Select board “not interested” in opting-in on medical marijuana retail store

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by The Town Line staff

At the January 17 meeting of the Windsor Select Board, Devin Noonan appeared before the board to see if he could be the first applicant to sign up to be a Medical Marijuana Retail Store. He was informed that the select board refused to honor the petition that was presented because it does not contain the “precise article” that would need to be put on the next warrant issued for the voters to decide. When Noonan asked what happens next, the board said they have no interest to “opt in” at this time. Much discussion followed.

Town Manager Theresa Haskell informed the board that the town had received an invitation for two officials from Windsor to attend a meeting with the County EMA and administration in Augusta. The purpose of the meeting would be to discuss current endeavors and issues that are facing the towns and cities in Kennebec County, and to find ways they could assist or augment what the communities are doing. They unanimously decided to send no one at this time.

In other business, Haskell reported the last storm was mostly ice, and took many hours and product to manage. Select board member William Appel Jr. asked if the roads are plowed between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m., when there isn’t much traffic. He suggested it would be a good time to hold off on plowing so the public works employees could get rest. Both Haskell and Public Works Driver/Laborer Timothy Corson said it all depended on the type of storm. The equipment fared well during the recent clean up effort.

Haskell reported receiving a call from Regional Rubbish, of Damariscotta, asking if they could bring MSW they pick up weekly on Wednesday from individual households and dump this at the Windsor Transfer Station. They currently take the trash to West Bath. Many quesions followed:

  • From how many Windsor residents do they pick up?
  • At the 10-cents per pound charge, that would not cover the actual cost of the transfer station expenses.
  • The town of Windsor taxpayers pay half the incurred expenses through the lcoal taxes and the other half is collected at the transfer station.
  • More would have to be charged to businesses like that to cover cost of disposal.
  • It also needs to be determined if they can actually dump the MSW into the hopper with no issues.

The select board instructed Haskell and Sean Teekema, transfer station supervisor, to investigate further to determine if such a move would be beneficial to Windsor.

The next meeting was scheduled for January 31.

Palermo voters to consider mooring ordinance

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by Pamela McKenney

The subject of mooring and houseboating has become controversial in Maine. A minimal online search will reveal the conflicts between town and summer residents throughout Maine who recreate and live on Maine lakes, ponds, and streams versus those who moor or “colonize” a body of water without land ownership nor permits or permission. Some believe the lack of accountability leads to abuse and violations while others see it as a right since “you can’t own the water.”  In an attempt to deal with the issue, many municipalities in Maine have developed ordinances in the interest of safe navigation, the rights of shorefront property owners, and the health of inland water ecosystems. The Town of Palermo is considering adopting such an ordinance to limit and control the placement of moorings and houseboats on waters bordering and within the town. Voters and stakeholders have an opportunity to learn more prior at:

  • A Public Informational Meeting on February 16 at 5:00pm at the Palermo Library,
  • Town Meeting: Saturday March 11th at 9AM at the Palermo Consolidated School (discussion prior to vote at Town Meeting)

With few exceptions, the State of Maine does not regulate the placement of moorings nor the anchoring of houseboats within the Water Safety Zone of Maine lakes, great ponds and streams. This supports established Water Safety Zone regulations, defined as the first 200 feet from the high-water mark of any shore or ⅓ distance to the opposite shore, whichever is less. The Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, Boating Facilities does regulate moorings beyond the Water Safety Zone and any marked channel or public boat launch that might impede free navigation. This means that placement of moorings and anchoring of houseboats inside the Water Safety Zone is left up to the discretion of individuals.

In regards to Palermo, without regulation, a person from any town or state; Augusta, Waterville, or Revere, Massachusetts, for example, could decide to moor a boat or a houseboat for the summer on Branch Pond, Sheepscot, or any other inland water. An individual could anchor a houseboat on Sheepscot for the summer or set up a mooring anywhere within the Water Safety Zone, and, currently, there is no method or means to restrict or limit the choice of location. Additionally, shorefront property owners might decide to moor their boat or swim float in front of a neighbor’s dock without permission. Or a boat leasing company with no shorefront ownership could set up a mooring platform for customer use. With access from a public boat launch, this is possible and without regulation – legal.

Municipalities have little to gain and much to lose if moorings and houseboats are abandoned or seep sewage or sink. Houseboating has become a particularly contentious issue. Perhaps due to the rising costs of shorefront ownership or maybe the tiny house trend, the popularity of staking claim to a mooring patch within the Water Safety Zone has increased. Many residents complain these property tax-exempt burdens are noisy, polluting, and a hindrance to fishing, navigation, and recreation.

Although the state does not regulate the placement of moorings and anchoring of houseboats, local municipalities in which a body of water lies can take action to develop standards to avoid leaving the health of public waters to the mercy of individuals who may have no stake in it. The Town of Palermo has taken the initiative to do so. As promoted by the Palermo Selectboard and as notified on the town website, a committee of stakeholders gathered last fall to examine other ordinances from other Maine towns (such as Belgrade, Harrison, Wayne, Casco, Rangeley…), to discuss the potential need for an ordinance, and to develop standards for mooring and anchoring on Palermo waters. These standards are designed to ensure that mooring installation, use, and maintenance as well as overnight anchoring does not:

  • impair the public’s health, safety and welfare;
  • result in degraded water quality, loss of aquatic habitat, or interference with navigation;
  • infringe on the rights of shore land property owners.

See the Town of Palermo website for the full article or read it in the Town Warrant, available at the town office.
Maine’s inland waters exist for all to access and enjoy. Beyond human use and enjoyment, these waters sustain ecosystems vital to the health and identity of our state. In consideration of the standards outlined, Palermo voters have an opportunity and responsibility to decide the importance of regulation in protecting Maine waters by exerting control over mooring and anchoring houseboats.

China transfer committee approves two documents for select board consideration

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by Mary Grow

At their Jan. 24 meeting, members of China’s Transfer Station Committee unanimously approved two documents for forwarding to the select board.

One is a revised Solid Waste Ordinance, prepared with help from Jessica Cobb, of the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments. It combines two existing ordinances, titled Solid Waste Disposal Ordinance and Solid Waste Flow Control (on the website china.govoffice.com, under Ordinances, Policies and Orders).

If select board members approve, they will forward the combined ordinance to voters for approval or rejection at the annual town business meeting in June.

The other document is named the transfer station’s five-year plan, though the objectives it lists are scheduled to be accomplished more quickly.

Requested equipment purchases include, for the current year, a propane storage rack that transfer station employees intend to put up themselves in the recycling building; a new Gator utility vehicle as a more versatile replacement for the station’s golf cart (estimated cost $10,699); a cover for the pre-crusher, for which station manager Thomas Maraggio is waiting for additional price quotes; and a closed container for mattresses, at an estimated cost of $16,000.

In the 2023-24 fiscal year that begins July 1, the plan calls for replacing the skid steer, trading in the current one in part payment. A new main hopper is planned for the 2024-25 fiscal year.

Facility upgrades, in the order listed, are:

  • A water filter system to provide potable water; the water available is safe, but because of the adjacent closed landfill, it is reportedly not pleasant. A system is to be installed soon; the plan says if it does not work, other options will be explored.
  • A cement pad, perhaps eligible for a state grant, for the compost pile.
  • Upgrading and paving the perimeter road behind the recycling building, a project waiting for price quotes.
  • Adding electricity and lighting at the Free for the Taking building. Committee members discussed options for the proposed installation of solar panels.
  • Removing the damaged canopy at the recycling center, a project for transfer station employees this spring.
  • Improving drainage outside the door of the cardboard bay.

Requested expenditures depend on the select board’s recommending them as part of the annual budget; preferably, a favorable recommendation from the budget committee; and voter approval at the annual town business meeting in June.

Transfer station staffer Cheyenne Houle had prepared a draft schedule for 2023 that calls for a hazardous waste collection day in China (for residents of China and other area towns that choose to contribute funds so their residents can participate) either April 8 or April 15. China’s annual shredding day (for confidential documents) is to be Oct. 21; the state-wide drug take back day, in which the China transfer station participates, will be Oct. 28.

Karen Hatch, in charge of the Free for the Taking building, issued a reminder that items left there should be in such good condition that someone else will happily take them home. Shoes are particularly a problem, she said; for every usable pair dropped off, she gets 10 that aren’t fit to wear.

The longest discussion at the Jan. 24 meeting was over whether to continue, change or eliminate the two-cents-a-pound fee charged to commercial haulers. The original purpose of the fee was to pay for the scales on which their trucks – and other vehicles as needed – are weighed.

The main argument in favor of leaving the fee in place was the revenue it generates.

The main argument in favor of discontinuing it was that rising fuel prices are already stressing haulers’ budgets; if they go out of business and people who have been using them start bringing their own trash, the additional work will cost the town.

Houle had done an analysis of trash brought in by the four haulers who use China’s transfer station and estimated the annual income at a little over $7,000 a year. Without the haulers, she estimated that on average, 56 more people would come in daily when the station is open.

Another argument in favor of eliminating the fee was that the scales were paid for long ago. Deputy Clerk Julie Finley says they were installed in November 2005; a The Town Line report on the June 27, 2016, select board meeting records a 3-2 vote “to accept the Transfer Station Committee’s recommendation to leave the fee charged to local haulers who go over the scales at two cents a pound.”

Transfer station reports in China town reports for fiscal years 2006 and 2007 say the scales are in use. The reports include photos of Ruby, then-manager Elwin Higgins’ dog.

On another topic, Palermo committee member Robert Kurek said some of the blue plastic trash bags China sells to Palermo residents have been splitting at the seams. He wanted to return them to China so Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood can argue with the supplier.

Maraggio said Palermo trash will be accepted if it’s in a similar-sized bag with a useless blue bag tied to the top.

During the Tuesday morning meeting, Director of Public Services Shawn Reed was raking fresh snow from the town office roof, which Hapgood said was leaking over the hallway leading from the meeting room to the main office. The manager had high praise for Reed; “You ask him and he finds a way to get it done,” she said. Others agreed.

The next China Transfer Station Committee meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 28.

China town manager presents initial town budget

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by Mary Grow

China select board members began their Jan. 29 meeting by hearing Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood’s initial presentation on the 2023-24 town budget, with four budget committee members joining them (three others were unable to attend).

Members of both boards will review the thick budget books Hapgood prepared, with, she said, much help from the “phenomenal people” on the town office staff.

Select board members will make their recommendations on 2023-24 expenditures and submit them to the budget committee. Budget committee chairman Thomas Rumpf said his group will probably need two meetings to make recommendations.

Voters at the June town business meeting will make the final decisions. The new fiscal year begins July 1.

Select board members’ other long discussion Jan. 29 was over, again, the proposed revisions to China’s Board of Appeals Ordinance (Section 9 of the Land Use Ordinance). Select board member Brent Chesley drafted the revisions for the Jan. 3 select board meeting; they were forwarded to the China Planning Board with a request for review in time for discussion Jan. 29.

Planning board members, meeting Jan. 10 and Jan. 24, accepted the draft as one input into a revised ordinance they considered their responsibility to write. They scheduled a Feb. 14 workshop meeting to discuss the ordinance with members of the board of appeals, the select board and others interested.

At the Jan. 29 meeting, Hapgood protested that time is running out if a revised ordinance is to go to voters at the June meeting. Board members talked for three-quarters of an hour before agreeing to hold a public hearing on Chesley’s draft at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 13, before their next meeting.

Much of the discussion consisted of Chesley re-explaining his suggested changes.

Fellow board member Janet Preston thinks Chesley’s recommended procedural changes are fine. She fears his proposal concerning variances from ordinance requirements will make it easier to take actions that could harm China Lake water quality.

Chesley said the change will not make much substantive difference. Then why propose it? asked Preston.

If the ordinance revision makes it easier to replace failing septic systems on small lakefront lots, water quality will benefit, board member Blane Casey suggested.

Select board members scheduled a second public hearing for the 6 p.m. time slot on February 13, this one on the draft transfer station ordinance. Town Clerk Angela Nelson has posted copies of both draft ordinances on the town website, china.govoffice.com, under the select board, which is under the heading Officials, Boards & Committees.

A guest at the Jan. 29 meeting was Art True, Director of the Kennebec County Emergency Management Agency. He joined discussion of the notice from Somerset County officials that they will no longer dispatch emergency services after July 1. China has used the Somerset County PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point), for a fee, for years.

Hapgood had been surprised by the recent notice, and True referred to Somerset County officials as having dropped a bomb. He does not yet know what the successor plan will be; because five months is not a long time for a complex project, he suggested there might be “a Band-Aid” beginning July 1.

However, he promised, “There will not be a time that the phones will not be answered.”

Also present Jan. 29 was Kennebec County Deputy Sheriff Ivano Stefanizzi, who again issued a warning to beware of telephone scammers. Please, he asked, do not give out personal information, and do not send money in any form.

In other business Jan. 29:

  • Board members unanimously accepted the lowest of three bids, $20,432.90 from Knowles Mechanical, of Vassalboro, for two heat pumps in the town office and two at the transfer station. Hapgood said voters authorized spending up to $22,000 in ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds for the work.
  • Board members unanimously accepted the lowest of three bids for a new roll-off container at the transfer station, $15,950 from East Coast Containers of Waterbury, Connecticut.
  • They unanimously authorized taking up to $10,000 from the 2022-23 contingency fund for future legal expenses, if needed.

Hapgood issued a reminder that the two-cents-a-pound fee for brush brought to the transfer station is effective Feb. 1. She said the town office will be closed Feb. 20 for the Presidents’ Day holiday.

The manager expressed appreciation to China’s plow drivers, and to two transfer station employees who assisted them, for long hours of hard work during recent storms. “We have good people; we’re lucky,” she said.

Annual ice fishing derby slated for Feb. 17-19

Switching from his budget committee chairman’s hat to his Four Seasons Club president’s hat, Thomas Rumpf told attendees at the Jan. 29 China select board meeting that China’s 2023 Ice Days celebration will be from Friday evening, Feb. 17, through Sunday evening, Feb. 19. Planned highlights include a Feb. 17 supper at the Masonic Hall in China Village followed by snowmobiling if the weather cooperates; a cornhole tournament and skating on Feb. 18; and the annual ice-fishing derby, followed by fireworks, on Feb. 19. Details and tickets will be available very soon. (See The Town Line’s cover story in this issue.)

Vassalboro select board, WPA officials meet

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro select board members, Webber Pond Association leaders and other interested parties held the joint meeting they planned back in November 2022, on Jan. 25.

At the Nov. 10 select board meeting, Association president John Reuthe and Department of Marine Resources staff member Nate Gray said the lake had poor water quality in the summer of 2022, mainly due to the warm weather that encouraged algae growth.

Town Manager Aaron Miller said the group at the Jan. 25 meeting discussed two requests from Reuthe, for better water quality monitoring equipment and for improvements at the outlet dam. Reuthe had no cost estimates for either.

Dam work would be aimed at making it easier to lift the boards that control outflow, so the water level in the lake could be managed more easily, Miller said. Installing a winch is one possibility.

Group members discussed possible sources of funding, including grants from out of town sources; and Miller said they considered seeking to involve neighboring towns and area environmental organizations.

Miller expects another discussion will be scheduled.

China planners consider three documents at meeting

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by Mary Grow

China Planning Board members considered three documents at their Jan. 24 meeting.

They agreed to continue discussion of amending the Board of Appeals Ordinance (which is Chapter 9 of the Land Use Ordinance) at their Feb. 14 meeting, with members of China’s board of appeals and select board invited to participate (see The Town Line, Jan. 12, p. 2, and Jan. 19, p. 3, for background on this issue).

Co-chairman James Wilkens expressed appreciation to the select board for raising the issue, although he objected – again – to select board member Brent Chesley drafting revisions; writing ordinances is the planning board’s job, he and other board members said.

Two days later, Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood forwarded to planning board and select board members an email from Maine Municipal Association Staff Attorney Susanne F. Pilgrim saying the task is shared.

The section of the Planning Board Ordinance defining the board’s general responsibilities says the board “shall prepare ordinances and amendments thereto” to be submitted to voters. But, Pilgrim pointed out, neither that sentence nor anything else in the ordinance grants the planning board exclusive authority to draft ordinances. She referred to a later section that says, “Amendments [to the Planning Board Ordinance] initiate from the Planning Board, Board of Selectmen, or by the people in the form of a petition.”

Pilgrim’s interpretation is, “…nowhere does the ordinance provide the planning board with the exclusive authority to prepare all draft ordinances. Nor does the Planning Board Ordinance preclude other bodies, such as the select board or an ordinance committee, from preparing ordinances.”

Planners are sympathetic to one Board of Appeals issue Chesley raised, the lack of time limits for action after an appeal is filed. They also approve of updating the nomenclature in this and other sections of the Land Use Ordinance – replacing “selectmen” with “select board” and “chairman” with “chair,” for example.

Once they have input from the Feb. 14 meeting participants and any other interested parties, they plan to propose amendments to the select board. That board is responsible for putting ordinance amendments on a local ballot, probably at the June town business meeting, for voters’ decisions.

The second document discussed was China’s comprehensive plan. Co-chairman Toni Wall had excerpted sections that refer to planning board duties and responsibilities; the other board members will review them for future discussion.

Wall had also reviewed China’s Planning Board Ordinance and marked appropriate nomenclature changes. Board members unanimously accepted them; assuming voters agree, “Board of Selectmen” quoted above will become “Select Board.”

In reviewing past board minutes, Wall said, she found other suggested changes, including adding a provision for co-chairs. Further discussion is likely.

Codes Officer Nicholas French said he has been approached with preliminary proposals for a solar farm and two subdivisions. No applications have yet been submitted.

VASSALBORO: School, day care provider reach agreement

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Vassalboro Community School (contributed photo)

by Mary Grow

After several months’ discussion, at their Jan. 17 meeting Vassalboro School Board members approved a lease agreement for the daycare that Jennifer Lizotte runs at Vassalboro Community School (VCS).

The daycare has operated without a formal agreement for years. The agreement runs into the spring of 2024, when it is to be discussed and if necessary amended. School board members indicated they expect to renew it in June 2024.

The longest discussion Jan. 17 was over the $25 a day fee Lizotte is agreeing to pay. The purpose is to cover janitorial services, supplies (light bulbs, toilet paper) and other expenses.

A couple people calculated the effect if Lizotte were to raise the amount she charges parents in order to cover the fee and found it would not make a large difference. Lizotte said she does not presently plan a rate increase.

The other major topic at the Jan. 17 meeting was a presentation by school counselor Gina Davis and part-time school social worker Laurie Lefebvre. They were also speaking for school social worker John Merrill, who was unable to attend the meeting.

The two explained what they do working with students, teachers and other staff and parents to help students do their best academically, socially and personally. Their days are primarily scheduled classroom presentations, group discussions and individual consultations, with schedules sometimes upended by crises.

The model they use, called the Second Step Program, is briefly explained in the December 2022 issue of the VCS newsletter, found on line at vcsvikings. December activities described were focused on “ways to show we care and how to show compassion for others.” Seventh-grade students made 225 holiday cards for area nursing home residents.

Principal Ira Michaud said he was pleased to find the program in place when he came to VCS last fall. He and assistant principal Tabitha Brewer also use Second Step; it “creates a common language through the school,” he said.

In other business Jan. 17, Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer reported for Finance Director Paula Pooler that the current year’s budget remains on target. Planning for the 2023-24 budget is well under way.

School board members approved an updated board handbook. With typical humor, Pfeiffer told them he plans to make the handbook available on the website and in paper form, “so all those in town who follow in your footsteps some day will know how easy your job is.”

Board members approved hiring Andrew Turner as an educational technician and accepted the retirement of art teacher Susan Briggs, effective at the end of the school year. Pfeiffer said Briggs has been teaching art for 40 years, the first two and a half in Waterville and the rest in Vassalboro.

The next regular Vassalboro school board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 14 (a week earlier than usual because February vacation is the following week), in the VCS library.

Vassalboro select board listens to ARPA spending suggestions

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro select board members preceded their Jan. 19 meeting with a 45-minute public hearing to collect suggestions for spending federal ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds in the 2023-24 fiscal year.

During the meeting, they rediscussed some recommendations from their Dec. 8, 2022, meeting, added a few more items and after another 70 minutes agreed to return to the topic at their Feb. 2 meeting, to decide on priorities.

The list of items approved Dec. 8 with which they began discussion included:

  • At the town office, add a button opener to make the front door more handicapped accessible (Town Manager Aaron Miller said he expects cost estimates soon) and an outside glass-covered memo board; improve outside lighting; install heat pumps; and get equipment to live-stream and record public meetings.
  • At the town recreation fields in East Vassalboro, add security cameras and a water spigot (for watering the playing fields, not for drinking, Community Program Director Karen Hatch explained) and replace a leaky holding tank.
  • At the Historical Society headquarters, the former East Vassalboro school building, install a 200-amp electrical service and new basement lighting.
  • For the volunteer fire department, buy almost another $3,000 worth of new Scott SCBAs (self-contained breathing apparatus, or air packs).
  • For the volunteer First Responder service, buy a $21,000 cardiac monitor.
  • For the police department, upgrade the computer in the cruiser, at an estimated cost of $5,000.
  • For the Vassalboro Sanitary District, contribute $11,000 toward guardrails.
  • And allocate another $11,000 for Vassalboro to host a window dressers program, which provides window insulation. Resident Holly Weidner explained that the bulk of the funds would pay an organizer, as past events have shown that there is too much work involved for town staff or volunteers to be asked to do.

During the Jan. 19 discussion, board members added $15,000 to the recreation program for field improvements and $3,400 for attic insulation in the Historical Society building. Board member Chris French calculated they had agreed on spending about $140,000.

Resident Michael Poulin suggested select board members consider TIF funding improvements at the transfer station, among other items. Board members and transfer station manager George Hamar discussed possibilities, with Hamar advocating for a redesigned traffic flow that would make using the facility safer.

Hamar did not yet have a price estimate for a cover for the new compactor, a topic discussed at several previous meetings. He suggested the redesigned traffic pattern should come first.

In reply to audience member Dave McCarthy, Hamar said there are three or four minor traffic accidents a year and “a lot of near misses.” A couple drivers have backed into him, he said.

Board member Frederick “Rick” Denico, Jr., suggested the transfer station should be relocated from the Lombard Dam Road to a sturdier road with three-phase power available.

Harking back to an expensive redesign plan prepared by the Waterville engineering firm of A. E. Hodsdon, former select board member Lauchlin Titus assured the group, “There’s no hurry; we had the same conversation five years ago.”

After almost half an hour’s discussion, the issue was tabled.

Select board members spent three-quarters of an hour reviewing the town personnel policy. Redmond and Miller will incorporate the revisions they approved into a third draft, to be discussed at a future meeting.

The next regular Vassalboro select board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 2. Their annual preliminary budget discussion is set for 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7

Vassalboro planners to forward draft ordinance on solar development to town attorney

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by Mary Grow

After their Jan. 17 meeting, Vassalboro Planning Board members have a draft ordinance section that would regulate commercial solar development in near-final form. They plan to forward it to the town attorney for her review.

Board members and representatives of the Main Street Maine coalition, the residents near a suggested solar site between Route 32 and Outlet Stream north of Duratherm Window Company, spent three hours on the document. Several people made presentations before planning board members settled to two-and-a-half hours of substantive discussion and wordsmithing.

There is currently no application for a commercial solar project pending. Because of the moratorium Vassalboro voters approved last November, there will be no action on any such application until at least early May 2023. Select board members may extend the moratorium, for example, until after the June town meeting if an ordinance is ready for voters’ action.

Ann White read a letter from the Main Street Maine coalition. Jerry Hill, another spokesperson, had an opinion piece in the Jan. 19 issue of The Town Line (p. 3).

The Jan. 17 letter thanked planning board members for their time and attention and acknowledged their recognition of effects of solar projects on neighbors and on Vassalboro’s future.

However, it also said Main Street Maine members “do not believe all members of the planning board have the community’s best interest at heart and are only concerned with their agenda,” and called for impartiality.

The letter said the group is not against solar, but members want appropriate regulations in place to protect residents and the environment before the planning board considers applications. An accompanying document offered suggested ordinance amendments and additions.

One proposal, compatible with Hill’s The Town Line article, is that “The residents who visually surround the project collectively have complete control of what goes into the buffer.” The buffer is the area of trees and shrubs shielding the project from view.

Coalition members recommend the ordinance include a required emergency response plan. They suggest a committee to help the codes officer, and that the codes officer be required to inspect a project weekly during construction and monthly during operation.

Planning board members thanked the group for their help. They discussed several coalition proposals, including soil (or other) tests before construction and/or after a project is operating and buffer standards.

Testing requirements generated debate between the board’s senior members, chairman Virginia Brackett and member Douglas Phillips. Phillips believes solar panels contain dangerous substances; he proposed pre-construction testing to establish a baseline and mandatory testing if a panel were broken.

Brackett said the panels are mostly silicon; other materials are in such small quantities as to be non-threatening, and their leaching off even a broken panel is highly unlikely. And, she asked, how would anyone know where to test in advance and what to test for?

Discussion ranged from soil tests before construction to soil tests after damage and from soil tests to water tests to monitoring wells. The topic will be revisited.

Current buffer requirements envision a 50-foot-wide wooded buffer around a solar installation, near property lines but not necessarily along all boundaries of a large lot with a solar array on a small part of it. The buffer would consist of evergreen trees spaced to give them room to grow, with an understory layer of shrubbery to block the view between trees. Board members debated details.

The height of the panels was briefly debated. Holly Weidner, representing the Vassalboro Conservation Commission, recommended limits not be too strict, lest they prohibit dual uses or future technologies. Board members settled on a maximum height of 16 feet as not too intrusive, but sufficient to accommodate a developer who wanted to use the ground under the panels for gardens or pasture.

Main Street Maine members want prohibitions on using herbicides or pesticides on a commercial solar installation. Board members agreed.

Various future possibilities were discussed; some may be regulated. Topics included what should be done if a solar farm changed hands, or if the land under it (assuming it is on leased land) changed hands; when a project should be considered abandoned; and how to guarantee financing to remove a no longer operating solar array.

Brackett questioned a previously-discussed requirement that the decommissioning process should restore the land to its pre-construction condition. One of Vassalboro’s approved developments is for an area that had been logged and was covered with stumps, she said; and if construction required grading, she did not think the land should be dug up again to restore the original contours.

The next regular Vassalboro Planning Board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 7. Codes Officer Robert Geaghan said there are several applications already pending, including renewed discussion of Tim and Heather Dutton’s plan to reopen the former East Vassalboro Country Store (see the Jan. 12 issue of The Town Line, p. 3).

Windsor clerk resigns; select board hears road report

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by The Town Line staff

Windsor Town Manager Theresa Haskell (photo by Sandra Isaac)

At an abbreviated meeting of the Windsor Select Board on December 27, 2022, it was reported by Town Manager Theresa Haskell that she had received a letter of resignation from Kyoko Roderick. Following an executive session, the select board voted unanimously to accept the resignation. After thanking her for her 4-1/2 years of dedication to the town of Windsor, they unanimously approved a motion to pay Roderick her banked PTO time of 52-1/4 hours.

Once that was completed, the board approved in a 4-0-1 vote, with Ronald Brann abstaining for personal reasons, a motion to initiate a temporary stipend in the amount of $750 per week to Haskell to cover the position.

The select board and town manager, with much discussion, will be looking at reviewing all expectations for all job descriptions.

At the select boards January 3, 2023, meeting, the board heard a report from Keith Hall, road supervisor, that the Hunts Meadow Road tree trimming has now been completed, with an additional tree at the corner of the Hunts Meadow and Doyle roads taken down. The culvert at the end of the Barton Road and Route 105 is filled and plugged, with water running across the road. DOT has been contacted.

Also, the Weeks Mills Road brush cutting at the Serenity Springs Trailer Park to the Barton Road has begun.

In other business, Haskell reported the monthly figures at the transfer station. The month of December was up from last year $1,418.05 but the number is still down ($1,726.79) compared to the total last year at this time.

Haskell also reported receiving a check from Mark Scribner for $25,000 for the NETCo Inc. scholarship for Windsor residents for the 2023-2024 school year. Scribner was thanked by the board and town manager for his generous donations over the years for this scholarship.