Vassalboro select board recommendations ready for budget committee

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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.

Vassalboro school board begins budget review

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Vassalboro Community School (contributed photo)

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro School Board members began review of the 2023-24 school budget at a special meeting March 7, with information on four cost centers.

The easiest category was ELL – English Language Learners. Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer said there are no ELL students this school year and none expected next year; he and finance director Paula Pooler agreed it should be safe to budget no money for 2023-24.

Certification – the budget lines that provide assistance to novice teachers – will have almost as little impact on the budget. Pfeiffer proposes budgeting less than $5,000 for that account.

For the 2023-24 technology budget, technology coordinator Will Backman requests almost $71,000, an increase of over $27,000 from the current year. Backman told school board members more than half the increase is intended for a rearrangement of the technology center.

He and Vassalboro Community School teacher and technology systems administrator David Trask explained that the central equipment is currently divided between two closets, one shared with the janitors. The plan is to consolidate everything in one server room. Backman does not yet know how much rewiring will be needed.

Backman also recommends $5,000 to replace a server, plus the usual technology costs and fees. The two experts and Principal Ira Michaud commented on technology added during the pandemic to facilitate remote learning that will be kept because teachers are finding it useful in classroom learning.

The largest budget item presented March 7 was the transportation account. Transportation Director Ashley Pooler is asking for a little over $647,000, an increase of more than $50,000.

The request does not include new school buses, although Peiffer said by next year board members might see a recommendation for at least one. An attached chart shows two of Vassalboro’s 12 buses have more than 100,000 miles on their odometers.

Pooler does recommend buying a third van; her chart lists two in service this year, each with a capacity of seven students. She further recommends another secretary in the transportation department, partly because of the increasing number of vans to support students’ educational programming.

Pooler and her staff serve all three formerly-united towns, Vassalboro, Waterville and Winslow, so the secretarial costs would be shared.

Pooler also recommends an increase in the vehicle maintenance budget.

Pfeiffer commented that Vassalboro’s fleet is “in good shape right now,” and as of March 7 the school department had enough drivers, many of them Vassalboro residents.

School budget discussions will continue at future meetings, to be announced as they are scheduled. The next topics Pfeiffer intends to present include buildings and grounds and special education (“a big one,” he warned).

The superintendent reported that high-school tuition went up 6.5 percent in December 2022, “one of the biggest jumps ever.” The 2022-23 Vassalboro budget was calculated to cover a three percent increase.

Because budgets are done in the spring every year and the new tuition rate comes out in December, school board and budget committee members and town meeting voters can only guess how much to appropriate.

The next regular Vassalboro school board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 21, at Vassalboro Community School.

Vassalboro planners send long-discussed solar ordinance amendment to select board

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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.

China transfer station committee reconsiders utility vehicle recommendation

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by Mary Grow

Members of China’s transfer station committee are going to reconsider their recommendation that the town buy a Polaris Ranger 500 utility vehicle for transfer station staff use.

Since their March 7 action (see the March 9 issue of The Town Line, p. 3), they have new information and a new, higher price, according to an email from transfer station employee Cheyenne Houle.

Houle said the Ranger 500 has been replaced by a Ranger 570. The 570 has most features committee members valued in the 500, like a roll cage and lights; Houle wrote that it adds a dump body and has higher ground clearance. Also, she said, recommended time between services has been increased.

The price she brought to the March 7 committee meeting was $10,699. The new price is $900 higher, she said.

Houle is seeking updated prices from two other suppliers. She plans to have information by the next committee meeting, scheduled for 9 a.m., Tuesday, April 11.

China broadband committee to try again for grant

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by Mary Grow

China Broadband Committee (CBC) members will try again to get a grant to expand broadband service to China residents who are currently underserved or not served at all.

They will again work in partnership with Direct Communications, the Idaho-based company that now owns UniTel, in Unity, with assistance from Mission Broadband, the consultants who have worked with them for several years.

These decisions were the outcome of a March 9 meeting among the parties, the first CBC meeting since last fall, when the first and unsuccessful application was put in final form.

The grants are awarded by the Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA). A letter from the MCA rejecting China’s first application (see the Jan. 12 issue of The Town Line, p. 1) said there had been many more applications than available funds could support.

At the March 9 meeting, John Doherty and Jeff Nevins, from Mission Broadband, and Jayne Sullivan, from Unitel/Direct Communications, discussed two issues that will affect the next round of grants: mapping and revisions to MCA’s grant program.

Mapping involves the accuracy – or inaccuracy – of maps purporting to show where improved service is needed. Doherty said that the first maps were by census block; if one home in a block had excellent internet service, the map showed all the neighbors equally well served.

New maps are being prepared by individual addresses. They are expected to be available by June.

The definition of adequate service is also debated, in terms of capacity, speed and reliability.

Sullivan expects MCA’s application form will be revised. She hopes the updated forms will be available by June; the application deadline is currently some so-far-unspecified time in August (which, Doherty pointed out, is a month when people are likely to be on vacation).

Bob O’Connor

Unitel/Direct prepared China’s previous application; CBC members authorized them to prepare a new one, at least in outline pending more information from MCA. Sullivan said the goal is “a winnable application.”

CBC chairman Robert O’Connor had drafted a document that he intended as part of a new application. Sullivan accepted it as useful local input for MCA reviewers; she and O’Connor will continue discussion by email as necessary.

The expectation is that MCA will still require a local funding match, toward which China voters have approved Tax Increment Financing funds.

The next CBC meeting is scheduled for 4 p.m. Thursday, April 27.

 

 

 

 

China select board makes plans for annual business meeting

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by Mary Grow

China select board members spent most of their March 13 meeting on plans for the June 13 annual town business meeting.

Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood gave them a first draft of the town meeting warrant articles, which will be decided by written ballot. Most articles are the familiar ones: appropriations for the 2023-24 fiscal year that begins July 1, including from the TIF (Tax Increment Financing) and ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds; authorization for the select board to take listed actions on behalf of the town; and setting the fall 2023 and spring 2024 tax due dates, for example.

Hapgood pointed out a new article asking voters to authorize municipal officers to close town roads to winter maintenance. If approved, she said, the authority would be available to stop plowing a lightly-populated town road if plow drivers encountered unusual difficulties, like residents’ vehicles consistently in their way.

The March 13 draft warrant included a request for voter action on one proposed ordinance, the Solid Waste Ordinance intended to update and merge two existing ordinances. The manager intends to add an article asking action on the Board of Appeals Ordinance (Chapter 11 of the Land Development Code).

Select board talks about lack of volunteers

At their March 13 meeting, China select board members briefly discussed an on-going problem: how to get volunteers to serve on town boards and committees, elected or appointed.

Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood said there are vacancies on the elected planning board (District 4, the southwestern quarter of town) and several appointed boards, including the board of appeals, the Thurston Park committee and the recreation committee.

Amber French is the first volunteer for the comprehensive plan implementation committee that select board members created last summer, Hapgood said.

The town website, china.govoffice.org, has an application for committee membership under the heading “Town Officials, Boards and Committees,” on the first page. Committees and their current members are listed.

The 2023-24 school budget, which also requires voter action, is a separate document that is not included in the municipal warrant.

Hapgood expects select board members to approve a near-final warrant at their March 27 meeting, so it can be forwarded to the budget committee for their recommendations on spending articles.

She proposed a public hearing on the warrant on Monday, May 8. That way, she said, voters can get information before absentee ballots are available starting Monday, May 15.

On Tuesday, June 13, voters in the portable building behind the town office will elect a town meeting moderator at 6:55 a.m. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Select board member Janet Preston wants one more meeting added to the town schedule. Preston plans to apply for a Kennebec Valley Council of Governments program called Community Resiliency; an early step, she said, is a community meeting to get residents’ input on town needs and priorities.

Preston and the KVCOG website indicate that resiliency includes a variety of contemporary issues, like dealing with climate change impacts, environmental hazards, emergency preparations, renewable energy, green infrastructure and transportation.

Preston recommended holding the meeting in March, because the application is due in March. The board took no action.

China appeals board agrees with CEO French’s ruling

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by Mary Grow

The China Board of Appeals met Friday afternoon, March 10, to hear an appeal of a building permit issued by codes enforcement officer Nicholas French. Board members upheld French’s decision.

The permit was issued on Jan. 9, 2023, to Wayne Paul, Jr. It was appealed by Baiba Bangerskis (for whom her husband, Gundars “Gus” Bangerskis spoke), Raymond Malley and Susan Malley (identified as the widow of James R. Malley), residents of the Yarmouth, Massachusetts, area.

The appeal documents correctly identify French as assistant codes officer and Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood as codes officer. Hapgood holds the title while French completes courses needed for certification (he is almost done); French has been doing the job, and his signature is on Paul’s permit.

After appeals board chairman Spencer Aitel established the board’s authority to hear the appeal, the appellants, appearing virtually, explained the situation, with Bangerskis taking the lead.

They explained that two pieces of land on the east side of Three Mile Pond are involved. One piece is owned jointly by Baiba Bangerskis, two Malleys and Paul. Joint ownership, Gus Bangerskis said, means each party has a one-fourth interest in all of the parcel; none claims a specific piece of it.

Riga Road, formerly Fire Road 71, runs through this lot from Route 32 South to the lake, where several people have homes or seasonal homes. The lakeshore residents have a right-of-way over Riga Road to their properties; Bangerskis said neither Paul nor the other three landowners have a right of way.

Paul also owns and plans to build on the next parcel north, between Riga Road and Fire Road 70. Whether Riga Road touches that lot was part of the debate. Paul said it does; the appellants questioned the accuracy of the old survey on which Paul relied.

Bangerskis also said a deed clause that French cited in correspondence with the appellants was misinterpreted; it does not give Paul a right of way over Riga Road.

The appellants therefore argued that because Paul does not have a right of way over Riga Road, he cannot use it to access his property – they referred to use by trucks delivering lumber and cement trucks – and therefore should not have been granted a building permit.

His only access, they suggested, is by water, from the public landing on Three Mile Pond.

Aitel then asked French why he issued the permit.

French replied that he had no ground on which to deny it.

China’s ordinance does not require a building permit applicant to have road frontage, access or a street address. The requirements are a map and lot number and proof of right, title or interest; Paul provided them.

“How he actually gets to this parcel has nothing to do with me,” French said.

After Aitel gave the two parties a chance to question each other, he asked board members’ opinions. Agreement was quick and unanimous: French’s action was correct.

The access issue may be a problem for the landowner, Robert Fischer said, but it is irrelevant to the codes officer’s decision.

French “did what he is authorized to do,” Stephen Greene said. He suggested other issues between Paul and the appellants should be worked out among them or submitted to a court of law.

The vote on a motion that the codes officer acted correctly in issuing the building permit was 5-0-1, with Fischer, Greene, Michael Gee, Lisa Kane and Alan Pelletier voting yes and Aitel abstaining, as he habitually does when his vote is not essential.

Aitel reminded the appellants that they have the right to appeal the Board of Appeals decision to court.

Without quorum, China TIF committee goes ahead with meeting

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by Mary Grow

With only four of eight members present (there used to be nine members, but chairman Brent Chesley said Trishea Story had resigned), China’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Committee lacked a quorum for the March 8 meeting. Members decided since their decisions are advisory only, they could go ahead without a quorum.

The agenda included two main items: fund requests left over from the committee’s Feb. 8 meeting (see the Feb. 16 issue of The Town Line, p. 3), and the revolving loan fund (RFL) that is part of China’s TIF program.

Committee members quickly recommended approval of:

  • The China Lake Association’s request for $1,000 that committee chairman Brent Chesley said is for a state conference to be held at the China Conference Center;
  • $5,000 for China Ice Days in February 2024;
  • $20,000 in two different requests from town officials, half for 2024 China Community Days and the other half for a summer intern, whose duties Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood said will focus on helping existing business and reaching out to attract new ones; and
  • $7,213 for Kennebec Valley Council of Governments (KVCOG) dues and $460 for Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce dues, items Hapgood said have previously been in the municipal budget.

Thurston Park Committee chairman Jeanette Smith presented a revised request for TIF funds, mostly to help repair the entrance road into the park. The road washed out in the Dec. 22 storm, and an application for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds was denied.

Smith said trails in the park are usable, once people walk in because they can’t drive until the road is fixed, but caution is advised – the trails, too, suffered washouts and are cluttered with fallen and uprooted trees.

Smith had asked for only the $25,000 a majority of TIF committee members approved Feb.8. Chesley encouraged her to increase the request, and said the select board, on which he serves, should hear the history of the storm damage and the FEMA application before its members act on a request for TIF money.

The revolving loan fund (RLF) is described in China’s TIF plan as intended “to provide existing and new businesses in China with loans to expand operations, add employees and develop new products and with other types of business assistance which expands and improves the town’s economy.”

At their Nov. 22, 2022, meeting, committee members questioned the value of the program. They pointed out that the only loan ever made was in default, and as of November there were no applicants for new loans.

Since then, Chesley said, he had been approached by someone interested in a loan to start a new business in China. On investigation, he found that the town’s agreement with KVCOG to administer the RLF had expired, and had to tell the interested party the committee needed to recreate an administrative framework before reviewing a loan application.

Audience member Thomas Rumpf, who served on the RLF committee when there was one, volunteered to help put a committee together, again. Rumpf also recommended changing the program from loans to grants, an idea committee member Michael “Mickey” Wing supported.

Chesley had already planned to meet with KVCOG officials; he and Rumpf will schedule a meeting.

A change from a loan fund to a grant fund would require a change in the TIF document, which would need approval from China voters and from state Department of Economic and Community Development officials.

The next China TIF committee meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m., Monday, May 1.

China transfer station committee recommends purchase of utility vehicle

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by Mary Grow

China transfer station committee members voted at their March 7 meeting to recommend to the select board purchase of a utility vehicle for transfer station staff use.

The vote was unanimous, with two transfer station staffers and road foreman Shawn Reed abstaining to avoid any appearance of self-interest (although Reed said he doubts public works would need to borrow the machine).

Station attendants currently use a donated golf cart to move things to their proper disposal locations. Transfer station manager Tom Maraggio said the new vehicle will accommodate larger things, like discarded air conditioners and television sets.

The price for the recommended Polaris Ranger 500 is $10,699. Staffer Cheyenne Houle had two other bids on different models, one higher and one slightly lower.

The China transfer station offers a six-page hand-out describing what materials can be recycled (with a reminder that the list may change as markets for recyclables change) and what other discards are acceptable, free or for a fee, with an aerial photo labeled to show where different things go.

She and Maraggio recommended the Polaris as the only one offered with a roll cage and lights, and as probably the most durable of the choices. Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood said the transfer station capital expenditures fund has enough 2022-23 money left to cover the cost.

Hapgood said she would put the request on the agenda for the Monday, March 13, select board meeting.

Two other transfer station projects are pending, paving in two areas and putting a cover over the new compactor.

Houle had asked for price quotes on paving and gotten only one, so far. Reed is having the same problem as he tries to budget for road paving in the coming summer; he predicted that by the end of March, companies will have a better idea of per-ton paving costs and will be more willing to offer estimated prices.

Houle said she has no bids yet on a cover for the pre-crusher.

Two other topics at the March 7 meeting were using the RFID (radio frequency identification) system to get more information about transfer station use, and refiguring the fee charged Palermo residents for their trash bags.

Hapgood said too many non-residents are using the China transfer station, which is supported primarily by China residents’ property taxes. Some people borrow residents’ RFID tags; some move out of town, find that their new town’s disposal system is less convenient or more expensive and continue to bring trash to China.

Committee members discussed ways to make the RFID system more useful. Hapgood and committee chairman Paul Lucas think requiring annual renewals would be one way to help keep records up to date. Hapgood accepted Houle’s offer to explore additional uses with the company that runs the system.

The updated version of the agreement under which Palermo residents use China’s facility calls for a recalculation of the bag fee each spring, so it can be adjusted as costs change. Palermo representative Robert Kurek reviewed the process, which Hapgood said she has started.

Committee members scheduled their next meeting for 9 a.m. Tuesday, April 11, in the China town office meeting room.

Maine DEP has announced new grant awards for municipal stream crossings

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photo: Maine DEP

Maine DEP’s Municipal Stream Crossing Grant Program provides grants that match local funding for the upgrade of culverts at stream crossings on municipal roads. Projects funded through this program will benefit public infrastructure and safety by replacing failing culverts that are at risk of complete washout or collapse; reduce flooding and increase resiliency with the installation or larger, higher capacity and longer-lived crossings, benefit fish and wildlife by opening and reconnecting stream habitat fragmented by undersized and impassable culverts, and represent a cost-effective and efficient investment based on planning, detail, and local matching funds committed to the project.

Funding for this round of grants includes $3 million from the Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan, with additional awards being made from previously-returned grant funds. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) received 45 applications to review with a total over $6.5 million dollars in funding requests. Thirty-two stream crossing projects funded this round will result in new or improved upstream fish passage to 60 miles of stream habitat, and result in less flooding and improved resilience of local transportation infrastructure.

Maine DEP is pleased to announce funds for the following projects in the central Maine area:

Fairfield, Green Road, $150,000; Mercer, Pond Road, $150,000; Whitefield, South Hunts Meadow Road, $146,000.