Vassalboro school board reviews draft lease agreement with daycare

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Vassalboro Community School (contributed photo)

by Mary Grow

At their Nov. 15 meeting, Vassalboro school board members reviewed a draft lease agreement with Jennifer Lizotte’s daycare, which has been operating at Vassalboro Community School (VCS) with mutual satisfaction.

Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer said he, assistant principal Tabitha Brewer and director of maintenance and grounds Shelley Phillips worked on the document with Lizotte. He did not expect a Nov. 15 vote, and board members postponed final action to their December meeting (which, Pfeiffer reported later, will be earlier in the month than usual, on Wednesday, Dec. 14).

Pfeiffer said the daycare is headquartered in the one available room and shares common spaces, like the gymnasium, cafeteria, playground and front lobby, with VCS students and activities getting priority.

School board chairman Jolene Gamage questioned how much extra the daycare costs in janitorial and other services, and whether its presence in the summer adds costs or complicates summer repairs and maintenance.

Phillips said when the daycare shared Winslow school buildings, they “pretty much took care of themselves.” Cleaning had to be done anyway, and Lizotte and her staff were accepting of suggestions and easy to work with.

VCS Principal Ira Michaud said his experience has been the same: Lizotte and her staff are “very good to work with.”

The draft contract includes a $25-per-day fee, to be confirmed or changed at the December meeting. Pfeiffer said both the daycare program and the school have appropriate insurance, and the contract has had legal review.

In its present form, the contract would run to June 30, 2024, with a review scheduled in May 2023 and the possibility of amendments based on 2022-23 experience.

The other topic discussed at length Nov. 15 was Michaud’s and curriculum director Carol Kiesman’s analysis of VCS students’ performance on the NWEA tests. The letters stand for Northwest Evaluation Association; NWEA is described on line as a research-based nonprofit organization that develops assessments of student performance.

NWEA tests are widely used, Michaud said, providing a large number of students with whom to compare local results. Kiesman summarized VCS results from spring and fall 2022: “We did improve from last year to this year, but we have a long way to go.”

Michaud and Pfeiffer said VCS teachers will use their classes’ results to help find strengths and weaknesses and refine teaching methods and materials. The next important round of NWEA tests is in the spring of 2023 – but, Michaud said, the Maine Department of Education intends to change the format, making comparisons with previous results difficult. He sees the spring 2023 tests as “starting a new baseline.”

The Nov. 15 meeting was the evening of the day that 10 Maine schools – Gardiner Area High School was the closest to Vassalboro – received calls claiming an active shooter was on campus. The calls were hoaxes.

Pfeiffer said he was promptly in touch with state police and later with the Kennebec County sheriff’s office and state education officials.

Most of the rest of Pfeiffer’s report dealt with pending maintenance issues – a possible grant to improve heating and ventilation, and repair or replacement of damaged curbing along parking lots and driveways. The curbing in the staff parking lot is still the original, put in in 1992, he commented.

Kiesman enthusiastically reported that VCS pre-kindergarten classes are “all good stuff, wonderful.” The October school newsletter, available on line at vcsvikings.org, reports that pre-k students spent part of the month learning about pumpkins, including a song and crafts projects.

Speaking for finance director Paula Pooler, Pfeiffer said the budget is running as planned and the school lunch program, which in past years has lost money, is “still in the black.”

As the superintendent recommended, board members approved higher wages for some categories of employees. They met in executive session after the Nov. 15 meeting and again on Nov. 21 to continue contract discussions.

Board members accepted the resignation of kindergarten teacher Miranda Kuesport.

The Vassalboro school board’s December meeting has been scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 14, to avoid a conflict with the Dec. 20 VCS band and chorus holiday concert.

Vassalboro select board told weather cause of poor lake water quality

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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.

Vassalboro voters approve moratorium on solar development

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by Mary Grow

At the polls on Nov. 8, Vassalboro voters approved a moratorium on commercial solar development in the town, effective immediately.

Town Clerk Cathy Coyne said the vote was 1,343 in favor to 748 opposed. The moratorium prohibits the planning board or any other municipal board or official from taking action on a commercial solar application for at least 180 days; the select board has the discretion to extend it.

Purpose of the delay is to give planning board members time to develop new regulations for such developments and present them to voters for approval. Board members have started discussing regulations and hope to have a document ready for the annual town meeting in June 2023.

The only other local question in Vassalboro on Nov. 8 was election of a representative to the Kennebec Water District board of trustees. Incumbent Frank Richards, unopposed for re-election, received 1,920 votes.

In state and county voting, Coyne reported the following results from Vassalboro voters:

  • For Representative to Congress from District 1, incumbent Democrat Chellie Pingree, 1,000 votes; Republican challenger Edwin Thelander, 1,138 votes.
  • For governor of Maine, Independent Sam Hunkler, 39 votes; Republican Paul LePage, 1,187 votes; incumbent Democrat Janet Mills, 954 votes.
    or state senator from District #15, incumbent Republican Matthew Pouliot, 1,359 votes; Democrat Storme Jude St. Valle, 790 votes.
  • For state representative from District #61, incumbent Republican Richard Bradstreet, 1,318 votes; Democrat Amy Davidoff, 848 votes.
  • For Kennebec County register of deeds, Matthew James Boucher, 1,270 votes; incumbent C. Diane Wilson, 843 votes.

Coyne said Vassalboro polls were busy all day, with a total of 2,190 ballots cast. The new secure ballot drop box outside the town office was used a lot up to and on election day, she said; even when the office was open, some voters put their early ballots in the box.

Vassalboro planners use bulk of meeting to discuss commercial solar development

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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.

VASSALBORO: Town seeks ideas for use of ARPA funds

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by Mary Grow

At their Oct. 27 meeting, Vassalboro select board members planned for a December discussion of ways to use federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.

Town Manager Mary Sabins intends to ask town departments and committees for suggestions, as she did last year. After audience member Holly Weidner offered ideas, board chairman Barbara Redmond invited her to submit them in writing to the town office.

The officials set the end of November as the deadline for suggestions. This timetable should let them consider recommendations and integrate ARPA spending into their proposed 2023-24 municipal budget.

If board members stick to their every-other-Thursday schedule, the December meetings will be on Dec. 8 and Dec. 22.

The first 70 minutes of the Oct. 27 meeting were spent reviewing the personnel policy, 20 single-spaced typed pages. With town employees in the audience and occasionally participating, board members and Sabins discussed a wide variety of provisions.

As planned, board members made no decisions. Sabins said much of the original (November 2011) version was written by a lawyer; she recommended current town attorney Kristin Collins, of Preti-Flaherty’s Augusta office, be asked to review changes.

Town Manager Mary Sabins intends to ask town departments and committees for suggestions, as she did last year.

One change board members seem likely to approve is an increase in the annual amount the town pays to reimburse public works employees for boots. The current figure is $100; an invoice among the bills paid Oct. 27 showed an employee’s new steel-toed, waterproof boots were priced at $169.99 (he bought them on sale, and even with tax exceeded his reimbursement by less than $10).

Since some of the changes discussed will impact the town’s 2023-24 budget, select board members hope to have a final document approved by early 2023. Their next meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening, Nov. 10.

Because the second November meeting would fall on Thanksgiving Day, it will be rescheduled. As of Oct. 17, the tentative date is Tuesday, November 22.

VASSALBORO: Talks continue on VCS-located daycare

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Vassalboro Community School (contributed photo)

by Mary Grow

Jennifer Lizotte attended the Oct. 18 Vassalboro School Board meeting to continue discussion of the daycare program she heads at Vassalboro Community School (VCS) (see the Sept. 29 issue of The Town Line, p. 3, for the initial discussion).

Board members had compiled a page-and-a-half list of questions and comments about the program. Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer distributed suggestions for a lease agreement from the school attorneys.

Lizotte said at the previous meeting that the program runs from 6:30 a.m. to about 5:30 p.m. weekdays and has 44 youngsters enrolled. There are 26 names on the waiting list, she said; she has enough staff to enroll eight more, but there is not space for them in the area VCS can spare.

Lizotte thinks a daycare at the school is valuable; parents who go to work early or get home late, and parents who cannot pick up children in the middle of the day on an early release day, know their children have a safe place to stay.

Pfeiffer and board members agree an in-school daycare is a benefit. “Without the daycare a lot of families would be really facing hard times,” one person wrote.

There is concern about costs, though, and suggestions that the school charge rent in return for services provided – from electricity and heat to light bulbs and toilet paper – or that school officials explore possible town financial support.

Another comment asked about year-round security. Pfeiffer and Lizotte answered the question: the school has a crisis team and a regularly-updated crisis plan; daycares are required to have safety and security emergency plans; and when the two share a building, they cooperate.

The daycare discussion is scheduled to continue at the board’s Nov. 15 meeting.

In other business, Principal Ira Michaud reported favorable reactions to the September VCS newsletter. The colorful document was sent to students’ families; paper copies were left at the town office; and it is available on the website, vcsvikings.org, under the “Latest News” heading.

Assistant Principal Tabitha Brewer said she is working with town recreation committee members to bring community activities back to the VCS gym, after a covid-caused break.

“It’s nice to see some of the normalcy come back,” Pfeiffer commented.

Finance director Paula Pooler reported she sees no 2022-23 budget problems so far, and the food service program remains in the black. The audit of the 2021-22 fiscal year is under way, she said; and she has already set up 2023-24 budget accounts for the Vassalboro, Waterville and Winslow school departments.

Curriculum coordinator Carol Kiesman was looking forward to a visit to the pre-kindergarten classes by officials from the state Department of Education. Pfeiffer was expecting federal and state emergency management personnel to discuss ongoing plans to make VCS an emergency shelter for the town.

School board members have almost finished reviewing the school’s strategic plan. The final version, when approved, will be put on the website, Pfeiffer said.

Pfeiffer issued another reminder to parents who have not yet filled out the application for free school meals: please do so. Breakfast and lunch are free by state law; but the forms are essential documentation, for example for applying for state and federal grants.

China workshop aims to bring area towns together

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Volunteers prepare window inserts at a previous WindowDressers workshop, in Vassalboro. (photo courtesy of Vassalboro Historical Society)

by Eric W. Austin

CHINA, ME — Planned for the second week in November starting just after Election Day, the China Window Dressers workshop is moving full steam ahead. The intent of the workshop is to build low-cost window inserts to reduce heating expenses for homeowners in central Maine. The organizers have spent the past year taking orders and visiting local homeowners to measure the windows requiring inserts, and now they are looking for volunteers to help at the upcoming workshop.

Sponsored by the China for a Lifetime Committee, a local group dedicated to philanthropic activities meant to improve the quality of life for China residents, and assisted by other local organizations, the initiative is modeled after the classic “barn-raising” community efforts of the past, with residents working together for the benefit of everyone.

Committee chairman Christopher Hahn describes it this way: “The workshop is a great chance for the community to come together and help one another during these tough financial times. Such events don’t happen as often as they should anymore in this age of Facebook and online Zoom meetings, so we jumped at the opportunity to organize this workshop. It fits right in with our mission of ‘neighbors helping neighbors.’ I hope to see many familiar faces and hopefully some new ones.”

The committee has received more than 130 orders for window inserts from over two dozen local clients across central Maine. Although the workshop will take place at the China Conference Center, orders have been open from any of the area towns and volunteers for the upcoming build workshop do not need to have ordered inserts or live in China. The workshop will run from Wednesday, November 9, through Sunday, November 13. Work shifts are divided into a morning shift from 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., and an afternoon shift from 1 – 5 p.m. Food will be provided by community volunteers between shifts. The first two days are devoted to putting together the wooden frames for the window inserts, while the next two days will be for wrapping those frames in plastic and foam. Sunday will serve as an overflow day if everything cannot be completed by Saturday evening.

No experience is necessary to help out, and there are still plenty of spots that need to be filled. Hahn says they are aiming for eight people per shift. The work is not complicated, and designed to flow through an assembly line process, making it easy for anyone to participate. Participants from earlier workshops will be on hand to answer any questions and provide guidance for volunteers.

For those interested in signing up to participate in the workshop, there are several ways to get involved. The easiest way is to visit the Window Dressers website at windowdressers.org. Click on “Community Builds” link on the menu at the top-right of the page, then scroll down to the China build and click where it says “Sign up to volunteer”. (Click here to go there directly.) That will take you to a page where you can choose which time-slot best fits into your schedule.

If you’re not tech-savvy, or don’t have internet access, you can also send an email to ChinaforaLifetime@gmail.com or call the China town office at 445-2014 and let them know what days you are available to help.

More information about the China for a Lifetime committee can be found on their website at chinaforalifetime.com.

VASSALBORO: 18 residents attend town manager search forum

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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.

VASSALBORO: Delta Ambulance plans financial requests from served towns

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by Mary Grow

The topics that took the most time at a long and varied Oct. 13 Vassalboro select board meeting were a presentation by Delta Ambulance representatives on plans to request financial aid from towns served, and a discussion with Cross Hill Road residents about getting a new business to comply with conditions on its town permit.

Timothy Beals, Delta Ambulance’s executive director, gave select board members a multi-page handout and supplemented it with a verbal description of the service. He was accompanied by director of community relations, Bill McKenna, and director of operations, Chris Mitchell.

Beals said Delta was organized in 1972 and became a nonprofit corporation in 1975. Its 13-member board includes representatives from area hospitals and from some of the 14 municipalities it serves.

Delta has a main station in Waterville and an ambulance base in Augusta. There are currently about 100 full-time and part-time employees. In addition to responding to emergency calls, its 17 ambulances are used for transfers from one medical facility to another, and its staff provides training sessions.

Recently, Waterville and Winslow have started their own ambulances, withdrawing from Delta. Delta is downsizing accordingly.

For 50 years, Delta has been funded primarily by insurance reimbursements, which have never covered full costs. Payment is made only if a patient is transported; if the ambulance crew resolves the medical crisis and the patient refuses transport, there is no reimbursement.

And, Beals added, if an ambulance service transports everyone who calls, the government is likely to investigate.

Currently, Delta’s annual revenue is around $7 million and annual expenses are around $9 million, with a reserve fund covering the difference.

Therefore, Beals said, Delta officials are asking member towns to appropriate $15 per resident – just under $66,300 for Vassalboro – in the next fiscal year. He believes Delta is the last Maine ambulance service to start charging a service fee; and he said most other per-capita fees are higher.

Emergency response is guaranteed, Beals said. When several ambulances are in use, non-emergency transfers are postponed, and if necessary mutual aid agreements with other services can be invoked.

Vassalboro residents get not only emergency service, around 350 calls a year, but also reimbursement or replacement for most supplies Vassalboro First Responders use and a stand-by ambulance, at no charge, at fire scenes and on request at community events.

In response to questions from select board member Chris French, Beals said Delta board members had not discussed multi-year contracts, nor giving more than the current five board seats to municipal representatives. Both topics are open for discussion, he said.

Select board members will consider the situation.

Rick and Terry Dawson and Peter and Mary Beth Soule brought their problem with a newly-opened brewery at 772 Cross Hill Road to select board members because they did not know how to proceed.

Supported by copies of Vassalboro Planning Board minutes and related documents, they explained that in December 2019, the planning board approved a permit to James and Linda D’Angelo to open the brewery. Notice of approval came from Paul Mitnik, the codes officer in 2019 and, after unsuccessful attempts to retire, the current codes officer.

The approval was conditional on “providing buffering of conifer trees in the east and south property boundaries with extra buffering near parking areas.”

The Dec. 10, 2019, planning board minutes show that David D’Angelo was spokesman for the applicants. One of the public comments was that the brewery’s parking area faces the Dawson property, where the house is 560 feet away, and “Headlights from vehicles [are] a concern.”

On May 18 of this year, then codes officer, Ryan Page, issued a certificateIof occupancy for the brewery to Cross Hill Realty, LLC. The certificate says, “The property owner or tenant is hereby authorized to enter and use the premises.”

It also says, “Special Condition: Screening required in accordance with Site Plan Review.”

The Dawsons and Soules told select board members there is no buffering. Some trees were planted after July 2022; most died and have been even more recently replaced.

They also questioned whether the certificate of occupancy was sufficient to allow the business to open to the public. It did, about two weeks ago, they said.

The residents, board members and Town Manager Mary Sabins discussed whether the issue should be handled by Mitnik or perhaps by the town board of appeals. Related issues were what time limits for appeals might apply, and what, if any, other local or state permits or licenses the brewery might have or need.

After three-quarters of an hour, board member Rick Denico referred the Dawsons and Soules to Vassalboro’s enforcement and appeals ordinance, on the town website.

The Oct. 13 meeting began with a public hearing on renewing town permits for seven automobile graveyards/junkyards and one auto hobbyist’s collection. There were no public comments, and board members unanimously approved Mitnik’s recommendations, as follows:

  • Unconditional renewals for Freddie’s Service Center (Bill Pullen), 163 South Stanley Hill Road; Garnett’s Motors (Stanley Garnett), 1616 North Belfast Avenue; Autowerkes (Voit Ritch), Route 3; Platinum & Core LLC (Robert Parise), 1702 Riverside Drive; and hobbyist Robert Dore, 919 Church Hill Road.
  • Renewals conditional on providing proof of a state recyclers’ license for Ron’s Parts Inc. (James Cogley), 520 Main Street; and Weeks Mills Garage (Olin Charette), 1499 Riverside Drive.
  • An interim conditional renewal for Bondo’s Garage (Dale Clement), 471 Taber Hill Road. Mitnik explained that the garage is closed, and without an associated garage the junkyard should be closed, too, but time is needed for orderly dispersal. Conditions include draining all vehicle fluids, clearing the entrance and getting rid of all but 20 vehicles.

The easy item Oct. 13 was appointing seven members of a new committee.

The committee is to review capital needs of the Vassalboro Historical Society’s building, the former East Vassalboro school house, as proposed two weeks earlier (see the Oct. 6 issue of The Town Line, p. 14). Its members, assuming they accept, are Dave Bolduc, Donald Breton, Janice Clowes, Steve Jones, John Melrose, select board chairman Barbara Redmond and Lauchlin Titus.

Melrose welcomes volunteer advice and help from people knowledgeable about building issues. He told select board members he has already enlisted his son, Andrew, to advise on heating.

Because the meeting was so long, discussion of revisions to the town personnel handbook was postponed to the next meeting, scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 27.

Vassalboro Cubs help with fight against cancer

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Pictured are, front row, from left to right, Tiger Cubs Wesley Danielson, John Gray, Beckett Metcalf, and Lux Reynolds. Second row, Bear Cubs Henry Gray and Eli Richmond. Third row, Webelos Elliot Rafuse, Christopher Santiago, Hunter Brown, and Desmond Landreth. Back row, Cubmaster Christopher Santiago and Tiger Den Leader Christopher Reynolds. (photo courtesy of Chuck Mahaleris)

On Tuesday October 11, 2022, the Vassalboro Community School PTO held a Food Truck Night at Vassalboro Community School as a fundraiser for the Michaud family. Ira Michaud is the principal of the Vassalboro Community School and his son is battling a very rare cancer. Ira Michaud is himself a Cubmaster and his son Ian is a Cub Scout. So Vassalboro Pack #410 provided desserts for the food truck event in the form of a bake sale. The community came together in support of the family. Pack #410 was able to contribute $516.54 towards the $2,649.54 raised for the Michaud family.