by Mary Grow

At a special meeting March 2, spokespeople for the Vassalboro Sanitary District (VSD), the Vassalboro Volunteer Fire Department and the Vassalboro First Responders told select board members how they would use federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds if they got some.

Select board members made no decisions. Renewed discussion is tentatively scheduled for their March 17 meeting.

They reminded everyone that ARPA funding is probably a one-shot deal. Vassalboro has received $231,692.56, according to Town Manager Mary Sabins, or a little over half of its $461,000 appropriation. She expects the rest by early this fall.

Engineer Stephen Green spoke for the VSD, with the mostly-silent support of the entire board of trustees. Top priority, Green said, is fixing most if not all of the 72 manholes in Vassalboro streets and roads.

The manholes date from the 1980s, he said. The supporting walls are brick-and-mortar, with the mortar deteriorating so that many of the manhole covers have sunk below the pavement level. He said about one-third of the manholes have been inspected; 90 percent of those inspected need repair.

Green estimated about 30 manholes are on Route 32 (Main Street) and have been “pounded the worst” by comparatively heavy traffic. They have generated many complaints to VSD officials, the town office and the select board.

Route 32 is a state highway. Green said he is waiting to hear from state officials whether the VSD can cut into the pavement to make repairs.

VSD officials are already planning the manhole work. Green’s current cost estimate is $250,000. He believes the work qualifies for ARPA money under the category of wastewater infrastructure, and said the VSD has access to some matching money.

After funding is obtained, Green expects the work to take at least six months, two to award a contract and four for construction.

VSD officials gave selectmen a list of lower-priority projects several weeks ago, and Green briefly summarized them: installing bulk tanks to hold odor control chemicals at pump stations, repairing the office building, paving access ways, adding water at the pump stations (to wash pumps) and perhaps, if there is renewed demand, extending sewer lines.

Sabins calculated the total VSD request at more than $2.2 million, far in excess of expected ARPA funds.

Fire Chief Walker Thompson’s priority is replacing Scott air packs for department members. If he were to get 20 new ones in a single year, Sabins pegged the cost at over $163,000. Thompson talked about spreading the purchases over two years and buying 16 rather than 20.

Thompson’s second priority is stipends for firefighters who continued to work through the pandemic. He recommended allocating any money on a per-call basis.

Rescue Chief Dan Mayotte said his top priority is buying 11 new AEDs (Automatic External Defibrillators). The unit’s current AEDs are failing one by one, and they’re so old replacement parts are no longer available.

He would also like money for ENVO masks (reusable N95 masks) for volunteer firefighters and other town employees and volunteers who regularly interact with the public, and a $10,000 fitness test machine to go with the masks. Sabins said all town employees are considered essential workers and all deal directly with the public at least part of the time.

Training funds would also be useful, Mayotte said, and his volunteers would appreciate stipends.

Sabins had estimated the First Responders total request at almost $70,000.

Sabins suggested an electronic sign for the town office dooryard to help keep residents informed of upcoming events. She had a cost estimate of $30,000 to buy and install a sign, based on the cost of the new one at Vassalboro Community School.

At the March 3 select board meeting, member Chris French suggested using part of the second half of the ARPA money for a second sign at the Riverside Fire Station on Riverside Drive (Route 201).

Other suggestions that might be eligible for ARPA money included repairs to the China Lake outlet dam in East Vassalboro; a Zoom or similar system that would allow residents to view select board meetings from home; and a donation to Waterville-based Delta Ambu­lance.

ARPA regulations explained

The federal regulations for using ARPA funds, approved by the Secretary of the Treasury and effective on April Fools’ Day, 2022, are in a two-inch thick blue binder that Town Manager Mary Sabins brought to the select board’s March 2 discussion.

Inside are 437 pages of mostly single-spaced typing. The stated purpose is to “implement the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund and the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund” established by Congress.

The document has no table of contents, no index and no definitions section.

The introduction says that the document is supposed to explain what ARPA money can be used for and how to apply for it. It notifies people that “each eligible use category has separate and distinct standards for assessing whether a use of funds is eligible.”

Applicants need to figure out which category their intended expenditure fits into, and then decide whether the expenditure meets that category’s standards.

Furthermore, “In the case of uses to respond to the public health and negative economic impacts of the pandemic, recipients should also determine which sub-category the eligible use fits within (i.e., public health, assistance to households, assistance to small businesses, assistance to nonprofits, aid to impacted industries, or public sector capacity and workforce), then assess whether the potential use of funds meets the eligibility standard for that sub-category.”

Parts of the document describe eligible uses; other parts list restrictions on uses. Some restrictions apply only to some types of government.

Types of government are listed as “state, territory, Tribal government, county, metropolitan city, nonentitlement unit of government.” Sabins said the last category means small towns like Vassalboro.

The document says federal officials do not preapprove ARPA expenditures. Vassalboro Select Board Chairman Robert Browne has explained that Vassalboro spends the money, then submits the bill. If it is rejected, the town pays.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro select board members held a special Feb. 24 meeting, partly to act on a tax abatement request (approved after a discussion in executive session) and partly to consider again Road Commissioner Eugene Field’s request that the town buy a roadside mower.

Specifically, Field wants a mower that can be attached to the front-end loader the town already owns. An alternative would be a tractor-mower, but that would be a single-use piece of machinery, he said.

A new mower currently costs $106,000, Field said. A used one might be available for around $89,000.

Vassalboro’s past procedure has been to rent a roadside mower. Field said summer mowing is standard. There was no second mowing in the fall of 2021, and he thinks there should have been one – tall grass was blocking motorists’ sight-lines in some places, he said.

By consensus, select board members left in their draft budget $106,000 for a town-owned mower. The budget is for fiscal year 2022-23, from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023. Since Field expects a July order will take weeks to fill, they added $8,800 to cover a fall 2022 mowing with rented equipment.

If voters don’t approve a mower in the 2022-23 budget, Field said he will need to repeat the request for the next year. By then, he said, he will also be asking voters to begin setting aside money for a new public works truck.

Select board members further debated whether they should recommend paying for the equipment from next year’s budget, or extending payment over two or three years (with interest added).

Discussion of the 2022-23 budget will continue at the select board’s Thursday, March 3, regular meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m., half an hour earlier than usual. It will be followed by the Vassalboro Budget Committee’s organizational meeting at 7 p.m.

Sabins said human resources consultant Laurie Bouchard, of LBouchard and Associates, who did an area salary survey and offered recommendations for Vassalboro town employees, will explain her work to budget committee members.

by Mary Grow

Chad Caron pleaded emotionally with Vassalboro select board members at their Feb. 17 meeting, asking for more time to work at the former church building he owns on Priest Hill Road in North Vassalboro.

They unanimously rejected his request, as advised by Codes Officer Ryan Page.

At their Jan. 6 meeting, board members had found the former church a dangerous building that should be demolished. However, they gave Caron 30 days to get an engineer to declare it structurally sound; and they authorized Page to extend the deadline if he found a reason (see The Town Line, Jan. 13, p. 2).

At the Feb. 17 meeting, Page reported that an engineer from the Waterville firm of A. E. Hodsdon visited the building and declared it structurally unsound. Since the Jan. 6 decision, Caron had not made progress that would justify recommending more time, Page said.

Caron argued that the engineer had not done a thorough inspection, and had not provided the plan he needs to make repairs; and that without a town permit he was not allowed to work on the building anyway.

He said he had a crane coming the week of Feb. 21 to take down the steeple, and asked for a 10-day extension, or even a five-day extension.

Select board members reminded Caron they have been waiting more than a year for him to clean up the property and stabilize the building. Former Codes Officer Paul Mitnik had worked with Caron for over a year previously, before coming to the board in January 2021.

At the Jan. 6 meeting, Caron had offered to demolish the building himself, labeling each piece and storing them for an eventual reconstruction. His plan is “not for me but for the town,” preserving an architecturally and historically valuable property, he said repeatedly.

When board members remained adamant at the Feb. 17 meeting, he told them he could not afford to reimburse the town for demolition. Bring in your wrecking ball, and put me in jail for non-payment, he challenged.

“I believe what you’re doing is cruel,” he added as he left the meeting.

Later, Town Manager Mary Sabins said the next step will be another discussion with the town attorney. Dealing with an unsafe building is new to her and to board members, she said, and they want to be sure they act correctly at all stages.

In other business Feb. 17, China Lake Association President Stephen Greene made a short presentation on the China Lake Watershed-Based Management Plan (see The Town Line, Dec. 9, 2021, p. 1, and Dec. 23, 2021, p. 2).

Vassalboro has nine percent of the China Lake watershed, and residents who are Kennebec Water District customers depend on the lake for their drinking water, Greene said. The management plan is aimed at improving water quality, by controlling run-off into the lake and by a proposed alum treatment in the north end of the east basin (in China) that would prevent accumulated lake-bottom nutrients from recycling into the water.

The outlet dam, which Vassalboro owns and which controls the water level, is an important part of the plan, Greene said.

Modifications to that dam, completed last summer, and to other dams on Outlet Stream will allow alewives to migrate from the ocean into China Lake. Greene said the small fish might improve water quality (by taking phosphorus with them when they leave in the fall), but evidence of their impact is not yet conclusive.

At this point, Greene said, he welcomes questions and ideas.

Vassalboro’s investment advisor, Senior Portfolio Manager Matthew Weaver, of The First, N. A., in Damariscotta, also made a presentation Feb. 17, telling select board members he thinks their investment policy and their investments are sound.

“I’m very pleased with how the portfolio performed” in the past year, Weaver said. Then he joked, “Someday, maybe, we have to talk about crypto.” He does not currently recommend cryptocurrency as a municipal investment.

Select board members voted unanimously to renew their investment policy without change.

They postponed decisions on their 2022-23 budget recommendations to their next meeting, which is scheduled for 6 p.m. – half an hour earlier than usual – Thursday, March 3. It will be followed by a budget committee meeting at 7 p.m.

On Wednesday, March 2, select board members will hold a 6 p.m. workshop at the town office on use of federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, with representatives of town groups that are asking for money invited to present their cases.

Board members have emphasized they must use ARPA money in strict adherence to federal rules. The program requires a municipality to spend the money and apply for reimbursement; if federal officials find an expenditure wasn’t within guidelines, the municipality pays the bill.

Nomination papers available

Nomination papers for Vassalboro’s June 14 local elections will be available at the town office on February 28.

To be elected in 2022, for three-year terms, are one member of the select board (Robert Browne’s term ends) and two members of the school board (Kevin Levasseur’s and Jessica Clark’s terms end).

For a candidate’s named to appear on the June 14 ballot, a nomination paper with signatures of at least 25 registered Vassalboro voters must be returned to the town office by noon on Friday, April 8.