Bar Harbor re-elects 2 incumbent councilors
Jun. 9—Two incumbent Bar Harbor town councilors were re-elected Tuesday by a wide margin over their three challengers.
Councilors Joe Minutolo and Gary Friedmann received 813 and 779 votes respectively in the five-way race for two seats on the seven-seat council. Jen Cough, a member of the town's cruise ship committee, got 319 votes, while former local police chief Nathan Young received 225 and former town councilor Peter St. Germain received 169.
The results are seen as overall voter support for the way the town has been trying to address two big local issues: limiting cruise ship traffic, and boosting the local availability of affordable housing, in part by regulating the weekly vacation rental market. Town officials have been considering whether to tighten limits on the number of cruise ship visits that Bar Harbor gets each summer, and whether the town should make changes to the way it regulates the short-term vacation rental market.
In another Bar Harbor election, 15 of 18 candidates were elected to serve terms varying between one and three years on the town's warrant committee. Elected to the committee were Juliette Berberian, Steven Boucher, Robert Chaplin, Cara Ryan, Jeffrey Young, Carol Chappell, Kevin DesVeaux, Bethany Reece, Allison Sasner, Christine Smith, Caleb Cough, Meagan Kelly, Seth Libby, Kathleen St. Germain and Ezra Sassaman.
