Tourism and politics rarely mix, but the robust growth of Bar Harbor’s tourism industry has generated more interest in this year’s local elections than any in recent memory.
Just one year ago, Jeff Dobbs and Matthew Hochman ran unopposed for reelection to the seven-seat Bar Harbor Town Council. This year, there are 11 candidates vying for four open seats.
Brooke “Zana” Blomquist, Earl Brechlin, Keith Goodrich and Charles Sidman are running for one available two-year term on the council, to fill a vacancy created in March when Dobbs resigned for health reasons.
Running for three others seats, each available for a full three-year term, are Maya Caines, Erin Cough, Gary “Bo” Jennings, Cosmo Nims, Val Peacock, Kyle Shank and Nate Young.
Polls in the election will be open at the town’s Municipal Building on Cottage Street from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday.
The Bangor Daily News asked candidates to weigh in on three of the biggest issues facing the town: limiting cruise ship visits, boosting the availability of affordable housing and whether voters should approve a $58.5 million bond to build a new K-8 school. Cruise ship visits to Bar Harbor and the high level of weekly vacation rentals among the local housing stock have both been driven by the rapid expansion of the town’s summer tourism industry over the past 20-plus years.
All 11 candidates were asked via email for their positions on these topics and for other information about themselves.
Brooke ‘Zana’ Blomquist
Blomquist called the daily limit of 1,000 cruise ship passenger “arbitrary” and noted that most ships that visit Bar Harbor carry more than that. The town could shift ship visits to less busy times of the year “to boost commerce and at the same time decongest the sidewalks in higher visitation weeks so the town still feels accessible to our residents and in-state tourists,” she said.
To help encourage development of affordable housing, there should be more investment in transportation options and infrastructure on Mount Desert Island, she said, and new ways of raising town revenue so property taxes don’t increase.
She said she supports the proposed $58 million bond to fund construction of a new school.
“There’s no question the school needs to be replaced, but it’s ultimately up to the voters of Bar Harbor to determine if the proposed bond measure is a burden they’re willing to take on,” Blomquist said.
As a local bartender, Blomquist said she has strong people skills and is good at conflict management.
“I make people feel safe and heard while keeping calm under pressure. I don’t shy away from difficult conversations or decisions,” she said.
Earl Brechlin
Brechlin, a former longtime local weekly newspaper editor, said the town should cap cruise ship visits to one large ship a day and set an annual limit for total passengers. He said the town could prohibit cruise ships on certain days of the week and, to raise revenue, could auction off ship reservation slots to the highest bidder.
Voter approval in recent years to limit non-owner occupied vacation rentals and to allow construction of employee dormitories have helped boost housing availability to year-round residents, he said, but there is more the town can do.
The town is looking into where high-density affordable housing can be built, and how it might adjust its zoning to simplify regulations and remove “unnecessary and burdensome regulations” that hinder the creation of more housing units, he said.
Brechlin said he supports construction of a new school and thinks the impact on taxpayers can be mitigated by using parking fee revenue to help pay off the bond and by working with contractors and architects to reduce costs.
In addition to his career as a local newspaper editor, Brechlin cited his involvement with many community organizations and his service on various town committees as experience that would make him an effective town councilor.
Keith Goodrich
Goodrich, who was convicted of theft in 2015, did not respond to emails from the BDN asking for information about himself or his positions on local issues.
Charles Sidman
Sidman is a former biomedical scientist who spearheaded the citizen initiative that set a cap on cruise ship passengers of no more than 1,000 a day. He said that voter-approved limit “must be honored and implemented.”
The town’s proposed cap between 3,500 and 3,800 passengers was “too little, too late” after local residents already had made clear that they thought heavy cruise ship traffic is hurting the town, he said.
“While precise numbers can be changed going forward by further voter action only, the voters have spoken decisively,” Sidman said.
To boost affordable housing, the town could help finance employee housing development projects for local not-for-profit organizations, and could reduce “overly restrictive zoning rules,” Sidman said. He added that tighter limits on weekly rental properties have not had “any direct or measurable effect on long-term housing availability that I have seen.”
The proposed $58 million construction bond is “premature,” he said, given the unknowns of future enrollment numbers and the looming possibility of school consolidation with other towns.
Sidman said his experience on the town’s warrant committee and in organizing other local citizen initiatives would serve the town well if he is elected.
Maya Caines
Caines, a former communications coordinator for the town, said she supports the daily limit of 1,000 cruise ship passengers that voters approved last fall. That vote, public opinion polling, and voter anger over a legal challenge that some local businesses have made to the new limit all show that most residents want significantly fewer cruise ship visits.
“Through these actions, the citizens have spoken,” she said.
Caines said the town needs to find “a healthy balance” with tourism as a whole, not just the large ships that anchor in the bay, and to build a more year-round economy.
The lack of affordable housing is “at the root of most of our problems,” she said. The town should work with businesses and local organizations to address it, and needs to find ways to make it easier to develop housing for workers and working families.
Caines did not specifically comment on the projected cost of building a new K-8 school, but said the town should relieve the local tax burden with grants and other types of fundraising. The town needs to proactively maintain its infrastructure “so we don’t end up with an extreme financial burden.”
Erin Cough
Cough is a current town councilor who has served on the board since 2017. Cough did not respond to requests from the BDN for information about herself or her positions on local issues.
Gary ‘Bo’ Jennings
Jennings works as the general manager of a local restaurant and is president of the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce board of directors. He said he supports the 3,500 to 3,800 daily cruise ship passenger agreement that the cruise companies had agreed to prior to voters’ approval of the lower cap last fall.
Jennings said that to make affordable housing more available, the town should simplify its zoning, and allow higher-density development and smaller lot sizes.
“The current council has done good work, and we must continue it, but the biggest way to rapidly increase affordable housing is to build seasonal employee housing off-island,” he said.
Jennings said he supports the $58 million school bond mainly because “it is the quickest way to improve the education of our students.” A rejection of the bond vote, he added, “will only compound issues.”
He said Bar Harbor should get more revenue sharing financial assistance from the state so that it can better maintain its services and infrastructure for the residents and millions of visitors who come every year.
His philosophy for serving on the Town Council would be “listen, evaluate, compromise, and grow.”
Cosmo Nims
Nims, an IT professional and former bartender, supports the 1,000 cruise ship passenger daily limit. To ease tourist congestion in downtown, the town should make it “more pedestrian prioritized and friendly.” He did not provide specifics.
To boost availability of affordable housing, the town could offer financial incentives for building or providing year-round housing, and consider raising fees on short-term rentals to encourage landlords to rent them long-term instead, he said. The town also should allow more high-density housing.
Nims said he “absolutely” is in favor of the $58 million bond to replace the existing Connors Emerson School.
“Connors Emerson has been in dire condition for a while now, and every child has the right to access clean, sufficient, and nurturing educational environments, as do the staff members that teach and guide the next generation of Bar Harbor residents,” he said.
Nims said the town should pursue heavy federal subsidies to install fiber-optic broadband throughout Bar Harbor, to help local residents to get jobs working online.
“I think that the lessons and skills I’ve taken from my two careers would be invaluable tools for anyone that would like to serve in local politics,” he said.
Val Peacock
Peacock, who works for an education nonprofit organization, currently serves as chair of the Town Council.
She said cruise ship traffic needs to be reduced, but said any limit should be part of an adopted management plan that includes policy and procedures for how to handle shoreside operations.
“We need objective data to support our plans, and we need to understand the legal landscape which applies to this complex question,” she said.
Peacock said the town has made strides in recent years to limit short-term rentals and allow dormitory-style employee housing, but should do more. It should take a broader look at how to plan growth to incentivize affordable housing development, support efforts by employers to develop housing and consider regional solutions with surrounding towns.
She said she supports the $58 million school bond, even though the town might consider consolidating schools with other towns.
“The building is beyond the point of repair and doesn’t meet current or future educational programming requirements,” she said. “It’s the most important investment we can make in our community.”
Other things the town should pursue include a broad tourism management plan, alternate revenue streams and climate resiliency, she said.
Kyle Shank
Shank, an executive in media analytics and technology, favors limiting cruise ships to one per day. More important than that, the town should develop an overall tourism management plan, he said.
“We have no mechanism of government that is focused on managing tourism activities in their broadest sense, which means much of the town’s ire is consistently funneled towards the Cruise Ship Committee and/or the Chamber of Commerce,” he said.
The town can help make affordable housing more available by simplifying its zoning and by offering incentives to develop multiple-family housing and year-round rentals in existing dense neighborhoods. It also should support employer development of workforce housing that supports the town’s tax base.
As for regulating short-term rentals, Shank said the town should wait to see the impact of recently imposed restrictions before it considers any new ones.
Shank supports the $58 million school bond. The town will need a new school building regardless of whether it pursues school consolidation with other towns in the next few years.
The town also should broaden its economic base outside tourism and seek out new revenue streams to alleviate the tax burden on property owners.
Nate Young
Young is a former local police chief who was fired in 2014. Young has a drunken driving conviction from 2017, but has since received treatment for alcoholism and this spring told the Quietside Journal that he has been sober for more than four years.
Young supports the limit of 1,000 cruise ship passengers per day and said any changes to that will have to be directly approved by voters.
“The citizens took the responsibility away from the council, because [the council] failed to listen to the silenced majority over the years,” Young said.
The shortage of affordable housing can best be addressed by nonprofit organizations, though allowing development of employee dormitories has helped, he said. Young is skeptical that reducing the number of short-term rentals will reduce property values.
The town should not diminish the rights of property owners, he said. Nor should it encourage housing development in rural parts of town without considering the impact on groundwater or septic systems.
Young said the town “undoubtedly” should replace or completely renovate its K-8 school, but first should prioritize its overall infrastructure needs before it borrows that much money.
Young, who owns and operates a local lodging business, said he wants to rein in the town budget. He said his 22 years as police chief honed his leadership skills and gave him a “deep understanding” of town government.