MDI Blog

Independence Day 2011

2011-07-04T05:24:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since our last post on MDI Blog, and for that we sincerely apologize. During the intervening months, local issues have continued to be eclipsed by national and international economic and political events.

Here on Mount Desert Island, we like to think that because we are surrounded by the ocean and dramatic natural beauty, we are thus somehow insulated from the problems that are so apparent throughout our country and the rest of the world. Unfortunately, we are not! What happens in China, or in Afghanistan, or in Washington, or on Wall Street, or at the Federal Reserve, or along the Mexican border, or in other towns and cities throughout the United States; all eventually could have a serious adverse effect upon the quality of our life as well as the lives of our children and grandchildren, despite the fact that we live in this supposed haven along the Maine coast!

In our opinion, we as individuals and, collectively, as a nation currently face some of the most significant and difficult problems we have ever encountered since the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776. Now is not the time for ideological posturing, or for burying our heads in the sand, or for selfishly trying to enrich ourselves at the expense of our neighbors and our fellow inhabitants on this island in space. We need strong leaders who can inspire us to bring out the best in each other. We need the willingness and courage to look beyond short term personal gain and, instead, focus on the long term common good. We need to solve our problems together, not on the backs of those who are least able to defend themselves. We need to stand up for the fundamental human principles set forth so eloquently in our country's founding document.

On this Independence Day, let's resolve to do more than just wave the flag or wear the red, white and blue. Let's spend some time thinking about what our freedom really means and what considerable responsibilities that freedom entails.

Tragedy at Thunder Hole

2009-08-24T17:33:00.001-07:00

We’re sure that Acadia National Park has received many comments about yesterday’s tragedy at the Thunder Hole area, and especially about whether or not Park personnel took proper care to safeguard the public.

As one of the thousands who were present at Thunder Hole before, during and after the incident involving the tragic loss of a little seven year old girl, the near loss of several others, and many injuries; we sincerely hope that Park personnel do not take a “bum rap” for what happened. The bottom line in this most unfortunate situation is that you cannot legislate or enforce safe behavior by large numbers of foolishly determined people.

We personally saw Rangers and other Park personnel trying their best to keep people from venturing too far out onto the rock ledges when powerful and increasingly large waves were coming onshore. We saw people move back at Rangers’ requests, and then go right out on the ledges again after the Ranger moved 25 or 50 feet away. We heard people cheer when spray and actual green seawater swirled on or around them. They had no clue about the risk. They also had no interest in being warned by a Ranger, much less by one of the many other ANP employees who were present and did not wear a Ranger uniform or carry a gun. Some people can be incredibly stupid, and we saw a lot of that stupidity yesterday at Thunder Hole.

The big debate is and will be – should the Park have anticipated this and just closed Ocean Drive early on Sunday morning, long before high tide. Our vote is “NO”.

Ocean Drive is one of America’s treasures – a very beautiful but also very dangerous area. The American people should be allowed easy access to this wonderful place that we all own. At the same time, each of us needs to use common sense and take reasonable care to protect ourselves and our loved ones wherever we may be – particularly in natural areas when the forces of nature are on full display. We have always admired the Park for not placing fences or barriers or obtrusive signs in places like Otter Cliffs where a number of people have been killed over the years. People need to take responsibility for their own actions, and that is a concept that has become increasingly foreign in recent years.

Our only real concern about the way in which this incident was handled is that the size of the crowd and congestion on the Loop Road yesterday significantly hindered the Rangers and rescue vehicles from responding to the emergency at Thunder Hole. There is no easy answer to this problem, but when the large number of cars began to approach the point of completely blocking all lanes of Ocean Drive, a situation that was apparent well before the tragic incident, perhaps a Ranger in the Thunder Hole area should have asked the entrance station to temporarily stop allowing more vehicles to enter so that emergency access could be maintained. This has been done from time to time in the past when crowds on Cadillac Mountain became so large that there were no more places to park. Rangers at the bottom have stopped more cars from going up until some came down to prevent gridlock.

In our view, it would be unfair to criticize Acadia National Park for not doing more to avoid this terrible incident. We were there, and overall we feel that the Park and all of its personnel did a very good job on Sunday under very difficult circumstances. The problem was people, and as we said earlier, you cannot enforce good judgment!

The Season

2009-06-21T08:28:00.000-07:00

We are almost embarrassed that it has been so long since our last post; but as we said at the time, issues on Mount Desert Island and elsewhere have been largely overshadowed by national economic events. That doesn’t mean there has been nothing going on around here. We have seen the occasional “dust up” over a few local regulations and other matters, but little has happened of island-wide import. Taking a longer term perspective however, there are some subtle shifts occurring in island life about which we all should be concerned.

In just a couple of weeks the time of year locally known as “the season” will begin. “The season” refers to that period between July 4th and Labor Day when most of our summer residents occupy their homes, and when the events calendar swells to overflowing. “The season” for many of these longtime residents has always remained a constant in their lives, and it has been eagerly anticipated as a welcome respite from day to day business and social interests, as a time for relaxation and enjoyment of nature’s beauty and bounty, and as a time for extended families and friends to gather in a quiet, relaxed setting – often for the only time each year.

Year-round families also enjoy and look forward to “the season”, but in a different way. Most of them work long hours during the summer months, although they still entertain family and friends and look for opportunities to savor these wonderful days that seem to pass all too quickly.

But in the words of Bob Dylan – “the times they are a-changin”! Increasingly, “the season” is not what it used to be.

For one thing, families from all economic strata don’t place the same value on just being together that they used to in years past. Various generations often see things very differently today. They have different priorities and sometimes vastly different lifestyles. The closeness that was so much a part of extended families 50 years ago, all too often no longer exists.

For another thing, society has changed. There used to be relatively little social competition among wealthy summer residents. They lived rather elegant lives to be sure, but they usually saw summers on Mount Desert as a time to “rusticate” and to be with their friends in a more low-key fashion than was possible in the cities where they spent most of the year. Today, there seems to be much greater competition to build the biggest, most extravagant house on the boldest, most dramatic ocean cliff; to be seen at a party with the most prominent national and international figures; to have the most well-known house guests; or to have at one’s disposal the largest private jet and the most expensive yacht.

Perhaps the main reason behind these changes is the fast, intense and highly competitive pace of life today compared to 30 or 40 years ago. No one seems to have the time to do everything they feel they need to do, and finding time to relax is something that frequently is neglected. Also, many people today do not respect tradition the way they used to. The current generation appears to be much more self absorbed, much more materialistic, much more interested in being first, and much less inclined to learn from their parents and grandparents.

Of course, exceptions certainly can be found; and it is possible that we unfairly exaggerate the potentially negative aspects of modern life. Still, there is little doubt that the idyllic, idealistic summer days of the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s are very much in the past. All of us are poorer as a result.

Uncertainty

2008-12-12T11:28:00.000-08:00

The major issues with which residents of Mount Desert Island have been concerned for several years have not gone away. Resource conservation, maintenance of a viable year-round population, balancing the role of tourism in our local economy, reducing the duplication of municipal services, dealing with summer traffic congestion – all of these things and more remain on our plate. But it seems to us that discussion of them has moderated in a significant way over recent months, with such matters taking a back seat to other more immediate global concerns.

Without a doubt the United States, along with most other developed countries, is currently experiencing the greatest financial crisis of our time. And the worldwide economic meltdown has widespread negative implications for our national, state and local governments, for our businesses, for our charitable institutions, and for all of us as individuals. But just exactly what the effects will ultimately be is unknown, leading to much worry and uncertainty about the future.

How will our federal government handle trillion dollar annual budget deficits? How will Maine handle decreasing amounts of federal funds available to the states? How will our municipalities handle corresponding reductions in state financial support for localities? What will a poor economy do to our tourism industry? How can we protect critical funding for Acadia National Park? Will our residents be able to get or keep good jobs?

All of these questions cry out for answers, and the uncertainty surrounding them has, at least for the moment, drowned out discussion of more familiar island issues.

Ah, For the Good Old Days...

2008-06-29T10:27:00.001-07:00

Now how, you might ask, does this topic specifically relate to issues facing Mount Desert Island?

Well, certainly it is a wistful lament that resonates with a growing number of people around the entire country today. (Anyone for $.25 gasoline?) But it also reflects a recollection of, a respect for, and a desire to preserve things from the past that have been and continue to be very central to the lives of most residents of our island.

Perhaps more than in a lot of other communities, people living on Mount Desert Island have always had a sense of their local history and traditions. That is definitely true of native families, though it might be slightly less a factor in the lives of many who have moved here "from away". Those who were born and grew up here are a part of local history, and they remember with great fondness the relative simplicity and beauty of life on a Maine island, especially during the summers. To be sure, there were hardships as well, but there also is a certain pride among those who dealt with and overcame those hardships, often using the strength found in local community values and institutions. Over the years, more than a few of the families who moved here did so at least in part because of their perception of MDI’s rich local history and its abiding sense of community.

So herein lies our issue. Mount Desert Island has been insulated to some degree from the changes that have affected life so dramatically in the rest the United States, particularly its urban areas. But change is overtaking us more and more rapidly. The fast pace of the Information Age is upon us; more new residents come to the island each year seeking a haven of one sort or another and having little prior knowledge of the community into which they are moving; and many of our village elders around the island are gradually passing away, depriving us both of their wisdom and their direct link to the past.

As a result, we are in serious danger of losing our sense of local history along with the local relationships that have been so important to the quality of life here over the years. We have already lost the local sewing circles, all but one of the community associations, most of the grange halls, most of our ladies’ aid societies, and many of our smaller churches. We find it increasingly difficult to recruit members for our volunteer fire departments and for our local town boards and committees. We live our lives on the Internet and on cable TV instead of interacting with our neighbors.

We cannot turn back the clock, nor would most of us really want to, but we do need to find a way to preserve the essence of the island institutions that have made MDI such a special place. As a start, we need to constantly encourage a broad-based understanding of our local history and traditions, so that everyone living here today can fully appreciate the value of those institutions.

Ah, for the good old days...

Retirees

2008-06-07T07:28:00.000-07:00

Well, here we go into a subject that has the potential to offend someone, even if that result is unintended. The subject is both the positive and negative impact of an increasing number of retirees who have chosen and are choosing Mount Desert Island as a place to live during their "golden years".

In many ways, this trend has very positive implications for the island. Folks who retire here are generally well educated and often bring very interesting career experiences into the community. They build or purchase and maintain nice homes, they usually do not have children in the local school system thus requiring fewer municipal services, they tend to be financially secure, and they are a great source of enthusiastic volunteers for many local non-profit organizations. They actively support artistic and educational programs around the area.

But despite all of these positives, there are a few negatives that need to be recognized and addressed. Prosperous retirees from urban areas where home prices and incomes tend to be relatively high are able to bid more aggressively for increasingly scarce property on Mount Desert Island than most locals can afford. This drives up real estate prices here and forces children of local families off island or even out of state to find affordable housing.

Retirees usually place a high value on education and are willing to support local school budgets, even if they do not have children attending those schools. But there is an increasing risk that their support may fade as property taxes rise and as school budgets comprise a larger and larger portion of those taxes. Further, as increasing numbers of retirees replace young families in a community, there are fewer and fewer children attending local schools. This leads to vacant classroom space, inefficient allocation of human resources, and eventual calls for consolidation.

Also, retirees tend to travel frequently - particularly during our long winters. Some actually have second homes elsewhere in places like Florida where they will spend several months each year. This means that there are more empty houses and there is less activity on the island during the winter than might be the case in more economically and socially diverse communities. Coupled with an already large number of seasonal homes on MDI, there is the potential for entire villages to appear shut down for a considerable portion of the year.

And finally, retirees frequently do not know much of the social history or traditions of the island community into which they are relocating. The tendency, therefore, is to bring traditions and procedures from their former lives into the local organizations they join, sometimes causing island natives to feel inferior, pushed out or misunderstood.

So, what to do? How do we embrace the positives while minimizing the negatives? Here is your chance to comment and to offer suggestions...it’s easy, just log on and post!

Tourism

2008-05-17T07:35:00.000-07:00

As we rapidly approach a new season, we are reminded that folks here on Mount Desert Island often seem to have a love/hate relationship with tourists. We can’t wait for them to leave in the fall, and we can’t wait for them to arrive again in the spring.

We hate being forced to drive slowly behind them during the summer; we hate not being able to find a parking spot in Bar Harbor; we hate the crowds on some trails, along Ocean Drive and in the grocery stores; we worry about the damage they might cause to our fragile ecology; we ridicule the t-shirt shops that also sell red, flocked lobsters on a string; we complain about late-night noise in our villages; and we wonder how to accommodate unexpected visits from long-lost friends and acquaintances.

But we love the boost tourists give to our economy; we love the summer employment opportunities for our high school and college students; we love the number and variety of great restaurants available to us during "the season"; we love the world class music programs and live theater; we love the opportunity to reunite with friends and family; we enjoy seeing some of the world’s most famous cruise ships anchored in Bar Harbor; we are excited to join a whale watch; and we thrive on all the activity of the summer months after a long, cold winter.

The fact is that tourism indeed can be a double edged sword. However, if properly managed and controlled, we can continue to enjoy all of its aspects that we love while minimizing those that we hate. Tourism has been a central part of MDI for the past 100 years and likely will be for the next 100 years. All of us who care about, live in and earn a living from this special place need to constantly work together in a spirit of cooperation and understanding to ensure that tourism is a positive force, not a negative one.

Sharing Services

2008-04-01T07:14:00.000-07:00

At a recent League of Towns meeting, the Bar Harbor Town Manager initiated what turned out to be a brief discussion of the idea that island towns might possibly share tax assessing duties to save money. While there was mild interest from some towns, others showed no interest at all, so the idea was shelved with no further action planned.

This is not the first time that sharing certain services among island towns has been brought up, and it also is not the first time that such proposals have been quickly dismissed for lack of interest. That is most unfortunate, because there is great duplication of municipal services in this relatively small geographical area, and local taxpayers are footing the bill. At some point, cost pressures and financial reality will force more consolidation and more efficiency in providing such services to what, by almost anyone’s measure, is one contiguous island community having widespread common interests.

Parkadia Intersection

2007-11-27T07:17:00.000-08:00

In recent months there has been considerable controversy over plans by the Maine DOT to improve traffic flow at the head of the island by creating a new intersection on Route 3 past Parkadia toward Bar Harbor and changing traffic flow on and off Route 102.

This is one of those situations where everyone agrees there is a problem but few have been able to agree on a solution. The issue is complicated by the presence of a two-lane bridge and causeway over conservation land that limit the options for expansion of the existing intersection, as well as traffic flows that vary widely both by time of day and season of the year. In addition, there are two businesses at the existing intersection that are promoting their own self-interests.

Living on an island, even one connected to the mainland by a bridge, means that getting on and off inevitably will require both compromise and patience on the part of residents and visitors alike. Because any long term fix at this intersection will be of considerable magnitude, it is extremely important to get it right the first time, as was suggested by a thoughtful writer in this week’s Bar Harbor Times. We believe that all stakeholders - the Town of Bar Harbor, the MDI League of Towns, Acadia National Park, the Maine DOT, and the businesses - should work together to come up with a creative solution. There is time to do a proper job, but the clock is ticking as traffic on and off the island increases every year and as state funding may be diverted elsewhere.

Local Control

2007-09-12T05:14:00.000-07:00

The concept of “local control” has been very much in the forefront of political discussion in Maine recently as a result of the Governor’s proposal and the Legislature’s action to consolidate school districts from roughly 250 to 80 in order to achieve potential cost savings.

But just what is “local” control? Is it control by individual neighborhood? Or by village? Or by community (whatever that means)? Or by town? Or by county? And what does “local control” cost - or does cost even matter at all?

Here on MDI, the school district consolidation plan mostly involves town funding issues, but otherwise seems to require much less change than in some other parts of the state. Still, there are a few loud voices on the island decrying the loss of “local control” and rattling the sabre of a possible lawsuit.

Most people living on Mount Desert Island think of other residents of the island as “locals”. There are only 10,000 of us living in a clearly defined and contiguous area of approximately 10 miles by 12 miles - much smaller in population and generally more compact than many governmental units around the country that are considered to be “local”. We identify with each other as having a common bond resulting from living on the same beautiful piece of real estate. Yet, we have four town offices, four Town Managers, four Boards of Selectmen, four planning boards, four public works departments, three police departments, four fire departments, etc.

In the “old days” towns on the island were much more separated by such things as poor transportation and lack of easy communication, so “local control” at that time could reasonably have meant “town control”. But what is the excuse today? Sooner or later, we are going to have to realize that Mount Desert Island is, in fact, one community, that continuing to fragment and duplicate public services is prohibitively expensive, and that consolidation of island affairs is both economically sound and very much consistent with the concept of “local control”.

Development Issues

2007-08-03T06:27:00.001-07:00

Despite the "slow" housing market nationwide, here on MDI we have recently been seeing a flurry of new subdivision applications. Among them are high profile proposals such as the Acadia Mountain project along Somes Sound in Mount Desert and the Hamilton Station project in Salsbury Cove (Bar Harbor). In addition, the large Singh shore front property in Seal Cove (Tremont) is back on the market with all of the uncertainty that brings. And a 9 lot subdivision was just approved on significant wet land in Pretty Marsh (Mount Desert).

While these applications almost always are reviewed by Planning Boards comprised of talented local residents who volunteer their time, the applicants frequently have a team of skilled professional attorneys, scientists and engineers available to argue their position. Sometimes these professionals travel from out of state to participate in scheduled hearings. It is becoming apparent that the playing field in these cases is no longer level, and that towns need to take some action to bolster the efforts of their planning boards as they attempt to evaluate and sometimes challenge increasingly sophisticated development proposals.

One approach might be for the four island towns to jointly retain professional expertise in real estate law, land use planning, civil engineering, hydrology, and environmental protection. The retainer fees for these individuals would be shared by the towns, and their services would be available "on call" to any town planning board as needed. The hourly usage charges would be paid by the town using the service, but those charges could be recouped from the developer through impact and/or application fees. This would put local planning boards on a much more even footing with developers, and there would be the added advantage that each of the professionals would be familiar with development island-wide, not just in one town. Mount Desert Island really is not very large, and what happens in one town invariably affects residents of the other towns in sometimes obvious and sometimes not so obvious ways.

If you have thoughts on this issue or other ideas to propose, please post your comments.

Give it a try

2007-06-21T17:34:00.000-07:00

So far, no comments - but hopefully that will change as the source website mountdesertisland.net continues to receive more and more hits.

Certainly, there are deterrents to posting here. In some ways it would be more attractive if those with ideas did not have to sign in to share their ideas. However, allowing totally anonymous comments would open the blog to pranks, spam, and perhaps even more undesirable entries from posters who have no knowledge of or interest in MDI. It also is somewhat intimidating to be the first to post comments, but someone has to break the ice! And finally, the suggested topics, and others that have not yet been mentioned, are very difficult and do not lend themselves to quick or easy solutions.

Despite all of these obstacles, a forum like MDI Blog can have profound benefits for the entire Mount Desert Island community IF enough people are willing to participate in a meaningful discussion here. An online blog is a very convenient way to have a dialog among many people from all of the island towns on the same big, island-wide issues at a time that is most convenient for each of them. Give it a try - it won't hurt, and you actually may be helping to start something very important!

Slow But Sure

2007-05-28T06:12:00.000-07:00

After a hiatus of a few weeks, I finally have the website online that is intended to serve as the primary access point for this blog. The new site is mountdesertisland.net, and among many other things of daily interest to those living on MDI, it contains a direct link to MDI Blog.

I have been asked for some additional information about the kinds of topics that might be discussed here. Of course, there are a great many of them, but here are 3 or 4 to get things started (although I know it will take some time for people to find this forum).

1) How can we best protect and build a viable, year-round community of working families on Mount Desert Island in the face of soaring property values caused largely by demand "from away"?

2) What can be done to help new residents and native "Mainers" better understand each other?

3) Acadia National Park does a great job protecting the environment on their half of the island, but how do we protect the other half?

4) MDI presently is governed by 4 towns with almost all municipal services duplicated 4 times. How do we combine these services to achieve cost and operational efficiencies while at the same time overcoming strong resistance to the loss of "local control"?

See how easy and fun this can be? Weigh in and let's hear your thoughts!

A Beginning

2007-05-09T13:21:00.000-07:00

This is the first post in what I hope will be many over upcoming months and years. You are invited to suggest issues for discussion and to add your comments to issues suggested by others. We hope that you find this blog useful and informative.