Bar Harbor businesses fly flags to herald winter hours

BAR HARBOR – Though there hasn’t been much precipitation along the coast so far this winter, snowflakes are flying in the local downtown district.

Dozens of businesses have erected blue flags, each with a white snowflake on them, outside their front doors to signal when they are open for business during the winter. The flags are part of a program established by the Bar Harbor Merchants’ Association, which was founded last year to promote the town as a year-round service center.

Many of Bar Harbor’s downtown businesses close between the end of October and May, when the number of tourists that visit the picturesque seaside town plummets.

In the flag program, association members buy identical flags and fly them outside their businesses during the nonsummer months, changing them to match the season. In the fall participating businesses display yellow maple-leaf flags and in the spring it will be purple flags each emblazoned with a bright yellow flower.

The program was established last November after local voters changed the municipal land use ordinance to allow the flags to be displayed.

Julie Veilleux, the association’s president, said Thursday that 44 flags have been distributed to association member businesses in downtown Bar Harbor since the holidays. She said people around town have told her they did not know some businesses were open at all during the winter until they saw the snowflake flags displayed at their entrances.

“We just signed on six new merchants at the beginning of the year,” Veilleux said. “It’s growing all the time.”

More than 60 stores, restaurants and service-oriented businesses have joined the group since it was founded, according to the association’s member directory. More information is available by calling Veilleux at 288-9550 or online at www.barharbormerchants.com.