Vassalboro select board discusses medical marijuana license renewals

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by Mary Grow

The final Vassalboro select board meeting of 2022, held Dec. 22, began with discussion of renewing medical marijuana business licenses for 2023.

Codes officer Paul Mitnik presented the list of licenses up for annual permits. Audience members offered no comments on any of them.

Select board members unanimously approved five of the six applications, renewing licenses on Old Meadows Road for building owner Leo Barnett and tenants Colin Dorsey, William Cunningham, Zeena McMullen and Hayden Poupis.

Action on the sixth application, from Daniel Charest, whose building on Cushnoc Road burned, was postponed until the replacement building is finished and approved. Mitnik said Charest has a building permit, and when a new building is available will have tenants who need licensing.

Mitnik offered suggestions about two issues covered by the Marijuana Business Ordinance that voters approved in June 2021 and amended slightly in June 2022.

First, he said, the ordinance refers to a “facility,” without defining the word or making clear whether it means a building or a growing operation.

Barnett has four buildings on Old Meadow Road, which currently count as a single facility. Two of his tenants have two growing areas apiece; they are each counted as a single facility.

Mitnik said he had his own suggestions for clarification and one from the town attorney, and select board chair Barbara Redmond offered another idea. The issue will be discussed at a future meeting.

Mitnik’s second issue is the exemption from license requirements for a “facility” that is less than 1,000 square feet. He said the exemption is hard to enforce, especially when growers are reluctant to admit people to their areas, and is contrary to the intent of the Marijuana Business Ordinance, which is to prohibit new facilities beyond those already operating when the ordinance took effect.

After discussion of the legality of a grower barring legitimate required inspections, and whether state law allows banning all new medical marijuana growing businesses, the issue was postponed.

Mitnik reminded select board members that he is about to retire as Vassalboro’s codes officer, for the fourth time, passing on the job to Bob Geaghan.

Vassalboro will also have a new town manager in 2023, as Mary Sabins retires. Select board members signed papers appointing Aaron Miller to the position, and the other positions the manager holds, effective Jan. 3.

Select board holds first meeting with new manager

by Mary Grow

Aaron Miller

Vassalboro select board members held their first meeting with Aaron Miller, who succeeded Mary Sabins as town manager, on Jan. 5, with a short agenda.

Miller reported after the meeting that board members scheduled a public hearing for 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 19, in the town office meeting room. The hearing is to solicit public comments on allocating Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds, in preparation for considering amendments to the TIF Ordinance.

Vassalboro voters approved a TIF, a state-approved tax system, at the June 2014 annual town meeting. Taxes paid by Summit Natural Gas on its pipeline through the town along Route 201 (Riverside Drive) go into the municipal TIF fund, which can be used to make grants to projects that qualify under state law.

The grantees named in the original Vassalboro TIF were the Alewife Restoration Initiative (ARI), aimed at opening Outlet Stream to allow alewives access from the Sebasticook River to China Lake, and the expansion of the Vassalboro Sanitary District’s sewer lines to connect with Winslow.

Both projects received TIF funds, and both have been completed, so the ordinance needs to designate new fund recipients. TIF amendments require approval by town meeting voters and by state officials in the Department of Economic and Community Development.

Miller said board members directed him to prepare a request for proposals (RFP) for improvements to the town office entrance: better lighting, and a button that would open the doors, making access easier for handicapped visitors.

The ideas were submitted by town office staff as part of a list of proposals select board members reviewed at their Dec. 15, 2022, meeting.

Following up on their Dec. 22, 2022, discussion, Miller said, board members talked about amending the town’s Marijuana Business Ordinance, without coming to conclusions.

The manager said the next regular Vassalboro select board meeting will follow the Jan. 19 public hearing.

In other business, board members repealed the covid vaccination policy adopted at the beginning of the pandemic. Board member Chris French said he had always opposed it, because it applied only to employees in the town office; he thought all employees should have been included.

They agreed to a recreation committee request to sell a set of unneeded soccer goal posts, for $80. Program director Karen Hatch said there is one more set that is no longer useful to the town.

Resident Tom Richards started a discussion of ways to deter or punish people who litter roadsides, with select board members sympathetic but unsure what would work.

The next Vassalboro select board meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening, Jan. 5, 2023.

Couple looks to re-open corner store in East Vassalboro

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by Mary Grow

Tim and Heather Dutton want to reopen the former East Vassalboro Corner Store, beginning with pizza and sandwiches and adding local products (garden produce and crafts, for example) if business goes well.

Everyone who spoke at the Jan. 3 Vassalboro Planning Board meeting wanted them to reopen it, too, including those who wondered whether they could meet local ordinance requirements.

The principal problem that might make it impossible to grant a local permit is that the building is so close to Main Street (Route 32) on its east and Bog Road on its south that room for safe parking is extremely limited.

Neighbor Ben Gidney reminded board members of various traffic and parking issues before the previous store closed. But, he told the Duttons, “I’m all for your store.”

Tim Dutton said the edge of the Route 32 right of way, which extends 33 feet from the center line, is inside the building. He had consulted informally with Maine Department of Transportation engineer (and Vassalboro resident) David Allen about parking and related issues.

Dutton proposed three diagonal spaces along the front of the store. Gidney and board member Paul Mitnik objected. People parking in diagonal spaces would have to back out into Route 32 traffic, not the safest maneuver even in a 25-mile-an-hour zone; and their cars would block the view north as drivers came out of Bog Road.

Board member Douglas Phillips suggested two parallel parking spaces might fit.

Additional parking is available west of the store, off Bog Road, but planning board members needed more information about how much space Dutton, who is leasing the building, could use. He intends to have a loading dock for delivery vehicles in that area, he said.

Handicapped accessibility is another issue that could scuttle the proposal. Dutton told board members he could not see a way to make either of the present entrances meet Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements.

Gidney said the earlier store opened around 1949, before town land use ordinances, before the ADA and before traffic was as heavy and fast as it is now.

After almost an hour’s discussion, board chairman Virginia Brackett advised the Duttons what they need to do to make their application complete, including clarifying parts of the lease and, if possible, consulting officially with someone from the state Department of Transportation. The application was tabled until the additional information is presented.

Board members spent another hour and a half discussing the proposed additions to town ordinances that would govern future commercial solar projects.

They scheduled a special meeting for Tuesday, Jan. 17, again at 6:30 p.m. rather than their usual 7 p.m., to take public comment on the proposed ordinance. They expect the Jan. 17 meeting will result in a draft that can be submitted to the town attorney for review.

Brackett granted requests from Jerry Hill, representing the Main Street Maine coalition (neighbors of the proposed commercial solar farm on Main Street [Route 32] north of the Duratherm plant), and Holly Weidner, on behalf of the Conservation Commission, to get copies of the draft before the Jan. 17 meeting.

A major topic Jan. 3 was whether, and if so why, soil sampling should be required at any stage during a commercial solar farm’s operation or decommissioning. The principal argument in favor was that if a damaged panel leaked contaminants, town officials needed to know.

Counter-arguments questioned what, if anything, in the panels is dangerous if one did leak; how fast operators would replace a damaged panel; and what sort of sampling would be in the right place and for the right substance(s) to be informative.

The issue was left open.

Board members also discussed fire-fighting in or around a solar farm. They agreed the ordinance should require the Vassalboro fire chief’s approval of any plan.

There was consensus that the decommissioning scenario previously discussed – complete removal of everything connected with solar energy and restoration of the site to its pre-development condition – was unlikely. More likely would be piecemeal replacement as components reached the end of their useful lives.

Phillips thinks the ordinance should require operators to notify the town as outdated panels and other equipment are replaced.

Another topic still to be discussed, Phillips said, is what definitions need to be added to the current ordinance to apply to solar developments.

When agreement is reached on a near-final draft of the solar ordinance, board members will hold a public hearing, perhaps in February, to solicit residents’ comments and suggestions.

Voters will accept or reject the ordinance at Vassalboro’s June town meeting. The current tentative schedule is for an open meeting Monday evening, June 5, and written-ballot voting Tuesday, June 13.

Local residents named to Simmons Univ. dean’s list

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The following local students were named to the 2022 spring semester dean’s list at Simmons University, in Boston, Massachusetts:

Kaili Shorey, of Vassalboro, Abigail Bloom and Amanda Farrington, both of Waterville, and Maddie Beckwith, of Winslow.

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Christmas pre-20th century

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The Christmas holiday grew in popularity after the Civil War. Certainly, the message of peace and goodwill resonated with Americans who yearned for reconciliation and unity. (photo from the book, Christmas in the 19th Century, by Bev Scott)

by Mary Grow

This article is intended to complete the survey of pre-20th-century social activities in the central Kennebec Valley and, given the current date, to report on Christmas observances.

An organization omitted last week, but covered earlier in this series (see The Town Line issues of April 8 through May 13, 2021), was the Patrons of Husbandry, the farmers’ organization commonly called the Grange. All of the dozen towns and cities covered in this series had at least one Grange; according to the Maine State Grange website, Benton, Fairfield, Palermo and Vassalboro are among 98 Maine towns that still do.

The history of Waterville’s Grange is lost. Edwin Whittemore’s 1902 Waterville history said the Waterville Grange once existed, named three members and concluded, “It is long since defunct.”

The April 8, 2021, issue of The Town Line listed 19 local Granges, including three each in China and Vassalboro and two each in Albion, Augusta, Clinton and Palermo, founded between 1874 and about 1974.

While farming remained prominent, the Grange was a center of social activity, especially in smaller towns. Meetings provided education as well as entertainment, and several Granges had stores where they sold essentials, bought in bulk, to members at discount prices.

In addition to organizational activities, residents had other types of entertainment. Windsor historian Linwood Lowden mentioned minstrel shows, put on by different groups beginning in the 1860s.

He also cited a local diary: “On Monday night, March 29, 1886, the Weeks Mills Dramatic Club performed at Windsor Four Corners. The performance was followed by a ‘sociable.'”

On the west side of the Kennebec, historian Alice Hammond found an advertising poster for the Sidney Minstrels’ Grand Concert on Thursday, Aug. 18, 1898. The location is written in; the cursive script has faded to illegibility.

Vern Woodcock, Boston’s Favorite, had the largest headline; he was described as “the Celebrated Guitarist, and Beautiful Tenor Balladist, in his Comic and Sentimental Songs and Character Impersonations.” Also to perform were Happy Charlie Simonds (“the Merry Minstrel, the Prince of Ethiopian Comedians, and the Champion Clog Dancer of the World”) and other comics and musicians.

The Fairfield history added roller skating to 19th-century local recreational activities. Citing a journal written by a local businessman named S. H. Blackwell, the writers said the roller rink was on Lawrence Avenue, where the telephone company building was in 1988. People of all ages and groups from out of town came to skate.

The China Grange, in China Village.

The China bicentennial history includes a list of available spaces for social gatherings in three of the town’s four villages. In China Village in the early 1800s were “Mr. [Japheth C.] Washburn’s hall and General [Alfred] Marshall’s inn.”

Until the major fire in 1872, there was a three-story building in South China that prominent Quaker Rufus Jones described as a meeting place. Barzillai Harrington’s school building in China’s part of Branch Mills and “the meeting room over Coombs’ store” were available “in the last half of the nineteenth century.”

In Clinton, Kingsbury said, John P. Billings built Centennial Hall, on Church Street, in 1876, apparently as a public hall. He sold it to the Grange in 1890; in 1892, the Grangers used the ground floor and the second floor was “used for exhibition purposes.”

Milton Dowe wrote that Palermo’s “first known building for recreation” was on Amon Bradstreet’s farm, described as between Donald Brown’s land (in 1954) and Sheepscot Lake. Dances were held there until the hall and farm buildings burned about 1890.

In Branch Mills Village, Dowe said, the large hotel east of the Sheepscot and north of Main Street (where the Grange Hall now stands) had a dance hall on the second floor of the ell. Behind the hotel was a dance pavilion. Both were destroyed in the 1908 fire that leveled the entire downtown.

In her Vassalboro history, Alma Pierce Robbins mentioned that the big schoolhouse on Main Street, in North Vassalboro, was used for “‘benefit’ gatherings of many kinds” from the time it was built in 1873, though she gave no specifics before the 1960s.

Sometimes the weather – or a person’s mood – forbade socializing. Lowden’s history has a paragraph titled “B.T.V. (Before Television),” in which he talked about books people could read and reread during long evenings, based on inventories he reviewed.

Some families had no books, he wrote. If there was only one, it was a Bible.

A relatively well-off resident named Reuben Libby, who died around 1814, had four books plus a pamphlet (subject not given). The books were a Bible; a dictionary; Young Man’s Best Companion (also called The American Instructor, described on line as first published in 1792 and offering an easy way to teach spelling writing, reading and arithmetic); and a book described as a “selection” – Lowden did not know whether it was poetry or prose.

Benjamin Duren’s 1814 inventory listed a Bible and a dictionary, two geography books, an arithmetic book and two unnamed others.

A former sea captain’s 1831 inventory listed two nautical books, the American Coast Pilot (first published in 1796) and Bowditch’s American Practical Navigator (first published in 1802, though there were earlier versions from 1799), plus The Poets of Great Britain Complete from Chaucer to Churchill (the work is described by Wikipedia as 109 volumes, published by John Bell between 1777 and 1783; Lowden did not say whether the set was complete).

* * * * *

Christmas was not much of a holiday in the 19th century, according to the few local accounts your writer found.

In Lowden’s history of Windsor, he used diary entries from the 1870s and 1880s to support his claim that “Mostly it was a quiet day at home.”

The longest account is from the diary of Roger Reeves, a farmer and carpenter. In 1874, Lowden learned, Dec. 24 was a cloudy day with rain that turned to snow; nonetheless, Reeves traveled to Augusta and spent $1.50 on Christmas presents.

Christmas day Reeves “spent the day making picture frames in his shop, doing his regular chores, and otherwise busying himself about the place.” That evening, he joined people gathered around a Christmas tree at Tyler’s Hall to exchange presents, enjoy an “antiquarian supper,” sing and socialize.

(Albion historian Ruby Crosby Wiggin also came across such a supper, though it was planned at a Feb. 8, 1878, Grange meeting, not associated with Christmas, and was in the meeting report spelled “antignarian” – to Wiggins’ delight.

Wiggin consulted her Webster’s dictionary and found that “gnar” meant [and still means, though the web offers additional meanings] “to snarl.” “Anti” means against; so she concluded approvingly that “antignarian” had to mean “not snarling but friendly or smiling.”)

Orren Choate (June 20, 1868-1948), another Windsor diarist, spent Christmas 1885 “at home with his parents,” identified on line as Abram and Adeline (Moody) Choate. They had company in the afternoon.

Christmas evening, Choate skipped a Christmas dance in South Windsor because he didn’t want to drive that far in the cold. Instead, he and his father spent the evening playing cards at the home of his father’s younger brother, Ira Choate.

In Vassalboro, one of the women’s clubs Alma Pierce Robbins mentioned in her town history was the Christmas Club on Webber Pond Road, “where the women met for sociability and sewing for Christmas.” These meetings were held all year at members’ houses, she said; but she gave no indication of when the club was founded or how long it lasted.

Another source of Christmas information was Revolutionary War veteran and Augusta civic leader Henry Sewall’s diary, as excerpted in Charles Nash’s Augusta history for the years 1830 to 1843.

Sewall was a Congregationalist who attended church regularly. He often participated in religious exercises on other days, like the four-day meeting in May 1831 that began daily with a 5:30 a.m. prayer meeting and ended around 9 p.m. after the evening lecture.

Nash was selective in his choice of entries. Between 1830 and 1843, he included only seven Dec. 25 entries (of 14).

Sewall’s 1830 diary entry for Dec. 25 identified the day as Christmas and reported on the warm rain that broke up the ice in the Kennebec. Dec. 25, 1834, had another weather report; the temperature was eight below that Christmas.

In 1832 Dec. 25 was a Tuesday (according to on-line sources). Sewall called the day Christmas and wrote that he listened to Rev. Mr. Shepherd’s “discourse” proving the divinity of Christ.

Four of the entries strike an odd note, and are not explained in Nash’s book. On Dec. 25, 1838, and again in 1839, Sewall wrote merely, “Christmas (so-called).” He expanded on the theme in 1841, writing, “Christmas, so-called, which was employed here in consecrating St. Mark’s church, for their future worship.”

(St. Mark’s Episcopal congregation organized in 1840; Wikipedia says the first church was a wooden building just north of the present Lithgow Library. James North wrote in his Augusta history that the cornerstone was laid July 4, 1841, and the building was first used for worship that Christmas. Construction cost was $6,248; the church was 46 by 85 feet with a 110-foot tall “tower and spire.”)

On Dec. 25, 1843, Sewall, who had noted that he turned 91 on Nov. 24 (and on Nov. 28 recorded that he had finished “sawing a cord of wood, with my own hands”) wrote: “Christmas, as held by Episcopalians, is a misnomer.”

North, in a biographical sketch, commented that Sewall was “pious and rigidly orthodox in his religious views. Towards the close of his life his religious rigor was much softened.”

Main sources

Dowe, Milton E., History Town of Palermo Incorporated 1884 (1954).
Fairfield Historical Society Fairfield, Maine 1788-1988 (1988).
Grow, Mary M., China Maine Bicentennial History including 1984 revisions (1984.)
Hammond, Alice, History of Sidney Maine 1792-1992 (1992).
Kingsbury, Henry D., ed., Illustrated History of Kennebec County Maine 1625-1892 (1892).
Lowden, Linwood H., good Land & fine Contrey but Poor roads a history of Windsor, Maine (1993).
Nash, Charles Elventon, The History of Augusta (1904).
North, James W., The History of Augusta (1870).
Robbins, Alma Pierce, History of Vassalborough Maine 1771 1971 n.d. (1971).
Wiggin, Ruby Crosby, Albion on the Narrow Gauge (1964).

Websites, miscellaneous.

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

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by Mary Grow

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

The list of applicants on the agenda is as follows:

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

Erskine Academy announces national merit scholarship student

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Malachi Lowery

Erskine Academy has announced that Malachi Lowery, son of Holly Hilton, of Vassalboro, has been named a Commended Student in the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program. Lowery is among approximately 34,000 Commended Students throughout the nation who are being recognized for their exceptional academic promise.

Although Lowery will not continue in the 2023 competition for National Merit Scholarships, Commended Students placed among the top 50,000 scorers of more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2023 competition by taking the 2021 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

Commended students receive a Letter of Commendation from their school and the National Merit Scholarship Program in recognition of this honor.

Vassalboro 2022 Light up the Town contest winners

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Congratulations to all who participated in the Vassalboro Business Association’s annual “Light Up the Town” contest!

The winners are:

Laura Jones, at 943 Bog Rd., #1 Best in Town – $200;
Teresa Jerolman/Dan Poulin, at 1321 Cross Hill Rd., #2 Best in Town – $150;
Stephen/Linnea Holmeister, at 18 Lang St., #3 Best in Town – $100.
Mike/Tracy McKenney, 120 Hannaford Hill Rd., #1 Most Creative – $200;
Kat/Kevin Eastman, at 731 Main St., #2 Most Creative – $150;
Rachel/Nick Jacobs, at 113 Priest Hill Rd., #3 Most Creative – $100.

VASSALBORO: Medical marijuana growing business gets approval

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by Mary Grow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

VASSALBORO: Process begins for new town manager

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by Mary Grow

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

Aaron Miller

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In other business Dec. 8:

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

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

Vassalboro selects new town manager

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Aaron Miller

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

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

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

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