Planning Board approves campground’s extension
TREMONT Owners of the 11-site campground called Acadia Wilderness Lodge were granted a six-month extension on the project by members of the Planning Board earlier this month.
James and Kenya Hopkins have two projects before the town under the name Acadia Wilderness Lodge. One, approved in May 2019, is for an 11-site campground that was originally going to have cabins on posts and is now planned to be yurts on concrete pads. The second application, for a 154-site campground on a property that abuts the first site, is still being reviewed. Earlier this week, the second half of the public hearing for that project was postponed until June 22.
All but one article passes at Tremont’s Town Meeting
ISLANDER PHOTO BY SARAH HINCKLEY
BAR HARBOR It took just over an hour to pass all but one article on the warrant for the Tremont annual Town Meeting that was held in the Mount Desert Island High School parking lot on Wednesday night.
Town Clerk Katie Dandurand reported 36 voters of the towns approximately 1,200 checked in to the meeting. Some articles passed with as few as 14 votes cast; almost all of them were a unanimous vote in favor.
Members of the Board of Selectmen and Tremont School Committee were seated inside a tent at the front of the parking lot during the meeting and cast their votes from there.
Campground guidelines added to LUO
TREMONT
An amendment to the town’s Land Use Ordinance regarding campgrounds will go before voters in May.
Whether Article 45 passes or not won’t have any bearing on campground applications currently before the town’s Planning Board.
Amendments outlined in the article include a 50–foot setback from the outer property line for any camping related activity such as fire pits or picnic tables, a requirement for 30-gallon trash receptacles for all camping structures, adequate buffering from neighboring properties and fire chief approval of constructed fire pits.
Three different campground applications have gone before the Planning Board in the last two years. One application for a 15-site campground with tent platforms and cabins was denied under the assertion that four conditions of the application had not been met. Another 11-site campground with cabins on Kelleytown Road under the name Acadia Wilderness Lodge
Southwest Harbor navigates staff changes
SOUTHWEST HARBOR There have been a lot of changes at the Southwest Harbor Town Office in the last couple of months that are expected to continue for the foreseeable future.
Currently, town officials are in the process of figuring out how to conduct a search for a permanent town manager and a police chief. Since the removal of Town Manager Justin VanDongen at the Jan. 26 Board of Selectmen’s meeting, Dana Reed has agreed to be the interim town manager until a permanent replacement is hired.
During their meeting Tuesday night, members of the Board of Selectmen signed a findings of fact statement that was drawn up by the town’s attorney regarding VanDongen’s dismissal. It states the board decided to remove the town manager for “convenience. As described in the contract, convenience means ‘without cause.’”
Island Briefs February 18, 2021 on News
A native of Northeast Harbor, Durlin E. Lunt Jr. has lived in Mount Desert all his life. PHOTO COURTESY OF BRIAN SWARTZ
Town treasurer job upgraded
MOUNT DESERT The Board of Selectmen has approved Town Manager Durlin Lunt’s recommendation to upgrade the position of treasurer/tax collector to director of finance/treasurer. That action reverses a decision made in 2011 when, Lunt said, it had become hard to find someone who was capable or willing to take on the extra responsibilities of finance director.
Now, however, he told the board, “As governmental finance continues to evolve in complexity, the time has come to return to the finance director model.”