BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 17, 2024
Two years after voters passed a citizen’s initiative to sharply reduce cruise ship traffic — leading to an ongoing stream of legal complaints — Bar Harbor officials hope that another vote next month will bring the resulting lawsuits to an end. But voters will have to agree to repeal the limits they approved in November 2022 for that to happen. The question of how much the town should restrict cruise ship visits has embroiled Bar Harbor for more than two years, pitting residents opposed to the industry against the local business community, and ensnaring officials who find themselves enforcing and defending in court a voter-initiated limit that they don’t readily agree with.