Vassalboro selectmen’s meeting canceled
by Mary Grow
Due to a lack of agenda items, the Vassalboro selectmen’s meeting scheduled for Thursday evening, May 27, has been canceled.
Extra help available for students at Vassalboro Community School
Vassalboro Community School (contributed photo)
by Mary Grow
Vassalboro School staff and officials are offering extra help to students who need to make up for parts of subjects they missed because of Covid-19.
Projects and plans discussed at the May 18 Vassalboro School Board meeting included on-going after-school classes, planned summer school in August and teachers’ extra preparation for the 2021-22 school year.
Vassalboro Community School Principal Megan Allen said the after-school academic support program, led by different staff members on different days, is “kind of like the homework club” VCS used to offer. Students who stay get help with things they’re stuck on, a snack and a ride home. On May 18, 18 students had attended, she said.
Viking Summer Camp is scheduled for the first two weeks in August, to offer both remedial study to cover “gaps that were inevitable” and enrichment. Half a dozen staff will lead; students will get two meals and transportation.
Teachers plan extra time this spring and before school reopens in the fall to review the past year and plan ways to make sure every student can master material that should have been covered and move well-prepared into the next grade’s curriculum.
Allen is also scheduling a staff barbecue “to end the year on a positive note to let us get set up for next year.”
The rest of the school board’s business included review of the current year’s budget, continuing review of school policies, approval of promotions and acceptance of resignations. Finance Director Paula Pooler said the budget picture would be clearer after she made final tuition payments the following week.
Resolving a problem that was troubling Assistant Principal Greg Hughes at last month’s meeting, sixth/seventh-grade science teacher Taraysa Noyes was appointed baseball coach.
Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer reminded those present that Vassalboro’s annual town meeting, at which voters approve or amend the 2021-22 school budget, is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday, June 7, in the VCS gymnasium. On Tuesday, June 8, voters will approve or reject the June 7 budget decision by written vote, with polls open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the town office.
Because of the unusual number of ticks this spring, Vassalboro school grounds will be sprayed, Pfeiffer said. The brown-tail moth caterpillars in the trees cannot be sprayed, however, because getting rid of them would require aerial spray too close to the VCS building.
The next Vassalboro School Board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 15.
PHOTO: Vassalboro Black T-Ball team
The Vassalboro Black T-Ball team members, Front row, left to right, Mason Hardy, Ava Fiser and Madelyne Hanson, Back, Coach Justin Hardy, Lance Curtis, Abby Marden and Colton Fletcher. (photo by Missy Brown, Central Maine Photography)
Vassalboro town meeting set for June 7-8
by Mary Grow
Vassalboro’s annual town meeting will be held Monday, June 7, and Tuesday, June 8. The town meeting warrant and related information are posted in the center column of the town website, www.vassalboro.net.
The open meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Vassalboro Community School gymnasium. After voters complete Art. 37 (the final item in the 2021-22 school budget), the moderator will recess the meeting until 8 a.m. Tuesday, when polls open at the town office for written-ballot voting on Articles 38 through 41. Polls close at 8 p.m.
For the open meeting, Town Manager Mary Sabins intends to divide the gymnasium by a solid curtain to conform to Covid-19 gathering limits. Rules for masking, social distancing and similar protective measures will be established as recommended by state authorities at the time.
For Tuesday’s written-ballot voting, Town Clerk Cathy Coyne recommends voters request and return absentee ballots, to minimize lines at the polls. The deadline for obtaining an absentee ballot is Thursday, June 3 (five days before the election); ballots must be returned before polls close at 8 p.m. June 8. Requests can be made in person, by telephone or by email.
The questions to be decided at the polls June 8 are as follows:
- Approval or rejection of the new “Town of Vassalboro Marijuana Business Ordinance,” which prohibits new marijuana businesses in town and regulates recreational and medical marijuana facilities and businesses that existed before the ordinance’s Feb. 18, 2021, effective date;
- Approval or rejection of the 2021-22 school budget approved the previous evening (the “school budget validation referendum”);
- Continuation of the school budget validation referendum for three more years, or discontinuance; and
- Local elections for three-year terms on the selectboard and school board. The only candidates on the ballot are Christopher French, to succeed John Melrose on the selectboard, and Jolene Clark Gamage, for re-election to the school board. As of May 24, neither Coyne nor Sabins was aware of any write-in candidate for either board.
The marijuana ordinance is on the website, well down in the center column.
The articles to be voted the evening of June 7 begin, as usual, with election of a moderator. Voters will next elect five budget committee members for two years; those whose terms expire in 2021 are Donald Breton, William Browne, Christopher French, Phillip Landry and Peggy Schaffer.
Art. 5 combines 14 spending categories that make up town services, including administration, public works, road paving, solid waste disposal, police and fire and others, for a total of more than $2.2 million.
Art. 6 asks voters to spend $293,500 for four purposes: $187,000 for the new culvert on Gray Road; $85,000 to add to the transfer station reserve account; $17,500 for a new furnace in the North Vassalboro fire station; and $4,000 toward restoring the Civil War statute in Memorial Park in East Vassalboro.
In Art. 10, selectmen ask permission to spend up to $230,000 for a new public works truck, with plow and sander. They plan to pay for it with $122,000 from the public works truck reserve and $108,000 from 2021-22 local taxes. They also want permission to sell a similarly-equipped 2009 truck.
Art. 11 asks approval to use up to $156,000 from the transfer station reserve fund to “provide up to two operational trash compactors” – there is now only one – and make other improvements. The reserve account will have approximately $156,000 in it only if voters approve Art. 6 adding $85,000, Sabins said. If Art. 6, or that part of it, is not approved, the transfer station appropriation in Art. 11 will need to be reduced.
Many municipal articles are familiar, like authorizing selectmen to apply for and accept grants (Art. 9) and to continue the annual alewife harvest (Art. 16); funding the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) program (Art. 17); and allowing selectmen to “dispose of” tax-acquired real estate (Art. 8) and town-owned property valued at $10,000 or less (Art. 18).
Art. 13 specifically requests approval to accept American Rescue Plan money from the federal and state governments.
In Art. 19, the selectmen request their annual $15,000 contingency fund to be taken from the town’s surplus account if needed “in the event of an emergency and to avoid overdrafts.” Article 20 has a list of 10 private agencies to which voters are asked to contribute.
The school budget is set forth in Articles 23 through 37. The total requested expenditure in Art. 36 is $8,313,609.72. It includes the state-required town contribution of $2,573,425 (Art. 34) and another $1,227,703.79 in additional local funds (Art. 35). The remainder is covered in Art. 37, which asks voters to authorize the school board to spend money received from “federal or state grants or programs or other sources.”
Vassalboro selectmen recommend that voters approve all articles. The budget committee recommends approval of all proposed expenditures. As of mid-May, Town Manager Sabins was projecting a property tax increase of barely over one percent if voters approved all expenditures.
Vassalboro library, town-sponsored rec coordination gets conditional interest
by Mary Grow
At their May 13 meeting, Vassalboro selectmen talked about coordinating Vassalboro’s town-sponsored recreation program with the Vassalboro Public Library, with library Director Brian Stanley expressing conditional interest.
The recreation program, which focuses mainly but not entirely on organizing use of the town ballfields in East Vassalboro, is run by a director, who receives a modest stipend, and a committee. Leadership changes often – not surprising, selectmen said, because as children age out of the program, their parents also move on.
John Melrose, chairman of the selectboard, said the president and treasurer of the library’s board of trustees are willing to explore options. No commitments have been made, and Melrose, who will leave the selectboard after June 8 local elections, is handing the issue to the next board.
Barring unexpected events, that board’s members will be incumbents Robert Browne and Barbara Redmond and Christopher J. French. French is the only candidate for selectman on the June 8 local ballot.
Selectmen reached no conclusion on another issue, where (if anywhere) to hold fireworks in September as part of Vassalboro’s 250th anniversary celebration. Possibilities they discussed included a town-funded display, somewhere, or a contest among private displays.
Yet another undecided issue was how Vassalboro can spend federal funds allocated to the town, or its share of the Kennebec County allocation. Town Manager Mary Sabins said only specific purposes are eligible, and she is not sure Vassalboro can meet any of the criteria.
For example, money could be used to “make whole” businesses damaged by the pandemic, if a Vassalboro business can show damage. Expansion of broadband service or water or sewer systems are also possibilities, but with limitations.
Addressing his fellow board members, Melrose said, “You guys have an unusual problem. You’re going to receive $435,000, and you need to figure out if there’s anything you can spend it for.”
Selectmen did make a decision on one agenda item: they should try to develop a new town ordinance to govern mass gatherings, like the requested music festival in July 2022 that Sabins told them about at their April 29 meeting (see The Town Line, May 6, 2021, p. 8).
Town Attorney Kristin Collins had provided a copy of Readfield’s ordinance as a guide. Redmond volunteered to work with Sabins and Collins to adjust it to Vassalboro.
In other business, Melrose thanked Road Commissioner Eugene Field and the public works crew for installing a dock off Monument Park, in East Vassalboro. Sabins said East Vassalboro resident Holly Wiedner, who asked for a safe place for fishing, called the town office to express her appreciation.
Sabins said School Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer will work to find money in the school budget to help the town pay for the generator that will make the school usable as an emergency shelter. The sole bid for installing the generator, accepted by selectmen at the April 29 meeting, was over $6,000 more than available funds.
Board members agreed the town auditor should be invited to the June 10 selectmen’s meeting to review the audit for the year ended June 30, 2020. Melrose proposed the presentation, on principle, not because he saw any problem, he said.
The next two regular Vassalboro selectmen’s meetings are scheduled for 6:30 p.m., May 27 and June 10, in person at the town office.
The annual town meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m., Monday, June 7, in person, at Vassalboro Community School, with decisions on Articles 1 (election of a moderator) through 37 (the final school budget article). The meeting continues at 8 a.m. Tuesday, June 8, with written-ballot voting on Articles 38 through 41. Polls close at 8 p.m.
The warrant for the June 7 and 8 town meeting is on the Town of Vassalboro website, www.vassalboro.net, after several other items in the center column, under the heading “Town Meeting and Election Information.”
VASSALBORO: Two solar farm requests to fill June planners’ agenda
by Mary Grow
Vassalboro Planning Board members ended up with a single application to review at their May 4 meeting. The previous week, Board Chairman Virginia Brackett reported that Sebago Technics had postponed continued review of their application for a solar farm off Cemetery Street.
Brackett said she did not know why Sebago representatives were not ready to appear May 4. Their application is tentatively scheduled for the June planning board meeting.
New (and returning) Codes Officer Richard Dolby expects Sunvest Solar might also be ready for a June 1 presentation on their project on Webber Pond Road. Board members agreed two solar farm applications would fill up the June agenda.
The application reviewed and approved at the May 4 meeting was from Renee Zohar Fischman and Mathew Williams, to reopen the marijuana grow facility in an existing building at 1776 North Belfast Avenue (Route 3).
Action was delayed repeatedly. First, board members had trouble finding copies of the application Fischman and Williams had given previous Codes Officer Paul Mitnik before he retired at the end of April. After Fischman sent the documents, there was another pause as Brackett tried to determine whether anyone was viewing the virtual meeting and wanted to make comments.
“This meeting is going well,” Brackett remarked as board members waited for an answer from the meeting facilitator, David Trask, Vassalboro Community School’s Technology Systems Administrator.
Fischman said she has owned the Route 3 property since September, and she and Williams have been licensed medical marijuana caregivers since January. They intend to abide by state regulations as well as town ordinances.
Board members agreed the application to resume the operation was in order, because it had been closed for less than a year. Once they had necessary documents, they found the project meets all criteria in Vassalboro’s ordinance, and approved it unanimously with three conditions:
- Fischman and Williams will maintain an adequate odor mitigation system to meet the tenth criterion in the ordinance, which requires the operation not to “adversely affect the use and enjoyment of abutting property as a result of noise, vibrations, fumes, odor, dust, glare, or other cause.”
- They will send Dolby copies of their state caregiver licenses for town records.
- The board approval applies only to the marijuana grow facility and does not include the adjoining lot, on which Fischman and Williams plan a modular home and new septic system. For those, they will need appropriate permits from Dolby.
Fischman and Williams plan no changes to the building exterior, access driveways, landscaping or other external factors except addition of motion-activated security cameras and lights on the building. The lights will be down-facing and should not interfere with neighbors or traffic on North Belfast Road or Whitehouse Road, Williams said.
Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Granges – Part 5
The curtain on the stage of the Windsor Grange. (contributed photo)
North Vassalboro, Cushnoc, Windsor, Winslow
by Mary Grow
In addition to the East Vassalboro Grange discussed last week, Vassalboro had two other Grange organizations. According to Henry Kingsbury’s Kennebec County history, the earliest of the three was Oak Grove Grange #167, organized in North Vassalboro on May 11, 1875.
In 1883, Alma Pierce Robbins wrote, Oak Grove Grange was “reorganized” at Getchell’s Corner, then an important village. Kingsbury located the Getchell’s Corner Grange Hall a little south of the Congregational Chapel.
Oak Grove Grangers opened a store in 1889, Kingsbury wrote; Robbins said Isaiah Gifford was store manager.
It is possible that Oak Grove Grange was discontinued before or about 1900. It is not listed in available on-line state Grange documents from 1902.
In the south end of town, 39 charter members organized Cushnoc Grange #204 at Riverside (occasionally called Riverside Grange) on Jan. 13, 1876. Kingsbury wrote there were 115 members in 1892; on-line records show 130 members in 1902, but Robbins said there were 150.
Kingsbury wrote that Cushnoc Grange members built their hall in 1879, naming it Liberty Hall. It burned in May 1885.
In 1886, Robbins wrote, Howard H. Snell and Hartwell Getchell, “Directors of the Cushnoc Grange Corporation,” paid James Robbins $175.74 for the building that had been a broom factory, a multi-family tenement, the post office (until 1856) and Benjamin Brown’s store. The building stood on a half-acre lot on the east side of “the County Road from Augusta to Vassalboro” and the north side of Cross Hill Road.
Robbins wrote that the deed of sale gave the new Grange Hall the “the right to take water from two wells described in the deed of Malina S. Kimball to Nathan Coombs.”
Grangers enlarged the building and, Kingsbury wrote, opened a store on the ground floor in August 1887. Robbins quoted a source describing a store-keeper in business in the Grange Hall from about 1884 until 1905. At some point the former schoolhouse “across the road” was moved beside the Grange Hall for a horse shed.
A Friday, Jan. 19, 1894, Kennebec Journal article found on line describes the Wednesday, Jan. 17, installation of Cushnoc Grange’s new officers (not named), attended by representatives of the state Grange.
After the installation, attendees “repaired to the large dining room connected with the grange hall where a bounteous array of good things had been provided by the ladies of the grange and which received ample justice at the hands of all.”
The writer of the article concluded that in 1894, Cushnoc Grange “has one of the finest grange halls in the State, is prosperous and best of all deserves to be.”
For some years around 1900, Robbins wrote in a 1974 essay republished in the 2017 Anthology of Vassalboro Tales, Cushnoc Grange and Riverside Church each put on a Christmas celebration. In bad weather, she commented, “the long cold drive to the Grange Hall with horse and pung was more hazard than happy,” especially for families with small children. (A pung is a small, box-like sleigh drawn by a single horse.)
Cushnoc Grange hosted fairs with livestock, farm produce and handiwork; oyster stew suppers; and baked bean dinners where neighbors shared “great jars of home made pickles and dozens of apple pies.” The Grange folded in 1967, Robbins wrote. Possessions included “dishes to serve more than one hundred” that were given to Riverside Church. The hall was demolished and a house built on the lot.
The University of Maine’s Raymond H. Fogler Library’s special collections has boxes of Grange documents. According to the on-line catalog, contents include Cushnoc Grange secretary’s records from 1876 to 1914 and from 1926 to 1966.
Moving to another town south and east, Windsor Grange #284 was organized June 2, 1886. Kingsbury lists the first Grange Masters, until he completed his Kennebec County history in 1892, as C. F. Donnell (1886), Frank Colburn (1888), George R. Pierce (1890) and John H. Barton (1891).
Colburn and Barton received individual mention in Kingsbury’s history. Frank Colburn was a “farmer and school teacher”; he started teaching winters when he was 18, and was Windsor’s supervisor of schools in 1888 and 1889.
Barton was the great-grandson of Dr. Stephen Barton, who came to Vassalboro in 1774 and moved to Windsor in 1803 to join one of his sons there. John Barton was another schoolteacher; he married Ellen Goddard, of China. Their daughter was a teacher, and their son, who died in 1890 at the age of 27, had headed the commercial department at Kents Hill School.
Windsor Grange had 105 members in 1902, according to Maine State Grange records. Records at the Fogler Library are dated from 1888 to 1995.
Although Linwood Lowden’s Windsor history refers to agriculture in its title, good Land & fine Contrey but poor Roads, he gives the Grange a single paragraph. The Grange “has always rented space in the town hall,” he wrote, paying $125 for the year in 1923, “when the present hall was new.” Another $30 a year went for “space in the G. A. R. Hall.”
Like many other local Granges, Windsor Grange used a large meeting room with a stage, and the stage had a handsomely decorated curtain. Barbara Bailey, from Fairfield Center’s Victor Grange, said when the Windsor town office took over the Grange quarters, the stage curtain was refurbished and remains in the town office.
Winslow, north and west of Windsor, had a 19th-century Grange organization, Winslow Grange #320, which left almost no records to which this writer has access. According to lists of documents stored at the Fogler Library, the collection includes secretary’s records from 1894 to 1972; the earliest account books that have been preserved there date from 1896.
In 1902 Kennebec County Deputy M. F. Norcross of the state Grange wrote that Winslow Grangers “built the fine hall this year, which shows that they are prosperous and progressive.” At that time the Grange had 221 members.
Readers looking for more information on Winslow Grange might try to reach the Winslow Historical Preservation Committee, the town committee that succeeded Winslow Historical Society. The committee’s website is https://winslowhistory.weebly.com, and it has a Facebook page.
A second Grange in Winslow, Progressive Grange #523, was chartered as a Maine non-profit corporation on Oct, 2, 1914. Clyde G. Berry, at 5 Mar Val Terrace, was listed as the corporation’s registered agent.
MaineCorporations records on line skip from the 1914 filing to July 3, 1979, when a registered agent and address (not given) were filed. In 1981, the organization was sent a notice for failing to file its annual report.
The next record is dated March 22, 1991, when a change of agent and office were submitted. Annual reports were filed in March from 1993 through 2002; after a change of agent in 2002, the filing date moved to April and in 2007 to May.
In March 2009 a report was filed by a new agent and the corporation was reinstated, after having failed to file a 2008 report. In September 2010 it was again dissolved for another failure; a new agent got it reinstated in December 2010.
He (or she) was equally lax, however, because Progressive Grange was administratively dissolved in August 2011, reinstated in 2012, and dissolved for the final time in August 2013.
Clyde G. Berry was also the first agent for Pleiades Grange #355, organized in Augusta on August 28, 1987. Berry’s address was then given as an Augusta post office box.
Pleiades Grange went through a series of suspensions and reinstatements until it was suspended for good in July 1999.
Clyde G. Berry
Clyde “Sonny” G. Berry (Dec. 28, 1946 – May 5, 2018) lived an interesting and varied life, according to his obituary that ran in at least two Maine newspapers.
He was born in Glenburn, attended Bangor High School, graduated from Higgins Classical Institute (a boarding school in Charleston) and attended Husson College and the University of Maine. The obituary says he “worked for several banks before his retirement.”
The Grange was important in Berry’s life. In 1961 he joined Glenburn’s Pleaides Grange, of which he was Master for some years. He later joined and held offices in Mt. Phillip Grange, in Rome. He held offices in three Pomona (county) granges, Penobscot, Sagadahoc and Lincoln.
In the Maine State Grange, Berry was on the Youth Committee, and was Lecturer from 1981 to 1987, Overseer from 1987 to 1989 and Master from 1989 to 1997. Later, he was elected Chaplain in 2011 and Assistant Steward in 2015.
In the national Grange, Berry was a member of the Assembly of Demeter, held the positions of Steward in 1991 and Lecturer in 1997 and worked for the organization as program resource director.
At some time he lived in Vermont, where the obituary says “he was a charter member and Past Master of Upper Valley Community Grange and a charter member and First master of Heart of Vermont Pomona.” He was also a trustee of the village library in Hartford, Vermont, and a “lister” for the town.
In addition to Grange activities, Berry held memberships and offices in historical societies in Hartford, Vermont, and Somerville, Maine; genealogical societies; the Maine Old Cemetery Association; Civil War veterans’ groups; and Sons of the American Revolution.
He served a term on the Glenburn School Board and was for “many years” on the Cemetery Committee; and he co-chaired the 1972 sesquicentennial celebration and co-authored the 1972 sesquicentennial town history.
He died in Bangor at the age of 71, is buried in Glenburn and requested memorial donations to Taconnett Falls Genealogical Society in Winslow.
Main sources
Bernhardt, Esther, and Vicki Schad, compilers/editors, Anthology of Vassalboro Tales (2017).
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).
Robbins, Alma Pierce, History of Vassalborough Maine 1771 1971 n.d. (1971).
Websites, miscellaneous.
VASSALBORO: No comments during marijuana ordinance hearing
Probably the shortest in town history
by Mary Grow
A dozen residents attended the Vassalboro selectmen’s April 29 public hearing and board meeting, but not to talk about the proposed “Town of Vassalboro Marijuana Business Ordinance” that was the hearing topic.
Selectboard Chairman John Melrose opened the hearing and asked for audience questions and comments. After less than half a minute with no reactions at all, he closed the hearing, making it probably the shortest on record in the town.
Voters will accept or reject the ordinance by written ballot on June 8. It is posted on the town website, in the central section.
Later, it appeared that some of the residents wanted to talk about whether John Green, who now owns Tom’s Rubbish Removal, should have a key to the transfer station. On two occasions during the winter Green was unable to dump a load of trash.
Selectmen were reluctant to give a private hauler a key to the facility, citing town liability should anything go wrong. Town Manager Mary Sabins said Green and Transfer Station Manager George Hamar have been talking, and she thinks they have resolved the issue.
Another topic of interest to some in the audience was awarding the bid to install a Kohler 250-watt diesel generator at Vassalboro Community School so the school can serve as an emergency shelter.
Sabins reported only one bid was received, from Generators of Maine, in Belgrade, for $121,250, including complete installation work. The price was $6,250 higher than the town had accumulated grant and other monies to cover.
Selectmen voted unanimously to accept the bid, planning to take the extra money from savings in other departments or from the $15,000 contingency fund voters approved at the 2020 annual town meeting.
“This is something we have to have,” said Robert Browne, known as the most conservative money person on the board.
Sabins said the Red Cross has approved the school as an emergency center. In the future, Red Cross and Kennebec County Emergency Management Agency personnel will train local volunteers to run it.
Dan MacKenzie, vice-president of Generators of Maine, wrote on the bid form that the company could start work within 154 days of the award and would try to have the generator installed by Oct. 31. However, he wrote, Covid is delaying deliveries, so he cannot guarantee the date.
Selectmen signed the warrant for Vassalboro’s June 7 and 8 annual town meeting. Board Chairman John Melrose said the Kennebec County budget has increased, mostly because of staff expansion, and Vassalboro’s share has risen by 5.6 percent. Sabins said the amount in the town meeting warrant (Art. 21), $383,911, matches the planned increase.
In response to a query from resident Tom Richards, Melrose said the state Department of Transportation has postponed plans for extensive work on Route 32, which runs from China to Winslow through the villages of East and North Vassalboro. DOT hopes to find money to repave a short section in North Vassalboro, from about the post office to about the Baptist Church.
Melrose, who is a former state Commissioner of Transportation, predicted the planned “maintenance mulch” on several other roads in town “won’t last long.”
Sabins said she had a request from an event promoter who wants to stage a July 2022 music festival featuring Waylon Albright “Shooter” Jennings, son of country music stars Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, and Coleman “IV” Williams, Hank Williams’ great-grandson. Vassalboro has no ordinance to regulate such gatherings; selectmen decided they and probably the planning board need to discuss creating one.
The next Vassalboro selectmen’s meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 13, in person in the town office meeting room.
Vassalboro holds 250th anniversary commemoration and Civil War monument re-dedication
Featured speakers, from left, Selectboard chairman John Melrose, local historian Lauchlin Titus, and Vassalboro Historical Society President Janice Clowes. (photos by Eric W. Austin)
by Eric W. Austin
On a blustery Monday morning, April 26, around 50 people gathered in Vassalboro’s Monument Park to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the town’s founding and rededication of its Civil War memorial.
The event was organized and emceed by John Melrose, chairman of the Vassalboro selectboard.
“On behalf of the Vassalboro selectboard,” Melrose said to open the ceremony, “I join you today in commemorating the 250th anniversary of our town, as we also recognize three years of work at Monument Park to celebrate this event.”
There have been numerous improvements made to the park over the past several years, including a clean-up along the shoreline, installation of paving stones surrounding the Civil War memorial, the planting of trees, decorative bushes and other landscaping improvements, and a newly-installed granite plaque dedicating the park for the town’s 250th anniversary.
Vassalboro Boy Scout Troop #410 led the gathering by presenting the colors and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. (photo by Eric W. Austin)
Vassalboro Boy Scout troop #410 then performed a presentation of the flags and led the gathered group in a recital of the Pledge of Allegiance.
After a prayer and invocation from American Legion chaplain Pearley Lachance, the first presentation of the morning was given by Patsy Crockett, president of the Kennebec Historical Society and member of the Kennebec County Commissioners. She stated, in part, “April 26, 1771 is the date that the Massachusetts’ colonial government incorporated four area communities as municipalities: the city of Hallowell, the towns of Vassalboro, Winslow and Winthrop. They remained part of Massachusetts until Maine achieved statehood in 1820.”
Crockett continued: “Beyond sharing the same date of incorporation, the four communities have at least one other thing in common: they all originally covered a larger territory than they do today. In fact, combined, they occupied nearly half of what is now Kennebec County.”
Vassalboro was named after the Vassal family, she said, and was originally spelled “Vassalborough,” although the shorter version of the name became standard by 1818.
In 1845, the town voted to prevent the “immoral and unlicensed” sale of liquor. By 1860, the town had a population of 3,180 and in 1893 there were recorded 21 births, 32 deaths and 22 marriages.
At the end of her speech, Patsy Crockett presented the town’s selectboard with a resolution from the Kennebec County Commissioners in recognition of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the town of Vassalboro.
The next presenter was Janice Clowes, president of the Vassalboro Historical Society, who spoke about the history of the site. In part, she said, “Today we stand in Monument Park, a focal point for our community. For hundreds of years, this site and its immediate surroundings was a meeting place for those who inhabited what became Vassalboro. From our exhibits at the Vassalboro Historical Society you can come to realize how important this land at the outlet of China Lake was to the Native Americans. Later, with colonization, we know of the importance of the alewife runs at this location and downstream and how the stream powered our development in commercial enterprises.”
Lauchlin Titus, a local historian who has also served on Vassalboro’s school board, budget committee and on the selectboard, was the last presenter of the morning. He spoke about the history of the names that are listed on the Civil War memorial. Much of his talk was included in a front page article he authored that was published in The Town Line issue for April 22, 2021.
Repairs are also planned for the Civil War statue. “It was commissioned in 1905 and dedicated in 1907,” Janice Clowes explained. “[Based on] design number 407, ‘Parade Rest,’ [it] was carved by William Tregembo, of Hallowell, for the sum of $1,275, with $300 as a deposit and the remainder when the monument was completed. The base of the monument is made from Hallowell granite, while the soldier is made of Westerly granite from Rhode Island. As you may know, plans are underway to have the nose and two places on the cape repaired. The additional repair to the rifle is estimated to be more than $20,000, therefore only the other repairs will be completed.”
A video stream of the event, uploaded by David Trask, is available on Youtube at the following link: https://youtu.be/7MpFPMCFcBg.
Vassalboro Community School honor roll
Vassalboro Community School (contributed photo)
GRADE 3
High honors: Aliyah Anthony, Zander Austin, Xainte Cloutier, Twila Cloutier, Dekan Dumont, Mariah Estabrook, Riley Fletcher, Camden Foster, Sarina LaCroix, Jade Lopez, Cassidy Rumba and CameronWillett.
Honors: Sophia Brazier, Samantha Carter, Grace Clark, Kaylee Colfer, Samantha Craig, Wyatt Devoe, Dawson Frazer, Peter Giampietro, Aubrey Gofroth, Lucian Kinrade, Landon Lagasse, Addison Neagle, Austin Pease, Olivia Perry, Juliahna Rocque, Isaiah Smith, Bryce Sounier and Haven Trainor. Honorable mention:m Lukas Blais, Chanse Hartford, Isaac Leonard, Arianna Muzerolle, Kaylee Pease and Elliott Rafuse.
GRADE 4
High honors: Emily Clark, Keegan Clark, Basil Dillaway, Fury Frappier, Baylee Fuchswanz, Allyson Gilman, Lillyana Krastev, Kaitlyn Lavallee, Cheyenne Lizzotte, Elizabeth Longfellow, Mia McLean, Elliot McQuarrie, Agatha Meyer, Randel Phillips and Grace Tobey.
Honors: Caylie Buotte, Kaleb Charlebois, Ariyah Doyen, Gabriella Duarte, Isadora Duarte, Zoe Gaffney, Jack LaPierre, Mackenzy Monroe, Emma Robbins and Ava Woods. Honorable mention: Mason Brewer, Harlen Fortin, Kaylee Moulton, Weston Pappas and Naseem Umar.
GRADE 5
High honors: Benjamin Allen, Tristyn Brown, Dylan Dodge, Jasmine Garey, Drew Lindquist, Caleb Marden Paige Perry, Brooke Reny, Judson Smith, Alana Wade, and Reid Willett.
Honors: Logan Cimino, Jennah Dumont, Ryleigh French, Drake Goodie, Cooper Lajoie, Brandon Neagle, Ryder Neptune-Reny, Trinity Pooler, Abigail Prickett, Landon Sullivan, Leigha Sullivan, Jannah Tobey and William Traynor. Honorable mention: Grayson Atwood, Zoey DeMerchant, Zachary Kinrade, Katherine Maxwell and Jade Travers.
GRADE 6
High honors: Sophie Day, Ryley Desmond, Madison Field, Adalyn Glidden, Bailey Goforth and Bryson Stratton.
Honors: Madison Burns, Emma Charleson, Eilah Dillaway, Wyatt Ellis, Kylie Grant, Olivia Leonard, Jack Malcolm, Josslyn Ouellette, Mackenzie Oxley, Natalie Rancourt and Taiya Rankins. Honorable mention: Tyler Clark, Tallulah Cloutier,
Colby Frith, and Caspar Hooper
GRADE 7
High honors: Emily Almeida, Jacob Lavallee, Ava Lemelin, Mylee Petela and Hannah Polley.
Honors: Quinn Coull, Madison Estabrook, Aiden Hamlin, Taylor Neptune and Leahna Rocque. Honorable mention: Saunders Chase, Mason Decker, Lilian Piecewicz and Addison Witham.
GRADE 8
High honors: Brooke Blais, Sofia Derosby, Allison Dorval, Kaylene Glidden, Ava Kelso, Greta Limberger and Ava Picard.
Honors: Brady Desmond, Ellie Giampetruzzi, Brandon Hanscom, Kaelyn Pappas, Seth Picard and Emma Waterhouse. Honorable mention: Landen Blodgett and Kenneth Fredette.