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.

by Mary Grow

At their Sept. 5 meeting, Vassalboro select board members approved three questions for a Nov. 5 local referendum ballot, on three different topics.

One question asks Vassalboro voters to authorize using already-available funds to contribute toward replacing the Dunlap bridge on Mill Hill Road.

A second asks voters to amend the town’s TIF (Tax Increment Financing) Ordinance to allow TIF money to be used for environmental projects in town.

And the third question seeks voter approval of an amendment to the Vassalboro Sanitary District’s charter to set up a system of electing VSD trustees.

The Mill Hill bridge project has many uncertainties, and generated the most discussion at the Sept. 5 meeting.

Town Manager Aaron Miller shared a sheet of financial calculations for a $1.8 million project to replace the existing culvert. Assuming successful grant applications, the town’s share would be about $160,000.

Vassalboro officials have more than $160,000 available in various funds. The proposed article for the Nov. 5 ballot, drafted by the town’s attorney, asks voters to authorize select board members to spend some of it for the bridge.

Board member Chris French urged rewording the article, fearing it was not clear enough. Miller said town officials would need to provide supporting information, but recommended leaving the article as presented.

Uncertainties, in addition to the success of grant applications, include which of three plans for a replacement bridge over Seven Mile Stream is best; how much the town will be expected to pay out and get reimbursed later, instead of being paid as expenses are incurred; and timing. French is concerned the culvert will fall apart before its replacement is ready.

Board members authorized paying Calderwood Engineering up to $58,500 to continue preliminary work on the bridge. They approved a draft letter supporting a grant application to the Maine Department of Marine Resources, which is interested in the project because migratory fish use Seven Mile Stream.

If voters approve this project and also approve the question about using TIF money for environmental projects, TIF funds can help with the bridge.

Miller recommended an Oct. 3 public hearing on the ballot questions.

In other business, Miller gave a brief update on Eagle Park, the streamside recreational area on Route 32 (Main Street) a short distance north of East Vassalboro Village.

Conservation Commission members and the town’s public works crew are involved in developing the area, he said, with plans for a metal-roofed pavilion on a concrete pad, picnic tables and wide gravel paths to facilitate handicapped access.

The manager expressed thanks to the state Department of Transportation and its contractor, Pratt & Sons, for donating clean fill from their sidewalk reconstruction in North Vassalboro to level parts of the park. Other donations may be pending, he said, for the park and the town recreation fields.

Board members approved a proclamation recognizing Sept. 17 through 23 as Constitution Week, observed annually since 1956 to recognize the Sept. 17, 1787, adoption of the United States Constitution by the Congress of the Confederation.

They scheduled a workshop meeting for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 30, and combined with it their regular meeting that would have been Oct. 31, to be able to stay home on Halloween.

The next regular Vassalboro select board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19.