by Mary Grow

Four members of the Vassalboro Cemetery Committee met April 28, mostly to continue discussion of who’s in charge of tree removal in cemeteries. In the audience were Holly Weidner, chairman of the conservation commission; Frederick “Rick” Denico, Jr., chairman of the select board; and, until he had to leave for another engagement, Town Manager Aaron Miller.

Since last fall, the cemetery committee and the conservation commission have been discussing which body has jurisdiction over trees growing in Vassalboro’s 27 (or more) cemeteries.

The five-page draft document Miller prepared traces the debate to March 2024, when, he wrote, a crew cutting trees in the Methodist cemetery, on Bog Road, in East Vassalboro, at the cemetery’s committee direction, unknowingly cut a tree planted under the Project Canopy program.

Weidner said the tree was actually just outside the cemetery; Project Canopy trees are required to be on public land, like the road right-of-way. Because it was cut, she said, the conservation commission did not apply for a 2025 project canopy grant, being unable to certify the town had taken good care of earlier trees.

Cemetery committee member David Jenney recognized, and regretted, the need to “cut a lot of handsome trees” in order to “protect monuments honoring the dead”; although, he added, the trees will eventually die anyway. Denico pointed out that even a healthy tree can be blown over in a windstorm.

Miller said his document was intended not as an ordinance or even a policy sheet, but as a summary with recommendations, to guide future decisions. Titled “Trees and Stones: A Balancing Act in Vassalboro Cemeteries,” it begins with a summary of the issue and a reference to other Maine towns’ experience; discusses funding, perpetual care and town obligations under state law; summarizes local responsibilities; and ends with a list of recommendations.

Since last fall, the cemetery committee and the conservation commission have been discussing which body has jurisdiction over trees.

Cemetery committee chairman Savannah Clark had added comments to the draft. Committee members made additional changes before approving it for reference to the select board for review.

This year’s cemetery work, including cutting trees, is scheduled to be in Vassalboro’s Nelson and Farwell-Brown cemeteries. Clark said an arborist examined trees in both and marked those to be removed.

Miller, Denico and Clark agreed that the town does enough to inform residents of planned cutting, by having the selected trees marked and by advertising meetings at which cemetery maintenance is discussed. Most Vassalboro public meetings are also broadcast and recorded.

In response to the concern about Project Canopy trees, Weidner said the conservation commission is compiling a list and map that will show everyone where they are.

Three other issues were mentioned.

— Miller said Public Works Director Brian Lajoie is consulting with state labor department personnel about getting public works employees trained to work from bucket trucks, so that Vassalboro can save the cost of renting a bucket truck.
— The manager said he is looking into insurance for the local volunteers who repair cemetery stones; he hopes to have something in place by June.
— Committee members discussed what, if anything, state law or regulations say about how deep cremains need to be buried in a cemetery.

The next Vassalboro cemetery committee meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, May 19.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro select board members have not been asked to sell the town transfer station, merely to consider sharing a small part of it.

The suggestion from the board’s April 3 meeting that Municipal Wastehub might want to buy or lease the transfer station was changed at the April 17 meeting, when Mike Carroll, head of the Hampden disposal/recycling facility, spoke with board members.

Carroll explained the hub-and-spoke system he’d like to organize among member towns to increase efficiency and save them money.

Instead of each municipality individually having its different kinds of waste – Carroll mentioned tires and mattresses as examples – hauled directly to disposal sites, nearby towns would combine their collections in a trailer Wastehub provided at one transfer station. Full trailers would be taken to disposal sites.

In response to select board members’ concerns and questions, he said:

— Current local employees would stay. If questions arose about their benefits, they would be resolved, with the goal of keeping employees whole.
— A trailer would sit wherever the host town’s staff wanted it.
— Wastehub’s associated services would include analyzing traffic flow, finding resources and helping negotiate any necessary contracts.

“You don’t lose [your transfer station],” he said.

The project won’t start unless enough of Wastehub’s 115 member towns participate. Carroll gave no number for “enough.”

Meanwhile, he said, the Hampden facility, where he was hired in 2019 to start this sort of plan – before the venture folded in May 2020 – is reopening. It is run by a company called Resource Recovery, with Municipal Wastehub a 10 percent partner.

Plans are to sort municipal solid waste to extract many more recyclables, like soiled cardboard and plastic; feed the remaining “miscellaneous fiber” into an anaerobic digester that will produce natural gas; and use the “grit” residue for projects like covering landfills.

If the new facility becomes profitable, Carroll said, it might be able to reduce tipping fees, or give municipalities rebates, or since Wastehub’s members are 10 percent owners, offer profit-sharing.

In other business April 17, select board members reviewed bids for door openers for the new public works building and for 2025 paving, unanimously choosing the low bidder for each job.

Paving bids were shared with the Town of China, to get a lower price by providing more work. The low bidder was Hagar Enterprises, of Damariscotta, at $85.50 a ton for paving mix. Town Manager Aaron Miller said China and Windsor had used the company before, though Vassalboro had not.

Acceptance of the bid was conditional on the contract forbidding Hagar from sub-contracting out work. The condition was proposed by board member Chris French, who remembered a past subcontracting problem.

Board members reviewed a history of Vassalboro’s Boston Post Cane, prepared by the Vassalboro Historical Society and available on the society’s website, under the heading “Vassalboro’s Oldest Resident.” Current holder of the honor – in the form of a replica carved by resident Raymond Breton, not the original 1909 cane – is Mrs. T. Lois Bulger, born, the website says, April 24, 1922.

At their May 1 meeting, board members plan to consider candidates for Vassalboro’s 2025 Spirit of America award, recognizing community volunteers. Anyone wanting to nominate a candidate is invited to contact the town office or any select board member, Frederick Denico, Jr., Michael Poulin or Chris French.

Select board members appointed Michael Phelps to the Vassalboro Recreation Committee.

The April 17 meeting was preceded by a 35-minute executive session and included further discussion of the draft 2024-25 budget. It ended with French insisting the board schedule a special April 24 meeting to approve the warrant for the June 2 and June 10 town meeting, if by then the Vassalboro School Board has made its final budget recommendations.

Miller was sure that signing the warrant at the next regular meeting May 1 would suffice, but French persuaded him and the other two board members to add the conditional April 24 meeting to their schedules.

The school board scheduled a special budget meeting April 22, Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer reported later.

Vassalboro’s annual town meeting will be, as usual, in two parts. On Monday, June 2, interested voters will assemble at 6:30 p.m. in the Vassalboro Community School gymnasium to elect a moderator and discuss and act on 41 (as of April 17) articles, including the 2025-26 municipal and school budgets.

On Tuesday, June 10, polls will be open in the town office from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for local elections. As of April 17, the draft warrant had two more June 10 articles, a request to amend the town’s solid waste ordinance and an affirmation or rejection of the school budget approved June 2.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Planning Board members approved Novel Energy’s planned community solar farm, at 2235 Riverside Drive, at their April 7 special meeting, despite last-minute surprises from neighbors (see the April 10 issue of The Town Line, p. 9).

Novel representative Ralph Addonizio brought the additional information board members requested at their April 1 meeting, an updated map showing required buffers and larger copies of the site plan, to accompany the two-inch-thick application.

With those additions, planning board members found the application complete. They then spent more than an hour and a half comparing the application to Vassalboro’s ordinance criteria for commercial developments in general and solar projects specifically.

They added three conditions to their approval of the project: construction of a turn-around outside the gate (at fire chief Walker Thompson’s suggestion); provision of a drawing of the planned solar panels; and planting a buffer of at least two dozen trees on the southwest corner.

The new buffer is intended to meet objections raised by Alison Thompson: she and her husband plan to build a retirement home on a knoll from which they will be able to see the solar panels.

Alison Thompson claimed that only solar developers like solar panels; she thinks they are “cluttering our state.”

Planning Board chairman Virginia Brackett doubted the ordinance required the board to consider nearby future developments when reviewing an application. Addonizio, citing Novel’s desire to be a good neighbor, was willing to add the buffer.

The second issue Alison Thompson raised, as the meeting drew toward a close, was that she and her husband had not received a certified letter notifying them before the first planning board discussion of the project. Nor, Walker Thompson said, had he – he came to the second meeting because a neighbor told him about it.

The ordinance requires – requires, Alison Thompson emphasized – notice to abutters by certified mail. Walker Thompson added that the neighbor who informed him is not an abutter, but he got a notice.

The reason for the notice, Brackett said, is to make sure people know about projects on properties adjoining theirs. The Thompsons knew; the purpose was achieved.

But only, Walker Thompson protested, because of his neighbor. He insisted the board should follow the ordinance – otherwise, why have one?

Codes officer Eric Currie said he relied on inaccurate town records in making the list of abutters for Novel to notify. Board member Paul Mitnik, formerly Vassalboro’s codes officer, said he had had similar problems.

Board members agreed a mistake had been made. But they saw no point in going through the review process again, as they expected the result would be the same.

Board member Dan Bradstreet pointed that both Thompsons came to board meetings, and board members heard their concerns and addressed them as best they could. Looking at accurate information on town tax maps, Bradstreet and Currie found no other abutters who had not received notice.

Board member Douglas Phillips doubted another review would bring a different result. Dissatisfied parties can appeal to Superior Court, he told the audience.

Brackett, Bradstreet and Phillips voted to approve Novel’s application, with the three conditions. Mitnik said he could not vote to approve it, because the notice provision had not been followed.