Vassalboro school board approves raising hourly wage for substitutes

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Vassalboro Community School (contributed photo)

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro School Board members had the usual variety of issues on their Dec. 21 agenda, with more discussion than decision-making.

One decision board members made, unanimously, was to raise the hourly wages of substitute food service personnel, educational technicians and teachers to meet the new state minimums effective Jan. 1, 2022.

Board members, Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer and an audience member suggested offering substitutes minimum wage is not enough to attract personnel. Since Vassalboro Community School (VCS), like many other schools nation-wide, is struggling with staffing issues, board members are likely to consider further pay increases as they develop the 2022-23 budget request.

Pfeiffer reported that VCS has conditional approval from the state Department of Education to expand the pre-kindergarten program in the 2022-23 school year, if there are enough interested families.

The additional early release days approved at a previous board meeting started in December. Assistant Principal Greg Hughes said teachers found them useful.

Two early release days a month are planned for the rest of the school year. They are listed on the calendar on the school website, vcsvikings.org.

Hughes thanked the Parent-Teacher Organization for supporting school staff, and Pfeiffer thanked the many donors who made the VCS Christmas giving program a success.

Board members accepted the resignation of school social worker Tabitha Sagner. Pfeiffer said she has accepted a job closer to her home. “We will miss her,” he said.

As at previous meetings, board members continued review of school policies, approving an updated policy on public participation at their meetings, reaffirming the policy titled “Magnet School Program,” and beginning review of policies on dropout prevention and student conduct on buses.

Board Chairman Kevin Levasseur said he did not know of a VCS student enrolling at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics, in Limestone, in recent years.

School policies are available for public viewing on vcsvikings.org. Under the heading “Main Office” is a subheading “Superintendent’s Office,” and one of the 10 items under that heading is “Policies.”

The next Vassalboro School Board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022. There will be no school on Monday, Jan. 17, in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

January’s early release days are Friday, Jan. 14, and Thursday, Jan. 27.

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Library series conclusion

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Old Winslow Library

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro, Waterville, Winslow

There is no evidence that the Town of Vassalboro had a public library before 1909, when the ancestor of the present lively institution was founded.

The 1909 association’s bylaws give it two names, the Free Public Library Association of Vassalboro, d/b/a Vassalboro Library Association. The library has always been in East Vassalboro, and the bylaws say it must remain there.

According to an essay by Elizabeth “Betty” Taylor in Bernhardt and Schad’s Vassalboro anthology, Eloise A. Hafford organized Vassalboro’s Library Association, getting advice from the Maine State Library and providing the association’s constitution.

Then, Taylor wrote, “she disappeared from the records.” Her name was crossed off the list of members in 1910.

Intrigued, Taylor did research that identified Hafford, born Sept. 30, 1860, in Massachusetts, as an early pastor at the East Vassalboro Friends Church. She was a high-school and university teacher for many years, and by 1930 was in California doing public health work, at one time serving as executive secretary of the Southern California Society for Control of Syphilis. She died in 1938.

The first Vassalboro library building was a converted summer cottage on South Stanley Hill Road, on a small lot donated by George Cates, south of the Friends Meeting House. The cottage was a gift of the Kennebec Water District and in 1914 was hauled across China Lake “on skids by four teams of horses,” according to a Jan. 25, 1971, newspaper article at the Vassalboro Historical Society.

The single-story building was about 500 feet square, according to another source. Everett Coombs built bookshelves early in 1915. Madeline Cates was Vassalboro librarian from 1910 to 1948. When the Library Association was inactive during the Depression, she continued to open it one day a week without pay, and her husband Percy provided fuel without charge.

In the 1950s, Taylor and Mildred Harris took the lead in reviving the library.

The wooden building and the book collection burned in 1979. Taylor, who was librarian for more than three decades, was again a leader in obtaining replacement books after the fire.

Vassalboro Public Library (photo: vassalboro.net)

In 1980, the library reopened in its current home, a single-story brick building at 930 Bog Road, on the west side of the village. An addition in 2000 on the back (north side) doubled the size of the building.

The Vassalboro Library receives significant town funding every year, but donations are always welcome, and are tax-deductible.

Vassalboro has at least one of the libraries in boxes described in last week’s essay. It is on the south side of the Olde Mill complex in North Vassalboro, facing Oak Grove Road, identified by the word “BOOKS” across the top.

In Waterville, the first library was started before Waterville became a town, never mind a city, according to Estelle Foster Eaton’s chapter in Whittemore’s 1902 history.

Waterville was separated from Winslow on June 23, 1802. Eaton wrote that eight months earlier, Reuben Kidder (a member of the 1801 committee chosen to petition the legislature to make Waterville a separate town) had bought 117 books from Boston bookseller Caleb Bingham, for $162.65 (with a 10 percent discount).

Waterville Public Library

(Caleb Bingham [April 15, 1757-April 6, 1817] was an educator, textbook writer and publisher as well as a bookseller. An on-line article by Encyclopedia Britannica editors says he directed Boston’s public library for two years without pay; donated many books to the library in his home town of Salisbury; and helped other New England town libraries. His bookstore was a gathering place for Boston teachers and liberal Jeffersonian politicians and “a focal point of agitation for free public schools.”)

The books were mostly non-fiction, Eaton wrote. Exceptions she listed were The Beggar Girl and A Fool of Quality, each in three volumes. (Welsh novelist Anna or Agnes Maria Bennett’s The Beggar Girl and Her Benefactors was published in 1797; Irish writer Henry Brooke’s The Fool of Quality was published between 1765 and 1779, originally in five volumes.)

The books reached Waterville Nov. 18, 1801. Although Kidder had ordered them in the name of the “Winslow Library,” they were labeled as belonging to “The Waterville Social Library.”

Eaton could not determine how long the library lasted, but the books ended up with Abijah Smith, one of the people who signed a note to help Kidder pay for them. Smith let the Sons of Temperance use them when that organization started a short-lived library (Eaton gave no dates).

Kingsbury wrote in his 1892 Kennebec County history that the Waterville division of the Sons of Temperance was organized Nov. 27, 1845, reorganized in 1858 and still flourishing in 1892.

In 1902, Eaton wrote, a Smith descendant owned relevant documents and, apparently, books; she wrote that when the new public library building was completed, he wanted the remainder of the Waterville Social Library to “find [a] fitting home within its walls.”

The present library organization dates from 1896, the present building from 1902.

According to Eaton and Kingsbury, there were other predecessors besides the Waterville Social Library.

Eaton lists two bookstore-based “circulating libraries.” William Hastings, who was a printer and the publisher of the Waterville Intelligencer newspaper (see The Town Line, Nov. 26, 2020) as well as a bookseller, offered “well-selected books” from 1826 to 1828. Around 1840 Edward Mathews started lending books from his bookstore; he sold the library to Charles K. Mathews, who continued it until 1874.

The Waterville Woman’s Association, founded in 1887, by 1892 had a library of 400 volumes, Kingsbury wrote, “from which 100 books are taken weekly.” (The Woman’s Association was mentioned in the Nov. 11 The Town Line.)

Eaton made the Waterville Library Association, founded in March 1873, sound like the most important predecessor of the present library. She listed the founders by initials only, except for President Solyman Heath; apparently they were all men, although Kingsbury mentioned “the cooperation of a few spirited ladies.” Association membership was $3 a year; dues were used to buy books.

The directors of the Ticonic Bank gave the library space in the bank building for 26 years, and the library was nicknamed the Bank Library, according to Eaton. A. A. Plaisted (the Waterville history’s index lists many entries for A. A. Plaisted, Aaron Plaisted and Aaron Appleton Plaisted) was librarian, “assisted within the last few years by the Misses Helen and Emily Plaisted, Miss Helen Meader and Miss Elden, now Mrs. Mathews.”

In 1892, Kingsbury wrote, the library had 1,500 books and about 30 members.

Meanwhile, a movement for a free public library began. In 1883, Eaton wrote, former resident William H. Arnold willed to the town (Waterville did not become a city until January 23, 1888) $5,000 for a public library, conditional on the town matching the gift. The town did not, and Arnold’s heirs got the $5,000.

In 1896, Lillian Hallock Campbell spent early February visiting more than 50 women to ask them to help start a free public library. On Feb. 13, the Waterville Library Association organized, with an all-female list of officers, though some men were interested in Campbell’s project.

(The first president was Mrs. Willard B. Arnold, sister-in-law of the late William H. Arnold. Her husband, the first of five generations of Willard Bailey Arnolds, founded the W. B. Arnold Company, a Waterville hardware store that closed in the 1960s.)

“Public interest was aroused,” Eaton wrote, and business leaders, including W. B. Arnold, donated generously. On March 25, another meeting organized the Waterville Free Library Association, with Mayor Edmund F. Webb president, ex officio, and a mainly male group of officers and trustees (though Lillian Campbell, Mrs. Arnold and Annie Pepper were among the dozen trustees, as was Colby College professor and future president Arthur J. Roberts).

Library supporters began collecting books and money immediately; an April 7, 1896, public notice requested donations. Books were first circulated out of Harvey Doane Eaton’s law office (he was the husband of Estelle Foster Eaton who wrote the library chapter). A five-member book selection committee recommended initial purchases.

The library formally opened Aug. 22, 1896, in a room “in the Plaisted Block.” It moved to the Haines Building in 1898. Agnes M. Johnson was the first librarian.

Eaton wrote that by May 1902 the original 433 books had become 3,088. Circulation for the year ending May 16 was 20,692. Fiction circulation had declined, but “reference work in connection with the schools” was increasing.

Funds came from individual donations; from the City of Waterville, which increased its $500 a year to $1,000 in 1902; and from the State of Maine, whose annual $50 was “supposed to cover the running expenses; although as a matter of fact it has not,” Eaton said.

After the free library opened, interest in the membership-supported Waterville Library Association declined. Eaton wrote that its 1,500 books were donated to the Woman’s Association in 1900.

The earlier reference to a pending new building foreshadowed the 1902 construction of the main part of the present Elm Street building, with a $20,000 Carnegie Foundation grant. The library’s website describes the building’s architectural style as Richardson Romanesque, similar to other area libraries in Augusta, Clinton and Fairfield. The architect was William R. Miller of Lewiston, who also designed Fairfield’s Lawrence Library (see The Town Line, Nov. 11).

The building is of brick with granite trim. The original entrance on Elm Street is approached by wide granite steps leading to three arches, and the typical tower rises beside the entrance, with a tall triple window below nine small square windows.

The original building has been renovated and expanded several times. A banner on the side of the building proclaims Waterville Public Library a “2017 Winner National Medal for Museum and Library Service.”

New Winslow Library

This writer has failed to find a comprehensive history of Winslow’s public library, located since the late 1980s in a handsomely-converted former roller-skating rink at 136 Halifax Street. The town web page identifies the current library as a department of the town, with a board of trustees.

For at least part of the time between 1905 and 1927, the library was on the east side of Lithgow Street, in the north end of a single-story clapboard building it shared with the town office. Historian Jack Nivison wrote that the building was between the 1926 library and the Congregational Church, set farther back from the street than they are.

A photograph shows a single-story building with a peaked roof. Above what looks like a paneled front door is a three-section semi-circular window, and above it, under the peak of the roof, a second similar one. Windows on either side have decorative shutters and window boxes.

A side door has a small rectangular window beside it. This door and two larger windows on the south side are topped with arched semicircles of what looks like stained glass.

The first librarian, Jennie Howard, served from 1905 to 1933 and was paid $52 a year. Nivison wrote that Howard was also a teacher and superintendent of schools.

The second recorded Winslow library building was built in 1926-27 on an adjoining lot donated by George Bassett, at a cost of $30,000 (the on-line source that says $3,000 must have dropped a zero).

The 1926-27 library is a two-story, flat-roofed brick building. A semi-circular columned portico the height of the building shelters an arched, glass-paneled front door. Above the columns are the words “Winslow Public Library.”

Two tall windows on the front have decorative medallions above them; the window on the south side is topped by a smaller arched window. The library now houses the Taconnett Falls Genealogy Library; its sign says it is open from 1 to 4, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

After the 1987 Kennebec River flood, the library moved to its Halifax Street home.

Nivison adds a second Winslow library with a limited clientele. He wrote that “there was a Library in the Taconnet Clubhouse, built in 1901-02. This library was open to all families who worked at H & W.”

H & W was the Hollingsworth & Whitney Paper Company mill, which operated from 1892 until, after two changes of ownership, 1997. The H & W Clubhouse also offered its employees use of pool tables, a bowling alley and a swimming pool, according to Wikipedia.

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).
Whittemore, Rev. Edwin Carey, Centennial History of Waterville 1802-1902 (1902).

Personal conversations.
Websites, miscellaneous.

VASSALBORO – Small problem turns out bigger: resolved anyway

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Planning Board members started their Dec. 7 meeting thinking they had a small problem. It turned into a bigger one, and they solved it anyway.
At issue was the solar development at 2579 Riverside Drive. It was originally proposed by and permitted to a company named Longroad Energy (see The Town Line, Sept. 10, 2020), and repermitted in August 2021 as the permit’s one-year expiration date loomed.

The work had not started because Central Maine Power Company had not, and still has not, given final approval for adding the solar energy to the power grid.

After several changes, the project now belongs to a different company, Summit Ridge Energy, based in Arlington, Virginia. Ben Aparo, Summit’s Senior Director for Northeast Development, and Brook Barnes, representing a prior owner, asked the planning board to please change the permit to the new owner.

However, board member Douglas Phillips pointed out the clause in the Vassalboro Site Review Ordinance that says: “Permits shall be issued to the applicant of record. The permit(s) are not transferable to a new owner.”

Board members agreed the restriction makes sense. The new owner might not be able to carry out the permitted project; or ordinance requirements might have changed since the original permit was issued.

Neither situation was applicable to the solar development. Aparo and Barnes presented evidence that Summit has the financial capacity to build the solar farm; they assured board members that they intend no changes from the previously-approved plan; and Vassalboro voters have not amended the ordinance.

Barnes and Aparo therefore submitted a revised application in the name of the new ownership, incorporating the information from the original application. Board members voted unanimously to approve it.

The Dec. 7 meeting was Paul Mitnik’s last as Vassalboro’s Codes Enforcement Officer. Ryan Page will succeed him in the position as of Jan. 1, 2022, and Mitnik will become an alternate member of the planning board, appointed by select board members at their Nov. 18 meeting.

Vassalboro select board discusses money, ordinances

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by Mary Grow

Much of the discussion at the Dec. 9 Vassalboro select board meeting was about either ordinances or money, the money as a preliminary to consideration of the 2022-23 municipal budget.

Ordinances included the Marijuana Business Ordinance town voters approved in June and the Mass Gathering Ordinance they rejected in November.

The former requires licenses for marijuana businesses operating in Vassalboro before it was enacted, and is intended to ban new marijuana businesses. The codes officer is responsible for dealing with license applications.

At a public licensing hearing during the Dec. 9 meeting, Codes Officer Paul Mitnik recommended approval of four licenses for a Cushnoc Road facility. One is for building owner Daniel Charest. Three are for tenants Joseph Fucci (doing business as Grown Men LLC); Ryan Sutherland; and Robert Rosso (doing business as Kennebec Healing LLC). The licenses are for the calendar year 2022.

Mitnik said the owner and licensees had been cooperative, license fees were paid and operations met ordinance requirements. After the hearing, selectmen unanimously approved all four licenses.

Leo Barnett, owner of two buildings on Old Meadows Road used for marijuana-growing operations, had filed license applications, Mitnik said. However, no tenant of either building had applied; no license fee had been paid; and Mitnik had been denied admission to the buildings, in violation of both Marijuana Business Ordinance and building codes requirements.

After discussion with the town attorney, Mitnik had issued an order to vacate the buildings. He recommended denying Barnett’s license applications; selectmen agreed.

Mitnik’s second issue was his objection to the provision in the Marijuana Business Ordinance that exempts operations of less than 1,000 square feet, as it is being interpreted. He and incoming codes officer Ryan Page believe “operation” should include not just the grow area, but all related processing and storage spaces.

If the 1,000 square feet applies only to the grow area, which Mitnik called the canopy, then a 50,000 square foot building could house 50 new individual beds of marijuana plants, without any town review. Mitnik thinks such a development would be contrary to voters’ and officials’ expectations from the ordinance.

Town Manager Mary Sabins reminded those present that amending the ordinance to eliminate the exemption requires approval by town voters.

Mitnik and Page said there are other operations in Vassalboro that might need to be licensed. Investigation continues. They said the approved business in the Olde Mill complex in North Vassalboro is closing; and Barnett’s approved facility on Sherwood Lane is not yet built.

The defunct Mass Gathering Ordinance was mentioned in connection with the planned country music concert in July 2022. Local promoter J. R. Garritt (or Jr Garritt, on websites) was scheduled to speak with select board members, but did not attend the Dec. 9 meeting.

Board Chairman Robert Browne said he understood Garritt wanted to relocate the concert from the planned Nelson Road site to the town recreation fields. Board members postponed action until they hear from Garritt.

Without a mass gathering or similar ordinance, Browne said, town officials cannot regulate such events on private property. The defeated ordinance would have allowed them, for example, to require on-site drinking water, sanitary facilities, security and medical facilities.

The money issues select board members considered were raised by Vassalboro First Responder Chief, Daniel Mayotte; Vassalboro Public Library Director, Brian Stanley; and Sabins.

Mayotte suggested using about $75,000 of Vassalboro’s expected ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) money for covid-related and other purchases. His recommendations included replacing the First Responders’ outdated AEDs (automated external defibrillators); providing new ENVO N95 masks for First Responders, fire department members and town employees who work with the public; adding a fit-testing system to make the masks more effective; training and equipping new First Responders; helping fund Delta Ambulance’s chaplain service; and adding a cardiac monitor to the First Responders’ equipment.

Sabins said Vassalboro is expected to get about $460,000 in ARPA grants, half now and half in 2022. She displayed the inch-thick notebook of ARPA regulations she is studying to find out what uses are permitted. The process, she said, has no pre-approval component: the town will spend the money and apply for reimbursement hoping the expenditure qualifies.

Select board members suggested other possible uses for ARPA funds that Sabins will research. Awaiting more information, they took no action on Mayotte’s list.

They approved unanimously the updated schedule for replacing town vehicles and equipment over the next decade. Items most likely to be in the 2022-23 budget request include replacement Scott air packs for the fire department, a new town office computer system and a new backhoe for the transfer station. Sabins’ note on the last item quotes station Manager George Hamar: the backhoe “should have been replaced seven years ago.”

Stanley led discussion of reviving the town recreation program. While promising full cooperation, he said the library director does not have time also to be the recreation director.

His recommendation was that select board members budget more than $18,000 in 2022-23 to pay a recreation director who would be expected to work 15 hours a week, plus seasonal sports directors for baseball/softball, soccer and basketball. Board members postponed action.

In other business Dec. 9, Sabins reported progress on turning Vassalboro Community School into an emergency shelter. The generator is installed, though not yet switching on every time it should; and Maine Emergency Management officials have scheduled an early-January walk-through, to be followed by a shelter training program later in 2022.

Select board member Barbara Redmond said she had been invited to succeed former board member John Melrose on the Kennebec County budget committee. Browne and fellow board member Chris French approved.

Board members considered a new policy on background checks for people applying for town positions, paid or volunteer, but postponed action. Sabins said most applicants already undergo background checks.

The next regular Vassalboro select board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 22, moved a day earlier than usual to avoid keeping the town office open late on Thursday, Dec. 23.

The Vassalboro town office will be closed from 4 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 23, to 8 a.m. Monday, Dec. 27. The transfer station will also close at 4 p.m. Dec. 23 and will not be open Saturday, Dec. 25. However, it will open as usual at 6:30 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 26.

For the New Year holiday, the town office will be closed Friday, Dec. 31. The transfer station will be closed Saturday, Jan. 1, but open as usual Sunday, Jan. 2.

Vassalboro American Legion Post donates stockings to veterans at Togus

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American Legion Post #126, Vassalboro, filled and donated 160 Christmas stockings to veterans at Togus Veterans Administration Hospital. The Christmas stockings were made by the Sew for a Cause ladies at St. Bridget Center, in North Vassalboro.

From left to right, Thomas Richards, commander, James Kilbride, adjutant and Kylie Higgins, chief of voluntary services.

From left to right, Thomas Richards, commander, Michael Poulin, Doug Grasso, youth officer, James Kilbride, adjutant and Robert Whitehouse.

From left to right, Thomas Richards, commander, Nicole Jordan, and James Kilbride, adjutant.

Vassaslboro Community School honor roll (Fall 2021)

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Vassalboro Community School (contributed photo)

GRADE 8

High honors: Emily Almeida and Ava Lemelin. Honors: William Ellsey, Madison Estabrook, Timothy Kiralis, Jacob Lavallee, Alxandria O’Hara and Addison Witham. Honorable mention: Moira Bevan, Addyson Burns, Jordan Cressey, Paige Littlefield, Brayden McLean, Emily Piecewicz, Leahna Rocque and Leah Targett.

GRADE 7

High honors: Taiya Rankins, Bryson Stratton and Landon Tassinari. Honors: Aliya Bourque, Madison Burns, Tallulah Cloutier, Owen Couture, Ryley Desmond, Eilah Dillaway, Alora Esquibel, Madison Field, Xavier Foss, Adalyn Glidden, Bailey Goforth, Kylie Grant, Caspar Hooper, Jack Malcolm, Henry Olson, Josslyn Ouellette and Natalie Rancourt. Honorable mention: Emma Charleston, Peyton Dowe, Wyatt Ellis, Olivia Leonard, Kaitlyn Maberry, Harley McEachern, Alexis Mitton, Mackenzie Oxley, Noah Pooler and Grady Sounier.

GRADE 6

High honors: Drew Lindquist, Paige Perry, Judson Smith, Alana Wade and Reid Willett. Honors: Benjamin Allen, Dominick Bickford, Juliet Boivin, Tristyn Brown, Gabriella Brundage, Dylan Dodge, Ryleigh French, Drake Goodie, Cooper Lajoie, Caleb Marden, Oliver Olson, Bentley Pooler, Trinity Pooler, Abigail Prickett, Kayden Renna, Hannah Tobey and William Trainor. Honrable mention: Zoey, DeMerchant, Jennah Dumont, Zachary Kinrade, Brooke Reny and Jade Travers.

GRADE 5

High honors: Samuel Bechard, Keegan Clark, Basil Dillaway, Fury Frappier, Allyson Gilman, Chayenne Lizzotte, Mia McLean, Agatha Meyer, Mackenzy Monroe and Ava Woods. Honors: Davontay Austin, Peyton Bishop, Bryleigh Burns, Kaleb Charlebois, Emily Clark, Preston Duenne, Baylee Fuchswanz, Zoe Gaffney, Bayleigh Gorman, Lillyana Krastev, Jack LaPierre, Kaitlyn Lavallee, Aiden McIntyre, Jaelyn Moore, Kaylee Moulton, Weston Pappas, Kassidy Proctor, Emma Robbins, Landen Theobald and Grace Tobey. Honorable mention: Mason Brewer, Olivia Dumas and Elliot McQuarrie.

GRADE 4

High honors: Zander Austin, Xainte Cloutier, Twila Cloutier, Mariah Estabrook, Dawson Frazer, Sarina LaCroix, Olivia Perry, Cassidy Rumba, Haven Trainor and Cameron Willett. Honors: Aliyah Anthony, Kiara Apollo, Lukas Blais, Jayson Booker, Sophia Brazier, Grace Clark, Kaylee Colfer, Samantha Craig, Wyatt Devoe, Riley Fletcher, Peter Giampietro, Lucian Kinrade, Landon Lagasse, Isaac Leonard, Elliott Rafuse, Isaiah Smith and Meadow Varney. Honorable mention: Dekan Dumont, Camden Foster, Aubrey Goforth, Jade Lopez and Juliahna Rocque.

GRADE 3

High honors: Hunter Brown, Levi DeMerchant, Cooper Grant, Tanner Hughes, Olivia Lane, Simon Olson, Landon Quint, Willa Rafuse, Alexis Reed, Jackson Robichaud, Liliana Tassinari and Gabriel Tucker. Honors: Alexander Bailey, Amaya-Lynn Belanger, Rylee Boucher, Maverick Brewer, Kandryn Couture, Braiden Crommett, Ashton Derosby, Addison Dodge, Sophia-Lynn Howard, Kendall Karlsson, Jase Kimball, Brooklyn Leach, Landon Lindquist, Christopher Santiago, Asher Smith, Elliot Stratton, William Vincent and Robert Wade. Honorable mention: Ryder, Austin, Reese Chechowitz, Liam Dowe, Mikkah-Isabella Grant, Aubrie Hill, Desmond Landreth, Aria Lathrop, Jace Reeves and Addison Suga.

CLA to present 10-year runoff plan

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China Lake

A 10-year plan to restore water quality in China Lake will be the focus of an online, interactive public meeting sponsored by the China Lake Association on Thursday, December 2, at 6 pm. The meeting will provide an overview of the proposed measures needed to minimize stormwater runoff into the lake, address internal phosphorus loading from lake sediments, and ultimately prevent annual algal blooms that have been occurring in China Lake over the last 40 years. The China Lake Association and their partners urge China, Vassalboro, and Albion residents, lake users, public drinking water customers, and all interested parties to participate in this free program. The public’s participation will help experts protect this valuable resource through the sharing of knowledge and by helping to shape the plan.

Register for this webinar here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/3916372725825/WN_ksBioidNQ6Weqo1KCBWsWg

Vassalboro school heads ask for more early release days

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Vassalboro Community School (contributed photo)

by Mary Grow

The liveliest discussion at the Nov. 16 Vassalboro School Board meeting was over the administration’s request for additional early release days, when students are sent home for the afternoon so teachers can work together.

Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer and Assistant Principal Greg Hughes explained that teachers at Vassalboro Community School (VCS), dealing with Covid-related changes and requirements in addition to their pre-Covid responsibilities, need more group time. They use it to plan dealing with issues like curriculum adjustments and implementing new Department of Education directives; to share information on common problems and useful techniques; and to provide mutual support.

The 2021-22 calendar approved in 2020 included three early release days. One has been used; the other two are scheduled in January and May 2022, Pfeiffer said.

He and Hughes recommended two early release days each month, starting in December 2021.

School board members reacted immediately: sending kids home that often will be really hard on parents.

Audience members, mostly parents, replied promptly: we can take care of our kids, give teachers the time they need.

Some suggested changing proposed dates from Wednesdays – chosen to break up the week, Pfeiffer said – to Fridays, when some people might find it easier to leave work early, if teachers were okay with Fridays.

Using a whole day, instead of an afternoon, wouldn’t be possible, Pfeiffer said, because the state requires 175 “seat days” a year, and half-days count as seat days.

School board members unanimously approved two early release days a month beginning in December, with dates to be considered again at the Dec. 21 board meeting.

As at previous meetings this fall, several of the dozen audience members had questions about pandemic-related procedures. Answers from Pfeiffer, school nurse MaryAnn Fortin or both, included:

  • There are no plans to host a vaccination clinic at VCS, because parents have enough other options.
  • There have been positive results from some of the pool testing, and yes, classmates outside a pool in which at least one student tested positive do need to be quarantined.

One parent expressed support for the testing, masking and distancing measures being taken to prioritize health and safety at VCS and thanked board members, administrators, staff and students for their efforts to make it possible for students to stay in school.

Board and audience members heard presentations from three staff members, School Counselor Meg Swanson, Social Worker Tabitha Sagner and new Jobs for Maine’s Graduates (JMG) Master Specialist Delaney Wood.

Swanson’s and Sagner’s main jobs are to assist students with social, emotional, behavioral and other non-academic difficulties that can affect their academic performance. Both spoke – but did not complain – about how much more difficult Covid has made this type of work, not just at VCS but state-wide and probably nation-wide.

More students experience stress, anxiety and uncertainty. Many express their insecurity through disruptive behavior in the classroom. More than the usual number need extra counseling, in small groups or individually.

Teachers, too, are stressed and overwhelmed. A shortage of staff makes their situation more difficult. The staff shortage is not just in schools, Swanson added; the outside agencies on which teachers have relied are also short-staffed and putting would-be clients on waiting lists.

Swanson sees no quick fix for the interrelated problems. Despite ongoing efforts to adapt and despite increased federal funding for multiple aspects of education, she expects the impact on “student response, learning and behavior” will last “at least a decade.”

Wood’s presentation on JMG was more upbeat. A graduate of Winslow High School and Wesleyan University, she is in her first year of full-time teaching, following Victor Esposito, “Mr. E,” who retired at the end of last year.

JMG’s website says it is a nonprofit corporation that partners with Maine schools, from middle school through college or university, to give students “the guidance, skills and opportunities they need to succeed in their careers.”

The emphasis is on hands-on, adventure-based learning, Wood said – for example, the garden Mr. E started. Students told her they would like to go on local field trips, like a visit to the fire station. To raise money for use of a bus, they plan a wreath sale, Wood said.

In other business Nov. 16, Assistant Principal Hughes said he was pleased by the number of parents who came to VCS for parent-teacher conferences. He thanked the PTO for the refreshments members supplied.

Hughes said the homework club has started and the drama club and explorers club are scheduled to start in December. With construction work nearly finished, classroom rearrangements are under way.

Construction work was responsible for the unplanned early dismissal on Nov. 3, Superintendent Pfeiffer said. A workman accidentally cut a cable, activating the fire alarm system, and no one could make it turn off.

Finance Director Paula Pooler reported the budget is still on track, including the school lunch budget that has lost money in past years. She again reminded parents to fill out the application form for free lunch, even though it is free anyway, so that VCS can get the state subsidies to which it is entitled.

A link to the form is on the front page of the school’s website, vcsvikings.org.

The next regular Vassalboro School Board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 21.

Vassalboro select board looks at issues that could turn into 2022-23 budget requests

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by Mary Grow

At their Nov. 18 meeting, Vassalboro select board members agreed on a variety of issues that are likely to turn into 2022-23 budget requests and recommendations.

Town Manager Mary Sabins had organized and categorized the goals they discussed at an October special meeting (see The Town Line, Nov. 4, p. 9). Board members set as priorities:

  • Reinvigorating the town recreation program, perhaps by asking voters to approve adding a town office staff member whose responsibilities would include acting as recreation director.
  • Recreating a version of the capital improvement plan developed in the past, to provide a tentative schedule of upcoming major expenditures. (Fire Chief Walker Thompson assured Board Chairman Robert Browne he does not foresee an immediate need for a new fire truck.)
  • Improving town planning – they even mentioned “the z word,” zoning, which was not popular with Vassalboro residents – so they won’t need to rely on one-at-a-time ordinances to prevent unwelcome effects of development.

A specific development topic was the proliferation of solar arrays in town, currently reviewed by the planning board under the town’s Site Review Ordinance. Select Board members Chris French and Barbara Redmond thought an ordinance specific to solar projects would be valuable. Sabins suggested reviving Vassalboro’s Solar Committee.

Sabins presented again her request that board members approve a wage study to see how town employees’ pay compares to other towns’ pay scales. The $3,800 cost is included in the current year’s administration budget, she said. Board members approved.

Resident Thomas Richards urged select board members to do something about the Cushnoc Road bridge, which is state-owned, weight-limited to 20 tons and, Road Foreman Eugene Field said, likely to be increasingly restricted and ultimately closed.

Richards said it is already closed to most fire trucks and all but the smallest town plow truck, requiring detours. “What’s a person’s life worth?” when emergency vehicles are delayed, Richards demanded.

And, he asked, “How is Bill Green [of WH Green & Sons, Inc., a construction company at 180 Cushnoc Road, south of the bridge] gonna get his cranes out?” The turn north on Riverside Drive (Route 202) from the south end of Cushnoc Road is awkward for a large vehicle.

The town could take over the bridge and replace it, people suggested. Field and board members estimated a new bridge would cost at least a million dollars, more money than Browne is willing to consider borrowing.

Members of the Vassalboro Conservation Commission presented a plan for creating a new park on town-owned land along Route 32 and Outlet Stream, north of East Vassalboro village. Holly Weidner explained that in the first two years, they hope to provide a small parking area, a path to the stream, picnic tables and a seasonal porta potty.

The project would include landscaping and plantings. Commission members envision mowing the area twice a year and putting up signs.

Select board members expressed approval and said they will include a funding request for the park – they estimated $2,000 – in their suggested 2022-23 budget.

Former board member John Melrose sent an email from the Trails Committee asking if the current board members wanted the committee to develop draft rules for use of the Town Forest and Red Brook trails. They said yes.

Melrose also asked for $250 to make Vassalboro a municipal member of the Kennebec Land Trust. The answer was again yes.

In other business, select board members:

  • Appointed Marianne Stevens, currently the alternate member of the planning board, as a full member to succeed Sally Butler, who resigned; and appointed Paul Mitnik as planning board alternate, effective in January when he plans to hand over codes enforcement duties to Ryan Page.
  • Gave preliminary approval to Sabins’ proposed budget preparation time-line in advance of the 2022 annual town meeting, which is currently scheduled for Monday evening, June 6, 2022, with municipal elections Tuesday, June 14.
  • Scheduled their next meeting for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 9.
  • Scheduled their second December meeting for 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 22, so that the town office can close at 4 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 23, instead of the usual 6:30 p.m. Thursday closing. Over Browne’s mild objection, they did not extend staff members’ hours on Dec. 22 to make up for shorter Thursday hours.

Vassalboro Fire Department fundraising for life saving equipment

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Vassalboro Fire Department Chief Walker Thompson, left, and Vice President Michael Vashon. (photo by Jeanne Marquis)

by Jeanne Marquis

Rural volunteer fire departments regularly come to the mutual aid of other neighboring rural volunteer fire departments to team up to combat larger structural fires. As an example of ‘mutual aid’ – Mike Vashon, vice president and board of director member of the Vassalboro Fire Department, told us how their 3,000 water-tank truck had been called to assist other towns because rural towns without hydrants need additional water quickly at the site of fires. Now the Vassalboro Fire Department needs mutual aid from the region to get the word out about their fundraising efforts to purchase life-saving equipment for their fire fighters.

Truck 15. (photo by Jeanne Marquis)

The Vassalboro Fire Department must replace 20 outdated SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus) Paks which are no longer compliant with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards. Each SCBA unit; including a mask, backpack harness and two cylinders costs $8,165 each, totaling $163,300 for the 20 units.

The department’s existing SCBA Paks lack the current technological advances such as universal air connections, heads up display, buddy breathing systems or the advanced safety features found on the up-to-date equipment. One unit failed in operation on a fire call. Fortunately, this did not happen within a structural fire, but at a chimney fire. The firefighter was quickly relieved by the standby firefighter as soon as the malfunction was discovered.

Fire chief Walker Thompson has taken six 1992 SCBA out of service because of the unreliability of this equipment’s current condition and the remaining equipment is tested yearly. The cost of repairing and retrofitting the equipment to the NFPA standards is prohibitive. Vashon mentioned he had applied twice for a FEMA grant to replace the SCBA equipment. Both times, FEMA replied back that the grants went to fire departments with higher call numbers who could score higher on their grant applications. Vashon said their department answered 175 calls in 2020 and feels that using the number of calls to determine which department gets the FEMA grants puts the rural fire departments in a disadvantaged position as compared to the departments in an urban area. Many of the 175 calls for the Vassalboro Fire Department may have represented a potential home loss and put firefighters in the same danger if they were in an urban area. For this reason, the NFPA requires high standards on SCBA equipment for all fire departments, regardless of whether they are located in urban or rural areas. The risk the firefighters face is the same.

SCBA equipment at right. (photos by Jeanne Marquis)

Vashon explains, “The self-contained breathing apparatus has a harness that goes on your back. So when you’re going to a structure fire, you have a mask that connects to a tank and that’s the air you breathe. When you’re going to a smoky building of fire, even chimney fires and motor vehicle fires. Because in today’s environment, when this burns, this is not just wood. This is compressed wood with all kinds of glues and whatnot in there. These are all carcinogens that you would breathe in and could later turn into cancer.”

Vashon went on to explain the importance of having SCBA with the current safety features that alert the firefighters when the equipment is malfunctioning. Following procedures, standby firefighters are posted outside the structure to take over to relieve firefighters on the inside when these alerts go off.

When asked how the Vassalboro Fire Department planned to raise funds for the $163,300, Thompson and Vashon described their fundraising team as a small core group of their volunteers led by Vashon. Thompson described Vashon as “the engine for this train.” This small group of fundraisers has begun making personal calls to residents and business owners, not just in Vassalboro, but also through the region. They realize times are hard, and they need to reach beyond their town’s borders.

This small fundraising team has had recent experience raising $72,000 for the first payment on a $334,000 fire truck to replace a 39-year-old vehicle. The Vassalboro Fire Department feared the previous vehicle had aged to the point it could have broken down on a call.

The new fire vehicle, Truck 15, was delivered July 28, 2021, and resides at the Riverside Fire Station. Truck 15 is on a freightliner chassis with a 1,000 gallon water tank and a separate 30 gallon foam tank. Truck 15 features a top mount console which provides the capability to control all discharges while standing behind the cab allowing the pump operator to view both sides of the truck and a better view of the scene. It has 11 storage compartments to house all of the equipment and a compartment within the body to hold the extension ladder, roof and attic ladders as well as pike poles. This allows all equipment to be kept clean.

There are storage wells on each side of the rear wheels that will hold a total of eight SCBA cylinders. This truck has 300 feet of 1-3/4-inch Matty Dale hose, 1,000 feet of 4 – inch supply hose, and 200 feet of 2-1/2 inch hose.

Vashon’s fundraising team feels good about being able to help out the town with the expense of Truck 15. Now the fundraising team from the Vassalboro Fire Department is turning its attention to generating funds for 20 SCBA units that are essential to protecting the lives of their volunteers and to keeping the department up to NFPA standards so they can continue to protect the residents of their town. They want to remind potential donors that their department is a 501c(3) non-profit and donations are tax-deductible. For additional information reach out to Mike Vashon at 207-485-7740 or Walker Thompson at 207-649-1236. Checks are payable to Vassalboro Fire Department, PO Box 134, North Vassalboro, ME 04962.