Transformational new laws to protect residents of mobile home communities take effect

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Last week, four new laws sponsored by Senate Democrats to preserve some of the strongest remaining affordable housing options in Maine took effect. These transformational laws, passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Mills earlier this year, aim to help residents of mobile home communities purchase the parks they live in via a right of first refusal, tax incentives and a new method of funding the Mobile Home Park Preservation and Assistance Fund.

These laws come as Maine has seen a growing trend of out-of-state private equity firms attempting to buy up mobile home communities. Often, these corporate firms raise lot rents on residents and neglect maintenance.

“Over the past year, the Housing and Economic Development Committee has taken a hard look at how to build more housing in Maine and, just as importantly, how to protect the affordable housing we still have,” said Sen. Chip Curry, Senate Chairman of the Legislature’s Housing and Economic Development Committee. “These new laws give residents a fighting chance to stay in their homes and safeguard their communities. They push back on business models that put profits over people, and they show what it looks like when we legislate with urgency, compassion, and impact.”

LD 1145, “An Act to Protect Residents Living in Mobile Home Parks,” introduced by Sen. Tim Nangle, D-Windham, creates a right of first refusal for resident cooperatives to match a third-party offer to purchase the park they live in, providing them with the ability to control their future housing costs while ensuring that sellers receive the full market value of their property.

“Mobile home communities are not commodities. They are neighborhoods where families, veterans and seniors have built their lives,” said Sen. Nangle. “Maine can’t solve our housing crisis if we don’t also protect the affordable homes we already have. This law ensures that when these communities go up for sale, residents have the chance to step up and protect their homes, their dignity and their way of life.”

LD 1016, “An Act to Establish the Manufactured Housing Community and Mobile Home Park Preservation and Assistance Fund,” introduced by Sen. Cameron Reny, D-Bristol, creates a per-lot transfer fee on the purchase of mobile home parks, which applies only to purchasing entities with a net worth of more than $50 million, preserving the ability of local for-profit, non-profit and resident co-ops to buy and sell parks as they have for decades. Revenues from the transfer fee paid by equity firms and other high-end investor entities go toward a permanent Mobile Home Park Preservation and Assistance Fund to support residents at risk of displacement.

LD 554, “An Act to Encourage Resident-owned Communities and Preserve Affordable Housing Through Tax Deductions,” also introduced by Sen. Reny, creates a tax deduction to incentivize the sale or transfer of housing developments, manufactured housing communities, or apartment complexes to resident-owned communities, cooperative affordable housing corporations, or municipal housing authorities. This law allows for an income tax exemption of up to $750,000 on capital gains from these transfers.

“All Maine people deserve the opportunity to be secure in their housing,” said Sen. Reny. “This year, we’ve been working hard to preserve one of Maine’s last forms of naturally affordable housing: mobile home and manufactured home communities. My bills, LD 554 and LD 1016, help give residents the leg up they need when trying to purchase the land under their homes and invest in the future security of their community. I’m glad to see these tools become available to Maine residents.”

LD 1768, “An Act to Protect Residents of Mobile Home Parks by Amending the Real Estate Transfer Tax,” introduced by Sen. Donna Bailey, D-Saco, eliminates the real estate transfer tax on sales of mobile home parks when the buyers are the residents themselves.

“This year, my colleagues and I worked hard to maintain and preserve the affordability of mobile home parks,” said Sen. Bailey. “Whether it’s residents of Atlantic Village, Blue Haven or Old Orchard Village, I continue to hear from folks who worry about the sales of their parks or steep increases in their rents. Over the summer, I have been attending meetings in these communities. I also can’t forget a mother who recently wrote to me. She works full-time while raising her two sons, and her family budget is already stretched thin. She is doing all she can. Having experienced something similar, I know these laws matter. I also know that we have more work to do.”

As non-emergency legislation, these new laws took effect on September 24, 2025, 90 days after the First Special Session of the 132nd Legislature adjourned.

LD 1145, the right of first refusal law, was initially proposed as emergency legislation that would take effect immediately upon the governor’s signature, but House Republicans blocked the bill from receiving the necessary two-thirds vote.

Vassalboro resident objects to newly-assigned road name

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Vassalboro Town Officeby Mary Grow

The Vassalboro Board of Appeals is scheduled to meet at 4 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 9, in the town office meeting room, to hear a request to change a road name.

In August, Augusta attorney Jed Davis, representing Vassalboro resident Silas Cain, asked town officials to take back the name White Ridge Road, recently applied to a road off Oak Grove Road that runs through Cain’s property to Jeff White’s property.

Last spring, White told Cain town officials intended to name the road so it could be properly shown on 911 maps. Davis said Cain began thinking about names he would suggest. He never had the chance, because town officials put up a White Ridge Road sign without consulting him.

Davis asked select board members to reconsider the name and to talk with Cain about a new name.

The request was on the board’s Sept. 18 agenda. Town Manager Aaron Miller said it was a decision for the board of appeals, which had only two members, one short of a quorum.

At their Oct. 2 meeting, select board members are scheduled to appoint a new board of appeals member so the board can act on Oct. 9.

Also on Thursday, Oct. 9, at 6:30 p.m., the Vassalboro Select Board has scheduled a special meeting, in executive session, to discuss personnel matters.

China planners OK change of use for M.A. Haskell property

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China Town Officeby Mary Grow

China Planning Board members held a short Sept. 23 meeting, during which they approved the only application on their agenda and changed their plans for recommending revisions to town ordinances.

The application was from Maurice Haskell, represented at the meeting by his daughter, Heather Haskell, to convert the former M. A. Haskell commercial building at 1166 Route 3 to a residence.

Board members voted they did not need to hold a public hearing on the application, because effects on neighboring properties will be diminished, not increased, by the change.

They found the application met all 15 criteria in the town’s Land Use Ordinance and approved it unanimously, with almost no discussion. Heather Haskell said no exterior changes are planned, and a residence would fit into the residential neighborhood.

At previous meetings, board members have considered asking voters to approve a new site review ordinance. On Sept. 23, board chairman Toni Wall suggested before recommending a new ordinance, board members update existing ones.

Some have not been revised since the 1990s, Wall said. She proposed the 1993 Phosphorus Control Ordinance as the first ordinance to be reviewed.

Codes Officer Nicholas French added that new state housing laws require towns to modify some ordinance requirements by July 1, 2026, to allow greater housing density.

The planning board will not meet Tuesday, Oct. 14 (its usual second Tuesday meeting), because, with one of its five positions vacant and two members unavailable, there would be no quorum. The next meeting is currently scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 28.

Trees top Vassalboro cemetery committee’s meeting

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Cemetery Committee members spent three-fourths of their hour-long Sept. 15 meeting discussing trees in cemeteries, again, with half a dozen interested residents (see the Aug. 28 issue of The Town Line, p. 2).

Committee chairman Savannah Clark said after the Aug. 18 meeting, she asked Town Manager Aaron Miller to prepare a request for proposals seeking an arborist who would evaluate trees in six town cemeteries and recommend which, if any, should be trimmed or removed.

The committee’s goal is to protect gravestones and monuments from damage caused by falling trees or tree limbs.

As in previous discussions, audience members stressed the value of trees in cemeteries – a value that committee members also recognize. Trees make cemetery grounds attractive; they might even reduce mowing costs, by shading out grass, Janet Waldron suggested.

Residents also said – and committee members again agreed – that stones are damaged in other ways, by weather or vandalism, for example. Waldron’s husband, Bill Baghdoyan, said he cannot remember ever seeing damage caused by a fallen branch or tree in Union Cemetery, next to his house.

Committee member David Jenney said he has pictures of tree-caused damage in Cross Hill Cemetery, beside his house. He gave a personal example: some years ago one of two large trees in his yard, which he had had trimmed and planned to keep for years, came down in a post-hurricane wind, missing the house by six feet.

Clark said repeatedly committee members are nowhere near deciding to cut trees. Miller has not yet had time to prepare the request for proposals that will lead to bids that select board members will review before choosing someone to assess trees in the selected graveyards. After the assessment, recommendations will be reviewed and evaluated against available funds before bids for actual work can be solicited.

Waldron and others urged making the arborist who does the assessment ineligible to bid to do the work. Not imposing the restriction creates a conflict of interest, Waldron said.

In other business Sept. 15, committee members reviewed two drafts of a proposed cemetery committee policy, Town Manager Miller’s and a second with changes and additions Jenney proposes. They accepted the revised version, to be forwarded to Miller and the select board.

Copies of both versions of the policy are on the town website, vassalboro.net, under the agenda for the Sept. 15 meeting.

Committee members briefly discussed Cara Kent’s Aug. 18 proposal to publicize the history of Vassalboro town cemeteries and people buried in them. Kent was absent; Clark said since the August meeting, Kent and Jane Aiudi had taken preliminary steps on the project.

The next regular Vassalboro Cemetery Committee meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 20. The public is welcome at all meetings.

China select board worried about future ambulance service

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China Town Officeby Mary Grow

China select board members worried aloud about the future of ambulance service in the town, and groused about the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), during their Sept. 22 meeting.

The meeting was less than a week after the first of two explanatory meetings in China, and the evening before the second one. (See related stories, p. 3) At the meetings, Delta Ambulance’s Executive Director, Chris Mitchell, explained why the annual fee the service charges its member towns will keep increasing.

Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood said Delta’s fee this year is $35 for every person in town. Mitchell expects an increase of at least $55 for 2026.

His projection assumes all of the current 13 towns continue to use Delta. Should towns drop out, the fee for the remaining towns will jump, to cover the loss.

Board members wondered if townspeople are aware of the ambulance service’s funding challenges, or if they assume their insurance covers costs. It doesn’t, because insurance reimbursement rates are too low, and if an ambulance comes to a China patient but the patient is not transported, insurance pays nothing.

The alternative to using Delta’s regional service is establishing a local ambulance service, or one shared with a neighboring town. Select board members expressed dismay at the potential cost of either option.

Hapgood said she has participated in many conversations about alternatives and their costs, and anticipates more. Board member Ed Bailey said perhaps, given the lives potentially at risk, the question asked should be not whether China can afford ambulance service, but how it can afford not to provide it.

Board chairman Wayne Chadwick said it may become necessary to stop funding optional programs and projects in order to fund essential ones without an overwhelming tax increase.

The discussion will continue.

China officials have three beefs with DEP, two related to China Lake and one related to the transfer station.

Hapgood said she received complaints about the Causeway Road boat launch at the north end of China Lake: the gravel that should be at the end of the ramp is missing, and there is a heap of gravel farther out in the lake.

Knowledgeable board members said the cause is people power loading their boats, that is, using the boat’s engine to drive it onto the trailer for the trip home, instead of winching it up.

When Hapgood talked with a DEP staff member, she was told the town has two options: use hand-held rakes to move the gravel back where it belongs, or apply for a permit to “pave” the launch area. Board member Thomas Rumpf interpreted the second option as extending the ramp farther into the lake.

Rumpf and others did not think either method was practical. They concluded there is nothing the town can do at this point.

Hapgood raised the second issue: last fall, she said, the town office got an anonymous complaint that a skid steer was in China Lake off Fire Road 61. She and Codes Officer Nicholas French found the report was accurate, located the owner of the skid steer and reported what she calls “an egregious violation” of water quality laws to DEP.

Over the winter, Hapgood followed up repeatedly. She recently learned that DEP has required the offender to take a class on erosion and sedimentation control, a penalty she considers totally inadequate.

Board members agreed. They wondered why they were being so fussy about trying to fix the boat launch properly, if DEP cared so little.

The third gripe, raised briefly by Rumpf with Hapgood’s agreement, is the DEP requirement that China add a gravel or similar pad under the brush pile at the transfer station, supposedly to prevent contamination from the brush.

The Sept. 22 meeting included the annual public hearing on amendments to the appendices to the town’s General Assistance Ordinance, adding the state’s new financial limits. There was no public comment, and the changes were unanimously adopted.

In other business, by unanimous votes board members appointed Carol Thibodeau to the China for a Lifetime Committee, and renewed the town’s membership in the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments Community Resilience Partnership.

Hapgood reported that because the Maine Department of Transportation is short-staffed, speed limit recommendations have not yet been made for China’s Danforth, Dutton and Pleasant View Ridge roads.

China’s new public works truck, on which the town paid a $3,000 tariff, should arrive within the next few days, Hapgood said. An older truck has been sold.

The manager’s list of upcoming events included, in October, select board meetings the evenings of Oct. 6 and Oct. 20; an appeals board hearing on Thursday, Oct. 2, at 2 p.m., on Timothy Theriault’s variance appeal; closure of all town departments for Indigenous Peoples Day on Monday, Oct. 13; and a drug take-back day at the transfer station on Saturday, Oct. 25, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The Nov. 4 state and local voting will be held in the portable building behind the town office, with polls open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

CHINA: Delta Ambulance: No one has enough resources

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by Mary Grow

“No one has enough resources.”

That was Delta Ambulance Executive Director Chris Mitchell’s summary toward the end of a Sept. 17 discussion with representatives of emergency services and local governments from towns Delta serves. The meeting was the first of two hosted by the Town of China; the second was Sept. 23.

Mitchell gave participants copies of Delta’s 37-page strategic plan for 2026 and his four-page summary of highlights, and answered numerous questions.

The resources that are lacking, Mitchell and audience members said, include trained personnel to provide emergency medical care, especially paramedics; ambulances; and money to compensate personnel and buy and maintain vehicles.

To make up for expenses outstripping revenues, in July 2023 Delta began charging towns it serves annual fees, based on population. As expenses continue to mount, the fees increase, to the point where Waterville and Winslow have established their own ambulance service and other area towns are weighing the option.

One of Mitchell’s projections was that if all 13 current member towns stay with Delta, the 2026 fee will be between $55 and $60 per capita. The 2025 fee is $35, up from $25 in 2024.

If any towns decide to leave, the remaining towns’ fees would increase even more.

The strategic plan summarized proposed changes aimed at reducing costs while improving service, primarily by 1) better matching ambulance coverage with demand, in terms of timing – daytimes are busier than overnight – and need – the majority of emergency patients do not need a paramedic’s skills; 2) revising cost allocations; and 3) increased coordination with towns’ emergency services.

Mitchell scheduled the September meetings to give town officials time to consider options before beginning 2025-26 budget deliberations. He intends additional meetings as needed, and welcomed questions between meetings.

Delta Ambulance is legally a nonprofit organization, established in 1972, the strategic plan says. As of July 2025, it serves 13 towns, covering almost 522 square miles, with a population of almost 42,000. Its job is to provide “emergency and non-emergency medical transportation” to the towns it serves.

The plan shows that Delta is nonprofit in fact as well as in law. In 2024, the plan says, total revenue was about $7.9 million, two-thirds from ambulance billing. Town subsidies contributed about 13 percent, funding from hospitals about 12 percent.

Total 2024 expenses were about $8.4 million, three-quarters for staff salaries and benefits & FICA. The second largest expense category was vehicles, about 11 percent\ of the total. The document’s writer observed that insurance cost almost $500,000.

Delta is the primary emergency transport provider for the 13 towns. Additional services include “secondary/mutual aid to adjacent communities”; transfer service between medical facilities, mostly but not entirely local; “scheduled wheelchair van service to patients”; “medical billing services to outside agencies”; and “education and support to community members and partnered first responder agencies.”

Since Delta’s policy is to make sure at least two ambulances are always available for emergency calls, transfers sometimes must be postponed. When Daniel Mayotte, from Vassalboro’s First Responders, pointed out that a transfer can be a life or death issue, Mitchell agreed and said Delta would call for mutual aid or LifeFlight of Maine. If no option was available, however, a patient in a hospital would have to be a lower priority than potential patients with no care.

Delta currently has 31 paramedics, 17 of them full-time, and 42 EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians) and AEMTs (Advanced Emergency Technicians), 26 full-time. Mitchell said four AEMTs are working toward becoming paramedics.

There are 15 administrative positions. Most of the people in them, including Mitchell, are qualified to staff an ambulance, and do.

Of the seven front-line ambulances Delta runs, Mitchell said two are new this year, with two more new ones due this fall and winter. Older ones, some with close to 400,000 miles on their odometers, will be retired.

Delta’s main headquarters is in Waterville, with a secondary base in Augusta. The latter used to belong to Delta; now it is leased, as a cost-saving measure.

Second meeting

At a second regional meeting in China on Sept. 23, Delta Ambulance Executive Director Chris Mitchell updated some of the information he provided the previous week and answered more questions from a partly new, partly repeat audience.

One change: Delta now has 36 paramedics, up from 31 a week ago, and 45 EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians) and AEMTs (Advanced Emergency Medical Technicians), up from 42 a week ago.

Mitchell re-explained the projected 2026 price increases to the 13 towns Delta serves, and assured a questioner that hospitals, too, will be asked to pay more for having patients transported from one facility to another.

He repeated his prediction that with 13 towns, the 2026 fee will be $55 to $60 per capita, up from $35 in 2025. Fairfield and Benton officials are considering withdrawal; if those two towns stop using, and contributing to, Delta, Mitchell projected an approximately $75 per capita fee for the remaining towns.

Emergency services and inter-facility transport are two separate services Delta offers; costs are divided. Both require cooperation with other emergency services, Mitchell again emphasized.

As Delta’s fee increases, town officials are considering whether it might be less expensive to start individual ambulance services. The Sept. 23 consensus was probably not yet.

With hindsight, Mitchell said, Delta should have started charging fees years ago, instead of waiting until 2023, after effects of Covid, price increases and other factors sent the service into annual deficits.

A year ago, he said, he was asked what happens if Delta loses so much support that the service fails. His answer now: Delta does not plan to fail, but to recover, through more efficient use of its resources and with help from hospitals and municipalities.

Mitchell said the problem is national, leading to questions about federal financial help, including increasing the Medicare rates on which insurance companies base their reimbursement rates.

So far, Congress had shown no interest, audience members said. A federal EMS (Emergency Medical Services) advisory board that advised the federal Department of Transportation has been inactivated.

Mitchell promised China Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood he will give town officials a firm figure for the 2026 fee by the time budget discussions begin in January 2026, even if some towns are still debating whether to stop using the service.

Vassalboro sanitary district needs board members, or else…

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Vassalboro Town Officeby Mary Grow

Unless more people immediately volunteer to serve as Vassalboro Sanitary District (VSD) trustees, bad things are likely to happen, select board members learned at their Sept. 18 meeting.

When the meeting started, the number of trustees on the five-member board was zero. The district’s only office employee, treasurer Rebecca Goodrich, and Town Manager Aaron Miller told select board members that on Oct. 1, the VSD has a $48,000 loan payment due to the Maine Municipal Bond Bank.

Goodrich, on the VSD attorney’s advice, has been paying routine bills, by credit card or check. She is hesitant to pay $48,000 without authorization from the board.

If there is no board, and therefore no payment, the VSD will be in default. Select bord chairman Frederick “Rick” Denico, Jr., said he had been told that should that happen, it would be the first time ever, nation-wide, and would likely bring Vassalboro unfavorable publicity.

Miller said the district’s lawyer told him that, under state law, a default would allow the bond bank to seize real and personal property of the about 200 families and businesses in East and North Vassalboro that the VSD serves.

Denico and Miller said they had already had preliminary discussions with bond bank officials and others, leading to suggestions and offers of help.

Auditor Ron Smith, of Buxton-based RHR Smith & Company, had heard from Goodrich and planned to do more research and provide information and advice. He and select board members agreed there are two financial problems: the Oct. 1 payment, which Smith believes can be solved without a default, and creating a long-range plan to put VSD on a sounder financial footing.

The next, smaller loan repayment is due in April 2026, according to Brian Kavanaugh, Director of the Bureau of Water Quality at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). He, too, is optimistic that the Oct. 1 payment can be made, and offered his department’s help with longer-range planning.

Kavanaugh said the sanitary system was chartered by the town in 1972, and initially treated wastewater with sand filters in East and North Vassalboro. Changing water quality regulations led to a 2020 decision to connect with the Waterville treatment facility via Winslow.

The $7.8 million project was funded about 60 percent by federal, state and local grants, including from Vassalboro’s TIF (Tax Increment Financing) program, and about 40 percent by loans, Kavanaugh said. Loan repayments, plus steadily increasing operating costs (electric rates, supplies, maintenance, Winslow’s fee as that town’s costs also go up), have required drastic increases in sewer fees.

Kavanaugh compared Vassalboro’s fees, around $2,100 to $2,300 a year, to the state average, around $900 a year.

Vassalboro’s TIF money might be available for the Oct. 1 loan repayment, but select board members – and Smith — were not sure it could be used without specific authorization from town voters.

A variety of longer-range solutions were discussed. Two audience members urged select board members to ask voters town-wide to “be good neighbors,” as one woman put it, and help fund the VSD. Another suggestion was to abolish the VSD and have the town take over.

Select board members postponed any decision until they hear what Smith and Goodrich come up with. They took one action at the end of the discussion, unanimously appointing North Vassalboro resident Raymond Breton as a VSD trustee.

All five trustees must be Vassalboro residents, and three of the five must live in the area the VSD serves. Part of the Sept. 18 discussion was about how to help incoming board and committee members understand and carry out their responsibilities.

Smith was at the meeting to talk about the municipal audits, which select board members and Miller have discussed repeatedly. Smith said the audit for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024, is done, and the audit for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025, will be done by December.

As of June 30, 2024, both the town and the school department had positive balances, Smith said. The town’s general fund increased, from $1.7 million a year earlier to $1.9 million, mainly due to property tax and excise tax collections. The school has a “hefty” fund balance, around $700,000.

In other business Sept. 18, Miller introduced Vassalboro’s new sports coordinator and office assistant, Danielle Brox. Recreation committee chairman Michael Phelps said he and other committee members are glad to have her help and have been “peppering her with questions.”

Miller announced another committee opening, on the recreation committee. Phelps thanked retiring basketball commissioner Kevin Phanor for his service.

The agenda included a public hearing on the annual state changes to general assistance funding. Board members accepted the new state figures.

Discussions of the town personnel handbook, a revived capital expenditures committee and two appeals (one of a road name, one of denial of a marijuana growing license) were postponed.

The road name issue needs to go to the Board of Appeals, Miller said, and that board, too, needs at least one more member before the appeal can be scheduled. Current members are John Reuthe and Rebecca Lamey.

The manager said work on the Webber Pond fish ladder will require Dam Road to remain closed into October, and perhaps all that month (see the explanation on the town website, vassalboro.net).

The next regular Vassalboro select board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 2. Miller said it will include a two-hour SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) discussion with Vassalboro emergency services personnel.

Libby Mitchell featured speaker at Vassalboro Historical Society

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Elizabeth “Libby” Mitchell

by Mary Grow

Former state legislator, current Kennebec County Judge of Probate, and, she hopes, always community supporter Elizabeth “Libby” Mitchell was guest speaker at the Vassalboro Historical Society on Sept. 21.

Her informal talk, blending biography, local history, serious lessons and humorous anecdotes, brought applause and laughter from audience members, most of them friends of long standing..

One subject was the Vassalboro Community School building, now 33 years old. Mitchell said her role was as a legislator supporting Maine’s 1979 Percent for Art law, which requires that one percent of the budget for state-funded construction projects be used for art.

The result was the handprints of Vassalboro’s kindergarten class in a cement wall at the building’s entrance and the nature murals, a subject chosen by community members, decorating interior walls.

Mitchell’s late husband, Jim, with Bill Sleamaker, Harvey Boatman and former Superintendent Leon Duff, led the movement for school consolidation in Vassalboro. It was not an easy sell, Mitchell said; residents were accustomed to their neighborhood schools.

Jim Mitchell recommended finding “the most beautiful spot” in Vassalboro to site the school, as one way to garner support, Libby Mitchell said. She thinks he succeeded, with the location at the intersection of Bog and Webber Pond roads.

Currently, school officials are grappling with the problem of afternoon traffic congestion as parents arrive to pick up their children, an issue Mitchell is following with interest.

Mitchell was born in South Carolina; she demonstrated that she has never been able to shake her southern accent. When then-president Bill Clinton visited Maine, she said, the state legislature passed a resolution naming her as his interpreter.

Jim Mitchell graduated from Yale Law School, but was not enthusiastic about practicing law. So when he was offered a job by former Maine Governor Ken Curtis in 1971, the Mitchells – by then with the first two of their four children – moved to Maine.

They bought an 1840 farmhouse on Riverside Drive, almost opposite Vassalboro’s Riverside fire station. Mitchell was wearing a miniskirt and her husband had a beard when they met its owner in her house full of antiques; Mitchell surmised the woman found them a bit odd, but she sold them the house anyway.

Mitchell served in the Maine House of Representatives from 1974 through 1984. She first ran, she said, after the decennial redistricting left Vassalboro heavily Republican. While she painted the interior trim in the living room, her husband and a political friend were talking about what Democrat would want to be a legislative candidate.

One of them suggested Libby run. She did, and she won, perhaps partly thanks to the Watergate scandal, partly because, she said, she loved door-to-door campaigning, meeting people and finding out what they wanted and needed.

After a break, Mitchell was again elected to the House from 1990 through 1998, serving as speaker the last two years. Elected a state senator in 2004, in 2008 she was chosen Senate President, making her the first woman in United States history to have been leader of both houses of a state legislature.

Her husband, meanwhile, was Kennebec County Judge of Probate. After his death nine years ago, she was urged to run for his position. Still numb with grief, she agreed, won and is now in her third term.

Mitchell wondered whether she was qualified for the job, in spite of her husband’s habit of talking about cases with her. A lawyer friend reassured her, telling her, “Do what you always do: listen to both sides and be compassionate and be fair.”

“I don’t do politics any more,” Mitchell told her audience; “I’m sort of a recovering politician.” Judicial impartiality prevents her from any activity that might conceivably create an impression of bias.

Each Maine county has its own Probate Court, which deals with and stores the wills of people who die in the county. The Kennebec County’s collection is currently being digitized, Mitchell said. She answered several procedural questions, and invited anyone to arrange a visit.

Mitchell cited her career changes as examples of a life rule she learned years ago: have a prepared mind, so you can take advantage of lucky accidents. Later, she added, “If you wait until you’re qualified, you may not do anything.”

She also offered a specific recommendation: “If you don’t have a will, please write one.”

Throughout her talk, Mitchell emphasized the value of community cooperation, people helping each other. As a legislator, she tried to understand all sides of an issue and to find out what apparent opponents had in common.

As a judge, she theoretically works two days a week, but responds whenever staff call her about a problem. She hopes people leave her court “with a sense of justice.”

Mitchell added several items to the Vassalboro Historical Society’s collection, including hand-written documents from the 1770s and later, and early photos of former town residents.

China transfer station committee has new chairman

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by Mary Grow

China’s Transfer Station Committee has a new member, Judy Van Norman from Palermo (succeeding Chris Diesch, who resigned), and a new chairman, Benjamin Weymouth (succeeding Chris Baumann, who moved out of state). At the Sept. 9 committee meeting, members expressed appreciation to both Chrises for their work on the committee.

A main topic at the meeting was how to publicize things China’s facility does to benefit residents, besides collect and ship away their trash.

The free for the taking building recycles usable items, including furniture, other household items and clothing. Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood said so much clothing has been dropped off that Apparel Impact, a textile recycler that supplements the local effort, has added a second collection bin.

Director of Public Services Shawn Reed praised the paint collection area, where people drop off partly-used cans of paint (and varnish and primer, committee member James Hsiang added) for other people to pick up. Reed said he has seen people mix several cans of paint to get the amount they need in a color they like.

The paint area is currently outdoors, so winter plans are uncertain, Reed said. As with clothing, there is a back-up, a recycling company named PaintCare.

Another area recycles construction wood – not odds and ends, but unneeded two-by-fours and the like that could be used for a small project. Reed said transfer station manager Thomas Maraggio uses some of the wood, but there is enough to share with residents.

Committee members recommended publicizing these extra services in Hapgood’s monthly newsletter, China Connected, and on China’s Facebook page.

They also want to continue to work with area schools to encourage class trips to the facility, a project Baumann started. There is “a lot of real-world science and technology at the transfer station,” Weymouth commented.

Perhaps, Hsiang suggested, they should seek a new committee member to succeed Baumann who is connected in some way with China – or other nearby — schools, like a retired teacher.

In addition to a new (volunteer) committee member, Hapgood reminded those present that the town is seeking a (paid) part-time transfer station attendant. Anyone interested in either position is invited to contact the town office; the telephone number is 445-2014.

Hapgood announced that the transfer station is hosting a drug take-back day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 25.

Committee members scheduled their next meeting for 9 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 14.

RSU #18 welcomes new superintendent

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Andrew Carlton

Wilton native Andrew Carlton takes over reign

by Mary Grow

Wilton native Andrew Carlton has “the job I’ve wanted since I became a superintendent of schools:” the superintendency of Oakland-based Regional School Unit (RSU) #18.

On July 1, his first day at work in his new position, Carlton was up and dressed at 4 a.m. His wife suggested he did not need to show up quite that early.

With the help of RSU staff, Carlton expanded his knowledge of his new territory – five towns, eight schools, more than 2,500 students – through July and August. In mid-September, with classes under way, his enthusiasm continues unabated.

He appreciates the communities. He praised the school facilities and grounds, the academics, the cohesion within the union, the administrators – “high-quality, we can work together instead of [me] teaching them.”

RSU #18 is unusual in that four towns – Belgrade, Oakland, Rome and Sidney – form a geographical unit and the fifth, China, is separate, on the far side of the Kennebec River and the City of Waterville.

Carlton knows at least one other Maine school unit with a geographically detached town. Separation creates minor problems, for example with bus routes, but does not make China less important, in his view.

China residents are committed to their schools, Carlton observed. At China’s pre-school open house, it was impossible to find a parking space (the other RSU towns also had good turn-outs). And China residents called his office over the summer concerned about the broken school zone warning signs on Lakeview Drive, which were fixed just before school opened.

China is the only RSU #18 town to offer students a choice of high schools, and Carlton appreciates residents’ support for the option. Oakland’s Messalonskee High School is excellent, and he is pleased that some China students enroll there, but choice gives students more opportunities to pursue individual interests.

He praised China’s two “beautiful” school buildings and the “fabulous” town manager, Rebecca Hapgood.

One of Carlton’s goals, not always achieved, is to visit every RSU #18 school at least once a week, and China won’t be overlooked. He also comes to each school biweekly to meet with the principal.

Carlton thinks RSU #18 is doing well, with high-performing students and varied programs. His main goals are maintenance: continue to offer programs that provide “high-quality opportunities to all students”; keep infrastructure in its current excellent shape; make sure staff salaries are appropriate and competitive; and focus on school safety – while keeping taxpayers always in mind.

“We exist because of our taxpayers, so we have to use their dollars to give their students the best possible education,” he said.

Carlton came to RSU #18 by a winding route. His mother was a school secretary, his father a golf pro, and his first plan was to follow his father.

A major in golf management at Campbell University, in North Carolina, was followed by a degree in history from the University of Maine at Farmington and a spell as a golf pro. Needing a winter job, he became an educational technician at Oak Hill High School in Wales (RSU #4), and realized he had found his calling.

After two years at Oak Hill, Carlton taught special education at Fairfield-based Maine School Administrative District (MSAD) #49; became special education director in MSAD #13 (Bingham and Moscow); and went back to RSU #4 to serve as a principal, assistant superintendent and superintendent.

The pandemic led to a temporary career change: Carlton spent two years as Gardiner’s city manager. He enjoyed the job, but “missed the kids”; so he next became Waterville’s special education director.

When Carl Gartley’s retirement created the RSU #18 opening, Carlton applied and was chosen as his successor.

Carlton enjoyed his varied career, working under leaders who gave him chances to learn, including from his mistakes. It was “all a very good experience,” he said. The two years in Gardiner showed him the importance of school and municipal officials working together.

Carlton intends to distribute a community letter soon, and to begin advertising office hours in RSU towns, where interested residents can stop in to talk with him.

Meanwhile, he’s still learning, and still enjoying his job. “There’s always a new challenge,” he said happily.