LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Doing “business” in E. Vassalboro

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To the editor:

As an avid cyclist, I get to see a lot of this part of Maine, and from time to time, I need to take a break to “take care of business” in a biological sense. Whenever possible, I try and use a facility designed for that purpose and several times over the past few years, that has meant entering the “outhouse” at the boat landing in East Vassalboro.

This is certainly the most disgusting example of such a place that I have ever seen. I truly believe that to sit down in this stink hole would be life threatening. And yet, this is a very popular spot for putting boats into China Lake, and, in fact, the dock and ramp area was re-built just last year.

I brought up this issue to the folks at the Vassalboro Town Office a couple of years ago and even suggested that someone from there should go down and check out the place; nothing seems to have changed. It seems even more disconcerting when one considers the close proximity to a major public water supply. Now, I don’t know if any of the waste gets into the lake, but the smell alone is almost overwhelming. It seems like the investment in a portable toilet, like the one at the head of the lake in China, would be a prudent solution. Just a suggestion.

Bob Bennett
South China

Vassalboro planners approve two applications

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Planning Board members quickly and unanimously approved both shoreland zoning applications on their June 6 agenda.

Mary Rider has approval to rearrange and enlarge the deck on her family camp on Tilton Lane, on the east shore of Webber Pond. Builder Ray Breton, representing the applicant, said the planned increase in size meets ordinance requirements, and there will be no expansion toward the water.

Wendy Pietraszweski has approval to build a second house on a lot at 405 Taber Hill Road. The lot is bisected by a very small stream, which Codes Officer Richard Dolby said puts most of the land in the shoreland zone, according to state maps.

Surveyor David Wendell said the proposed house and a new septic system are located so as to meet legally-required setbacks from the water and the property lines.

Vassalboro Business Association announces scholarship recipients

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The Vassalboro Business Association has announced that the following students will each receive a $500 scholarship from money that was raised by Freddie’s Cruise-In, a Vassalboro Day’s Event, sponsored by Bill and Roxanne Pullen for the last three years, with 39 local sponsors and by sales of advertisements for the Vassalboro Welcomes You booklets. These booklets are given out in mid-summer at the town office, the community school, and the library.

Gwinna Remillard

Gwinna Remillard is a Waterville High School graduate and will attend the College of St. Scholastica, in Duluth, Minnesota. She will be competing as an athlete on both the cross country running team and the Nordic ski team. She will focus on the health science programs and the opportunities that lie in Duluth, Minnesota. She is excited to further her studies and move on to new and exciting adventures!

Abby Watson

Abby Watson is a graduate of Messalonskee High School , in Oakland, and will attend Belmont University, in Nashville, Tennessee. She will major is songwriting and minor in music business. At Belmont, she hopes to develop a better understanding for this art and better her skills. She is not exactly sure what she wants to do in life, but hopes to discover life-changing opportunities and find out just who she is supposed to be!

Caitlin Labbe

Caitlin Labbe is an Erskine Academy graduate, in South China, and will attend Thomas College, in Waterville. She will major in business administration. She plans to play soccer and lacrosse at Thomas!

Molly Wasilewski

Molly Wasilewski is a Water­ville High School graduate and will attend the University of Maine at Farmington. She will study actuarial science. She loves working with numbers and figuring out equations. She is excited to learn how to assess risk!

Seth Reed

Seth Reed is an Erskine Academy graduate, in South China, and will attend the Univer­sity of New Hamp­shire, in Durham, New Hampshire. He will ma­jor in mech­anical engineering. With the skills and experiences he learns, he aspires to return to Maine and pursue a career in engineering.

 

 

June 2019 local election results (China, Vassalboro, Fairfield, Benton)

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by Mary Grow

CHINA

China voters rejected both spending requests on their June 11 local ballot. They re-approved the school budget initially approved at the April 6 town business meeting and voted to continue the school budget validation referendum for another three years.

Town Clerk Rebecca Hapgood reported the results, as follows:

  • The request to authorize selectmen to spend up to $150,000 to buy land on Lakeview Drive with frontage on China Lake, 114 in favor and 289 opposed.
  • The request to authorize selectmen to spend up to another $25,000 to continue planning for an emergency services building and a community center, 72 in favor and 332 opposed.
  • Re-approval of the 2019-2020 school budget, 261 in favor and 139 opposed.
  • Continuing the second vote on the school budget, 265 in favor and 129 opposed.

Hapgood said 406 ballots were cast.

VASSALBORO

Vassalboro’s local ballots included uncontested municipal elections and school budget questions. Town Clerk Cathy Coyne reported a total of 101 ballots cast.

Voters re-elected Selectman Robert Browne with 98 votes and school board members Jessica Clark and Kevin Levasseur with 81 and 79 votes respectively.

The school budget approved at the June 6 open part of the annual town meeting was re-approved by a vote of 87 to 14. Voters decided to continue the school budget validation referendum for another three years on a 63 to 37 vote.

FAIRFIELD

According to municipal clerk Christine Keller, 243 votes were cast at the June 11 referendum election.

MSAD #49 school budget validation referendum:

Yes: 61 – No: 182

MSAD #49 school budget process:

Yes: 158
No: 84
Blanks: 1

BENTON

The following are the results of the MSAD #49 budget validation referendum election:

Article 1: Yes: 38 – No: 70
Article 2: Yes: 71 – No: 38

Solar power tops action at town meeting

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by Mary Grow

Guided by veteran moderator Richard Thompson, 81 registered voters, according to Town Clerk Cathy Coyne, took less than two hours to approve the first 63 articles of their June 3 and June 11 town meeting warrant as presented. The meeting is now in recess until 8 a.m. Tuesday, June 11, when polls open in the town office for written-ballot action on the final three articles.

The longest discussion during the open meeting was over the selectmen’s request for authority to enter into an agreement to have solar power installed. Selectman John Melrose explained that by approving the article, voters authorized selectmen to go through with an idea they have discussed for several years. In answer to voters’ questions, Melrose said:

  • Any solar installation would be on town-owned land, with the lawn at the town garage a possibility but not necessarily the final choice.
  • According to the plan considered in the past, there would be no upfront cost to the town; money would be taken from savings in the electric bill until the project was paid off, probably in around six years.
  • The warrant article required any solar array to provide power for Vassalboro’s two fire stations, the town office and the Historical Society building (formerly the East Vassalboro School) at a minimum; Vassalboro Community School, the transfer station or other town buildings are not necessarily excluded.
  • Solar-generated power would feed into Central Maine Power Company’s system and be credited to Vassalboro; there would not be new lines from the solar array to town buildings.
    Other new proposals approved with little or no discussion included:
  • Seeking grants and using supplemental town funds to install a generator at Vassalboro Community School, so it could be used as an emergency shelter.
  • Using up to $1,000 in tax money plus grants and donations to improve Soldiers Memorial Park, in East Vassalboro, with a plan to rededicate it during the town’s 250th anniversary observance in 2020. The statue of a soldier in the park is missing its rifle; Town Manager Mary Sabins appealed to anyone who knows where it is to contact the town office.
  • Acquiring the lot on which the Riverside Fire Station stands from the Riverside Hose Company, to whom it was given many years ago conditional on use for a fire station.
  • Allowing selectmen to approve modifications to the China Lake Outlet Dam, which the town owns, as part of the Alewife Restoration Project (ARI). Resident and Department of Marine Resources employee Nate Gray estimated the planned fishway at the dam would cost somewhere around $370,000. Sabins explained that the vote does not mean the town pays $370,000; ARI is funded through grants and donations, including annual donations from the town. Voters approved $47,500 for ARI for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Voters authorized buying a new plow truck and a new police cruiser. During discussion of the cruiser, speeding problems on town roads and Police Chief Mark Brown’s duties, one resident expressed the hope that people driving to and from the Criminal Justice Academy would slow down.

Routine articles funding the various town departments were passed with little or no discussion. The transfer station request led former Selectboard member Elizabeth “Libby” Mitchell to ask whether local recycling would return.

Current Board Chairman Lauchlin Titus replied, “Libby, when I joined you as a selectperson, I didn’t know how much I’d learn about trash. Now I can talk trash with the best of ‘em.”

Titus went on to the explain that all Vassalboro trash, “to our dismay” is landfilled until the Coastal Resources plant in Hampden opens, probably in July. Once the plant is fully operational, Coastal Resources “will do our recycling for us,” he said.

Voters re-elected Donald Breton, William Browne, Philip Landry and Peggy Shafer to the budget committee and chose Christopher French to succeed Richard Phippen.

Dianna Gram plaque

Former Vassalboro Community School Principal Dianna Gram, who retired at the end of the 2017-18 school year, was recognized for her 24 years of service. School Board Chairman Kevin Levasseur and member Jolene Clark Gamage announced a tree has been planted in the school’s front yard with a plaque honoring the principal who, Gamage said, “always was a champion of the kids.”

Gram, completely surprised, said when she was bidden to attend the town meeting, she feared she had somehow messed up the budget. Her Vassalboro job wasn’t a job, she said – “It was coming here every day as part of the VCS family.”

When the town meeting continues June 11, voters will re-approve or reject the $7.7 million school budget approved June 3; decide whether to continue the second school budget vote (called the budget validation referendum) for another three years; and elect municipal officers. Selectman Robert Browne and school board members Jessica Clark and Levasseur are unopposed for re-election.

Retired principal honored at Vassalboro town meeting

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Kevin Levasseur, chairman of the Vassalboro School Board, left, Jolene Gamage, right, and retired Vassalboro Community School principal Dianna Gram, center. (Contributed photo)

Kevin Levasseur, chairman of the Vassalboro School Board, and Jolene Gamage, a board member, present a recognition to retired Vassalboro Community School principal Dianna Gram for her 24 years of service to the school. The plaque was placed at the base of a tree commissioned and planted on the front lawn near the flagpole.

The Town Line reporter Mary Grow receives Spirit of America award

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Chairman Lauchlin Titus, of the Vassalboro Board of Selectmen, and Mary Grow (Photo courtesy of Mary Sabins)

At the annual town meeting held at the Vassalboro Community School on Monday, June 3, 2019, Chairman Lauchlin Titus, of the Vassalboro Board of Selectmen, presented the 2019 Annual Spirit of America Award to Mary Grow to honor her for her commitment to exemplary local journalism as demonstrated by her years of dedicated attendance at Vassalboro board meetings, and reporting on Vassalboro activities and events to the public. The Spirit of America Foundation Tribute is presented in the name of Maine municipalities to local individuals, organizations and projects for commendable community service.

Gov. Mills visits Webber Pond dam fish ladder

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Maine Gov. Janet Mills, center, netted some alewives at the Webber Pond Dam, in Vassalboro, on a recent visit. She is flanked by Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Pat Keliher, left, and Vassalboro resident, and Webber Pond Board of Directors member Phil Inness. (photo by Jeff Nichols)

Governor Janet Mills visited the Webber Pond alewife fish ladder on Thursday, May 30. It was an historic event. She is the first governor to visit an alewife fish ladder at all, much less to bring the Commissioner of Marine Resources Pat Keliher and the Commissioner of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, Judy Camuso to Webber Pond, in Vassalboro.

Gov. Janet Mills, left, discuss alewives at Webber Pond Dam with Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Pat Keliher, right, and Vassalboro resident, and Webber Pond Board of Directors member Phil Inness, center. (Photo by Jeff Nichols)

Webber Pond Association President Frank Richards got to interact briefly. The governor seemed to be having a good time. She was interested to learn that brook trout also ascend the fish ladder and that Webber Pond has become a well-known lake in the realm of bass clubs, tournaments, and even Bassmaster’s magazine.

Webber Pond was one of the first alewife restorations and it has become something of an example for other lakes. The pond has had a run now for about 15 years; since approximately 2004 when the first adults returned from the ocean.

This year the governor’s visit was scheduled on a “Count” day. She borrowed a net from the harvester for the sake of a photo op.

A lot of the conversation centered on the environmental benefits of alewife restoration. The group also had the experience of watching an eagle swoop down and pluck an alewife out of the water.

Next year, possibly, this can be done again and scheduled on a harvest day, in order to present the economic development benefits of alewife restoration to the lobster bait business, lobstering, and especially to the marine fishery.

Alewives are more than lobster bait. They significantly increase the forage available to haddock, cod, and other species in the Gulf of Maine.

Results of dam removal

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With the removal of the Lombard Dam, in Vassalboro, another section of the China Lake Outlet Stream is flowing freely. (photo by Matt Streeter)

 

photo by Matt Streeter

The caption for the above photo has been corrected. It was an editing error.

School board decides to reluctantly raise school lunch prices by 10 cents

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Vassalboro Community School. (source: jmg.org)

by Mary Grow

At their May 21 meeting, Vassalboro School Board members reluctantly voted to raise the bill for a full-price school lunch from $2.75 this year to $2.85 for the 2019-2020 school year.

A food service memo requested the increase, explaining that it is required by the federal government, whose officials found almost a decade ago that schools were undercharging for paid meals.

Federal money reimburses Vassalboro $3.31 for each free lunch and 31 cents for each paid lunch. Vassalboro should charge the $3 difference, so that reimbursement for free meals no longer subsidizes paid meals. A federal calculator sets 10 cents a meal as the maximum annual increase until the $3.00 figure is reached. Failure to comply could lead to loss of federal funds.

On another topic, Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer said the board can choose to extend Title I services to all students, instead of only to those identified as needing extra academic support. The federal Title I program is intended to help disadvantaged students, those at risk of not doing well in school for any of a variety of social or individual reasons.

In the plan is approved, Curriculum Coordinator Mary Boyle said, Title I staff can work with students before they fall behind. She and Principal Megan Allen agreed staff would be working differently, not more, so there would be no cost increase.

Boyle is under contract with Vassalboro as a holdover from former AOS (Alternative Educational Structure) #92. School board members intend to review the three-year contract with the former AOS at a future meeting –probably not at the June 18 board meeting, Pfeiffer said, as shared personnel will be very busy with end-of-school work.

In other business May 21, board members accepted with regret resignations of Educational Technician Ellen Goodrich and bus driver Rosalie Woods and hired bus driver Clayton Rice.

They approved moving five first-year probationary teachers to second year; four second-year probationary teachers to third year; nine more from third-year probation to continuing contracts; and three from continuing to annual contracts.

They approved a 2019-2020 school calendar and a school board meeting schedule.

This year, school will end with a half day of classes on June 18, later than originally expected because of five snow days.

Before school is out, voters will have acted on the 2019-2020 budget twice, at the open town meeting beginning at 6:30 p.m. Monday, June 3, at the school and again at the June 11 budget validation written-ballot vote.

The June 11 ballot includes local elections, with School Board members Jessica Clark and Kevin Levasseur unopposed for re-election. Voting will be at the town office, with polls open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.