Vassalboro Community School (contributed photo)

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Community School’s new staff for 2024-25 include two people with experience in Alaska, Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer said. One of them spoke with school board members at their Sept. 10 meeting.

Seventh- and eighth-grade science teacher Tracy Hodge said his previous jobs included five years teaching in Alaska, three in a Yupik village and two in Kodiak.

He has also been in Maine before, he said, a brief stay as a youngster plus visits with friends in the Belgrade Lakes area.

Also speaking at the meeting was Cory Eisenhour, director of facilities for Winslow and Vassalboro schools, who updated board members on final summer renovations.

Pfeiffer expects more comprehensive information on plans for the VCS building from Thomas Seekins, co-president of Portland-based Energy Management Consultants, Inc. (EMC), later this fall.

School board members in June authorized Pfeiffer to agree with EMC “to perform an energy audit and HVAC [heating, ventilation and air conditioning] infrastructure analysis of the Vassalboro Community School.”

Seekins said at the Aug. 13 board meeting that the audit will include expert inspections of everything about the building – heating, lighting, electrical and mechanical systems, roofs, windows, even the driveway paving and drainage.

His team will evaluate needed updates, replacements and repairs and do a comprehensive budget, balancing costs with expected savings. After school board members decide on priorities, EMC personnel will develop a schedule, help arrange financing, select contractors and oversee work.

As of the Aug. 13 meeting, Seekins said EMC staff had begun inspecting the building. Pfeiffer expects a report at either the October or the November school board meeting. Board members proposed inviting Vassalboro Budget Committee members to Seekins’ presentation.

Another topic at the Sept. 10 meeting was VCS student enrollment, which Pfeiffer and Principal Ira Michaud were pleased to report is growing. Michaud reported 425 students, up from 411 in June.

Pfeiffer said so far there are three new secondary-school students, for whom Vassalboro will pay tuition to the high schools they choose. The state education department announces the 2025-26 secondary school tuition in December; Pfeiffer hopes the six percent increase in Vassalboro’s school budget will be enough for the first half of 2025.

The superintendent urged families who have not yet filled out and returned their “green sheets” – officially, the Household Application for Free and Reduced Price School Meals – to do so. They are no longer needed to save families money, since school meals are free, but the state uses the information to calculate Vassalboro’s share of state funding.

VCS still needs substitute educational technicians, food service workers and bus drivers, Pfeiffer said. Shortages are state-wide; the mutual aid agreement among Vassalboro, Waterville and Winslow is helpful.

School has started smoothly, the administrators said, except for a major problem with the VCS intercom system. Pfeiffer expressed thanks to Marc Nabarowsky for getting it running again and said a part is being ordered for a full repair.

The next Vassalboro school board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Planning Board members had two agenda items at their Sept. 3 meeting.

They were not asked to act yet on Revision Energy’s revised plan for a solar farm on Webber Pond Road. It will probably be on the board’s Oct. 1 agenda.

They approved Central Maine Power Company’s application for shoreland permits needed to rebuild its north-south transmission line through Vassalboro.

Mike Banaitis, of Freeport-based POWER Engineers, consultant to CMP’s parent company, Avangrid, and Deborah Turcotte, an Avangrid outreach specialist, explained the project history.

In February 2020, the company got planning board approval to replace poles between the Augusta line and the McCoy’s Crossing substation at the intersection of Bog and Cross Hill roads.

New regulations delayed the work. Now, the company has expanded the project to run the rest of the way north through Vassalboro to a Winslow substation, a total of 22.8 miles.

A hand-out Banaitis distributed says the new line replaces one built in 1920. The new poles will be within the existing right-of-way, but not necessarily on the center line.

A map in the hand-out shows the line entering southern Vassalboro near Church Hill Road, going along the west side of Webber Pond and, farther north, the west side of Outlet Stream and entering Winslow just west of Route 32.

There will be minimal tree-cutting, mostly removal of dead or hazardous trees. The new poles will be “slightly taller steel monopoles” except on roadsides, where wood will replace wood.

In addition to the Vassalboro Planning Board permit, the project needs two other permits, Banaitis said. He has obtained a state Department of Environmental Protection permit; when the Army Corps of Engineers permit, expected this fall, is received, a copy will be sent to the town.

The current plan calls for preliminary construction steps to begin this November. The work is expected to take from 12 to 18 months.

Planning board members had a few questions, but no major concerns. Approval was unanimous.

ReVision Energy spokesman Annalise Kukor said after the company’s initial presentation in November 2023 and a discussion with abutting landowners, the plan for a solar development at 1026 Webber Pond Road was amended.

In February of this year, she presented a preliminary revised plan, to which board members did not object. She now plans to present a final plan.

ReVision has not started any work on the property, she said. A Webber Pond Road resident had questions about a solar farm under construction; that one is separate from and north of ReVision’s, Kukor said.

The next regular Vassalboro Planning Board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday evening, Oct. 1.