Sixteenth Annual Report of the Bar Harbor Village Improvement Association 1905 Sixteenth Annual Report OF THE Bar Harbor Village Improvement Association OCTOBER 1905 RECORD PRINT SHOP OFFICERS FOR 1905-1906 President: LEONARD E. OPDYCKE. Vice-Presidents: L. B. Deasy, JOHN S. KENNEDY, RT. REV. WM. LAWRENCE. Secretary: H. M. Conners. Treasurer: F. C. LYNAM. STANDING COMMITTEES Finance Committee: L. A. Austin, Chairman. Morris K. Jesup, Fred C. Lynam, J. S. Kennedy, Thomas Searls. Sanitary Committee: Dr. J. Madison Taylor, Chairman. Dr. Robert Abbe, Dr. E. J. Morrison, Dr. H. D. Averill, Dr. Geo. A. Phillips, Dr. D. W. Bunker, Dr. John B. Shober, Dr. G. R. Hagerthy, Dr. F. Fremont-Smith, Dr. C. C. Morrison, Dr. Horace S. Stokes, Dr. R. W. Wakefield. 4 THE BAR HARBOR STANDING COMMITTEES-Continued Roads and Paths Committee: Waldron Bates, Chairman. Mrs. Robert Amory, George B. Dorr. Miss Mary R. Coles, John J. Emery, Mrs. Edgar Scott. Trees and Planting Committee: George B. Dorr, Chairman. Mrs. John Harrison, Rev. Angus MacDonald, Miss Beatrix Jones, Mrs. L. E. Opdycke, Mrs. J. S. Kennedy, Mrs. A. R. E. Pinchot, Mrs. Wm. B. Rice. Village Committee: Mrs. Edward B. Mears, Chairman. Mrs. A. L. Getchell, Miss Grace Haynes, Miss Sarah Lawrence. Glen Mary Park Committee: Dr. Robert Amory, Chairman. George B. Dorr, Mrs. John Harrison. VILLAGE IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION 5 SPECIAL COMMITTEES Village Green Committee: George B. Dorr, Chairman. Waldron Bates, Mrs. John Harrison, Rev. S. L. Hanscom, Fred C. Lynam, Preservation of Wild Flowers Committee: Miss Louise S. Minot, Chairman. Mrs. John I. Kane, Edward E. Suminsby. 6 THE BAR HARBOR Sixteenth Annual Report The annual meeting of the Association was held in the Y. M. C. A. building, Tuesday morning, September 12th, 1905, and was at- tended by about fifty persons, including two of the Selectmen and the Road Commissioner. In the absence of Mr. Conners, Mr. Oliver L. Hall acted as Secretary. The reports of the Standing Committees (hereto annexed) were read and duly accepted. The report presented by the Village Green Committee at the August meeting has already been printed and circulated among the members of the Association. The report of the Treasurer includes a statement of the receipts and expenditures of this Committee down to the end of the fiscal year. Besides the special Village Green Fund of $2,842., the Association's receipts from dona- tions and membership dues were larger, by $385.37, than during the fiscal year 1903-4. Since 1889, the Association has expended, in beautifying the village and neighborhood. the sum of $33,287.29, of which all but five per cent. was spent for labor and materials. VILLAGE IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION 7 The following table shows the amount of the Association's outlay each year since its organ- ization : 189c, $387.66 1898, 2,616.30 1891, 1.634.11 1899, 2,477.24 1892, 1.873.38 1900, 2,163.10 1893, 1.688.44 1901, 2,342.49 1894, 1.701.79 1902, 2.348.06 1895, 2.142 13 1903, 1,604.40 1896, 2,361 12 1904, 1,300.66 1897, 3.130.40 1905, 3,546.01 For the fiscal year 1905-6, the following ap- propriations were voted: Roads and Paths Committee, $300 with an additional $100 if needed; Tiees and Planting Committee, $500, or so much thereof as may be found necessary by the Chairman of the Committee; Village Committee, $500 in addition to its unexpended balance of $54.40; Glen Mary Park Commit- iee, $10 in addition to its unexpended balance of $18.07. The First Selectman, Mr. Bunker, and the Road Commissioner, Mr. Leland, answered various questions put to them regarding disfig- urements occasioned by road repairs and in the course of placing telephone and other poles 8 THE BAR HARBOR along the roadsides, and promised co-operation in trying to prevent such disfigurements in the future. On motion of Mr. Kennedy, duly seconded, it was Resolved, that hereafter every disburse- ment of the Association be made directly by the Treasurer upon the approval either of one of the officers specified in the second section of the fifth by-law, or of the Chairman of the Committee out of whose appropriation the dis- bursement is to be made. Regarding the Association's effort to ascer- tain the wishes of the community on the sub- ject of automobiles, the President reported that double or reply postal cards had been sent to the cottagers and hotel guests. Of these cards, one portion read as follows: AUTOMOBILES IN BAR HARBOR ? Maine towns have no general power to ex- clude automobiles, but in Mch. 1903 a statute was enacted (Chap. 420, Laws of Maine, 1903) permitting the Town of Eden,-whose bounda- ries include Bar Harbor and the northeasterly part of Mt. Desert Island- to "close to the use of automobiles the following streets within its VILLAGE IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION 9 limits: Ocean Drive, Bay View Drive from Duck Brook Bridge to Hulls Cove Bridge, the Eagle Lake road as far as Eagle Lake and the Green Mountain Drive." In July 1903 the Town accepted the provisions of this act and voted to exclude automobiles as therein speci- fied. The restriction is still in force, and is be- lieved to meet the wishes of by far the larger number of residents and visitors here. Some dissatisfaction has, however, recently begun to show itself, and efforts may be made to remove or relax the restriction. The Bar Harbor Village Improvement As- sociation has instructed its officers to ascertain what public sentiment on this subject now is, and we accordingly venture to ask the addressee of this communication, as well as any other adults residing in the same house, to sign the accompanying postal card and to post it as soon as convenient. The Bar Harbor Village Improvement Asso- ciation: L. E. Opdycke, President; L. B. Deasy, John S. Kennedy, William Lawrence, Vice-Presidents; Fred C. Lynam, Treasurer ; H. M. Conners, Secretary. The other or reply portion of the card read as follows: We, the undersigned summer residents of Bar Harbor, and visitors, hereby express our