by Mary Grow

At a second Vassalboro Board of Appeals hearing on his request to change the name of his road, resident Silas Cain lost on a 2-1 vote.

The dead-end road off Oak Grove Road is currently named White Ridge Road. Barring further action, it will keep the name.

When board members first heard the appeal on Oct. 9, they postponed a decision for more information (see the Oct. 16 issue of The Town Line, p. 2).

At the Oct. 23 meeting, Cain and Jeff White, who lives at the end of the road and who applied for the road name last spring, provided more of the history of the issue.

The original right-of-way across Cain’s land to White’s was also Cain’s driveway, built around 1940. Because Cain did not want traffic past his house, he created a new right-of-way, in 1989. White said he paid to have power run along it to his house – with Cain’s approval, Cain interjected – and to add gravel and have the road plowed – as specified in the right-of-way agreement, Cain added.

About 10 years later, Cain moved to a new house on the new right-of-way, creating two separate dwellings on the road and making it, under Vassalboro’s E911 Ordinance, a road that needed a name.

Last spring, White applied to Vassalboro codes officer Eric Currie for the name White Ridge Road. Currie told the board he talked with the road commissioner, as required, to check the sight distance on Oak Grove Road. It was satisfactory, and he approved the name.

White had told Cain the naming process had been started. Cain, as owner of the land over which the right-of-way runs, expected to choose the name. After the White Ridge Road sign appeared, he appealed.

Board chairman John Reuthe and member Lauchlin Titus voted to deny the appeal, saying Currie had acted according to the town ordinance. Rebecca Lamey dissented, saying Cain, as the landowner, should have chosen the name, or at least been consulted.

Reuthe told Cain the next step is an appeal to Superior Court. Or, he said, if Cain and White want to negotiate, they could work with Currie.

Board members agreed some of the reason for the conflict was that parts of the 1996 E911 ordinance need to be clearer. Reuthe suggested Currie draft amendments, if he has time.

by Mary Grow

School safety dominated discussion at the Oct. 14 Vassalboro School Board meeting, from two different perspectives. The meeting began with consideration of the possibility of adding a school resource officer; and later, several parents raised questions and concerns about how serious a September incident was, and how school personnel handled it.

The September situation involved one student threatening another. Parents were dismayed to have learned about it through children’s reports and Facebook, rather than from school officials; lacking direct information, some kept their children home the next day.

School board members and school administrators listened, but made few comments. Board chairman Jolene Gamage explained that the monthly business meeting was not the forum for a discussion; she would provide answers later.

When? And by what means that would reach the whole school community? people wanted to know. Gamage proposed scheduling a separate meeting.

As of Oct. 19, the community meeting was scheduled for 6 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 28, at Vassalboro Community School.

The idea of adding a school resource officer at VCS came up during the select board’s Oct. 2 meeting with local emergency services representatives (see the Oct. 9 issue of The Town Line, p. 2). At the school board meeting, Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office (KSO) representatives Frank Hatch and Jeremy York, and Vassalboro Police Chief Mark Brown, continued the discussion.

KSO has contracts with several area school departments, Hatch said. York serves as school resource officer for Gardiner’s six schools; he talked about how he spends his time, emphasizing making friends with students.

Several audience members endorsed the idea, saying the resource officer could also help teachers handle difficult situations.

Vassalboro Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer pointed out there would be a cost. More planning and discussion are needed; but, he said optimistically, maybe a VCS resource officer by the next school year?

In other business Oct. 14, board members changed the proposed remote learning day on Nov. 4 to a no-school day. The purpose is to allow voting at VCS, where polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Pfeiffer reported on several projects under way. He thanked the public works department for installing roadside school zone lights (they were not yet programmed); he was soon to meet with codes officer Eric Currie about a permit for the expanded parking lot; and crews from Energy Management Consultants, Inc., had been working on building upgrades. EMC head Thomas Seekins is expected to report at the board’s November meeting.

Pfeiffer said Finance Director Paula Pooler reported no budgetary problems.

School board members postponed discussion of revisions to the VCS Strategic Plan to November. Because the second Tuesday in November is the Veterans Day holiday, they will meet at 6 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 12.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro select board members spent the first 90 minutes of their Oct. 16 meeting hearing an appeal from codes officer Eric Currie’s denials of two marijuana – now called cannabis – business license renewals.

They upheld the appellants on one and postponed a decision on the other.

The properties involved are two buildings licensed for growing cannabis, one on Old Meadows Road, off Riverside Drive, toward the south end of town, and one on Sherwood Lane, off Riverside Drive, toward the north end of town.

An early question was sorting out whether the applicant was Leo Barnett or his son, Andrew Barnett, or both: attorney Seth Russell, from the Zerillo Law Firm, in Portland, said he represented both men.

The Old Meadows Road building has been in use for several years. The Sherwood Lane building has not been used, according to testimony. The Barnetts, and, Currie said, other cannabis business owners in town, were late in applying for 2025 licenses, perhaps because Vassalboro was changing codes officers.

Vassalboro’s Cannabis Business Ordinance says licenses expire at the end of each calendar year, and renewal applications are due at least 90 days before a license expires. When Currie sent out reminders and the Barnetts still delayed, he denied their applications.

Currie was relying on Section K (1) of Vassalboro’s Cannabis Business Ordinance, which says that a license, and any vested rights to operate, “shall be forfeited” if the business “Fails to obtain a new license prior to expiration of an existing license.”

Russell argued that Currie had misread the ordinance. In essence, he said all that was forfeited was the existing license, not the right to apply for a new license.

Town attorney Patrick Lyons, of Viridian Law, in Bangor, disagreed with Russell, saying the ordinance language clearly says the right to run the business is lost if the application for renewal is not timely.

Another ordinance provision seems to allow late renewals, saying that if an owner does not apply on time, the business closes until a license is granted, and select board members may set a late fee.

Russell said these provisions did not permanently close a business, and if the town ordinance seems self-contradictory, the problem is the town’s, not the Barnetts’.

Select board members voted unanimously to allow the Barnetts to submit a license application for the Old Meadows Road facility, because of the confusion caused by changing codes officers and because it is an existing business. Currie said there are between four and six growers in the building.

Because the Sherwood Lane building is not in use and has not been, board members decided they need more information before acting on that appeal. They recessed the public hearing to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13.

The Barnett hearing was followed by three more hearings, on the three referendum questions Vassalboro voters are asked to decide Nov. 4. By the time the first of those hearings was called to order, the audience consisted of two residents, one of whom soon left. Town Manager Aaron Miller talked briefly about the questions, which ask voters if they want to

— Authorize using up to $19,220 from surplus to pay auditing bills;
— Increase the number of select board members from three to five;
— Approve amendments to the town’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) document.

The other major business Oct. 16 was continued discussion of a new capital expenditures plan. Resident Frank Richards has been studying the issue; he plans to have a presentation ready for the Nov. 13 select board meeting.

With the town’s fiscal year one-quarter over, Miller said finances seem to be in good shape. Having the new part-time office employee (and youth sports coordinator), Danielle Brox, has been helpful, he said.

Looking at future meeting dates and holidays, board members scheduled only one meeting in November (Thursday, Nov. 13) and one in December (Thursday, Dec. 11), with the option to add special meetings if needed.

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