by Mary Grow

Webber Pond Association President John Reuthe brought Vassalboro select board members information and recommendations on the lake’s water quality, at their Nov. 10 meeting.

The water quality this past summer was very poor, he said, back to where it was in the 1970s and 1980s, with algae blooms and toxins that were a threat to children and pets.

Vassalboro resident and Department of Maine Resources staffer Nate Gray expanded on Reuthe’s report. The main causes of the problems in Webber Pond, and Three Mile Pond, and to a lesser extent China Lake, were weather-related, he said.

All three lakes have high background phosphorus levels, due to years of accumulation from run-off from surrounding lawns, fields and roads. A warm, sunny summer encouraged algae, which depend on phosphorus, warmth and light to grow.

Several years of low rainfall, less snow and earlier ice-out extended the warm season. Hot summer days evaporated surface water, increasing the concentration of algae close to the surface. Surface water temperatures reached 88 degrees in Webber Pond and Three Mile Pond and 84 degrees in China Lake, Gray said.

Reuthe cited the economic importance of the pond and its alewife fishery. His list of recommended actions started with a meeting of stakeholders, which would include area lake association members and town and state officials.

He asked for money to buy more complex equipment to test water quality; more attention to codes enforcement around water bodies (though he recognized Vassalboro’s problem with frequent changes of codes officers); and a building atop the Webber Pond dam, which is owned by the association, to shelter the gate controls.

One topic that might be discussed at a stakeholders’ meeting is whether the town wants to continue to own the dam.

Select board chairman Barbara Redmond asked Gray how much money the town might need to improve the situation.

“Oh, they don’t print it fast enough,” Gray replied.

Specifically, he said, the easy-to-use monitoring equipment Reuthe recommended would probably cost about $2,000, and would provide useful information.

Select board members are minimizing new commitments until they finish the process of hiring a town manager to succeed Mary Sabins, who is retiring at the end of the year.

They therefore postponed any action. Redmond suggested the stakeholders’ meeting might be scheduled in January, before area towns begin developing 2023-24 budgets.

In a related matter, select board members unanimously extended the contract with Ronald C. Weeks, Sr., to harvest alewives at the Webber Pond outlet for another five years.

The second proposal presented at the Nov. 10 meeting, for a Vassalboro dog park, was also postponed, mostly to give proponent Vivian Flamm time to gather more information.

Flamm was representing a number of residents – and a few people from China, she added – who would like to see Vassalboro develop a dog park. Her idea is that the town would buy land, fence it, provide benches and do whatever other development is needed. Three possible sites had been suggested, she said.

She expects interested local people would help create the park and would show their appreciation for it by keeping it clean.

Board members and Sabins suggested approaching the Vassalboro Sanitary District trustees about a possible site; asking the City of Augusta for guidelines; preparing a cost estimate; and other preliminary actions Flamm’s group could take before returning to the select board and the new town manager.

In other business, Sabins reported she had a request to ask the state Department of Transportation to lower the Quaker Lane speed limit from 45 to 25 miles an hour. Board members unanimously agreed to forward the request.

They agreed by consensus to cancel their second November meeting. It would have fallen on Thanksgiving Day, was tentatively rescheduled two days earlier and, they decided, could be eliminated. Their next regular meeting will be Thursday, Dec. 8.

by Mary Grow

Despite a three-item agenda plus a spill-over item from the Oct. 13 select board meeting, Vassalboro Planning Board members spent an hour and a half of their long Nov. 1 meeting discussing proposed regulations for commercial solar developments.

They plan to return to the draft solar provisions, currently seen as a section of the site review ordinance rather than a separate ordinance, at their Dec. 6 meeting. They do not presently intend to schedule a special meeting only for ordinance discussion.

Their first actions on Nov. 1 were to approve:

• An application to expand and rebuild a non-conforming structure at 30 Austin Road in the Three Mile Pond shoreland, with the understanding it will be enlarged by less than 30 percent and will not be any closer to the water.
• Acceptance of the decommissioning plan for the proposed commercial solar development at 2579 Riverside Drive as meeting the requirement set at their Oct. 4 meeting (see the Oct. 13 issue of The Town Line, p. 2).

The third agenda item was listed as a presentation by Brittney Krebsbach of Novel Energy, the company planning to apply for a permit for a commercial solar farm on the west side of Main Street (Route 32) north of Duratherm Window.

Instead of Krebsbach, Patrick Zander represented Minnesota-based Novel Energy Solutions. He explained that he had been told that morning to “put a face” to the company. He asked that a preliminary application be accepted, so review could proceed if Vassalboro voters approved the solar development moratorium on the Nov. 8 local ballot.

Zander had not been told that the moratorium would prohibit any action, even if an application were in process. Nor had he been told that Novel had submitted no application. When he looked at the preliminary information planning board members have had for weeks, he said it was “way out of date.”

Codes officer Paul Mitnik said Novel had emailed something last week. When he replied that he could not open the document(s), he got no answer.

Zander said the revised plan reduces the size of the planned development by about 50 percent. Setback from Outlet Stream is increased and the project “won’t touch” the Kennebec Water District pipeline that crosses the property.

Novel has its Central Maine Power Company interconnection agreement (IA), Zander said. Board chairman Virginia Brackett was surprised, as several other Vassalboro projects have been delayed by lack of an IA.

Before he left, Zander offered information resources for the proposed solar ordinance. After he left, board members expressed sympathy for the difficult position his company’s lack of preparation put him in.

“Somebody at least owes him a beer,” Brackett suggested.

Although Brackett said the Novel Energy application wouldn’t reappear until the summer of 2023 if the moratorium passed Nov. 8, audience members who oppose Novel’s project – and supported the moratorium – insisted on speaking. Board member Douglas Phillips encouraged the rest of the board to let them.

Ann White and Linnea Ash Hill distributed three pages listing problems with solar panels, and the websites they said support their concerns. They claimed that property values drop within a mile of a solar project; that toxins from the panels will harm area wildlife and water quality in Outlet Stream and China Lake; and that decommissioning a system will result in release of more toxic chemicals.

“We can have a solar farm lots of other places. We don’t need it there,” Hill said.

When select board member Chris French asked from the audience if the new ordinance should also ban solar panels on people’s roofs, several people said, “No.” No one said yes.

Main Street residents also spoke at the select board’s Sept. 29 public hearing on the moratorium ordinance (see the Oct. 6 issue of The Town Line, p. 3).

The problem left over from the Oct. 13 select board meeting was the claimed lack of a buffer at the newly-opened brewery at 772 Cross Hill Road (see the Oct. 20 issue of The Town Line, p. 2). Neighbors Rick and Terry Dawson, and Peter and Mary Beth Soule again asked what they can do to ensure construction of a buffer, required by the planning board when the business was approved.

Mitnik offered his opinion that enough trees had been planted to meet the board’s requirement. The neighbors disagreed.

Planning board members said repeatedly they are not enforcers. They said if Mitnik’s response was not satisfactory, the town manager should be asked to call a meeting of the board of appeals.

The Nov. 1 preliminary discussion of the planned solar ordinance focused on setbacks and buffers. Planning board members discussed a multitude of probable complications.

By the end of the discussion, they envisioned a project, meaning the solar panels and associated equipment, inside a fence; a required distance between the fence around the project and the property line; and a vegetated buffer between the fence and the property line.

French suggested requiring that the fence be at least 100-feet from the property line or 150-feet from the nearest residence, whichever distance was greater. Board members approved, for now.

The vegetated buffer was one of the problems. Its purpose would be to screen the project inside the fence from neighbors, so a buffer all the way around the property seemed unnecessary. But if the vegetation were trees and if they were close to the fence, they could grow tall enough to shade the solar panels.

A related issue, setbacks from wetlands, was temporarily left to state regulators, with the expectation their information would be shared with town officials. Any commercial solar project over three acres needs a state permit, and French and planning board members believe recently-adopted state regulations require the developer to map and protect wetlands.

Also attending the Nov. 1 meeting was Bob Geaghan, introduced as Vassalboro’s new codes officer. Town Manager Mary Sabins said later that Geaghan is expected to work with Mitnik for the next two months and take over the job in January 2023 so that Mitnik can retire, as he has tried to do several times already.

by Mary Grow

NOTE: Participants in this meeting were promised by the leader that their comments would be shared anonymously. This writer will therefore not identify speakers.

Eighteen Vassalboro residents attended the Oct. 12 forum that was called to collect answers to two questions: what are the “major issues and challenges” facing the town in the next five years; and what “qualities, education, background and experience” should the town manager who succeeds Mary Sabins have.

Cornell Knight, of Eaton Peabody Consulting Group, led the discussion. He explained that he has 40 years’ experience as a manager in half a dozen Maine municipalities, most recently Bar Harbor.

Sabins announced earlier this fall that she is retiring, effective Jan. 2, 2023. Select board members chose Eaton Peabody to help them find her successor.

Knight said ads have been placed in appropriate places locally, state-wide and on New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts sites and the International City Managers Association website.

Vassalboro staff was asked for their answers to the two questions earlier on Oct. 12. Answers, from discussions and from emails received by Oct. 14, will be published on the town website, www.vassalboro.net. The information will guide Knight and select board members as they evaluate candidates.

Suggested issues and challenges included:

• A need for more long-range planning, which could include an updated strategic plan (Vassalboro’s is dated 2006); a new comprehensive plan instead of the strategic plan, if voters are ready to accept one; and/or a capital improvements plan. A related suggestion was a review of Vassalboro’s charter, an action that could lead to a change like replacing the select board with a town council.
• More, and more advanced, technology, a topic that included expanded and improved broadband access for residents and the capacity to hold virtual public meetings and to stream live meetings.
• Attention to environmental issues, including water quality in the town’s lakes and recycling and waste management.
• A need for more law enforcement and for improved rescue and ambulance services.

Moving to the second question, the qualities a town manager should have, there was much emphasis on connections and coordination. The manager should make sure town boards and committees are working well, collaborating when needed and communicating with each other and with town departments. Now that Vassalboro’s school department is independent of regional school organizations, school and town cooperation should become closer.

People also called for a manager with problem-solving skills – creative ones, one speaker specified – and the ability to communicate with staff and townspeople. Communication had to be two-way; the manager should be curious, should “listen first and talk second,” and should not try to dictate.

The manager should be good at finding and applying for grants for state and federal funds, and at long-term capital planning.

He or she should take advantage of continuing education opportunities and should communicate and cooperate with colleagues in other towns.

Knight said the deadline for applications is Nov. 1. He and his colleague, Don Gerrish, will do an initial screening. He expects select board members to do a first round of interviews in November and a second round by early December, and to be ready to sign a contract by Dec. 9.

In reply to a suggestion that town office staff be involved in the decision, Knight said staff members usually have an opportunity to meet candidates chosen for second interviews.

Asked if he thought Vassalboro’s salary and benefits package was competitive, he said yes.

If no satisfactory candidate is found, he said, Vassalboro will operate with an interim manager while a new search and selection process goes ahead.