KENNEBUNKPORT — Just as shopkeepers here readied for the last big hurrah of the summer this Labor Day weekend, they learned their business center will be closed to allow New York City-based AIDS activists to protest in the town square.

ACT-UP, the Aids Coalition to Unleash Power — a group known for disruptive tactics — plans to bring more than 1,000 people Sunday to this town of 3,200 year-round residents where President Bush summers. Their goal: to try to get Bush to play a more prominent role in the AIDS crisis.

Local law enforcement officials — including the Maine State Police and the seven-member Kennebunkport Police Department — have overseen more than two dozen demonstrations along Ocean Avenue, the sweeping coastal road leading to the Bush estate on Walker’s Point. All but ACT-UP, they said, have been cooperative in giving detailed plans prior to marches.

Kennebunkport Police Detective Sgt. Gary Ronan said his department has met with state police and other agencies for weeks in strategy sessions they hope will protect the demonstrators’ First Amendment rights while protecting the private property rights of local citizens and keeping roads open for emergencies.

Ronan said he obtained most of his information about ACT-UP’s plans from the national media or other intelligence sources. “They (ACT-UP) have given us spotty information,” Ronan said. “It’s been like hammering out a union contract.”

The marchers, Ronan said, plan to exit buses on the outskirts of town and cross a bridge into Dock Square, Kennebunkport’s economic heart. Many are gay and many, Ronan said, will be HIV-positive or “very sick” with the AIDS virus. Doctors are expected to accompany the group.

“They want to make a dramatic entrance into Dock Square,” Ronan said. “They want to project the image of a large group taking the bridge.”

Local hospitals have been notified, as have Maine’s U.S. Attorney and the county district attorney. The element of the unknown — whether ACT-UP plans more than a march to Bush’s house or seeks arrests through civil disobedience — has required police to adopt several contingency plans. They will wear protective gloves, Ronan said, at the request of the town’s insurance carrier, if arrests are made.

The appearance of anti-gay, counterdemonstrators is anticipated and unwelcome. “One group said they wanted to `come down and help you guys.’ We politely declined,” Ronan said.

“It’s already difficult for us on a holiday weekend to try and cope with the sheer number of people,” said Kennebunkport town manager Jane Duncan, who has spent a long week dealing with a hurricane, a huge whale carcass, and an ongoing sewer project.

Duncan said she’s spoken with officials of cities and towns across the country who have experienced ACT-UP actions “to benefit from their experience.”

Ronan sent a letter to merchants earlier this week warning that one lane of emergency-only traffic will be open in Dock Square Sunday. The group is expected to arrive early that morning.

Susan Savelle, director of the Kennebunk-Kennebunkport Chamber of Commerce, said the reaction of business people is mixed, and sees an interesting clash of free speech and free enterprise.

“I would say a good number of people are taking it in stride,” Savelle said. “Others are concerned that their businesses might be closed …. I’m trying to encourage shops not to close.”

Savelle said she’s spoken with ACT-UP organizers several times, who said they emphasize “they’re not here to disrupt business but to make a powerful statement …. Then they’ll probably spend a couple hours shopping in the stores.”

Despite the merchants’ fears, Savelle believes the demonstration could be a learning experience for the town.

“The fire department and the police department are having to educate themselves about the reality of AIDS while planning for this demonstration,” she said.

“I’m encouraging people to look at this as a day of street theater,” Savelle added. “They’re going to do some symbolic actions and they want it to have an impact.”