Local scout leader receives training award

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Scouting Training Chairman for Kennebec Valley District Walter Fails, left, presents Christopher Santiago, of Vassalboro, with the Scouter’s Key. (photo by Chuck Mahaleris)

by Chuck Mahaleris

Since kids don’t grow up overnight, it can sometimes be hard to tell from week to week how much of a difference you’re making as a scouting volunteer. Scouting leaders who complete training programs deliver stronger programs that reach each youth where they are every single week. On Sunday, March 24, four area leaders were recognized for completing all requirements for specific training awards as well as the more challenging to earn Scouter’s Key.

A training award is a position-specific recognition earned by scouters who meet certain tenure, training and performance requirements.The tenure requirement is one year for den leaders and two years for all other positions. Basic training for your position, plus specified supplemental training depending on their scouting position. Additionally, the scouter must do four or five things, which vary by position, such as participating in an annual unit-planning meeting or giving primary leadership in meeting a Journey to Excellence objective.

A Scouter’s Key is a more advanced award earned by the top leader in a unit (i.e., Cubmaster, Scoutmaster, Advisor or Skipper). They must have three years as the top unit leader within a five-year period. As with the training awards, a Scouter’s Key requires basic training for the position they held plus specified supplemental training. Additionally, their Scouting unit must achieve at least the Silver level of Journey to Excellence for at least two years, they must participate in at least one additional supplemental or advanced training event, and they must complete one or two other program-specific requirements.

Christopher Santiago, of Vassalboro, earned the Den Leader Training Award, Scouter’s Training Award for the Cub Level and Scouter’s Training Award for the Troop level. Jamie Russell and Drew Riddle, both of Randolph, earned the Scouter’s Training Award for the Troop Level.

Christopher Santiago earned the Scouter’s Key for his work in the Cub Scout level of the program. The awards were presented by Kennebec Valley District Training Chairman Walter Fails, of New Sharon. The event was held at the Winslow Parks and Recreation Hall. Kennebec Valley District Scouters deliver the programs of Scouting in Kennebec, Lincoln, Knox, Somerset, and Franklin counties.

Vassalboro school board reviews proposed 2024-25 budget

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Vassalboro Community School (contributed photo)

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro School Board members continued review of the proposed 2024-25 budget at an April 3 special meeting. At their regular meeting April 9, they discussed non-budgetary and budgetary issues, before joining the Vassalboro Budget Committee for a joint review of the proposed 2024-25 school budget.

The April 3 meeting, held despite an impending snowstorm, featured virtual participation by special education director Tanya Thibeau, director of maintenance and grounds Shelley Phillips, Vassalboro Community School principal Ira Michaud and assistant principal Tabitha Brewer.

The administrators explained their sections of the budget and answered board members’ questions.

At the April 9 meeting, Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer presented a draft 2024-25 school calendar, which he said is very similar to the current year’s calendar except that there are fewer early release days – nine instead of 14.

School calendar very similar to last year’s except there are fewer early release days – nine instead of 14.

Michaud said teachers need time to discuss educational issues among themselves, but he realizes having students come home early inconveniences many parents.

Board members considered late start days instead of early release days, but doubted that plan would be any less inconvenient. They also discussed having early releases other than Thursday afternoons; Michaud said consistency seemed to help families plan.

Two budget issues were the addition of a second school counselor, and the reductions made from the initial proposed budget to the revised version approved unanimously April 9.

Michaud and Pfeiffer defended the need for a second counselor. Pfeiffer distributed a paper administrators prepared supporting the addition.

VCS currently has 410 students enrolled, and one counselor. The American School Counselor Association recommends a ratio of at least one counselor for every 250 students, for adequate service.

Data from the 2023 Maine integrated health survey shows an increase over 2021 results in the percentages of middle school students who reported they had “felt sad or hopeless” for longer than two consecutive weeks or who had “serious thoughts of harming or killing themselves.”

A second counselor would allow more time for classroom work, building social and emotional skills, and for work with small groups and individual students in need of extra support.

Before 2022, VCS lost three school counselors in a fairly short time, the paper said. “All three cited the high student ratio” as a major challenge that discouraged them from staying.

Items deleted from the initial budget proposal included one teacher (by attrition); one educational technician; one bus driver and bus run (Pfeiffer said the change was in effect, after a driver resigned, and students were not getting home significantly later); new tables in the library; and new tile flooring in the lower-level classrooms.

Another move to save taxpayer dollars was allocation of $185,000, instead of the initially-proposed $135,000, from the school’s undesignated fund balance.

In other business April 9, Pfeiffer commented that some of the newly-installed ceiling fans were already being used as the weather warmed.

Michaud reported that Vassalboro cub scouts hosted the Kennebec Valley District Pinewood Derby at Vassalboro Community School the previous weekend, with “an excellent turnout.”

For the April 8 eclipse, glasses were distributed to all students and staff for safe viewing from VCS, on the buses or at their homes, Michaud said.

The next regular Vassalboro School Board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 21.

Protecting water quality in local lakes theme of Vassalboro planning board meeting

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by Mary Grow

Protecting water quality in Vassalboro lakes, especially Webber Pond, was the theme running through most of the discussion at the April 2 Vassalboro Planning Board meeting.

The issue was presented by representatives of the Conservation Commission and the Webber Pond Association; was the purpose of board member Paul Mitnik’s suggested amendments to the town’s Shoreland Zoning Ordinance; and was discussed during review of Ron Blaisdell’s application to replace a storm-destroyed shed on Norton Road, in the Webber Pond shoreland.

The only exception was a brief discussion with Raymond Breton about an application for a new business at 913 Main Street, in North Vassalboro. His small building has housed a series of commercial tenants.

Breton said he has filed six applications on behalf of potential business owners in the last few years. The agenda says the latest is Paula Stratton, doing business as Passion Photography Maine; Breton said the building would become a photography studio.

Board members tabled the application Breton filed at the March meeting because instead of repeating information for the seventh time, he answered most questions “N/A” (not applicable) – the simplest application he ever filed, he said indignantly, and the board tabled it.

Chairman Virginia Brackett explained that “N/A” is not an adequate response. Breton could have written “No change” instead, she suggested. The board again tabled the application.

Webber Pond Association (WPA) President John Reuthe, Conservation Commission spokesman Holly Weidner and others presented information about the need for a watershed management plan for Webber Pond and Three-Mile Pond.

Blaisdell’s application was to replace a shed on Christopher Kew’s lot that was destroyed by a fallen tree. He planned the replacement to be 64-square-feet, instead of the original 54-square-feet. Because the shed is less than 100 feet from Webber Pond’s high-water mark, board members said it cannot be expanded, but can be rebuilt the same size.

Such a non-conforming structure should also be moved farther from the water, if possible. Blaisdell convinced the board majority that because of the slope of the lot, moving the shed is not feasible.

Much of the hour-long discussion was about relocating the building and about requiring other changes, like replacing storm-toppled trees or installing run-off control measures. Board members decided for a replacement, they have no authority to add requirements.

Blaisdell’s application was approved 4-1. Mitnik dissented, because without seeing the property, he was not convinced the shed could not be rebuilt farther from the water.

At their March 12 meeting, the rest of the board encouraged Mitnik to draft proposed ordinance amendments to strengthen water quality protection. Mitnik distributed a document that focused on requiring trees be planted on shorefront lots in connection with most applications for building work.

The topic will be continued at future meetings. Board members do not intend to ask voters’ action at the June 3 annual town meeting.

Webber Pond Association (WPA) President John Reuthe, Conservation Commission spokesman Holly Weidner and others presented information (also shared with the select board; see the March 28 issue of The Town Line, p. 3) about the need for a watershed management plan for Webber Pond and Three-Mile Pond.

Weidner said including the planning board is part of creating a communications network to support a coordinated effort.

Brackett replied that the planning board’s job is to implement policies, not to make them. She suggested it is time to review and update Vassalboro’s entire comprehensive plan (named a strategic plan when it was adopted in 2006, she said, because state regulations then required a comprehensive plan to include zoning and Vassalboro’s plan has no zoning).

A watershed management plan would be a useful part of a comprehensive plan, Rebecca Lamey and Peggy Horner suggested.

Reuthe and others said about one-third of the over-abundant phosphorus in Webber Pond comes from Three-Mile Pond, one-third from the surrounding land and one-third from the sediment in the bottom of Webber Pond.

In other business April 2, Codes Officer Jason Lorrain said Tim Dutton applied for a six-month extension to his permit to re-open the former East Vassalboro corner store, as board members suggested last month. The extension was approved unanimously.

Lorrain expects representatives of Sidereal Farm Brewery, on Cross Hill Road, to attend the May 7 planning board meeting to talk about changes made since the business was approved more than four years ago.

Vassalboro budget committee reviews select board’s draft

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro budget committee members reviewed the select board’s draft 2024-25 municipal budget at two lengthy meetings March 19 and March 26.

Both boards’ members are aware that many taxpayers cannot afford a large local property tax increase. They are also aware that the town is facing unavoidable higher costs in many areas. A theme of the meetings was what should be done immediately, what can be postponed and what can be considered unnecessary.

Town Manager Aaron Miller summarized major budget aspects in a hand-out at the March 19 meeting. At that time, he wrote, the select board’s proposed budget of just over $3.9 million was $358,393 higher than the current year’s. At the March 26 meeting, Miller said that increase would raise local property taxes by under one mil ($1 for each $1,000 of valuation).

However, the draft did not include the Kennebec County budget; Miller’s estimated figure represented a 10 percent increase. When the budget was presented at a March 27 county meeting in Augusta, the proposed overall increase in taxes to municipalities was 44 percent (varying by municipality).

County officials did not approve the budget March 27. Another meeting is scheduled for April 9, according to the report in the Central Maine newspapers.

Vassalboro discussions have not yet included the 2024-25 school budget. Local taxpayers funded almost $1.4 million of the current year’s $9 million school budget.

Miller’s summary named four areas with the largest proposed increases: the request from Delta Ambulance; setting aside funds in the assessing account to prepare for a town-wide revaluation; adding to the capital improvements budget; and adding one new employee, to be shared between the public works department and the transfer station.

The last two were discussed at length. Budget committee members made no final recommendations, but straw polls indicated a lack of support for either, as presented.

The substantially increased Delta Ambulance bill for 2024-25 drew brief comments at both meetings. The 2024-25 request is for $110,475. For the current year, the service requested and voters approved $66,285.

Select board chairman Chris French sees no reasonable alternative to Delta. Neither the Augusta nor the Waterville-Winslow ambulance service will add Vassalboro, and a town service would cost $700,000 just for labor costs, he said.

Miller does not expect a revaluation for another four or five years, but recommends setting aside money in preparation.

Proposed capital additions include new and replacement equipment, building maintenance and a new building.

Equipment that select board members recommend includes a new skid-steer, with bucket and snowblower attachments and a trailer to move it, and a replacement loader.

Select board members recommend the skid-steer in 2024-25 because they expect the state will build the promised new North Vassalboro sidewalks this summer; the town is obligated to plow the sidewalks; the loader now used for plowing sidewalks does a poor job and is too big to work on the new walkways without damaging them; and hiring someone to do the work would cost more than buying a machine.

Phillips is concerned that in much of North Vassalboro, houses are so close to the sidewalk that snow would need to be blown into the roadway.

The skid-steer would be used year-round, Miller and select board members said. It would help with town recreational trail maintenance and with shoulder work on roads, for example.

The loader would replace a machine that is almost 25 years old with more than 12,000 hours on it, French said at the March 26 meeting. Miller explained why it is needed and why the proposed skid-steer could not do its work.

Miller’s introductory letter said the town has been offered “a three-year zero percent interest rate plan for both pieces of equipment.” Select board members have discussed asking voters for $79,000 a year for three years.

The new trailer is estimated to cost $12,000.

Also needing more discussion is how soon the town needs a replacement truck for public works and what size it should be.

The two boards continued the discussion select board members have conducted for months about heating and other equipment at the town office. French’s goal is to have the office continue to function through a major storm.

Heat pumps are installed, and generators have been purchased but not installed. Questions remaining include whether to replace the 23-year-old boiler (as a back-up), whether to add another fuel tank and related issues.

Proposed building reserves include adding to the fund for an additional equipment storage building at the public works lot, and starting a maintenance fund for the town-owned former East Vassalboro schoolhouse, which the town leases to the Vassalboro Historical Society.

Schaffer asked whether the “huge” sand and salt building could be used for storage, since Vassalboro uses less road sand than in the past. Discussion included whether a building that contains salt is suitable for machinery and whether better ventilation would help.

Two other pending projects are major transfer station renovations and replacing the culvert on Mill Hill Road, tentatively with a bridge. The transfer station work has a reserve fund; select board members propose starting one for the road. They hope grants will help pay for both.

The main reason for considering adding an employee is safety, French said. An additional plow-truck driver would let road crew members work shorter, less exhausting shifts in snowstorms; and when one of the two transfer station staffers was out, the other would not work alone.

To French’s additional suggestion that taxpayers would save money if winter overtime were reduced, budget committee member Dallas Smedberg suggested plow drivers might appreciate their overtime pay.

Earlier in the year, select board members considered adding a part-time town office employee. They have scrapped that idea, at least for 2024-25.

Discussion of pay increases for town employees was inconclusive. Miller and the select board recommend a 3.2 percent cost of living (COLA) adjustment, plus two percent merit increases (except for two employees who have been with the town so long they are at the top of the pay scale; for them, an equivalent stipend is proposed).

Smedberg commented March 26 that in his experience, it is unusual for people at the top of a pay scale to get anything more than an annual COLA.

On another pay issue, Smedberg asked why the fire chief gets a $10,000 annual stipend, more than any of the select board members, even if French’s proposed $500 extra for the chairman is approved.

Board member Frederick “Rick” Denico, Jr., replied, “We don’t get called out at night or weekends much.”

A Fortin Road resident came to the March 26 meeting to ask that her dirt road be paved, as a safety measure. It has been impassable in recent storms, she said, leaving three households without emergency access.

Budget committee members discussed whether and, if so, when the town could pave all remaining dirt roads, another issue select board members have considered.

The next Vassalboro budget committee meeting was scheduled for Wednesday evening, April 3, unless the forecasted snowstorm led to a change.

Area scout leaders recognized for efforts in reorganizations

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From left to right, Sabrina Garfield, Christopher Santiago, and Jamie Santiago receive their James D. Boyce New Unit Organizer Awards at the Kennebec Valley District Scouting Recognition Dinner, held on March 24, at the Winslow Parks and Recreation Hall. (photo by Chuck Mahaleris)

by Chuck Mahaleris

William D. Boyce signed the papers to make the Boy Scouts of America official at exactly 11:03 a.m., on February 8, 1910. On March 24, volunteers from across the area gathered at the Winslow Parks and Recreation Hall to honor three Scouting leaders who helped get two new Scouting programs off the ground to benefit their respective communities. Sabrina Garfield, of Winslow, and Christopher and Jamie Santiago, of Vassalboro, were recognized for restarting Cub Scout Packs #445 and #410, respectively, in 2022 and keeping them active and vibrant. The award they received was named for Chicago publisher William D. Boyce.

William D. Boyce was in London in 1909 when he got lost in the fog. Out of the fog stepped a “little lad of 12” who offered to help him find his way. Boyce tried to give the youngster a tip, but the boy refused, saying he was just doing his Good Turn as a Scout. Boyce was intrigued by the Scout Movement, which had begun in 1907 in England. He returned home from England with pamphlets, badges and a uniform. Six months later, on February 8, 1910, Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts of America.

The William D. Boyce award is presented to those who help start a new or restart a defunct Cub Scout Pack, Scout Troop, Venture Crew or Sea Scout Ship. In essence, the recipient must lead the entire process of organizing a new unit. The process begins when a prospective chartered organization is assigned and ends when the new unit renews its charter for the first time and receives Journey to Excellence recognition at the Bronze level or above.

“I am so thankful to my Scouting village,” Sabrina Garfield said. “I am grateful for this experience with my kids, not just because of what it teaches them but because it’s so much more than just that. It’s a family affair. Cub Scouting gives the kids a chance to teach things to others and to learn from others. It’s taught them about leadership and teamwork and how to compromise. It’s taught me too. And I have met some pretty amazing people through this journey.”

Christopher Santiago said, “Scouting is a true labor of love for me and as much as I do, I wouldn’t be able to do it without the supportive and engaged parents in my two units representing the Town of Vassalboro and Vassalboro BSA Scouting Troop #410 and Pack #410, as well as the amazing Scouters whom I have come to know as mentors and colleagues. These awards are because of all of them!”

Vassalboro school board decides on two “leftover” issues

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The annual prize for Pi Day winners at Vassalboro Community School is the chance to throw a pie – whipped cream in a graham cracker crust into the face of a teacher or the principal. On Pi Day 2024, sixth-grade winners Mariah Estabrook (second from left) and Sarina LaCroix (third from left) so honored sixth-grade math teacher Stephanie Tuttle (left) and Principal Ira Michaud (right). (contributed photo)

by Mary Grow

At their March 19 meeting, Vassalboro school board members decided the two issues left undecided in February (see the Feb. 22 issue of The Town Line, p. 3) and continued review of the draft 2024-25 school budget.

Board members voted unanimously to approve a three-year contract with Jennifer Lizotte, who runs the daycare at Vassalboro Community School (VCS). The decision was accompanied by expressions of goodwill and approval from school administrators and Lizotte.

School personnel said the daycare is well run, Lizotte is cooperative with them and school staff whose children attend are happy.

Lizotte thanked school personnel for being helpful and understanding. She thanked the board for the three-year contract, which will let her plan ahead.

The present daycare space fits nicely with staff and enrollment, Lizotte said. She and board members talked about possible installation of a ceiling fan in the area for the summer term.

Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer said after discussion with Shelley Phillips, director of maintenance and grounds for Vassalboro and Winslow schools, the daily rent will be raised from $25 to $28. This figure will be reviewed annually.

The second month-old issue was whether to increase school board members’ stipends, currently $40 per meeting. Pfeiffer said many comparable boards’ members are rewarded more generously.

Board members voted unanimously not to change the figure. Several said they had run for school board without knowing there was a stipend.

No one could predict whether more money would encourage more residents to run for the board. Pfeiffer was doubtful, saying the number of volunteers for local positions has been declining state-wide.

Budget discussion covered two major accounts, administration and tuition. Pfeiffer emphasized that some figures are estimates.

For example, he does not have 2024-25 insurance costs and is guessing how big the increase will be. The state will calculate and release 2024-25 high-school tuition costs in December 2024; based on the last two years, Pfeiffer has penciled in a six percent in­crease.

In other business, Principal Ira Michaud said Vassalboro’s average daily attendance is at 94.9 percent, slightly below the state’s recommended goal of 95 percent. He explained the two types of absences, excused (when a parent calls in to say a student is ill, or the family is going on a trip) and unexcused (when no explanation is offered). Especially in the second case, he said, teachers are encouraged to call the family to see if the school can help.

Board member Jessica Clark alerted the rest of the board to the legislative bill LD 974, titled “An Act to Establish Minimum Pay for Educational Technicians and Other School Support Staff.” If it becomes effective, in 2025 some educational technicians could be paid more than teachers, she said.

Pfeiffer said the bill, if it becomes law, will have a “significant” monetary impact state-wide. He hopes if the legislature approves it, state funding will be provided.

Clark said Vassalboro’s legislators, Rep. Richard Bradstreet and Sen. Matthew Pouliot, told her the bill is likely to pass and advised her to address her concerns to Governor Janet Mills.

Principal Michaud’s report included thanks to the Vassalboro Parent-Teacher Organization for supplies for two recent events, Bubble Day and Pi Day.

He said school counselor, Gina Davis, introduced Bubble Day, with students outdoors blowing bubbles, as an observance of the first day of spring.

Pi Day, the annual observance of the “mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, approximately equal to 3.14159,” drew 34 contestants trying to remember as much of the endless number as they could. Michaud said the winners were, in third place, fifth-grader Ashlynn Hamlin; second place, sixth-grader Mariah Estabrook; and first-place, reciting 167 digits, sixth-grader Sarina LaCroix.

Board members plan to continue budget discussion at their regular meeting Tuesday evening, April 9. Pfeiffer is considering scheduling an additional special budget meeting.

VASSALBORO: WPA officials explain work planned for Webber Pond

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro select board members’ March 21 meeting featured a discussion with John Reuthe and Rebecca Lamey, from the Webber Pond Association (WPA), about the health of Webber Pond and associated water bodies.

The water level in the Vassalboro pond is controlled by an outlet dam. Water quality is influenced by run-off from surrounding land and, Reuthe explained, by inflows from Three Mile Pond, Three Cornered Pond and Mud Pond.

A history of water quality problems led to a management program developed by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection that includes an annual fall drawdown intended to flush excess nutrients down Seven Mile Stream into the Kennebec River.

Reuthe, WPA president, said warmer water has encouraged the growth of blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria, which can sicken people and pets.

WPA officers are working with Maine Rivers (the organization that led the opening of local streams to alewife migration) to develop a new watershed management plan encompassing the four connected ponds, Reuthe said. A plan written about 20 years ago, with help from the Kennebec Valley Soil and Water Conservation District, was not implemented and is outdated.

Because Three Mile Pond is partly in China and Windsor, Mud Pond is in Windsor and Three Cornered Pond is in Augusta, the effort will involve multiple municipalities. Reuthe and Vassalboro Town Manager Aaron Miller have already begun discussions with Windsor’s town manager.

Lamey said WPA will apply for a federal 604(b) grant, referring to a program that is part of the Clean Water Act, to begin the new watershed study. Vassalboro has several residents whose expertise will be helpful, including a grant-writer, she said.

Future plans include more dam improvements, Reuthe said, in cooperation with Maine Rivers. Although the projects he and Lamey outlined will be expensive, he assured select board members WPA is not –yet – asking for substantial town funds, only for expressions of support from the select board.

Reuthe told select board members the $5,000 voters allocated to the WPA at the 2023 town meeting was spent as intended, to make the dam gates easier to control and add equipment storage at the dam and to buy water quality testing equipment.

The public hearing on amendments to Vassalboro’s Marijuana Business Ordinance with which the March 21 meeting was scheduled to begin drew no audience. Board members and planning board member Douglas Phillips briefly discussed the changes, which include renaming the ordinance Cannabis Business Ordinance. The topic will be continued at the April 4 select board meeting.

Board members also postponed a decision on repaving the parking lot at the former East Vassalboro school, now the Vassalboro Historical Society headquarters. After reviewing three proposals with cost estimates, they referred board member Rick Denico, Jr.’s, questions about the project to the expertise of public works department members.

In other business March 21, select board members unanimously:

— Left the town office hours adopted in January as they are. Miller said residents who expressed opinions are pleased, especially with the earlier opening.
— Approved closing the transfer station on Easter Sunday, as has been done in past years.

Miller said he has no new information related to the Vassalboro Sanitary District’s finances. The district has a rate increase scheduled April 1 for its about 200 customers, who have told select board members they cannot afford even present rates.

Select board members have been working on the issue since before the Dec. 14, 2023, meeting which drew more than five dozen people to discuss reasons and potential remedies for the financial problems (see the Dec. 21, 2023, issue of The Town Line, p. 2).

The next regular Vassalboro select board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 4.

Judson Smith accepted at Maine School of Science and Mathematics

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Jud Smith, center, flanked by his mother Lisa Libby, left, and his father Zachary Smith. (contributed photo)

by Mary Grow

Judson Smith, a 13-year-old eighth-grader at Vassalboro Community School (VCS), has been accepted for high school at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics (MSSM), in Limestone.

Jud is an honor roll student at VCS, a member of the JMG (Jobs for Maine Graduates) program and the Gifted and Talented Program and president of the student council. He played soccer last fall.

His father, Zachary Smith, said Jud has long been interested in math and science, partly because of his parents. Smith, with a background in biology and medicine, is a Psychiatric Physician Assistant, and his wife, Lisa Libby, is a pharmacist.

With his parents’ support, Jud went to MSSM’s summer camp for two years. Jud added, “They offered classes where you were able to launch rockets and calculate what distances they would cover.”

At MSSM, Jud intends to focus on chemistry. He is considering a career in chemical engineering, and looks forward to the “more challenging material” he expects at MSSM.

“It is a very high honor for any student to be accepted to this prestigious institution,” Vassalboro school superintendent Alan Pfeiffer said.

Vassalboro planners OK repairs to boathouse; two other applications postponed

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro planning board members approved one of the three applications on their March 12 agenda and postponed the other two.

Approved were repairs to David Low’s boathouse at 8 Norton Road, in the shoreland zone on the southwest side of Webber Pond. It was damaged when a tree fell on it during a recent windstorm.

Elwin “Al” Gero, who is in charge of the repairs, explained plans to board members. Board chairman Virginia Brackett told Giroux he also needs a building permit from codes officer Jason Lorrain.

Mark L. Brown presented preliminary information on his plan to develop a remote campground on part of his property on Taber Hill Road. Board members and Brown discussed the beaver dam that has created a wetland on part of the property; the different state agencies whose regulations and standards are involved; and what documents Brown should submit for a local permit.

The third application was from Paula Stratton, to open a business at 913 Main Street, in North Vassalboro, in one of two buildings owned by Raymond Breton. Neither Stratton nor Breton was at the March 12 meeting, and board members found the application incomplete.

They tabled the application and asked Lorrain to ask the applicant to answer its questions in more detail.

Several retail businesses have been in and out of this building and its neighbor in recent years.

In other business, Lorrain said Tim and Heather Dutton’s permit to re-open the East Vassalboro store was issued Feb. 7, 2023. He was unsure how much progress the Duttons have made.

Brackett recommended he invite them to apply for a six-months extension (which can be followed by a second six months, if needed), to make sure the permit does not expire.

Board member Douglas Phillips shared the select board’s proposed amendments to Vassalboro’s Marijuana Business Ordinance. If the amendments are submitted to and approved by voters at the June town meeting, the planning board will have some responsibility for implementation, he said.

Board member Paul Mitnik proposed the board prepare a local ordinance to increase water quality protection in Vassalboro’s lakes. After others suggested possible methods, he offered to have a preliminary draft at the board’s April 2 meeting.

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Ponds named after people

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by Mary Grow

Webber Pond

Returning to early settlers who had ponds named after them and related topics (discussed in many recent articles in this series), your writer starts with a reader’s question: is Webber Pond in Vassalboro named for Charles Webber, mentioned at the end of the Jan. 11 article?

Vassalboro historian Alma Pierce Robbins’ account of the Webber family’s early days in Vassalboro says firmly, “Maybe”; and if not Charles, almost certainly a family member. Other sources offer an unusually wide variety of conflicting information that adds up to the same answer.

In her chapter on Vassalboro’s first families, Robbins compiled a list, using as sources the 1792 town valuation report (compiled by Charles Webber and two other assessors) and the 1800 national census.

From these sources she named five Webbers in Vassalboro by 1800: Charles and Charles, Jr., Eliot, Hannah and John. If an on-line genealogy is accurate, Charles was Charles B. Webber – few other sources use any middle initial – and he was one of Vassalboro’s first settlers.

On the town website, 11 Webbers are listed as buried in the Webber family cemetery in Riverside. One is Charles, born c. 1741 and died Nov. 20, 1819, identified as a veteran.

Riverside is the section of southwestern Vassalboro that used to be one of the town’s villages, first called Brown’s Corner and located on “the river road” north of the Augusta line. The river road was the current Riverside Drive/Route 201, approximately.

The 1856 Vassalboro map shows Brown’s Corner as an intersection of the river road and an east-west road crossing it at a right angle and going to the Kennebec. The intersection is south of Seven Mile Brook, between the brook and the Augusta line, and has a cluster of more than a dozen buildings.

Kennebec County historian Henry Kingsbury wrote that early 19th century buildings there included a tavern, a store, a post office (“which in 1826 did a total business of $33.25”) and a Grange Hall. There were successive mills closer to the river, and at the landing two local men “built several small vessels.”

Among those who came to Vassalboro before Charles Webber, according to several sources, was his brother, Joseph.

If your writer found the right Joseph Webber, he was born in York, Maine, July 24, 1727; married Sarah Sedgeley of that town on Jan. 10, 1754; and died in Vassalboro, Sept. 9, 1796. One source says he and Sarah had six sons and two daughters; at least three of the sons (Charles’ nephews) lived in Vassalboro or China.

Find a Grave says Charles Webber was born in January, 1741, in York. He married Hannah Call, born in 1744 in Amesbury, Massachusetts. After Hannah’s death in 1782 (Find a Grave says she “was buried on the first farm Charles owned”), he married Sarah Smiley (died in 1800).

An on-line genealogy lists 13 Webber children. Assuming it is (somewhat) accurate, Charles, Jr., was Charles B. and Hannah’s first child, born in Dresden, Maine, in 1764.

Their oldest daughter, Sarah (1766-1854), was the first white child born in Vassalboro. She married Judah Chadwick (1765-1816; probably one of the South China Chadwicks who have been mentioned previously, since the couple are buried in China’s Chadwick cemetery on Route 32 South [Windsor Road]).

Then came Mary (1769-1837), James (1771-1823), John (1773-1847), William (?c. 1774-?), Nancy (1777-?), Samuel (1779-c. 1891), Hannah (1780-1860; married Amos Childs, whose gravestone in the North Vassalboro Village cemetery identifies him as a Revolutionary veteran), George M. (c. 1782 [or 1776]-1831), Joseph (1783 [or 1775]-1817), Benjamin (Feb. 27, 1786-1834) and Jeremiah (July 17, 1786-1820).

Obviously one of the last two birth dates is an error; and this genealogy contradicts Kingsbury, who said Jeremiah was Charles’ only child by his second wife, Sarah.

Sons who might have kept the family name in Vassalboro, according to this on-line genealogy, included John, who married there in 1793 (and died in Ohio); Samuel, who married in Vassalboro in 1801 (and died in New York); George, who married his second wife in Vassalboro in 1820; and Jeremiah, who married in Vassalboro in 1805.

Jeremiah’s wife is variously identified as Balsora, Belsora or Belsova Horn or Horne. Another genealogy says they had eight children. The town website says Balsora died in 1829 and she and Jeremiah are buried in the Webber family cemetery, along with a Belsora who died in 1866 (one of their daughters?). Belsora’s seems to have been the last burial in the cemetery.

On-line sources say Charles B. Webber was a veteran of the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. French and Indian War records that are cited list him in Nathaniel Donnell’s company in April 1757, and in January 1759 in Capt. Ichabod Goodwin’s company in Col. Jedediah Preble’s regiment. (These military leaders were from York, Maine.)

In the Revolutionary War, sources say Webber was an officer in the militia. He seems to have served under (at least) two local commanders, Captain Dennis Getchell, of Vassalboro, and Colonel Joseph North, of Gardinerstown.

Webber moved to Vassalboro between the wars. Robbins wrote that in 1764, Charles Webber bought, for “twenty pounds lawful money,” the west end of lot number 63 on the 1761 survey of Vassalboro by Nathan Winslow (mentioned in last week’s article).

Kingsbury said Charles Webber in 1765 was the settler on the third lot along the river north of the Augusta line, which would have been lot 53 on the 1761 survey.

Robbins’ and Kingsbury’s histories each include a version of the 1761 survey, with the shape of Webber Pond (called 7 Mile Pond in Robbins’ book, as China Lake is listed by its old name, 12 Mile Pond) quite different.

On the survey in Robbins’ history, Seven Mile Stream comes from near the south end of the pond and enters the Kennebec through lots 61 and 62. Kingsbury’s version has the stream exiting the pond a little farther north and curving father south to enter the Kennebec through lots 57 and 58.

Referring to the 1800 census, Robbins wrote: “Charles Webber had ‘400 acres under water’; perhaps he had taken over ‘Webber Pond’.” Some deeds, she immediately added, called the water body Colman Pond (see box).

Then she wrote, “At least the younger generation of Webbers left the river at Brown’s Corner, where the first Charles settled, and cleared the area at the foot of the pond….”

Kingsbury found that Charles Webber was one of the residents who in 1766 petitioned the land-owning Kennebec Company to build, or let locals build, a grist mill at Riverside so they could grind their grain locally. Later, he owned at least one manufactory: as mentioned in the Jan. 11 article on Seven Mile Stream, Kingsbury said sometime in or after the 1840s Webber acquired the machine shop close to the Kennebec that built “sash, blinds and doors.”

Kingsbury listed Charles Webber as Vassalboro’s first town treasurer, in 1771, and as treasurer again in 1776, when he was also town clerk; as selectman in 1773, for two years; as a member of the six-man committee that set up Vassalboro’s first nine school districts in 1790; and as a selectman in 1791, for four years (compatible with his being an assessor in 1792).

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Another confusing note: Linwood Lowden, in his history of Windsor, says that the first mill in Windsor was Charles Webber’s, built before June 1804 on Barton Brook, which Lowden described as the “brook emptying into Webber’s mill pond.”

When Webber sold the lot in 1810, Lowden said, he reserved the right to build a mill on the stream “commonly called the inlet of Webber’s Pond.” Lowden surmised he wanted to prevent competition with his 1804 mill.

Other early sources, brought to your writer’s attention by Vicki Tobias, of Tobias History Research, confirm that Three Mile Pond was called Webber (or Webber’s) Pond in the first decade of the 1800s. Tobias shared an 1808 map, showing C Webber owning a lot abutting the southeast end of the pond.

(The map also shows I, or perhaps J, Barton and Elijah Barton owning lots east of Webber’s. See the Feb. 29 story on Windsor’s Barton family.)

Kingsbury has one more Charles Webber story that your writer found nowhere else. At the end of the section of his history dealing with early churches in Vassalboro, he described “one other place and kind of worship” that would be remembered “so long as the links of tradition can touch each other – the church and teachings of Charles Webber, who resided on the river road near Riverside.”

Webber’s former house was in 1892 Wallace W. Gilbert’s, Kingsbury wrote. Across the road, on “the James S. Emery place” in 1892, Webber built a “small edifice” late in the 1700s where he named himself pastor and preached.

The unusual feature, Kingsbury said, was that Webber could not read: his wife would read the Bible to him, and he would expound. Kingsbury quoted Webber’s introduction to a sermon: “If Polly tells me aright you will find my text….”

Your writer saves you the trouble of looking back in this article: the Charles Webber who is supposedly the subject had successive wives named Hannah, who died in 1782, and Sarah, who died in 1800. Might his nickname for one have been Polly?

Riverside preacher Webber often called on sinners to repent, saying, Kingsbury wrote, that “it was as impossible for one [a sinner] to enter heaven as it was for a shad to climb a tree.”

Kingsbury concluded: “His eccentricities and goodness survive him, as does the old church, which, on another site, is the residence of Freeman Sturgis.”

The Vassalboro Colemans/Colmans/Colmens

The 1792 assessors’ report and 1800 census that Robbins cited name John Colman, Joseph Colman and Owen Colmen; Robbins found in town records an 1802 reference to Owen Coleman; and she wrote that brothers Dudley and Charles Colman came to Vassalboro from Nantucket.

Dudley and Charles, she said, “settled land bordering Webber Pond, farmed and operated a sawmill” at the pond’s outlet. Kingsbury mentioned a Coleman sawmill, “later known as the Foster mill,” well up the stream close to the pond.

Dudley and his wife Polly (Jones) and Charles and his wife Mary (Bryant) each had eight children, Robbins wrote.

An on-line genealogy says a Revolutionary veteran named John Coleman (May 12, 1744-Sept. 22, 1823) and his wife Lois (Danforth) (June 19, 1743-Oct. 3, 1823), of Newbury, Massachusetts, settled in Vassalboro in the late 1700s with their older son, Joseph (Aug. 8, 1765-c. 1858). This source adds that they “settled in the vicinity of Webber Pond where Joseph reared a large family.”

Another genealogy, compiled in 1898 and including some of the Sturgis and Colman families, says Joseph married Mercy Cross, in 1787, and they had five sons and five daughters, born between 1791 and 1815.

It would be helpful to know when Colman or Webber Pond acquired each of its names.

Main sources

Kingsbury, Henry D., ed., Illustrated History of Kennebec County Maine 1625-1892 (1892)
Robbins, Alma Pierce, History of Vassalborough Maine 1771 1971 n.d. (1971)

Websites, miscellaneous