHEAST HARBOR - When I first disclosed the conflict of interest of a member of the town’s Land Use Zoning Ordinance committee last week, I had no idea the Town of Mount Desert did not have a code of ethics for its employees and board members.
I reported last week that Katrina Carter, who owns one of the town’s largest summer rental agencies, was also helping to draft an ordinance to regulate her industry.
The select board attempted to rectify that Monday night when it ordered Town Manager Durlin Lunt to develop such a code of conduct.
The board had previously asked him to get a legal opinion on conflicts of interest.
Lunt told me he would work with the town’s new human resources director, Zachary Harris, whom the town shares with Bar Harbor, in developing such a code.
Lunt did not tell me that he had sought advice from Eaton Peabody, the town’s law firm which also represents the largest real estate interest on the Island, Ocean Properties, the hotelier which has 74 registrations for short-term vacation rentals in Bar Harbor.
Lunt told the Islander Eaton Peabody’s lawyer told him people who have a conflict should be able to serve on a town board or committee, “However, they probably need to do a better job of disclosing biases, conflicts of interest, etcetera.”
Group wants governor to intervene in MRC management of Hampden plant
MOUNT DESERT - An environmental group whose members live near the landfills that have been the dumping ground of waste being diverted by the Municipal Review Committee is asking Gov. Janet Mills to intervene to resolve MRC’s impasse which has resulted in trash from 115 towns being dumped at the lowest of the EPA’s environmental hierarchy - landfills - for more than two years.
Among other actions, the group Don’t Waste Maine is asking the governor to use her authority to :
Remove the waste quotas and guaranteed tonnage language from the contracts. Towns should not be penalized for reducing amounts of waste requiring disposal.
Allow member towns leave MRC if they desire. A properly run facility that focuses on legitimate recycling, reduction and diversion of waste from disposal would be an incentive to stay.
Institute a clear, transparent and verifiable reporting system that identifies and accounts for what is going into the facility, what is coming out, and where it is going.
Abandon the all-in-one system. Assist communities to develop infrastructure for source separating for three waste streams at a minimum: organics, recyclables, and trash. Recyclables should be source-sorted into cardboard and paper, cans, and glass to retain and reclaim the most value from resources and provide ability to produce marketable commodities that can make the system profitable.
Remove organics from the waste stream! Explore capabilities of the existing digester.
In Vermont, the Chittenden Solid Waste District made $3,363,064 from the sale of processed recyclables in 2021. This was a 115% increase from the previous years. The U.S. recycling end markets are starting to form. MRC should find a way to use the existing sorting processes at the facility to separate recyclables so they can be sold.
End Further Contamination of Our Health and Environment
Phase out production, use, and sale of fuel briquettes.
Properly manage process water.
Prohibit sludge from being processed in the anerobic digestor. The digestor must be kept free of contaminants utilizing only clean yard waste and unpackaged organics. Using the digester to process clean organics the digestate can be used as a soil amendment as it should be free of heavy metals, PFAS, and other chemicals of concern. This would provide another revenue stream. NOTE: There may not be enough organic material for both composting and anerobic digestion. The priority should be initially using the current digester to cut down on costs. Once employing source separated organics and determining the total volume it may make sense to explore composting.
The letter was signed by Don’t Waste Maine member Jacquelyn C. Elliott
of Waterboro.
The MRC’s annual meeting is Wednesday Dec. 14. You may register here to attend:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jCgKHqgPQ9uSk8VhMBQOVw
TRIBUTES: Legendary Bar Harbor business owners Pat Curtis (Sherman's), Don Allen (Shop N' Save)
BAR HARBOR - When life throws you a curve ball, it sometimes brings out the humanity in us, as it did Tuesday night at the Town Council meeting when member Jill Goldthwait poignantly reminded all attendees:
“Well, this has been a trying week for our community.”
The council had just received news that long-time member and former chair Jeff Dobbs suffered a seizure and was taken by emergency transport to Eastern Maine Hospital in Bangor. He underwent heart surgery Thursday.
Goldthwait and others wished Dobbs a full recovery. She then paid tribute to the late Patricia Curtis, the first woman elected to the town council who died Thanksgiving Day. She was 88.
“Pat was - I don't even know what the right words are - she was like an icon in the community for so many reasons, not the least of which she was the first woman to serve on the Bar Harbor Town Council. I think the second woman was Molly Reynolds. I was the third.”
“But Pat was just a first in so many areas and of course, ran a memorable business which still is the go to place for me and anybody in my family who comes to town. So we will miss her.” Pat and her late husband Mike purchased Sherman’s Book Store in 1962 and built it into the most famous retail business in town.
Goldthwait also paid tribute to Don Allen, the legendary grocer who owned the store which is now Hannaford’s.
“And that’s the demarcation point. If we call it Hannaford’s you’re from away, to call it Don's you’re local. So he shall be missed.”
“I remember the effort he put into recruiting a workforce that was perhaps had employment difficulties. And Don had those kids in ties and white shirts, bagging groceries and they learned work ethic as well as earn a salary …
“I know if it was the middle of the night and we needed a formula for a baby at the hospital. We could call Don and he would go to the store and bring her over the hospital. So another extraordinary community member and everyone who will be sadly missed.”
Here are their obituaries and that of Norris Reddish:
Patricia Silk Curtis
1934 - 2022
BAR HARBOR - Patricia Silk Curtis, 88, died peacefully at MDI Hospital on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 2022. She was born in Bar Harbor on January 19, 1934, the daughter of Hiram N. Silk and Mae Wright Silk.
Pat grew up in Bar Harbor and attended Bar Harbor High School where she was a varsity cheerleader. She married her high school sweetheart Michael Warren Curtis and, always together, they spent the next 40 years raising three sons, running a successful local business, traveling the world and giving back their time in public service to the town they loved.
In 1951, Pat and Mike moved to the Boston area to seek their fortunes and start a family. Family was always the most important thing to Pat. Pat, Mike and their three young sons happily welcomed Mike’s younger sister Althea and brother Rod into the family after their parents died. When Pat was 27, Mike was diagnosed with a rare spinal cord disease that they were told would eventually leave him paralyzed. One of the specialists they consulted told them, “With good planning, you will be able to lead a reasonably normal life,” a mantra Pat lived by and repeated often.
At the time they received this devastating news, Pat and Mike had five dependents keeping Pat busy as a housewife while Mike was employed selling life insurance in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Pat and Mike decided that they needed a new plan, which included buying a business so they could be self-employed. They chose to move back to their hometown Bar Harbor with a plan to buy the first business they could afford because they knew “their hometown people” would support them.
In 1962, Pat and Mike purchased a small shop named Sherman’s Book Store. As predicted, the town supported their efforts from the start and, working side by side as partners every step of the way, Pat and Mike proceeded to grow and expand the business many times over the decades. On many occasions in the 1970s and 1980s, they pushed aside the racks and hosted book signings with new local authors like Stephen King and national newsmakers such as Walter Cronkite.
From their stores in Bar Harbor, Northeast Harbor and Ellsworth, Pat and Mike offered a unique selection of books, art supplies, toys and stationery to generations of families. When Mike passed away from his crippling disease in 1989, Pat, alone for the first time in 40 years, continued running their business with all the skills they had learned together, and she built Sherman’s Book Store into the Bar Harbor institution that it is today.
In addition to her business and family pursuits, Pat lived a long life of public service. She was elected to the Bar Harbor Town Council in 1977 and in 1981 she was chosen by unanimous vote of her other councilors to be the first woman to chair the Town Council. She was also the first female to serve on the board of directors of The First National Bank of Bar Harbor. She served many years on the MDI Hospital Board, the MDI Housing Authority Board and the Bar Harbor Garden Club. A lifetime Rotarian, in 1995 Pat became the first female president of the Bar Harbor club and was proud to be named a Paul Harris Fellow. She was a familiar face at Rotary events, including the annual lobster festival, on the Fourth of July, where she served lobster rolls for many years.
Pat enjoyed many friendships during her long life and perhaps none so special as her traveling companion Barbara Hepburn and in later life her daily companion Jerry Bouchard, until his death in 2019.
Pat was predeceased by her beloved husband and partner Mike, her parents Mae and Hiram Silk, her sisters Madeline (Silk) Doyle and Margaret (Silk) Smith, her brother Clarence Silk, her sisters-in-law Jean (Curtis) Frost and JoAnne (Curtis) Cantwell and several nieces and nephews.
Pat is survived by her sons Michael W. Curtis of Bar Harbor, Jeffrey D. Curtis and his wife Maria Boord Curtis of Boothbay Harbor, Matthew S. Curtis and his partner Julie Malloy of Bar Harbor, her sister-in-law Althea Curtis Higgins and her husband Peter Higgins and her brother-in-law Rodney Curtis and his wife Ann, grandchildren Myles S. Curtis of Brooklyn, N.Y., Victoria B. Curtis Jose of Falmouth, Benjamin Curtis of Bar Harbor, MacKenzie Curtis Vincent of Issaquah, Wash., Jamie Estes Bajaj of Medford, Mass., and Matthew H. Curtis of Bar Harbor, great-grandchildren Ebbe and Henry Jose, Bodhi and Shiv Bajaj, Henry Malloy, and Ava Curtis, as well as many nieces and nephews.
All of us who knew Pat feel grateful for the time we had together, making it particularly appropriate that she should choose Thanksgiving Day to leave us.
Donald D. "Don" Allen Sr.
1930 - 2022
BAR HARBOR - Donald D. “Don” Allen, 91, died peacefully Dec. 4, 2022, at Mount Desert Island Hospital. He was born Dec. 13, 1930, in Augusta, the son of Osmond and Gladys (Walker) Allen.
He graduated from Cony High School and attended two years of college before enlisting in the U.S. Air Force … to “see the world.” To his surprise, he was assigned to Loring Air Force Base in northern Maine, where he managed the local commissary. After the Air Force, he was hired by Hannaford Bros. Co. and traveled the state assisting with inventories. When Hannaford opened the first Shop ’n Save supermarket in Bangor, Don was brought in as the first store manager.
While in Bangor, Don met Joan McClay and they soon married. In April of 1962, just over a month after they married, they moved to Bar Harbor and purchased the Bar Harbor Red and White store, which quickly grew to become Don’s Shop ’n Save supermarket.
Don was an active member of St. Saviour’s Parish. He was also an active member of the MDI Rotary Club, where he served as president, treasurer and other roles over the years. He served on the boards of several local businesses and organizations, including First National Bank and College of the Atlantic, among others.
He is survived by his three sons, Donald D. Allen Jr. of South Portland, Gary P. Allen of Chicago, Ill., and Richard L. “Rick” Allen and his wife, Kim, of North Andover, Mass.; two grandchildren, Ben E. Allen and Nora A. Allen, both of North Andover, Mass.; three sisters-in-law, Margaret Ann “Peggy” Barrett and her husband, Gary, of Manchester, Joyce McClay of Bangor and Susan Hayes and her husband, Joe, of Brewer; one brother-in-law, Richard “Dick” McClay, of Bangor; and several nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his wife of 58 years, Joan C. (McClay) Allen; his four brothers, Norman, Royce, Warren, and Lawrence, all of Augusta; his brother-in-law John “Jack” McClay of Bangor; and his sister-in-law Judy McClay, also of Bangor.
Funeral services will be held 10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 9, 2022, at St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church, 41 Mt. Desert St., Bar Harbor, with Dr. Rev. Regina Christianson celebrant. Spring interment will be in Ledgelawn Cemetery, Bar Harbor.
The family wishes to thank Birch Bay Retirement Village and Mount Desert Island Hospital for their care and support. Those who wish to remember Don in a special way may make gifts in his memory to St. Saviour’s Church Building Fund, 41 Mt. Desert St., Bar Harbor, or the Bar Harbor Food Pantry, 36 Mt. Desert St., Bar Harbor, ME 04609.
TRIBUTE: Norris M. Reddish
1937 - 2022
MOUNT DESERT - Norris M. Reddish, 85, died December 5, 2022, at MDI Hospital in Bar Harbor. He was born May 19, 1937, in Southwest Harbor, the son of Clarence N. and Agatha (Peckham) Reddish.
Norris was a graduate of Pemetic High School, Southwest Harbor, Class of 1955 and Maine Maritime Academy, Class of 1958. For most of his maritime career, he served as Chief Engineer aboard vessels working for Mobil Oil and Maersk Line. In the latter part of his career, he served on the Navy chartered MV PFC William B. Baugh, which was part of the US Military Sealift Command's pre-positioning ships stationed in the Indian Ocean at Diego Garcia. The ship and crew provided direct support of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm during the Persian Gulf War for the US Marine Corps Expeditionary Brigade. Norris was awarded the Merchant Marine Expeditionary Medal which honors merchant seaman who serve on US flag ships in direct support of operations involving American and allied military forces.
Norris retired so he could spend time with his wife Elaine (Higgins) Reddish whom he had married on July 31, 1960, and his family. They enjoyed their time together and went on many fun trips. They especially enjoyed going to Walt Disney World with family and their trips to Longboat Key, Florida.
Community service was a big part of his life. He was active in the local community including the Somesville Library Association, the Somesville Union Meeting House, U.C.C. and attended St. Savior’s Episcopal Church, Bar Harbor in his later years. Norris also served on the Town of Mount Desert Warrant Committee.
Norris volunteered at the Somesville Fire Company for many years. He was a strong advocate of joining the four independent fire houses of Mount Desert into one combined municipal fire department. In 2001, Norris was one of many Somesville firefighters that transferred over to the newly formed Mount Desert Fire Department (MDFD) that we know today. Norris served as a Fire Captain and was the Officer-in-Charge of Station #3(Somesville) until his retirement in 2014. During his 50 years of service to the town as a volunteer Firefighter and Emergency Medical Technician, Norris was a dedicated, devoted, and valued member of the MDFD.
Norris was a member of the Mount Desert Lodge A.F. & A.M. #140 and Northeast Harbor Lodge A.F. & A.M. #208. He entered the Mount Desert Lodge in 1965 and was raised in 1966. In 2013, Norris served for the Northeast Harbor Lodge as Historian, Secretary, and coordinator of the Widows Program. In 2015, he served as the Librarian of the lodge. He became a 50-year member on January 18, 2016 and spent a total of 56 years in devoted service to the Masons.
Norris was an avid reader and talented carpenter. He loved spending time in his fully equipped woodshop. There wasn't a specialty tool that he didn't possess and was extremely proud of his vast antique wood plane collection.
His family wants to thank all of his caregivers for their support and care of Norris over the past several years, especially Sara Somes who was very devoted to the Reddish family.
Norris is survived by his daughter, Julianna R. Bennoch and husband John of Mount Desert; son Ryan Reddish and wife Sue of Canton, MA; five grandchildren, Delaney Smith, Courtney and Ally Reddish, Colby and Crystal Bennoch; stepsons William and Glen Sargent. He was predeceased by his beloved wife Elaine of 43 years in 2004 and his second wife Ann Sargent Reddish who died in 2011; stepdaughter, Sueann Sargent who died in 2021. He will be especially missed by his beloved cats Cuppa, Max, and Bali.
Celebration of life service will be planned for the spring of 2023. Date TBD.
Contributions in Norris's memory may be made to the Mount Desert Fire Department for firefighter training. MDFD, P.O. Box 248, Northeast Harbor, 04662.
Arrangements in care of Jordan-Fernald, 1139 Main St., Mount Desert. Condolences may be expressed at www.jordanfernald.com