by Mary Grow

After a March 9 budget workshop, Vassalboro select board members had their recommendations for 2023-24 municipal expenditures ready to go to the budget committee for its members’ review and recommendations.

The budget committee’s 2023 organizational meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m., Thursday, March 16, following a 6 p.m. select board meeting.

The proposed budget includes a 6.5 percent cost of living increase for town employees, plus a two percent step increase for all except those who have already reached the maximum number of years the step-increase scale covers.

Other proposed changes in the administration budget, besides salaries, include Town Manager Aaron Miller’s proposal to buy a new copier to replace a 12-year-old one, at an estimated cost of $10,000, and select board members’ recommendation to raise their annual stipends from $1,100 apiece to $2,500 apiece.

The recommended amount for select board members is based on compensation in comparable Maine towns and is intended to recognize the amount of time the job takes and to encourage more people to run for the board.

Board members approved additional time for police chief Mark Brown; Miller said the request is a response to residents’ desire for more coverage.

The total proposed public safety budget is up more than $80,000, mostly because Delta Ambulance has asked for $66,285 to continue serving Vassalboro residents.

Select board members also approved increasing program director Karen Hatch’s time from 20 to 30 hours a week, and her pay commensurately. Board chairman Barbara Redmond was hesitant, because the position is less than a year old; select board member Frederick “Rick” Denico, Jr., and budget committee member Michael Poulin said Hatch is doing a lot and getting good participation.

Hatch’s summary of some of her initial activities appeared in the Jan. 19 issue of The Town Line, on page 2.

Miller suggested a survey asking resident how they like the program and what additional activities they recommend.

Board members supported increasing funding for the China Region Lakes Alliance and, at Redmond’s suggestion, adding up to $5,000 for the Webber Pond Association. Both proposed appropriations have the goal of helping protect water quality. Miller is to draft an article specifying that the $5,000 town donation is to improve water level management at the outlet dam; he suggested the money be appropriated from proceeds from the annual alewife harvest, rather than from taxes.

Proposals for reserve funds, for example for future equipment purchases, were reviewed and amended.

The budget still contains unknowns, including major items like the cost of road-paving materials; and Miller has not yet estimated 2023-24 revenues. The school board has barely started review of its 2023-24 budget (See related story here).

Nomination papers available

Nomination papers for Vassalboro local elective offices are available at the town office. Positions to be filled this year are one seat on the select board (Barbara Redmond, whose term ends, has repeatedly said she does not plan to run again) and two seats on the school board (Erin Libby Loiko’s and Zachary Smith’s terms end this year).

Signed nomination papers must be returned to the town office by noon, Friday, April 14, for candidates’ names to be on the June 13 ballot.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro planning board members have sent to the town select board the long-discussed ordinance amendment that has for convenience been referred to as a solar ordinance.

After another two hours’ review at their March 7 meeting, planning board members decided they are satisfied with the draft they have worked on for months and voted unanimously to forward it.

Select board members will decide whether to put this version, or perhaps an amended one, on the warrant for the June 13 written-ballot part of the annual town meeting.

The proposed ordinance will be available for public review after select board members agree to put it to a vote, and a public hearing will allow residents to ask questions and express opinions.

With voter approval, the solar provisions will become a new Section XI of Vassalboro’s Site Review Ordinance. Amendments are proposed to other sections of the ordinance, too, some correcting or clarifying unrelated provisions and some – additional definitions, for example – auxiliary to the solar section.

The solar provisions were the topic of a Feb. 28 public hearing. At the March 7 meeting, planning board members reviewed written comments received after the hearing. Four members of the Main Street Maine coalition, formed after a solar company proposed an installation between Route 32 and Outlet Stream north of Duratherm Window Company, commented from the audience.

Buffer areas, fences, screening and in general isolation of a solar installation were one major topic. Board members accepted a suggestion to reduce the requirement for an eight-foot fence – which might require expensive special construction, they found – to the seven feet a ReVision energy comment said is in the National Electrical Code.

Board members agreed that a requirement for area testing for contaminants should be for monitoring wells, not soil tests. Board member Paul Mitnik pointed that water has widely-accepted standards for contamination, while soil does not. Chairman Virginia Brackett said a monitoring well is smaller and less expensive than a household well.

Brackett does not expect solar panels will contaminate soil or water. Mitnik pointed out some solar installations are deliberately placed on contaminated ground that cannot be used for farming or other purposes.

Requirements for inspections during and after construction were modified substantially. Of the proposed requirement for weekly inspections during construction, Mitnik, a retired codes enforcement officer, said he did not know what a CEO would look for every week. As for monthly inspections during operations, Brackett said nothing happens on a solar site.

Brackett reacted similarly to an audience member’s suggestion of an emergency response plan: for what, foxes killing mice? The draft ordinance requires the operating company to train Vassalboro firefighters before operations begin and to maintain access to the fire chief’s satisfaction.

Provisions requiring immediate notice to the town if the panels stopped generating electricity were deleted as board members accepted the ReVision argument that in addition to planned maintenance shutdowns, solar panels “cease to produce electricity every day between sunset and sunrise.”

As the discussion ended, board member Douglas Phillips told the audience he did not think changes made were substantial enough to require another review by the town attorney, but Town Manager Aaron Miller could decide to consult her.

Phillips reminded audience members that in addition to ordinance requirements, the planning board can attach conditions to any permit approved, whenever board members find they are needed to meet local conditions.

Planning board members had two other items on their March 7 agenda. They postponed action on a shoreland application on Birch Point Road, Webber Pond, because the applicant was not present.

They approved a second six-month extension on SunVest’s permit for a solar farm on Webber Pond Road, adding a requirement that when the company gets the connectivity permit from Central Maine Power Company it is waiting for, the town is to have a copy.

Board members decided that the six-month town-wide moratorium on new solar development voters approved in November 2022 did not prevent them from extending a pre-existing permit.

The next regular Vassalboro Planning Board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 4.

On April 4, “We’re not going to do solar; we’re done,” Brackett said.