Bar Harbor also has a problem with human trafficking, according to U.S. Customs and Immigration. Women are smuggled in across the Canadian border and routed to Bar Harbor to work in the town during the tourist season. The problem had become so severe in Maine, in general, that legislation was presented at the state level, L.D. 1296, to make human trafficking a felony.
With the prostitution and the human trafficking also came drug addiction and domestic violence, that has contributed to the decline in the quality of life for all residents.
Peter Mills, 49, was arrested and charged with drugging and raping two young women in Bar Harbor on June 16-17, 2005 and a Surry woman in her 40s on June 18, 2005. In all three cases, the victims were said to have been drugged to the point where they were unable to resist any assault.
When it came time for his jury trial, 200 residents were summoned for jury duty, but only 78 showed up, leaving the term ' civic minded' to be something of the past. They were unable to seat a jury from the pool of 78, and the trial was delayed.
The alleged crime serves as a warning to young cruise ship passengers and their parents, that this sleepy little town is much more dangerous than it appears. The "sleepy" may come on the receiving end of a drug such as GBH, known as the date rape drug. The drug allegedly used in this case was not identified.
Businesses complain that cruise ship passengers are picked up and dropped off at Agamont Park, with most not seeing the downtown area, and the businesses that support the town. This is because the port is downhill from the town, meaning passengers have to walk up a rather steep hill if they care to explore the town.
Business owners are fighting to have buses drop off passengers in the center of town, forcing them to walk back to the pier, and potentially spending money along the way. But, of course, they are unable to agree where that drop off point should be. Agreeing to disagree is what Bar Harbor does best.
This has meant that while the town suffers from the pollution, crime and congestion brought by cruise ships, most passengers are whisked away after viewing Acadia National Park by tour bus, never to spend a dime in town. Business owners say that cruise ship passengers on average only walk about a block into town, then turn around and go back.
John Kelly, the Acadia National Park planner, said that park officials are concerned about the increasing capacity of cruise ships that visit Bar Harbor because more passengers mean more buses are needed to take them on tours of the park. “At certain times in certain locations, things can be pretty horrendous in terms of congestion,” he said. His thoughts are echoed by many of the town residents.
While most visitors to Bar Harbor would say the town is friendly, very few realize that behind the scenes, towns folk are working to keep many tourists out of town, and some just want to rob them blind legally while they are in town.
In one tourist trap scheme, Councilor Jeff Dobbs tried to ram through new legislation that would make smoking in a private vehicle, if a child was also in the vehicle, illegal. But, as demonstrated by the tourism figures outlined in this article, less than 5% of the people driving in Bar Harbor are residents, so the traffic tickets for smoking in their own car would all go to tourists, who would be largely unaware of the law, until they broke it.
It was stopped by a 3-2 vote, for the time being. While defeated at council, Dobbs has vowed to circulate a citizen petition in the next step of pushing through this tourist targeted law. While all agreed it was a great idea for the health of children, railroading tourists on an obscure law would not be good publicity for Bar Harbor.
On another issue, residents had complained so much about houses that were vacant in the winter, but had strange new faces in them throughout the summer on a weekly basis, apparently considered highly undesirable, and nearly criminal in the mind's of some citizens, that the town enacted regulations requiring strict housing codes, that would prevent many home owners from renting out their homes on a weekly basis during the tourism season due to the high cost of modifications.
This was to the delight of the hotel owners, especially developer Thomas Walsh, charging high end prices for hotel rooms, that couldn't complete with the home owner leasing out their private home on a weekly basis.
But, according to a town report, the town has been actively working at "converting land-based guests into cruise ships passengers" according to a town powerpoint report, while blaming the weekly rental homeowner for licensed hotel owner woes.
Of the estimated 350 weekly rental properties, only 40 percent had come forward to comply with regulations. This potentially means 210 units, the most affordable vacation accommodations in town, are no longer available to tourists.
Hotel developer Thomas Walsh, founder of Ocean Properties Ltd, the sixth largest privately held hotel and development company in the United States, owning more than 100 hotels around the world and whose Bar Harbor properties alone are assessed at more than $35 million is known for building in Bar Harbor without permits.
Walsh has built without permits 25 times in recent years, from small jobs to luxurious ones, and asked for the required documents later. His 'do as I please' style came honestly, his father having come to America from Ireland at the age of 12 after illegally stowing away on a ship.
Walsh has town residents enraged at the blatant elitist treatment given to him by town management who fail to shut down his construction projects as soon as the first survey stake is in the ground, requiring him to comply with town bylaws. While the town is incapable of making Walsh do the right things, in the right order, it really is no surprise as they seem to have also sold out to the cruise industry, risking it all for very few tax dollars.
The town's idea of charging passengers to solve the problem the cruise lines have created in their town, was a meager $1.00 per passenger head tax. This would mean they could solve their problems with about $128,000 for 2007. Given their huge new ambitious plan to expand the port facilities, so more cruise ships can call at their port, compounding their problems, they must be considering raising taxes, because $128,000 won't let them break ground on a truly new, modern, state of the art port facility.
Clearly doing the right things, is not common for the town of Bar Harbor, Maine. Bar Harbor is changing, and it is not for the better. It is a town to watch, and soon to avoid.
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Bar Harbor Maine
Cruise Ship Woes Reduce Quality Of Life
March 29, 2007
