Vassalboro News: 66 warrant articles to be decided at town meeting; two more by written ballot

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro’s two-part town meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. Monday, June 5, at Vassalboro Community School, with voters discussing and acting on 66 of the 68 warrant articles. The final two articles will be decided by written ballot on Tuesday, June 13, with polls open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the town office.

On June 13, voters will ratify or reject the school budget approved on June 5 and elect members of the Board of Selectmen, School Board and Sanitary District Board of Trustees.

The June 5 agenda includes election of five budget committee members; the 2017-18 municipal and school budgets; enactment of two revised town ordinances; annual requests for permission to sell alewives (river herring) and to put tax revenue from the natural gas pipeline through town into the Program Development Fund, also called the TIF fund; and requests for small donations to a number of in-town and out-of-town nonprofit organizations and social service agencies, including a new request for $1,000 for FAVOR (Friends Advocating for Vassalboro Older Residents).

Also in the warrant are requests for authorizations to:

• apply for grants to map and inventory town cemeteries;
• buy out of the Penobscot Energy Recovery Company as the town changes to a new trash disposal option, with expected reimbursement of more than $13,500;
• apply for state aid to renovate the China Lake boat launch in East Vassalboro, using previously-approved local money as matching funds; and
• let selectmen use the $4,125.25 proceeds of a fire truck sale to help equip the volunteer fire department’s new truck.

During long discussions of the 2017-18 school budget, Town Manager Mary Sabins calculated that if state school funding currently planned for next year does not increase, if Vassalboro’s property valuation goes up less than usual and if voters approve all town meeting requests, the property tax rate will increase by 88 cents for each $1,000 of valuation, from this year’s 14.05 mils ($14.05 per $1,000) to 14.93 mils.

However, everyone involved in budget negotiations expects the state legislature will increase education funding before the session ends, and Sabins expects a valuation increase similar to previous years’. By the time selectmen set the tax rate in August, they will have firm information, and most town officials expect they will be able to avoid a major tax increase.

To deal with possible state school funding changes, the June 5 warrant includes an unusual final school budget article. It asks voters to require that if state funding exceeds the current figure, the School Board will use part of the additional money to decrease the share of the education budget to be taken from local property taxes.

The two ordinances voters will act on are a revised Shoreland Zoning Ordinance (Art. 24) and a revised Vassalboro Sanitary District Charter (Art. 25). Selectmen held public hearings on both documents at their May 4 meeting.

No one had questions or comments about the Sanitary District charter, which district trustees have said updates their governing document, approved in 1972, to match current conditions and policies.

The Shoreland zoning amendments are the ones that Vassalboro voters rejected in November 2016. Planning Board Chairman Virginia Brackett said many are intended to make Vassalboro’s regulations match the state’s.

The town meeting warrant and copies of the ordinances and of a two-page summary of the differences between current and proposed shoreland zoning rules are available at the town office and on the town web site.