Should Gouldsboro and Winter Harbor residents have to subsidize public safety expenses for the thousands of tourists expected to flock to the Schoodic Peninsula’s section of Acadia National Park? This, in a nutshell, is the question I posed to the Acadia National Park Advisory Commission Sept. 14.
This issue was prompted by the confluence of two changes on the peninsula.
The first is that the towns of Winter Harbor and Gouldsboro, which make up the peninsula, agreed to jointly hire a full-time fire chief. Both towns’ volunteer fire departments are struggling to recruit and retain firefighters, a phenomenon sadly happening throughout Maine and much of the nation. Both towns’ select boards and their current fire chiefs agreed that part of the solution was to combine our resources to afford one full-time chief for the peninsula. But we did so without adding benefits to the job description.
The unanimous first choice of the two towns was the former fire captain of South Portland who has a summer home on the peninsula; additionally he has paramedic skills, has taught fire technology at a community college and served as a volunteer on the Gouldsboro Fire Department. The candidate and his wife are gainfully employed in Arizona currently and therefore wanted assurances of a slightly higher compensation package than advertised, plus assurances that, in the near future, benefits would be offered. The two towns were willing to offer higher pay but not benefits at this time. The preferred candidate has withdrawn his name from consideration.
The second change on the peninsula that has come into play is the addition of 1,500 acres to the Schoodic section of Acadia National Park, along with a campground, hiking trails and new amenities that, by the park’s own estimate, is expected to attract dramatically increased visitation. While increased tourist traffic will undoubtedly bring benefits to local stores and restaurants, it will also most likely increase the number of traffic accidents, fires and demand for emergency services. Winter Harbor’s 500 and Gouldsboro’s 1,750 residents constitute a slim foundation to support public safety services for a burgeoning summer visitor population.
The Acadia National Park superintendent has been quoted several times saying that the changes to the Schoodic section the park can help reduce the visitation pressures on Mount Desert Island. Anyone who has visited Bar Harbor during the summer knows that demand for access to the park far exceeds the natural ability of that small island to accommodate the number of tourists.
Should Schoodic serve as Bar Harbor’s “safety valve” by diverting tourist traffic here is, at best, a Pyrrhic victory for both the park and for residents of Schoodic. I’ve been told by Schoodic residents more times than I can count that “we do not want to become another Bar Harbor.” After speaking recently with one Bar Harbor police officer and visiting Bar Harbor twice this past summer, I more fully appreciate that sentiment.
My request to the Acadia National Park Advisory Commission, then, was to ask its members to appreciate that the park and the two towns share space on the same lifeboat but that, currently, only the two towns are manning the oars. I suggested that our mutual interest during this time of momentous change was for the park to pay its fair share toward creating a full-time fire chief position, with benefits.
Sharing the benefits and the costs of growth in tourism is, I believe, the responsibility of all three entities and, if implemented, will enhance the common good.
Roger Bowen is a selectman in the town of Gouldsboro; the views expressed here are his own.