Vassalboro school board briefed on full day, in-person classes

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Vassalboro Community School (contributed photo)

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro School Board members held their regular monthly meeting April 13, followed by a meeting with the budget committee to answer questions about their proposed 2021-22 budget.

Vassalboro Community School Principal Megan Allen said the second full day with classes back in person just ended, and went smoothly. The schedule called for one more full day Wednesday, April 14, followed by parent-teacher conferences taking part of the two days before vacation week, April 19 through 23.

Setting up the cafeteria had been a challenge, she said, with tables spaced at marked intervals and individual seats marked at the tables.

Total VCS enrollment is 395 students, Allen said, of whom 62 are learning fully remotely. The fourth grade has the largest proportion of remote learners, 12 out of 42; only one eighth-grader is learning on-line.

After weeks of having students coming to the building in cohorts on alternate days, “It feels really good to be able to say ‘See you tomorrow,'” Allen said.

School nurse MaryAnn Fortin continues monitoring and testing as needed, Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer added.

Pfeiffer and Assistant Principal Greg Hughes reported on two personnel shortages.

Pfeiffer said bus drivers are in short supply. Retired driver Ellie Lessard has again un-retired to help out, he said, but more drivers would be welcome.

And, Hughes said, baseball will not start unless a baseball coach appears. Sixteen boys have signed up and are waiting.

Softball has already started, Hughes said. He expects the VCS team will begin playing against other area schools in May.

In other business April 13, school board members accepted the resignation of math specialist Erica Millett; gave preliminary approval to the 2021-22 school calendar; and continued their ongoing review of school policies.

The next regular school board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday evening, May 18.

Vassalboro town warrant now includes school budget articles

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by Mary Grow

In addition to another review of the draft warrant for the June 7 and 8 annual town meeting, Vassalboro selectmen continued plans for the April 26, 250th anniversary celebration, and discussed two other issues at their April 15 meeting.

The town meeting warrant now includes the school budget articles. Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer said the budget committee recommended them by a vote of eight in favor, one opposed and one abstaining at an April 6 meeting.

The warrant currently has 41 articles. The first 37, dealing with budget committee elections, appropriations for 2021-22 and policies, will be decided at an open town meeting that is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m., Monday, June 7, in the Vassalboro Community School gymnasium.

The remaining four articles will be decided by secret ballot Tuesday, June 8, with polls open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., at the Vassalboro Town Office. Voters will elect municipal officers; decide whether to accept or reject a new “Town of Vassalboro Marijuana Business Ordinance”; confirm or overturn the previous evening’s school budget vote, the so-called school budget validation referendum; and decide whether to continue the budget validation referendum for another three years.

The marijuana ordinance is available for review on the Vassalboro website. Selectmen have scheduled a public hearing on the ordinance for 6:30 p.m., Thursday, April 29, at Vassalboro Community School.

They plan to sign the final town meeting warrant at their April 29 meeting, which will follow the hearing. As of April 15, they were still revising one article and waiting for the annual Kennebec County budget request.

The Monday, April 26, anniversary observance is scheduled for 10:30 a.m., at Monument Park, on Main Street (Route 32), in East Vassalboro, between the Historical Society building that was formerly the East Vassalboro School and the China Lake boat landing. Speakers will provide histories of the town, the park and the Civil War veterans commemorated by the monument.

Attendance is limited to 100 people, and masks are required.

As of April 15, Selectboard Chairman John Melrose, main organizer of the celebration, was still looking for a battery-powered speaker system. He has arranged to have a tent big enough to shelter the speakers in case of rain.

Selectmen made a decision on only one of the other two issues, unanimously authorizing Town Manager Mary Sabins to sign an agreement with Kennebec Water District to extend the Town Forest Trail across the western part of KWD’s land between East and North Vassalboro.

The trail extension, which Melrose suggested naming Red Brook Trail, will be about 1.1 miles long, running along Red Brook part of the way. The agreement calls it a hiking trail and limits uses to “walking, cycling, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing.”

Prohibited uses include “night use, camping, loud activities, motorized use, open fires, hunting, and trapping.” However, the agreement specifically does not prohibit KWD from approving “traditional use…by local snowmobile groups.”

The town is allowed to build and maintain the trail with KWD approval of plans and use of equipment. The town will maintain it, oversee its use, build an informational kiosk and make and post regulations.

The agreement runs for one year, beginning June 1. Parties are to meet annually to renew it, with amendments if needed. KWD has the right to close all or part of the trail, and to terminate the agreement, at any time.

Selectmen took no action after Melrose reported on his discussions with the state Department of Transportation about improvements to sidewalks in North Vassalboro. Melrose had explored several types of curbing, looked into MDOT programs and gotten cost estimates.

His concern is that after MDOT repaves Route 32, nothing more will be done for years. The 2021 MDOT work plan includes repaving 0.73 miles of Route 32, in Vassalboro, beginning 1.14 miles north of Gray Road (which intersects Route 32 between East and North Vassalboro, south of the town office).

Melrose said MDOT installed the sidewalks and if the road were rebuilt would be responsible for re-installing them. Maintaining the sidewalks, he said, is a town responsibility, although Road Foreman Eugene Field told him MDOT workers sweep them each spring.

Vassalboro kicks off sestercentennial celebration with rededication of Civil War monument on April 26

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Vassalboro’s Civil War monument located at the East Vassalboro boat landing. (photo by Eric W. Austin)

by Lauchlin W. Titus

Have you ever looked at this monument, as I have, and wondered, “Who were these people? Did they all die? If so, how and where did they die? What units did they serve in?” I thought of some of these questions every time I studied the monument over a period of something like thirty years. Then, a couple of years ago I decided to see if I can answer any of these questions. Oh MY! There is SO MUCH information. I started with a Google search and that resulted in all sorts of different rabbit paths to run down. I ended up at the Maine State Archives and that is a treasure trove of information on each of the individuals listed on the monument….and every man who served in the Civil War from Maine.

The Vassalboro Civil War Monument has 63 names on it. The panels that face the West, the South, and the North have 47 names of Vassalboro men who died in the Civil War. The panel that faces East, towards China Lake, displays the names of 16 men who served and survived the war.

So, how did those 47 men die? Sgt. Doe, at the top of the list on the panel facing the West was killed by a falling tree as he and his men were cutting wood for fuel and winter shelter. Seventeen were killed in action or subsequently died of their wounds…..make it eighteen if you will join me in including John Estes who is known to have been wounded in the leg at Gettysburg and was subsequently listed as missing and no record found on him beyond that date. Twenty-three men succumbed to various illnesses and diseases and this matches most accounts of deaths in the Civil War….that death from disease was more likely than death in battle. The Battle at Gettysburg resulted in the names of five Vassalboro men on this monument, making it the most deadly battle of the war for Vassalboro.

The 63 men named on this monument served in 19 different units but more than half served in just three units. Some of them served in two or more units over the course of the war. The largest number, 17, served in the 21st Maine Infantry Regiment and most of them were in Company D. This was a nine-month enlistment unit that saw service in Florida and Louisiana. Charles Tarbell was the only one of this unit from Vassalboro killed in action and that was at Port Hudson, Louisiana. Six of the 16 survivors listed on the east side of our monument were in this unit. Two from the 21st re-enlisted in other units and were subsequently killed in action. Eight men of the 21st died of disease. The 16th Maine Infantry Regiment has 10 Vassalboro men represented, most of them being in Company E. Nine of the deceased are from the 16th. The 16th played a pivotal role on the first day at Gettysburg and was essentially sacrificed so the rest of the Union line could position itself safely. The 3rd Maine Regiment had 9 Vassalboro men scattered in numerous companies of that Regiment. Seven of these nine men died in the war.

The men listed on this monument that died in the war ranged in ages, at the time of their enlistments, from 18-51. There were three men over 40, seven who were 30-40 years of age, 16 were 21-30, and 19 of them were 18-21 years old.

There are a lot of puzzling things about the names on the monument … and the names not on the monument. One interesting quirk is that John F. Irving’s name is spelled as Erving on the monument, yet all the names are listed in alphabetical order and his name is where it should be for the correct spelling. Then I viewed a source listing 11 names of Vassalboro men who died in the war, with just four of those appearing on the monument. In other research I have found five more names of Vassalboro men who died in the war who are not listed on the monument.

There are detailed records showing Vassalboro sent close to 250 men to serve in the war. The Vassalboro Selectmen in 1868 submitted a list of 207 names of men sent to the war but 23 of the names on the monument are not on the selectmen’s 1868 list. Closer inspection shows the selectmen’s list was of men sent from 1862-1865 when the town paid bounties and/or aid to families of men serving. So units that mustered in prior to 1862, such as the 21st Maine, do not show up on this list. Company D of the 21st had around 50 men from Vassalboro with, as stated earlier, 17 of their names memorialized here on our monument.

Of the list of 207 names the selectmen submitted in 1868, several are not from Vassalboro and a couple of them were even from New Brunswick! This was because men from elsewhere could accept a towns’ bounty, or goas a replacement for a resident. Three of the names on the monument show up there because they were born in Vassalboro, but they actually enlisted someplace else (Ashland, Litchfield, and Orono).

The biggest question for me is how and why were the 16 names selected that are on the monument of men who did not die in the Civil War. One was our only Navy veteran, three were discharged due to disability, one had been a Prisoner of War, William T. Taber was a second lieutenant in the 21st, and the other 10 are simply listed as mustered out, honorable discharge. George Phillips was still alive at the time the monument was erected (he died April 8, 1911, at home in Waterville). He served in the 11th Maine Infantry from August 1863 until February 1866 rising through the ranks from private to corporal to sergeant. Why aren’t Vassalboro’ s higher ranking officers listed, such as Lt. Col. Nathan Stanley, or First Lieutenant Thomas Maxfield, both of the 21st, or Second Lieutenant Bradford W. Smart, of the 3rd, who was taken prisoner at Manassas?

I have a theory as to why there may be some discrepancies. Primarily, I believe it is easier and faster now to verify details from 1861-1865 than it was in 1904 when this monument was being created. Forty years after the war there were still survivors and family members of deceased men whose partial accounts of facts and events were probably not questioned. A more distant view of events now show that an individual may have been born in Vassalboro, enlisted elsewhere, subsequently died and thus their name made it on this monument. All of the card details on each individual who served can now be found on microfiche at the Maine State Archives. My investigation took many hours. Similar work in 1904 looking through tens of thousands of paper cards would have taken days or weeks of work. Online records now available make it possible to look at many sources from many places with a few clicks.

There is a lot more to learn! For instance, I get frequently asked about how many men from Vassalboro were in the 20th Maine, the famous Maine regiment credited with saving the Union line on the second day of the Gettysburg battle. Of the 50 or so Vassalboro men who were present at the Battle at Gettysburg, none were members of the 20th Maine. Vassalboro provided one individual, Preston Jones, to the 20th Maine in August 1864 and presumably he would have been present to witness the Surrender of Lee’s Army at Appomattox Courthouse on April 12, 1865.

Vassalboro Sestercentennial Scavenger Hunt Item number 1:

A postmark cancellation from any Vassalboro Post Office dated April 26, 2021.

Visit www.vassalboro.net for details.

CORRECTION: Previously this article stated there were 61 names listed on the monument. There are actually 63. The article has been updated.

Vassalboro selectmen to meet Thursday, April 15, 2021

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro selectmen meet at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 15, in person in the Vassalboro Community School gymnasium. Their agenda includes three main items:

  • Review of warrant articles for the June 7 and June 8 annual town meeting;
  • Report on discussion with the state Department of Transportation about a proposed Municipal Partnership Initiative Agreement for a paving and sidewalk project in North Vassalboro; and
  • An update by board Chairman John Melrose on a land use agreement with Kennebec Water District.

Vassalboro school board approves first reading of school budget

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Vassalboro Community School (contributed photo)

Budget totals over $8.3 million

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro School Board members approved the first reading of their 2021-22 budget April 6, half an hour before they were scheduled to discuss it with the town budget committee.

The budget totals over $8.3 million. The increase in expenditures is over $330,000, or more than four percent.

However, changes in non-tax revenues mean the increase to Vassalboro taxpayers will be about $81,000. School Board Chairman Kevin Levasseur calculated $81,000 represents about one-fourth of a mil, or about 25 cents more in taxes for each $1,000 of property valuation.

Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer and Finance Director Paula Pooler emphasized how easily the budget can change. For example, after the March 30, school board meeting, they subtracted two students from the tuition account, because they will attend Maine charter schools. Charter school tuition goes directly to the school, Pfeiffer explained.

He then added that as of April 6, two new high school students had moved to Vassalboro; their tuition will add about $23,000 to the expenditure side of the budget.

The proposed budget asks voters to transfer $80,000 from surplus to help cover expenditures. The request for the current year was $70,000.

Part of the April 6 discussion focused on whether those withdrawals would leave a healthy-enough surplus. Pooler said she does not yet know whether this year’s expenses will require using any part of the $70,000; she is cautiously optimistic that it will not be spent.

She believes the surplus account will be adequate with the proposed $80,000 transferred out.

After the school board meeting adjourned, budget committee members joined virtually for a joint budget review.

Discussion of possible funding to repave and expand the parking lot led veteran planning board member Douglas Phillips to recommend talking with the Department of Environmental Protection about possible limits on additional impervious surfaces.

Budget committee members met in person two nights later, Thursday, April 8, to decide what more they needed to know about the 2021-22 school budget before they met again with the school board on Tuesday, April 13.

Their main immediate issues were what the school board could legally use federal Covid relief funds for and whether the already-low increase in local taxes could be eliminated.

Longer-range, budget committee members seconded Chairman Rick Denico’s hope that in the future, they could get school budget information earlier. Denico suggested a discussion with school board members over the summer.

On Tuesday, April 13, school board members were scheduled to hold their regular monthly meeting, followed by a joint meeting with the budget committee.

Vassalboro planners look at potential fourth solar development

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Planning Board members listened to preliminary plans for what might become the town’s fourth commercial solar development, this one on Webber Pond Road. No action was expected and none was taken.

Bill French, from Illinois, Regional Director of Project Development for Sunvest Solar, based in Pewaukee, Wisconsin (“outside Milwaukee,” French explained), presented the proposal virtually.

He expects to have an application ready for review at the June planning board meeting. Depending on progress in negotiations with Central Maine Power Company and other factors, building might start in 2021, but a 2022 start date is more likely.

French said the solar panels will occupy 18.64 acres of a 34.4-acre parcel on the east side of Webber Pond Road, not far south off the Bog Road intersection. Sunvest is leasing the lot from David and Jennifer Jones on a 25-year lease, with two five-year extensions possible.

The panels will be in two sections, with an east-west line of trees between them left standing. Light-absorbing, non-glare solar panels, six or seven feet tall, will rotate to follow the sun. Because the land slopes gradually, no grading is needed.

Sunvest plans to plant native plants, especially flowering ones that will attract bees and other pollinators, under the panels and to mow the area once or twice a year. French said he intends to consult local people on appropriate plants for central Maine.

The project will have no buildings and no outside lighting. There will be little traffic, maybe one or two inspections a month and maintenance work a couple times a year.

Sunvest plans an eight-foot fence around the installation, French said. Planning Board Chairman Virginia Brackett mentioned the deer fence, rather than chainlink, proposed for a pending installation on Cemetery Street and asked about leaving holes near the bottom to allow small animals to go in and out.

In response to other board members’ comments and queries, French said he will find out what state permits he needs, perhaps from the Department of Environmental Protection or the Department of Transportation, and will work with town officials to provide a mutually satisfactory decommissioning plan.

The panels should be useful for at least 25 years, perhaps longer, he said. The 2.75-megawatt project will generate enough electricity to power 550 homes.

Vassalboro planners have previously approved two solar projects, one on Riverside Drive (Route 201) and one on Main Street (Route 32) between East and North Vassalboro. An application for a third on Cemetery Street will probably be on the May 4 planning board agenda.

Board members had three other applications on their April 6 agenda. According to Brackett, they:

  • Approved an amendment to the Stone Road subdivision allowing two lots to be combined;
  • Approved expansion of a deck at 201 Tilton Lane, in the Webber Pond shoreland zone; and
  • Approved Elizabeth Austin’s planned juice bar on Main Street, in North Vassalboro.
    Codes Officer Paul Mitnik, who is retiring for the third time, said former Codes Officer Richard Dolby will be his successor, taking over for the May 4 meeting.

China broadband committee continues developing proposal

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by Mary Grow

China Broadband Committee (CBC) members continued discussion of their developing proposal for extended and improved China broadband service at their April 8 meeting.

Joining them virtually were Mission Broadband consultants Mark Van Loan and John Dougherty, and Mark Ouellette, President of Axiom Technologies, of Machias. Axiom is the company CBC members chose to negotiate with, from three respondents to their request for proposals.

The April 8 discussion concentrated on three points: costs, the need for better service and plans to explain those points to China selectmen and voters.

Ouellette and the Mission Broadband consultants had revised Axiom’s original cost estimate from around $9 million for a complete new system to around $6 million. Both figures are based on many assumptions. Four main ones involve timing; the amount of work that will be needed; outside funding sources; and the “take rate,” how many people will sign up for a new service.

Timing: there was consensus that interest rates are likely to increase, and the plan includes the town borrowing through the Maine Bond Bank. Van Loan added that the contractor Axiom works with to build systems predicts a five percent increase in materials costs by June.

Amount of work: Van Loan expects any contractor to bid high and hope to save money. For example, he said, a bid is likely to cover replacing all the poles needed to carry the wiring, but the contractor might find some or most of the existing poles useable.

Outside funding sources: one possibility is that federal funds will cover part of the work China needs, depending on federal regulations and funds available. Ouellette suggested China’s project might be eligible for state planning money.

Take rate: the more people pay monthly user fees, the more revenue comes in to cover operating costs and debt repayment, and until a new service is defined and explained the take rate is a guestimate.

To the experts on the committee, the need for better service is a given. They cited results of a survey, to which 308 China residents responded, describing how they use internet in pandemic conditions.

Sixty percent of respondents said they needed the internet to work from home and 25 percent used it for their home office. Forty percent used it for elementary and high school education and another 11 percent for post-secondary education.

Twenty-three percent of respondents used the internet for telemedicine, a use that committee members expect will increase.

More than 80 percent used the internet for at least one of these categories: researching and getting news; filing taxes; social media; and entertainment.

Committee members Tod Detre and Jamie Pitney explained that Spectrum, which provides broadband to an estimated 70 percent of China residents who are connected, lacks technical capability to increase its speed up – the amount of information a user can send – to meet contemporary needs.

Spectrum was designed with more speed down, so that users can download from the web, with the original focus on entertainment. Now, Detre said, people are sending more – making zoom calls, sharing photos and videos, hosting games, for example.

Suppose, he said, someone in the house is making a zoom call. That call will use most of the available bandwidth going up, and if someone in the next room starts playing a video game, the zoom call will die.

An important difference, Detre and Ouellette said, is that Spectrum uses copper for the final connection from the system to the user’s house, and copper has limited capacity. Axiom uses fiber, which is longer-lived and, as they described it, more adaptable.

Ouellette is unimpressed with the quality of service provided by Consolidated Communications, the company that supplies the other 30 percent of China’s broadband.

Returning to Selectman Wayne Chadwick’s question at the April 1 CBC meeting, Detre asked Ouellette what would happen if something like the 1998 ice storm took down lines all over town. Ouellette replied that both the town and Axiom have insurance; as planning progresses, they can decide which would provide less expensive coverage for a town-owned internet system.

As the virtual meeting ended, Chairman Robert O’Connor mentioned the Spectrum outage earlier in the week that he said had canceled scheduled zoom meetings in other towns. China’s new system will need built-in redundancy, he said later, so a single downed line or equipment malfunction “won’t take out the whole town.”

CBC members have invited China selectmen to a joint meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, April 29. Ouellette said he would forward more information to Van Loan and Dougherty that they could summarize for CBC members to share with selectmen.

CBC meetings are also scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, April 15, and Thursday, April 22. The virtual meetings can be viewed as they occur and on tape via the live stream connection at the bottom left of the Town of China website, www.china.govoffice.com.

China public hearing set for April 26 on town meeting decisions

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Town meeting by written ballot

by Mary Grow

At their April 12 meeting, China selectmen spent the most time on two topics: the upcoming April 26 public hearings on June 8 town meeting decisions, and mask-wearing at the transfer station.

The June 8 town meeting will be by written ballot, so voters will not be able to get questions answered as they vote. The April 26 hearings, one on the proposed changes to the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) agreement that are presented as Art. 16 and one on the rest of the warrant, will be the only chance for group discussion.

The town website, china.govoffice.com, has a wealth of information about the hearings. Under the Elections tab on the left side of the screen, voters can find:

  • The Zoom link to participate in the hearings.
  • The warrant articles, in two forms: “Public Hearing Warrant Articles 2021” reproduces the four-page document mailed to residents, with brief explanations, and includes the Zoom link; and “Approved Warrant for ATBM June 8, 2021” is the warrant as it will appear in the 2019-20 town report, due out before the meeting.
  • The revised TIF document, titled “Second Amendment TIF,” with the changes marked; and a related document titled “Findings.”
  • A budget workbook that shows the items included in each warrant article and a comparison between the 2021-22 appropriations requests and prior years’ budgets and expenditures.

Some of the information, including instructions on participating in the hearing, is duplicated in a full-page notice in the April 8 issue of The Town Line (and again on page 8 in this issue) and in the four-page mailing to residents earlier this month.

Residents are invited to submit questions about the warrant to the town office by mail, email, telephone or hand delivery up to 4 p.m. on April 26. Participants in the hearing will be able to comment live at the time.

The TIF hearing is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. When TIF questions have been answered, the hearing on warrant articles 1 through 26 will begin. The hearings will be followed by a selectmen’s meeting that will start at 6:30 p.m. or after the second hearing, whichever is earlier.

On past showings, selectmen expect a low turnout for the hearing. But, they said cheerfully, on April 26 they might get 50 people – or 500.

The mask issue came up during the April 12 town department reports, delivered by Town Manager Becky Hapgood. Selectboard Chairman Ronald Breton claimed the mask mandate that applies to all town properties has not been obeyed at the transfer station.

Hapgood replied that signs are posted and staff are masked. She does not want to ask staff to risk confrontations by telling people to put on masks.

During the discussion that followed, Breton queried town liability if someone claimed to have contracted Covid-19 at the China transfer station. Selectman Blane Casey thought there was no problem, because someone who consistently refused to wear a mask and got sick would be unable to prove a source of infection.

In other business April 12, Hapgood reported for Public Works Director Shawn Reed that the Welcome to China sign on Route 3 is repaired and back up; the directional sign in South China listing other Maine towns named for foreign countries and cities (“the Postcard Sign”) is down for repairs; the docks at the public landing at the head of China Lake’s east basin are in; and weight-limit road-posting signs have been removed for the year.

The state has extended two deadlines, Hapgood said. Town Clerk Angela Nelson reported that the late fee for 2021 dog licenses will not be charged until June 1. Assistant to the assessor’s agent Kelly Grotton said applications for tax exemptions – homestead, tree growth and others allowed in Maine – can be submitted until 30 days after the state-wide emergency declaration ends or until China’s tax commitment day, whichever comes first.

Andrew Clark presented with Spirit of America Award at Albion town meeting

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Albion Fire Chief Andrew Clark, left, accepts the Spirit of America Award from the town’s selectboard chairman Beverly Bradstreet during the Albion town meeting. (photo courtesy of Beverly Bradstreet)

The town of Albion presented its 2021 Spirit of America Award to Fire Chief Andrew Clark, by Board of Selectmen Chairman Beverly Bradstreet, at the annual town meeting, held on March 22.

Andy has been the Fire Chief of the Albion Fire Department since 2012 and a member of the department for over 20 years. Due to Andy’s diligence, the department has received over $1 million in grants in the last 20 years, receiving $410,000 in 2020 alone.

He has done this along with working full time as a fire fighter and EMT in the Scarborough Fire Department and in his “spare time” he has also earned a bachelor’s degree in fire science and a master’s degree in public administration.

Along with efficiently running and improving the Albion Fire Department, he has been instrumental in helping to make improvements in the Albion Town Office and Besse Building. Andy’s dedication to the town came across again in 2020 when Andy refused to take his stipend as fire chief and a stipend as a firefighter. He did this because he wanted to use that money in the fire department budget so he would not have to ask for an increase from Albion tax payers for his budget during a year of uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Albion selectmen and town office staff thank Andy for his dedication to the Albion Fire Department and for his service to the town of Albion as this is what the “Spirit of America Award” is all about.

Fairfield issues request for qualifications for public drinking water infrastructure planning project

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Fairfield Town Manager Michelle Flewelling.

The town of Fairfield has issued a request for qualifications (RFQ) to support civil and environmental engineering services for the planning and development of a public drinking water infrastructure plan. This initiative will inform the town’s assessment of existing municipal public infrastructure amid the town’s ongoing per-and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) concerns, including costs and build-out scenarios for the expansion of public infrastructure.

Identified areas throughout the town will be evaluated for potential infrastructure expansions, as the expected project area extends between Route 139 via the Norridgewock Road and the Ohio Hill Road near its intersection with Route 201. Fairfield’s town council will review qualified firms and/or teams of consultants to assist with developing a comprehensive Public Water Infrastructure Expansion Plan, which will include, but is not limited to, identifying the scale, scope, and costs associated with extending public water to the PFAS affected area(s).

“We are dedicated to launching a thoughtful and comprehensive process, which will incorporate engaging subject matter experts and reviewing success models. These efforts will focus on transparent and community-oriented input approaches as we evaluate RFQ responses that fit the needs of the municipality,” said Fairfield Town Manager, Michelle Flewelling. “The evaluation process will illustrate continuing efforts by the town to achieve safe and clean drinking water for the town’s residents and community.”

The town encourages interested parties to submit preliminary proof of concept(s) for how they believe their vision coincides with, and supports, the town of Fairfield’s stated objectives. Additional information regarding interested firms or teams of consultants will be especially helpful to Fairfield’s Town Council and should include relevant project management and planning experience, previously completed infrastructure projects, and preliminary design and engineering guidance for the future planning and potential construction of a new and/or expanded public water drinking system(s).

Please submit any questions and/or associated requests for information (RFI) to the Town Manager at mflewelling@fairfieldme.com, subject line: “Infrastructure RFQ”, no later than April 23, 2021. All RFI submissions will be answered by April 30, 2021. RFQ responses are due no later than 2:00 p.m. (ET) on May 7, 2021. The RFQ and more information about this development opportunity can be found on the Town of Fairfield’s website.

Submitted by Sabrina Jandreau, Development Coordinator, Central Maine Growth Council