Vassalboro select board meeting to begin with public comment session on medical marijuana license applications

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by Mary Grow

The Thursday, Dec. 22, Vassalboro select board meeting will begin with a public comment session at 6:30 p.m. in the town office meeting room on medical marijuana business license applications.

The list of applicants on the agenda is as follows:

  • Leo Barnett (owner) 55, 57, 61 & 63 Old Meadows Road;
  • Daniel Charest (owner) 8 Cushnoc Road;
  • Colin Dorsey 55 & 57 Old Meadows Road;
  • William Cunningham 55 Old Meadows Road;
  • Zeena McMullen 55 Old Meadows Road;
  • Hayden Poupis 63 Old Meadows Road.

Windsor manager instructs planners to review building codes

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by The Town Line staff

The Windsor Select Board dealt with an abbreviated agenda on November 22, with three board members in attendance. Selectmen Andrew Ballantyne and William Appel Jr. were absent.

Town Manager Theresa Haskell mentioned the building code has not been reviewed since 2006. The select board decided to request the planning board committee to review the code. Haskell has sent the current code to Joel Greenwood at Kennevec Valley Council of Governments for review.

Sean Teekema, transfer station supervisor, talked about the discussion on whether they want to continue to accept propane tanks. He said he has spoken to a company that prefers to pick up at least 50 tanks, but Teekema said the transfer station has not had 50 total tanks in the past six years.

Haskell also reported receiving a document updating the General Assistance Ordinance from 2021 to 2022. There will need to be another public hearing to accept the updated document. The select board held a public hearing on December 6. Nothing has been confirmed as of this printing.

There was also a request to have the three RSU members, the superintendent, and the Windsor School principal attend the December 6 select board meeting.

Haskell also reported the contract from Mid Maine Generator for the fire department tower generator came in at $10,800, which is $700 less than the original estimate of $11,500. The contact has been signed and the work will begin soon.

The board also approved the closing of the town office on Monday, December 19, from noon to 2 p.m.

In other business, Haskell mentioned the food bank raised $1,016 at the bake sale that was held at Hussey’s General Store on November 19.

VASSALBORO: Medical marijuana growing business gets approval

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by Mary Grow

At their Dec. 6 meeting, Vassalboro Planning Board members unanimously approved a site review permit for Joseph O’Donnell to open a medical marijuana growing business at 960 Main Street, in North Vassalboro. The facility will use less than 1,000 square feet on the third (top) floor of the building in the old mill complex.

The review process was complicated by lack of information: board members did not know whether there was another marijuana growing operation on the second floor of the same building. If there were two, totaling more than 1,000 square feet, Vassalboro’s Marijuana Business Ordinance would apply.

Voters approved the Marijuana Business Ordinance in June 2021. Its purpose is “to prohibit Marijuana Businesses, as defined, in the Town of Vassalboro, unless they were in lawful operation or had received site plan or building permit approval for the use prior to the Effective Date of this Ordinance.”

The ordinance has several exceptions. The one allowing O’Donnell to open his facility exempts “a building or lot containing less than 1,000 square feet of area in the aggregate that is used for cultivation of medical marijuana by one or more Registered Caregivers pursuant to 22 M.R.S. § 2423-A.”

By Dec. 8, interim codes officer Paul Mitnik had learned that there is a second-floor growing operation, and that it is illegal under current Vassalboro ordinances.

The second-floor business was originally approved in May 2019, according to the Dec. 8 letter Mitnik sent building owner Edward Marcoux, of Benton. In the fall of 2021, when Mitnik asked whether the owner intended to apply for an annual permit under the Marijuana Business License Ordinance, he was told the operation was closing. No license was issued.

Meanwhile, Mitnik and planning board members learned Dec. 6, the original owner died and his partner took over the operation, apparently in violation of Vassalboro’s Site Review Ordinance, which says permits cannot be transferred.

Mitnik’s Dec. 8 letter to Marcoux told him that the operation on the second floor of his building was illegal; and Marcoux, as owner of a building with two marijuana growing operations, was also out of compliance with town ordinances.

Mitnik’s letter gave Marcoux and the second-floor tenant 30 days, until Jan. 13, 2023, to close and remove the business.

Board members and Mitnik agreed at the Dec. 6 meeting that the unpermitted and unlicensed operation did not prevent O’Donnell from opening his facility. Board members found that it met all requirements in the Site Review Ordinance.

Major topics were fire safety, in light of two recent fires at marijuana operations in town, and odor control. The fire safety issue concerned O’Donnell, for his business and because he respects the historic nature of the former North Vassalboro mill complex in which he will operate, and Raymond Breton, owner of the adjacent former mill building.

Fire Chief Walker Thompson was in the audience. He and O’Donnell agreed to meet on-site when O’Donnell completes interior changes, to review access for emergency personnel and related issues. Planning board members required O’Donnell’s already-planned fire alarm and motion detectors, plus emergency access provisions, and made Thompson’s approval a condition for opening the business.

A nearby property-owner asked about odor. O’Donnell described his planned air filtration and purification systems and said there should be no escaping odors; board members made odor mitigation another condition of the permit.

O’Donnell plans no retail business that would generate traffic and no changes to the outside of the building.

After almost an hour and half reviewing O’Donnell’s application, board members returned to consideration of a new local ordinance section that will regulate commercial solar developments (see The Town Line, Nov. 10, p. 2). They again reviewed setbacks and buffering, and briefly discussed decommissioning requirements.

Joining the conversation was Paula Fitzgerald, from Novel Energy Solutions, the company planning a solar farm on the west side of Main Street (Route 32), between the road and Outlet Stream, north of Duratherm Window.

Area residents had submitted suggestions that board members did not discuss, having had no time to review them, and several attended the meeting. One neighbor asked why board members were listening to Fitzgerald, an interested party; board chairman Virginia Brackett said they were tapping her expertise.

In a Dec. 8 memo to board members, Mitnik reminded them that neighbors and other interested parties will be able to present their views on the proposed ordinance at a public hearing before the final draft is written for presentation to town meeting voters. To meet pre-town meeting deadlines, the hearing will be scheduled in March 2023.

Before adjourning, board members agreed to start their Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023, meeting at 6:30 p.m., half an hour earlier than usual, and to tentatively schedule a Jan. 17 meeting to continue discussion of the solar ordinance.

VASSALBORO: Process begins for new town manager

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by Mary Grow

Every time Vassalboro select board members talked about how much they have to do in January as they begin 2023 town meeting preparations, Town Manager Mary Sabins’ smile got broader.

Aaron Miller

Sabins is retiring at the end of the year, and early in their Dec. 8 meeting select board members had signed a contract with her successor, Aaron Miller, of Alna. Sabins said her to-do list for Miller is already several pages long; board members helped lengthen it.

Several Dec. 8 agenda items involved requests for money. Board members spent most time on reviewing requests for ARPA (federal funds granted under the American Rescue Plan Act) money, which will not come directly from local taxpayers.

Sabins shared a page-long list of requests from town departments, organizations and individual residents with ideas for improvements. The total came to more than $507,000, with no cost estimates attached to some items. Sabins said Vassalboro has about $226,000 available.

The preliminary review led to unanimous select board support for 15 requests, totaling about $125,000 (plus some costs not yet estimated). Miller will oversee the final round of decision-making.

Lauchlin Titus, chairman of the new committee reviewing capital needs at the former East Vassalboro schoolhouse that is now the home of the Vassalboro Historical Society, presented a report from Vassalboro engineer Clough Toppan, of Toppan Consulting Services.

Toppan’s recommendations included LED lights, additional insulation and caulking, a new, more efficient oil boiler and heat pumps. No firm prices were attached. Titus said the Melrose family had taken care of most of the lights, at no charge; he suggested caulking might become a Boy Scout community project.

The heat pumps generated most discussion. Select board members unanimously voted to authorize the town manager to find a “qualified partner” to meet the Efficiency Maine requirement to get state reimbursement for much of the cost of heat pump installation.

The “qualified partner,” Titus explained, is a contractor who makes recommendations on the number and type of heat pumps, applies to Efficiency Maine on the town’s behalf, and if funding is approved, installs the heat pumps. Finding such a person is likely to be Miller’s responsibility.

Yet another pending cost is a cover for the new hopper at the transfer station, so the trash will not be mixed with snow and ice. Board members unanimously authorized a search for a contractor to do the job; writing the Request for Proposals (RFP) will be another job for Miller.

In other business Dec. 8:

  • Select board members unanimously approved closing the transfer station at noon Saturday, Dec. 24, and all day Sunday, Dec. 25.
  • They tentatively scheduled the stakeholders’ meeting requested by the Webber Pond Association to discuss water quality for the evening of Jan. 25 or Jan. 26, 2023.
  • They unanimously appointed John Reuthe a member of the Vassalboro Conservation Commission.
  • They unanimously approved a staff holiday lunch at 12:15 p.m. Friday, Dec. 23.

By the time the Dec. 8 meeting ended, board members had one agenda item for their Dec. 22 meeting: Sabins said the annual review of marijuana business license will be that evening.

China to join national communications system

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by Mary Grow

China select board members voted unanimously at their Dec. 5 meeting to spend $2,000 a year for the next two fiscal years to join a communication system called TextMyGov.

As the name implies, TextMyGov will let residents send texts to China municipal officials and departments at any time and to get a reply. It also allows town government to send information to residents who sign up.

Spencer Frandsen and Jon Myers, joining the Dec. 5 select board meeting remotely from their Logan, Utah, headquarters, explained and illustrated how the system works. Following Frandsen’s directions, select board members whipped out their cellphones, texted a demonstration phone number and a suggested phrase and got a reply.

“Look at that! That is amazing! That is really cool!” board member Janet Preston exclaimed as she read her screen.

The system has three components. Residents can send a question and get an answer from the site the town has set up, which can cover many topics – town office hours and other schedules and deadlines, for example.

Residents can report an issue, like a tree down in the road, at any time, and get a reply saying the report has been forwarded to the appropriate official or department.

Town officials can broadcast notices and messages, routine or emergency, to everyone who has signed up for the service.

Frandsen said TextMyGov has been in business since 2019 and has just over 500 clients, including 10 or 12 Maine municipalities, not all fully set up yet.

It typically takes from 30 to 45 days to set up a new system, Frandsen said. TextMyGov provides free training to employees, and will repeat training as new staff members need it.

Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood estimated the training would take an hour or hour and a half a week. Learning should be simple for employees accustomed to computers.

At board member Blane Casey’s suggestion, the $4,000 for two years’ service will all come from the current fiscal year’s contingency fund, so there will be no impact on the 2023-24 budget.

After the first two years, Frandsen said, contracts are annual. So far, he said, TextMyGov has not raised its fee; should it have to, he is willing to limit annual increases by contract to no more than five percent.

Board members made other decisions on varied topics at the Dec. 5 meeting.

Tom Alfieri and Danny McKinnis from China Rescue attended to follow up on select board members’ Oct. 24 discussion with Delta Ambulance executive director Timothy Beals (see the Oct. 27 issue of The Town Line).

Beals explained that inadequate and delayed insurance payments fail to cover rising costs, so Delta needs to start charging municipalities. He proposed a contract with the town to start in January 2023 and to be funded from the 2023-24 budget.

Alfieri sympathized with Delta’s need to begin charging for services. “Ambulance service in general is a losing business,” and “Emergency work does not pay the bills,” he said.

Alfieri offered suggestions for things to include in the contract. Select board member Brent Chesley suggested Alfieri and McKinnis review and offer advice on the contract when Delta presents a draft; other board members approved the idea, and the rescue representatives accepted.

Chesley raised another issue, suggesting two changes in the Appeals Ordinance that is part of China’s Land Development Code. Hapgood added a third; Preston suggested asked planning board members for their input. By consensus, Chesley was authorized to develop revisions.

Hapgood announced that the town foreclosed on three properties for unpaid taxes. Board members voted unanimously to follow the usual procedure of giving the former owners another 60 days to redeem the properties by paying all taxes due.

The manager gave board members an update on more than a dozen Land Use Ordinance violations currently under review and about to be reviewed.

Board members continued review of town policies, approving a few changes and postponing some policies for more information.

Hapgood relayed Town Clerk Angela Nelson’s reminders that dog licenses need to be renewed by the end of the year, and that 2023 hunting and fishing licenses are now available.

The next regular China select board meeting is scheduled for Monday evening, Dec. 19.

Vassalboro selects new town manager

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Aaron Miller

The Vassalboro Select Board has announced that Aaron Miller has been selected as the new Vassalboro town manager following a nationwide search. Miller will succeed Mary Sabins who is retiring on January 2, 2023.

Miller, who lives in Alna, has worked as the administrative assistant to the Liver­more Select Board since 2020. He previously held the same position in Whitefield for six years. He has a bachelor of science degree in communications from Norwich University.

The select board will be acting on approving the contract with Miller at their meeting on Thursday, December 8, 2022. He will begin work on December 27.

The select board was assisted in the search by Don Gerrish and Cornell Knight, from Eaton Peabody Consulting Group.

Vassalboro planners have one application on agenda

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Planning Board members have one application on their Dec. 6 agenda, before they continue discussion of adding a section regulating commercial solar developments to the town’s Site Review Ordinance.

Joseph O’Donnell has applied for a medical marijuana grow facility at 960 Main Street, in North Vassalboro. The business will be on the third floor of a building owned by Ed Marcoux, the agenda says; maps show it just north of the Olde Mill complex.

Because the planned facility will cover less than 1,000 square feet, it needs a local site review permit, but not a local marijuana business license.

The planning board meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 6, in the town office meeting room.

WINDSOR: Town trucks ready and waiting for snow

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by The Town Line staff

The Windsor Select Board was informed at its November 7 meeting, by Road Supervisor Keith Hall, that the trucks are ready and waiting for the snow to come. He also reported that his search for prices to install heated headlights on the equipment would be around $750. In other road related business, Town Manager Theresa Haskell was informed by the Maine Department of Transportation that Route 105, from Augusta to Somerville, is scheduled for repairs in 2023.

Haskell also reported the waste management state fee will be increasing from $2 per ton to $5 per ton for construction and demolition debris, beginning in January 2023.

The town manager also reported:

  • The water quality test results for the town office all came back good;
  • The town received a grant reimbursement in the amount of $1,660 from the Maine Municipal Association for various public works safety items that have been purchased;
  • The town has received a paid certificate from Kennebec Savings Bank on the Windsor Volunteer Fire Department fire truck, and that the 2021 public works Western Star was paid off on November 9.

Selectman William Appel Jr. made a request, and all select board members agreed, that at least one of the Windsor School Board members be present at one of the select board meetings per month so the board can have an update or address any questions there may be regarding school business. It was also mentioned to have the state representative also come on an annual basis.

The next meeting of the Windsor Select Board was scheduled for November 22.

China officials disagree on need for solventless hash application

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by Mary Grow

China Planning Board members spent their Nov. 22 meeting discussing procedural issues.

The longest discussion was over cancelation of the scheduled public hearing on Bryan Mason’s application to convert a shipping container on his property at 1144 Route 3 to a solventless hash lab (see The Town Line, Nov. 3, p. 2).

At the board’s Oct. 25 meeting, Mason explained he intends to make hash oil from marijuana plants and sell it to companies that use it to make consumer products. He does not intend to make such products himself, nor to do retail business from his property.

Codes officer Nicholas French considered the application was for a change of use, which needs planning board approval. Board members agreed, and scheduled a Nov. 22 public hearing to give neighbors (and others) a chance to comment.

French emailed on Nov. 21 that town attorney Amanda Meader considered the proposed business a home occupation, which can be approved by the codes officer without board action. Therefore Mason withdrew his application and the hearing was canceled. Mason’s attorney had talked with Meader, French said at the Nov. 22 meeting.

Board members objected on two grounds. Based on consistent past practice, they think decisions about commercial marijuana businesses should be subject to planning board review; and they think the town attorney’s opinion should not have overruled the decision to hold a hearing that they had already made.

They therefore asked French to talk again with Mason, with the goal of getting the application resubmitted and the hearing rescheduled.

Planning board co-chairman James Wilkens was re-elected to that position, sharing with Toni Wall. Wall succeeds Scott Rollins, who was not a candidate for re-election to the board.

Board members reviewed the town’s Planning Board Ordinance and the Remote Participation Policy (which select board members reviewed the evening before). The latter describes when a board member can participate in a meeting remotely rather than attending in person.

Planning board members agreed that when winter weather made driving potentially dangerous, they would cancel a scheduled meeting, unless an agenda item were urgent enough to require meeting remotely.

Board members offered two items for future meetings. Wall wants to review the town comprehensive plan and see if any actions are needed, and Walter Bennett wants to continue developing an ordinance to control commercial solar developments and prevent “solar sprawl.”

The next China Planning Board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 6.

Deadline approaches for China TIF requests

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by Mary Grow

The deadline for China organizations to apply for 2023-24 money from the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) fund is Dec. 31, 2022.

That’s a Saturday, a TIF Committee member observed as the Nov. 14 meeting wound down. No problem, Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood replied; it’s one of the two Saturdays each month, the first and the last, that the town office is open, from 8 to 11 a.m.

Committee members scheduled their next meeting for Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023. They will review applications and begin matching requests with the limits set in China’s TIF document and with available funds.

At the Nov. 14 meeting, they discussed two ongoing projects, fixing erosion problems at the boat landing in South China and the Revolving Loan Fund (RLF), and considered recommending a new one, assistance with replacing failing shoreland septic systems.

The current proposal for the boat landing is to spend TIF money to control run-off into China Lake, to protect the lake’s water quality. Hapgood and committee members discussed results of the first step, a survey of the town-owned property that shows it is only 25 feet wide.

The next step is to develop an erosion control plan. Suggestions included adding culverts and check dams, diverting water onto neighboring wooded properties (by arrangement with landowners), installing pervious paving and other measures.

The proposal that was adopted for immediate action was to apply to the National Guard for an engineer’s study and plan, followed by the Guard doing the work to implement it.

The related issue was whether the 25-foot strip should continue to be a boat landing, either open to everyone or limited to hand-carried craft like canoes and kayaks.

The consensus was to leave it as a landing open to everyone, perhaps with designated parking spots along the side, perhaps with arrangements to park elsewhere in South China Village. Considerations included frequent use – committee member Michael “Mickey” Wing said he often saw three or four trucks parked there – and the need for emergency access for fire departments and other agencies, like the warden service.

The revolving loan fund, intended to help business locate or expand in China, has been used once so far, and the borrower has defaulted. Suggestions included managing it better, perhaps with outside help; eliminating it; or turning it into a grant fund.

“Food for thought,” committee chairman Brent Chesley summarized the inconclusive discussion.

Chesley proposed recommending a grant or loan fund to help replace failing septic systems in the shoreland, as a contribution to water quality. Several other committee members liked the idea, though no action was taken.

Chesley said he had been disabused of the idea that everyone owning waterfront property is wealthy. Some residents, he said, inherited their homes and are trying to maintain them, and pay lakefront taxes, on limited incomes.

Wing told the group that the current cost of a new septic system ranges from about $6,500 to about $16,000.

Any change in use of TIF funds, deleting or amending a program or adding a new one, would require a recommendation from the committee to the select board; the select board’s agreement to present the change to town voters; voters’ approval; and approval by the state Department of Economic and Community Development.

For the 2023-24 TIF budget, Hapgood said she has one application, from the China Four Seasons Club for work on recreational trails.

Stephen Greene, president of the China Lake Association, promised his application would be in by the Dec. 31 deadline. He intends to seek funds to start building an account for an expensive alum treatment in the north end of China Lake’s east basin. The alum would seal off phosphorus-laden bottom sediments to limit internal phosphorus loading in the lake.

Scott Pierz, executive director of the China Region Lakes Alliance, also plans to apply. He pointed out that costs of CRLA programs are increasing. “Operations are a function of money,” he concluded.