BAR HARBOR — In a Dec. 12 email to the Maine Department of Transportation, Acadia National Park Superintendent Kevin Schneider wrote that the state’s request for a five-day turnaround to respond to the state’s terms sheet about repairs to Seawall Road was unreasonable.
Schneider’s email reinforced the Southwest Harbor select board’s same sentiment about terms that the state agency has put on the repairs to Seawall Road.
As proposed, Acadia National Park and Southwest Harbor would each pay 33 percent of the costs for future repairs to the road and Maine DOT would pay 34 percent.
Earlier this month, the Southwest Harbor select board had told Town Manager Karen Reddersen to go ahead and talk to Maine DOT about a possible cost share for the much-loved Seawall Road, which goes along the water and was destroyed in storms last January.
Maine DOT Deputy Commissioner Dale Doughty had previously outlined the state’s plans in a letter to Marilyn Lowell, Southwest Harbor’s former town manager.
“To prepare for the likelihood that this road will be damaged again, over the 2024 winter,” Doughty wrote, “Maine DOT will enter into an agreement with the town of Southwest Harbor and the National Park Service that will confirm a joint partnership to address damage from future storm events beyond the 2025 repair.”
Earlier this year, the state had written to the town that it would give the road permanent repairs in spring 2025.
Now, there are time limitations and terms that are worrying both the town board and Acadia National Park. These stem from a Nov. 25 discussion with the state and a follow-up Dec. 9 email from Maine DOT Planning Director Jennifer Grant to Reddersen
Grant wrote: “It is Maine DOT’s understanding, based on our discussion during the Nov. 25 meeting, that it is unlikely we will be able to come to a general agreement on terms or even execute a three-party agreement by Jan. 1, 2024. If that is indeed the case, Maine DOT would appreciate confirmation of this acknowledgement from both parties (by Friday Dec. 13, 2024), as it may delay planned improvements to Seawall Road in 2025 as outlined in both the July 2024 and October 2024 letters.”
In his reply to Grant, Schneider wrote that the park is “open to collaborating on the financing of future repairs to Seawall Road.” However, because the park is part of the National Park Service, there are multiple “significant legal and policy questions that require vetting.”
That vetting is within the federal park service and bigger than just Acadia.
“That said, asking us to review and respond to a terms sheet within a five-day period, and then finalize a financial agreement by Jan. 1, is unreasonable and unrealistic. Further, this terms sheet does not entirely reflect the conversation we had on Nov. 25,” Schneider wrote. “For example, we stated during that call that we may not be able to enter into an agreement that commits the federal government to funding in future years due to the Anti-Deficiency Act. This is one of several questions that need to be vetted with the Department of the Interior’s Solicitors Office.”
Schneider continued, “After raising these concerns during the call, we understood that an agreement would take the form of a more general memorandum of understanding that would outline roles and responsibilities, and would set up a process that would allow for future discussion and decision-making about cost sharing repairs if the road is structurally damaged due to storms. Very specific issues that are contained within the term sheet you shared — such as invoicing by April 1 — would not be appropriate for this more general MOU.”
That terms sheet was also shared with the Southwest Harbor select board earlier this month.
“The premise that Maine DOT would walk away from promised repairs to Seawall Road if not for a cost-sharing agreement is a brand-new concept which leaves the park and the Town of Southwest Harbor responsible for what has previously been Maine DOT’s obligation, and this could be precedent setting for other state road right of ways where Acadia National Park is the underlying landowner. Thus, working through any agreement will require significant additional research, legal review, and discussion, further making Maine DOT’s request for a near-immediate agreement unfeasible,” Schneider wrote.
This summer, after months of closure, the state agreed to let local businesses voluntarily do a temporary fix to get the road — beloved by MDI residents and tourists — back in working order. Those fixes to the looping road which joins Southwest Harbor to Tremont and also to Acadia National Park’s Seawall Campground, Ship Harbor trail, and Wonderland trail are considered temporary.
Now, Maine DOT looks to have a memorandum of understanding that could potentially determine the road’s repairs in the future.
Southwest Harbor select board Vice Chair Natasha Johnson said, “Within a month, we are going to be a year out from when that road is damaged and we still don’t have it fixed. I think it’s absolutely inappropriate to have the discussion about entering into an MOU with them about that.”
Instead, she and others reasoned, it should be fixed.
This story was originally published by The Bar Harbor Story. To receive regular coverage from the Bar Harbor Story, sign up for a free subscription here.