by Mary Grow

Vassalboro select board members’ June 5 meeting featured an update on planned enlargement of the fishway at the Webber Pond outlet dam from Matt Streeter, of Maine Rivers.

Streeter previously reported to board members in February and March, when he explained that closing Dam Road between Webber Pond Road and the southwest shore of the pond will be necessary, because big construction equipment will be on site.

The closure means residents will have to detour and come in from the southeast over the private McQuarrie Road. After discussions with area residents, Streeter said he has reached agreement with five of six McQuarrie Road residents; one is still considering.

Plans include improvements intended to make McQuarrie Road safer, he said. The project also includes enlarging the parking lot at the dam, extending it into a grassy area, to make more space for boat trailers.

Closing the road requires select board approval. Board members and Town Manager Aaron Miller had several questions that Streeter answered. He told them work is scheduled to start July 15, but he would like to start preparations a week earlier.

Board members recommended consultation with the town’s attorney; Streeter offered to meet with him. They plan a final decision at their next meeting, which is scheduled for Thursday, June 26 (a three-week gap because the June 5 meeting was a week earlier than usual).

Later in the meeting, there was a brief discussion of providing electricity at the dam, to operate power gates and a security camera. Select board chairman Frederick “Rick” Denico, Jr., did not think the town should pay for it, because “It’s not our dam.” The Webber Pond Association was suggested as the power customer.

In other business June 5, board members:

— Reviewed the town’s remote participation policy, created during Covid days when many meetings were on-line only, and the related topic of broadcasting and recording live meetings. Miller plans to ask the town’s attorney to review the document.
— Spent another half-hour discussing more changes and clarifications in the town’s personnel policy, which has been reviewed repeatedly this spring with input from town employees.
— Planned to meet only once a month in July and August, as usual, and scheduled the meetings for Thursday evenings, July 17 and Aug. 14.

Vassalboro’s annual town meeting, held Monday evening, June 2, in the Vassalboro Community School gymnasium, had many familiar elements.

More than 100 voters attended, as usual, including all of the select board and school board and most of the budget committee. They went through about the usual number of articles, 41 this time, in about the same amount of time, from 6:30 to 9:50 p.m.

As usual, many articles asked for funds for the next fiscal year. Amounts were in some cases higher than in the past, as voters pointed out. As usual, voters made no drastic changes in officials’ recommendations.

The frequent cries of “Can’t hear you!” were also familiar, as the microphone passed from speaker to speaker.

Two differences were a new (to Vassalboro) moderator, Jeffrey Frankel from Windsor, and at intervals a new tone, a repetition of the spring’s differences among the select board, budget committee and school board. Budget committee members participated more than usual, explaining their positions as a committee and occasionally as individuals.

Town Manager Aaron Miller had arranged for Frankel to run the meeting, since former moderator Richard Thompson has retired.

Miller’s introductory statement summarized proposed expenditures and explained why he and select board members recommend increases, especially in capital reserve funds, needed to avoid even larger future increases.

Miller said town officials intend to “factor” – increase all property values by a selected percentage – this year. Otherwise, he said, Vassalboro’s valuation will be so low that the town’s state revenue sharing and other benefits would be cut.

Town officials anticipate a tax increase for the fiscal year that begins July 1 (with the first quarterly payment due Sept. 29). However, Miller said, the figures calculated in the 2024 town report (page 19) are not final.

After Frankel’s election and preliminary explanations of procedures, voters elected five budget committee members for two-year terms. They are returning members Donald Breton, William Browne, Phillip Landry and Peggy Schaffer and new member, Ben Loiko.

Voters then approved a $2.9 million municipal budget, covering town departments, after a motion to reduce the recreation and library accounts by $35,000 – mostly aimed at the recreation director’s position — was defeated.

Five requests to raise money from taxes for capital reserve accounts (Art. 6) were debated individually. Voters approved $21,600 for a public works reserve account, without discussion; and accepted the budget committee’s lower recommendations on two plow truck reserves, $50,000 (instead of the select board’s $78,000) to replace truck #6 and nothing to replace truck #2; and added $11,250 to the capital improvement reserve.

They authorized $53,738 for a new backhoe at the transfer station, although the budget committee had recommended no money this year. Budget committee member Breton said the transfer station task force has not yet made recommendations that might affect the kind of equipment needed.

Budget committee member Frank Richards said the recommendation for no money was not unanimous. “If you go cheap, you sure get beat,” he quoted, recommending action now to get a three-year no-interest financing deal.

Former select board member Lauchlin Titus commented that he had served on the select board for 12 years and been off five – and remembered discussing the backhoe during his first year on the board.

After explanations by select board chair Frederick “Rick” Denico, Jr., and budget committee member Breton, $125,000, to be kept on hand in case the Mill Hill Road bridge fails before it can be replaced, was deleted from the capital reserve article. Instead of raising the money from taxes, voters approved transferring it from the existing surplus, under the following article.

In another familiar move, voters approved a motion to discuss and vote on Art. 8 through Art. 24 as a group. They approved all after a couple questions, giving town officials typical authorizations, amending the Vassalboro Sanitary District’s charter and approving more expenditures.

Art. 25, authorizing funds for “health and welfare outside agencies” was approved at the budget committee’s recommended level of $41,116.03. That sum excludes $4,000 for Window Dressers, a group that helps low-income area residents better insulate their windows. Local head Holly Weidner explained that funds are not needed next year, though she is likely to request money in 2026-27.

To pay Delta Ambulance’s 2025-26 bill, voters approved the budget committee’s recommended $46,932. Denico said the figure will cover the bill with the offered early payment discount. Select board members had recommended the undiscounted amount, fearing Delta’s bill would be due before the Sept. 29 tax payments come in and the town would be short of ready money.

School Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer introduced the 2025-26 school budget, reminding voters of the maintenance needs of the 33-year-old building in which they were sitting. School board members distributed a letter from board chair Jolene Gamage and a two-page explanation of relations between the school board and budget committee.

Budget committee member Dallas Smedberg chastised the school board for not sharing a detailed budget in time for budget committee members’ review. Gamage replied that budget committee members had been welcome at all school board budget discussions, and added that school board members themselves had not had all the figures they needed on time.

Voters then approved the $10.4 million school budget as presented. Frankel said state law required a counted vote on three articles: he counted one or two negative votes on Art. 38, none on Art. 39 or Art. 40.

Town meeting will reconvene at 8 a.m. Tuesday, June 10, in the town office meeting room. Voters will decide whether to affirm the 2025-26 school budget they approved June 2, and will conduct local elections.

To be elected are one select board member, two school board members and (because the amended Sanitary District charter was approved) five members of the Sanitary District board of trustees.

The list of candidates is on the town website, Vassalboro.net, under the absentee ballots notice and also under the Elections heading, subheading absentee ballots.

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.