by Mary Grow

“I can’t remember the last time I brought a zero percent budget in,” Vassalboro Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer told budget committee members and selectmen as they assembled to review results of March 19 and March 26 school budget discussions.

He added that the proposed budget is still subject to change. Possible causes for an increase – or conceivably a decrease — include eighth-graders changing their minds about which high school they’ll attend in September, a final decision on the price of 2019-2020 fuel and legislative action affecting state school funding, minimum wages and other topics.

The main reason for Pfeiffer’s draft no-increase budget is that 60 Vassalboro students are leaving high school and only 44 seniors are entering, Pfeiffer and School Board Chairman Kevin Levasseur said.

Tuition will cost Vassalboro about $1.9 million in 2019-2020, the second highest expenditure category. Running Vassalboro Community School (VCS) for students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade is projected to cost about 3.445 million. Special education at $1.446 million is the third major expenditure category.

Tuition rates vary from one high school to another. For schools the majority of Vassalboro students attend, Waterville’s $8,969 is lowest, Erskine Academy’s $11,770 highest. Pfeiffer explained that because private schools are ineligible for state construction funding, Erskine is allowed to charge what is called an insured value factor (IVF) to finance capital improvements. State law allows a maximum 10 percent IVF, Pfeiffer said; Erskine will charge 6 percent.

If Principal Megan Allen’s enrollment statistics don’t change too much, the tuition break will continue for two more years. As of mid-March, VCS had 43 seventh-graders and 37 sixth-graders before a jump to 51 fifth-graders.

Given the effect of tuition rates on the school budget and local taxes, school board members at their March 19 meeting wondered if it is time to poll residents again on whether they would prefer the board to contract with a single high school, instead of giving students a choice. They might discuss the issue at a summer meeting.

Allen and Pfeiffer pointed to a steady decline in student enrollment. Having fewer students reduces costs, but also reduces state subsidies that are based on student numbers. As of March 26 Pfeiffer had not contracted for fuel for the 2019-2020 year because, he said, he keeps expecting a price drop, based on increased United States production.

The proposed budget includes few new items. Pfeiffer summarized them for the budget committee: a change from a half-time contracted social worker to a full-time staff social worker; floor and wall repairs in the kindergarten-grade two wing at VCS; a change from the income-based pre-kindergarten program to what he called a universal pre-k with no income limits; and a request for state funding for two new buses.

Levasseur added that the superintendent’s salary has been increased to pay Pfeiffer, theoretically Vassalboro’s one-day-a-week employee, for one and a half days, since he usually works for the town seven days a week anyway.

Much of the VCS budget consists of salaries that are governed by contracts. Allen said most staff members are in the second year of a three-year contract.

Vassalboro voters will make final decisions on 2019-2020 school and municipal budgets at the June 3 town meeting.

The budget committee’s next meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, April 4, after a 6 p.m. selectmen’s meeting; both are at the town office. The next regular school board meeting is at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 9, in the VCS library.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro selectmen spent most of their short March 21 meeting talking with residents about the proposed hike in sewer fees, a topic that came up again in the following discussion with the budget committee.

More than a dozen Vassalboro Sanitary District customers came to protest the higher rates needed to fund the connection with the Winslow sewer system. When the project is completed, sewage from East and North Vassalboro will run through Winslow to the Waterville treatment facility, and the Vassalboro District will close the aged sand filter beds currently treating the villages’ sewage.

Christina O’Rourke, from North Vassalboro, and others said Vassalboro already has the highest sewer rates in Maine, before the proposed increase almost doubles them. Many of the 192 customers are behind on their bills.

The increase will cause some residents to consider moving while making their houses harder to sell, people said.

They asked for an article in the June town meeting warrant requesting tax money to help the Sanitary District. Selectmen explained the petition procedure to put an article on the warrant.

In past years, selectmen have given money from Vassalboro’s TIF (Tax Increment Finance) fund toward the Sanitary District project and toward ARI (Alewife Restoration Initiative). The TIF fund collects the tax money from the gas pipeline that runs through Vassalboro and sets it aside in a state-regulated program that allows it to be used only for economic development projects.

When the budget committee met, ARI representatives Landis Hudson and Nate Gray asked its members to continue supporting ARI, which is intended to allow alewives access to China Lake. This year’s projects are building fishways at the Ladd and Box Mill dams in North Vassalboro.

ARI has already overseen removal of the Masse dam, in East Vassalboro, and the Lombard dam between the two villages. Only the Morneau dam, which Hudson said is under discussion, and the China Lake Outlet dam, where a fishway is planned, remain as obstacles.

Alewives currently running into and out of Webber Pond are harvested each spring and sold for lobster bait. Town Manager Mary Sabins said until last year the town had been earning around $18,000 annually; last year, a higher price increased the amount to more than $25,000. Gray predicted the run into China Lake would be significantly larger, so once state officials are satisfied that it is self-sustaining, Vassalboro can expect more income.

Selectman Lauchlin Titus suggested taking funds for ARI, if voters approve them, from alewife income, leaving more TIF money for the Sanitary District.

Budget committee members also heard from representatives of the Vassalboro volunteer fire department, the Cemetery Committee and the China Region Lakes Alliance (CRLA).

Firefighter Mike Vashon said the department’s two-year reroofing project at the Riverside fire station will slightly exceed the $25,000 budgeted, judging by preliminary information. A bid opening is scheduled for Wednesday, April 3.

Vashon said the department is applying for grant money to buy new Scott air packs and a new fire truck. Some of the department’s current air packs are old enough so they could fail when a firefighter is inside a burning building, and a 38-year-old fire truck has already cost a lot of money for repairs and now needs a new radiator.

The department welcomes donations to be used as matching funds if a grant is awarded, Vashon said. The Sukeforth Foundation has already assisted.

Cemetery Committee spokesperson Jane Aiudi said the committee’s increased budget request is intended to cover tree removal, not done for the last four or five years, and purchase of a software system to inventory and maintain cemetery records. She and Sabins agree that an $8,000 system is most suitable.

CRLA President Scott Pierz presented a four-page document explaining the organization’s request for $14,000 from Vassalboro. Part of the money would support CRLA’s operational costs; the majority would fund a survey around Three Mile Pond to identify gravel roads contributing run-off into the pond, Youth Conservation Corps projects on Webber Pond and Seaward Mills Stream and the Courtesy Boat Inspectors at the East Vassalboro boat landing, whose job is to protect China Lake from invasive plants.

The next budget committee meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, April 4, at the town office, after that evening’s 6 p.m. selectmen’s meeting.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro selectmen’s March 7 topics included sidewalks, sewer fees, solid waste hauling and dam management.

The sidewalk discussion related to state plans to rebuild Route 32, tentatively in 2021 or 2022. The question was whether sidewalks in the built-up sections of North and East Vassalboro would increase safety and convenience compared to the five-foot paved shoulders in the state plan.

Board Chairman Lauchlin Titus said the current sidewalks in North Vassalboro are not well maintained in winter and are so bumpy year-round that people often walk in the roadway. The state project would include new sidewalks, but maintenance would be a town responsibility, meaning costs for plowing, salting and sanding and repair as needed.

East Vassalboro resident Holly Weidner thinks drivers would not respect the wide shoulders as pedestrian territory, but would take them as an excuse to drive faster. Titus and Weidner agreed traffic-calming measures in both villages should be part of the rebuilding project.

Board member John Melrose, a former Commissioner of Transportation, expects the state transportation department to hold a public meeting to collect residents’ views when the project is closer to reality.

A resident raised the question of sewer fees, which are scheduled to almost double April 1 to help Vassalboro Sanitary District trustees fund the proposed connection to the Winslow and Waterville sewer system. Another resident said 192 households are on Vassalboro’s system, which serves East and North Vassalboro; many are already delinquent on current sewer fees.

The first speaker asked whether tax money could be used to help residents pay sewer bills. Titus said residents who want a question about spending tax money on the town meeting warrant need to draft it and get 211 voters to sign a petition supporting it in order to compel selectmen to add it.

The town has donated TIF (Tax Increment Financing) funds to the sewer project and is likely to continue to do so, he said.

Board members reviewed five bids for hauling solid waste and unanimously accepted Bolster’s Rubbish Removal of Burnham as hauler for solid waste and recyclable cardboard. The bid forms invited bidders to propose alternative methods to the containers the town now uses; Town Manager Mary Sabins said no one did.

The dam issue involves the contract under which the Kennebec Water District (KWD) manages the Outlet Dam in East Vassalboro to keep the China Lake water level within state guidelines. Sabins said the contract expired Jan. 31. The draft renewal submitted by KWD increases the fee charged to Vassalboro and reassigns some responsibilities from KWD to the town.

Sabins said KWD General Manager Roger Crouse had invited her to discuss the contract. Selectmen encouraged her to accept the invitation.

The next regular Vassalboro selectmen’s meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, March 21, with a budget committee meeting scheduled to follow at 7 p.m.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro School Board members began review of the preliminary 2019-2020 school budget at their Feb. 12 meeting, despite missing several major pieces.

Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer, Principal Megan Allen and personnel from what used to be the Alternative Organizational Structure (AOS) #92 office presented four budget categories: athletics, special services, district technology and health services.

At this early stage, the athletics budget is almost $39,000, up $3,600 from the current year; the special services budget is $1.4 million, about $39,000 lower than the current year’s; the technology budget is less than $61,000, down almost $13,000; and the health services budget is over $71,000, an increase of a little more than $1,400.

These very preliminary figures total less than $1.7 million. The current year’s total budget as approved at the June 2018 town meeting is more than $7.5 million. Major expenditures not discussed at the Feb. 12 meeting include the total instruction budget, which is tentatively over $2.8 million (including athletics), and tuition.

Pfeiffer said he has the state-set tuition rates for the secondary schools Vassalboro students attend, but does not yet have figures on how many students plan to attend each school next year.

The superintendent expects the special services budget to increase slightly. “Federal mandates, federal laws, the state – that’s a huge piece” of expenditures, and failure to comply invites lawsuits, Pfeiffer said.

Emphasizing that the Feb. 12 figures are preliminary and changeable, Pfeiffer asked school board members to study and think about them. The board scheduled a budget workshop for 6 p.m. Monday, March 4, before the next regular meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 19.

In other business Feb. 12, board members unanimously approved a policy on service animals at Vassalboro Community School. They accepted Pfeiffer’s offer to create procedures to go with a proposed policy on use of video cameras on school property.