Vassalboro Community School. (source: jmg.org)

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro School Board members held their first virtual meeting March 24, and thanks to the technical expertise of David Trask and Will Backman it worked efficiently. From their homes, board members and administrators discussed issues and made decisions as though they were sitting in the same room.

Much of the discussion involved reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic that made the virtual meeting necessary. Vassalboro Community School (VCS) has not held classes since Friday, March 13; decisions included unanimous votes to retroactively approve the closure from March 16 to March 27 and extend it to April 27.

Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer congratulated staff and administrators on their response to the situation. He has spent a lot of time coordinating action and exchanging ideas with state education officials and other area superintendents, he said.

VCS Principal Megan Allen said she has focused on keeping teachers and students connected and parents informed. Plans being made for April include daily check-ins with students via video, email or other technologies; sending lists of virtual learning opportunities students may visit if they choose; robocalls sharing new developments; and information about when and how best to reach a teacher.

Teaching staff are expected to spend at least five hours a week doing on-line professional development. Some might choose to explore more ways to communicate from a distance, Allen said.

Rather than eliminate school breakfast and lunch programs, VCS bus drivers and volunteer staff members are using big yellow buses for morning and noon meals-on-wheels deliveries, Pfeiffer said.

Allen said about 300 meals go out on each run. VCS’s enrollment is about 418, she added. There is plenty of food available, Pfeiffer said, but one item on his to-do list is finding out whether state education officials approve of the program.

At one point, the superintendent said, VCS ran low on bags for the meals. Bus driver Bob Hall appealed to Carl and Phyllis Farris, owners of Lakeview Lumber, in China, and the Farrises donated an ample supply of bags.

On other topics, school board members unanimously accepted the resignation of Kyle Irvine as Educational Technician I, Life Skills Program, and hired Tanya Doyon as his replacement. Pfeiffer said Irvine is pleased to be moving into a vacant position on the custodial staff, and welcomed Irvine’s experience and skills.

Allen and Waterville-based central office Special Education Director Amy Benham said Doyon had been at VCS only a week when the school shut down, but both said she had already made a good impression.

Board members discussed their involvement with the town-sponsored solar energy project. Pfeiffer and Jessica Clark, school board representative on the town solar committee, said the latest proposal is to buy into an out-of-town solar farm rather than have one built in Vassalboro, and the question is whether school board members are still interested. A decision was postponed to the special board meeting scheduled for 5:45 p.m. Tuesday, March 31, mostly for more work on the 2020-21 school budget.

The next regular school board meeting is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 14, “hopefully in person,” Board Chairman Kevin Levasseur said.

by Mary Grow

After a thorough review and detailed information from applicant Olin C. Charette, Vassalboro Planning Board members unanimously approved his application to reopen his Riverside Drive repair garage, with vehicle sales and a state inspection station.

Charette’s Weeks Mills Garage at 1499 Riverside Drive already has a junkyard permit that Codes Officer Paul Mitnik recommended and selectmen issued in January. A neighbor who attended the March 10 planning board meeting commented that Charette had “done a good job” cleaning up the part of the property visible from the road, as required by junkyard regulations.

The building had previously been a repair garage, but the permit expired while the garage was not operating.

Charette provided information on access, internal traffic movement, screening, lighting, signage and other relevant characteristics of the property.

He said access from Riverside Drive is normally through the north gate; the south gate is opened mostly for tractor-trailers heading behind the building. It is not blocked by parked vehicles, however, so it is available for emergency access. Keeping the south gate clear was the only condition board members attached to their approval.

A paved area in the large front yard will display vehicles for sale; Charette plans to have no more than 10 at a time. There is adequate space for customer parking and for access to the garage doors on the south side.

The back part of the property is screened by earth berms with trees growing on top, the front part by fencing. Charette said there is a motion light on the front of the building. He does not plan to add more lights.

There is a sign on the building and, as required by the state for inspection stations, a small sign listing operating hours by the gate. Charette plans to be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and part of the day Saturdays. He said work will be done inside the garage, and there will be no evening or night work that might bother neighbors.

Charette and board Chairman Ginny Bracket and member Doug Phillips interjected bits of the history of the building, which Brackett said she has reviewed at least twice for prior owners’ permits.

Charette believes the building belonged years ago to a trucking company. He bought the property at auction and was then informed that it was a hazardous waste site and he had become responsible for clean-up.

“I was surprised,” he said.

The clean-up included soil removal, installation of run-off ponds and construction of the berms. It appears to have been successful; Charette said he was surprised again more recently when water from his and the neighbor’s wells tested safe for drinking.

After approving Charette’s permit, board members turned to Mitnik’s recommendation for minor amendments to Vassalboro’s Shoreland Zoning Ordinance. They will require voter approval. Later, Mitnik emailed that there is time to get the amendments on the June 1 town meeting warrant, and proposed a public hearing on them at the Tuesday, April 7, planning board meeting.

by Mary Grow

At two early-March meetings, Vassalboro School Board members put their 2020-21 budget request into near-final form on March 3, and Vassalboro selectmen presented their proposed municipal budget to the budget committee on March 5.

Discussions are scheduled to continue at a Thursday, March 12, budget committee meeting to consider parts of the municipal budget; a Thursday, March 19, budget committee meeting following that evening’s selectmen’s meeting; and a Tuesday, March 24, budget committee meeting following that evening’s school board meeting. The Budget Committee meetings are scheduled for 7 p.m., the first two at the town office and the March 24 meeting at Vassalboro Community School.

As of the initial meetings, each part of the total town budget proposes an increase over the current year. However, neither has complete figures for either expenditures or income.

The March 3 draft of the school budget does not include three items on Vassalboro Community School Principal Megan Allen’s wish list: a new math instructional specialist to complement the literacy specialist, a third fourth-grade teacher and separation of Vassalboro’s pre-school program from the Southern Kennebec Child Development Corporation to give school authorities full control.

An ongoing school issue, in Vassalboro and many other Maine municipalities, is school lunch program deficits. School board members agreed that they need to persuade more students, especially those entitled to free and reduced-price lunches, to eat school meals so that federal subsidies will increase.

On the municipal side, there are the usual cost questions about major items like road-paving and planned culvert replacements. Complicating the picture is what money can legally be used from Vassalboro’s TIF (Tax Increment Financing) fund rather than from property taxes.

The piece of good news that seemed firm was a suggested $6,500 reduction in the utilities budget, because the LED streetlights installed last fall are lowering the electric bill.

Income is also a guess at this stage in the budget process. It appears that state aid for both school and municipal accounts will increase, but final figures are not guaranteed until the legislature adjourns in April. The assessor has not finished updating the town’s valuation, which is the basis for setting a tax rate to cover expenditures.

After budget committee review, selectmen will put together a warrant for the annual town meeting, including proposed 2020-21 expenditures. Final spending decisions will be made by Vassalboro voters at the meeting, scheduled for Monday evening, June 1, with local elections to follow on Tuesday, June 9.