Angry budget committee members confront select board

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro select board members were confronted by three angry budget committee members at their May 29 meeting. (See the May 22 issue of The Town Line, p. 2, for related information.)

Committee chairman Peggy Schaffer, supported by members Douglas Phillips and Frank Richards, told select board members they failed to provide timely financial information this spring. As a result, budget committee members made recommendations they likely would not have made, had they been properly informed.

Schaffer’s main issue was the question of Vassalboro’s undesignated fund balance (commonly known as surplus), money in reserve for emergencies.

During the budget process, resident John Melrose and others recommended a municipality have enough money in reserve for three months’ expenditures.

Budget committee members did not know where Vassalboro’s reserve fund stood, so they hesitated to recommend drawing from it for 2025-26 expenses. They also wanted to minimize increasing local taxes. A third option was to recommend less spending than some members would have preferred.

The lack of information, Schaffer said, was because town officials had not received annual audit reports for either 2023-24 or 2022-23. Now that last year’s report is in town officials’ hands, it shows a comfortable surplus – information that budget committee members should have had when they began deliberations.

Now, Schaffer said, budget committee members might have to make amended recommendations from the floor during the June 2 annual town meeting, a process she does not like.

Richards was surprised that town officials did not have current figures on surplus in town accounts, instead of relying on audits.

Select board chairman Frederick “Rick” Denico, Jr., said he began nagging the auditors in January. Their response: Other towns were three years behind getting their reports.

Town Manager Aaron Miller explained later that Vassalboro’s auditors, RHR Smith and Company, in Buxton, fell behind during the Covid epidemic – like many other Maine auditing firms, he added – and have been trying to catch up ever since. This spring, Vassalboro paid the company an additional $6,000 to complete the audit.

An additional complication is that Dawn Haywood is Vassalboro’s third bookkeeper since 2021, Miller said. Part of the bookkeeper’s job is working with the auditors.

Budget committee members Donald Breton and Dallas Smedberg also attended the May 29 meeting. Both asked procedural questions.

In other business May 29, Miller introduced summer intern Peter Lefresne, who will work 15 hours a week through August, courtesy of the internship program at the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service.

Board members voted unanimously to authorize engineer Jeff Senders to go ahead with long-discussed plans to redesign the traffic pattern at the transfer station.

They agreed to forward a draft revised TIF (Tax Increment Financing) document, prepared by board member Michael Poulin, to the town’s attorney for review. The outline of expenditures from Vassalboro’s TIF funds, derived from taxes on the gas pipeline through town, also needs approval from state officials and town voters before it can replace the present version.

In response to select board member Chris French’s repeated proposal to expand the select board from three to five members, Miller had found state requirements. Chapter 121, subchapter 2, Section 4A of paragraph 2526, says:

“A town may determine at a meeting held at least 90 days before the annual meeting whether 3, 5 or 7 will be elected to each board and their terms of office.

(1) Once the determination has been made, it stands until revoked at a meeting held at least 90 days before the annual meeting.
(2) If a town fails to fix the number, three must be elected. If a town fails to fix the term, it is for one year.”

Board members authorized the manager to draft a ballot question to be submitted to town voters.

Miller and Lefresne are looking into the possibility of installing an outdoor fitness park in Vassalboro. The manager showed a brief video from National Fitness Campaign and said a $50,000 grant is available toward the $250,000 cost.

Miller emphasized he does not plan to ask for tax money for the project. The idea might be “pie in the sky,” he allowed, but he saw no harm in looking into it. Farmington, Lewiston and Hampden have installed such parks, he said.

The manager is also exploring new ways, mostly technological, to communicate with residents. Denico recommended for now, putting more information, like town meeting reminders, on the Vassalboro Facebook page.

Discussion continued on two on-going topics, the town’s personnel policy and the foreclosed property adjoining the transfer station on Lombard Dam Road.

The next regular Vassalboro select board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 5 (only one week after the prior one). After that, the board is not scheduled to meet until Thursday evening, June 26.