by Mary Grow

Vassalboro School Board members reviewed an unfinished 2018-19 budget and discussed it with budget committee members at two sequential meetings March 29. The preliminary $7.9 million budget at the beginning of the meetings would require an increase in local taxes of more than $495,000, which Town Manager Mary Sabins said would amount to somewhere around $1.30 for each $1,000 of valuation (about one and one-third mil).

However, that figure is already obsolete, according to AOS (Alternative Organizational Structure) #92 Superintendent Eric Haley and Finance Director Paula Pooler. For example, they had projected a nine percent increase in insurance costs, and had learned earlier that day that the increase will be zero, cutting about $63,000 in projected expenditures.

Haley and Pooler emphasized the number of expensive unknowns in each annual school budget. For example, when a special education student who needs a full-time educational technician moves into or out of Vassalboro, budget needs can increase or decrease by thousands of dollars.

Tuition costs are also hard to predict. The state does not set its figures until late in the calendar year, and the cost varies among the different high schools Vassalboro students attend, with Waterville the least expensive and Erskine Academy the most. If the state figures are higher than expected, or if more Vassalboro eighth-graders choose Erskine, or if more high-school sophomores choose the vocational schools as an option, tuition will be underfunded.

Special education is one reason the 2018-19 budget is projected to increase, Haley said. Another is teachers’ and educational technicians’ salaries, which have been negotiated. He shared results of a survey showing that Vassalboro pays most of its teachers and educational technicians less than they would get in comparable jobs in nearby school systems like Fairfield, Oakland or Madison.

Budget committee and school board members have another joint meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 10, after the school board meeting at 6 p.m. that evening (a week earlier than usual because of April school vacation).

The budget committee will also meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 5, in the town office. That evening’s selectmen’s meeting will begin at 6 p.m., also in the town office.

In addition to the budget, school board and budget committee members briefly discussed consequences of dissolving AOS #92. Vassalboro Community School will have its own part-time superintendent; school board members intend to contract with Waterville and Winslow to get the same central office services they have been getting, delivered by many of the same people, with costs determined by the same formula that has divided AOS central office costs among Vassalboro, Waterville and Winslow.

While Haley and most school board members favor a three-year contract, several budget committee members and selectmen advised starting with a one-year contract. Haley said he plans to provide enough staff members, replacements and two new hires, to serve all three former AOS schools; but he needs a three-year commitment to justify staffing. He doubts Vassalboro would find less expensive services elsewhere; Pooler warned Vassalboro might end up with none.

School Board Chairman Kevin Levasseur agreed, saying no other agency “has been beating down my door” to offer a competing proposal.

School board member Susan Tuthill said a three-year contract would allow a year to adjust, not only to the new arrangement but also to a new superintendent and principal; the second year would allow evaluation; and if problems developed, the third year could be used to explore alternatives.

Selectman John Melrose has talked with people in two other towns where go-it-alone schools have moved to in-house services. Lauchlin Titus, chairman of the selectmen, compared the proposed contract for school services with Vassalboro’s alewife harvesting contract, which started as annual and when the arrangement proved satisfactory went to three and now five years.

Pooler and Vassalboro Community School Principal Dianna Gram said the comparison is inaccurate, because Vassalboro is not “jumping into the unknown”; the school has had nine years of satisfactory service from the AOS office.

Gram was accompanied at the School board and budget committee meetings by her successor, Dr. Megan Allen, who will become principal when Gram retires at the end of June.

Maine Rivers, as part of the Alewife Restoration Initiative, has been awarded $200,000 from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundations’ (NFWF) New England Forests and Rivers grant program. The New England Forests and Rivers Fund strives to restore and sustain healthy forests and rivers that provide habitat for diverse native birds populations, as well as freshwater and diadromous fish populations. Since its founding in 1984, NFWF has supported more than 16,000 projects that protect and restore our nation’s fish and wildlife species and the habitats they need to thrive.

The goal of the Alewife Restoration Initiative is to remove impediments or install fish passages at the barriers that prevent native alewives from accessing China Lake’s spawning habitat. The project will improve the connectivity between China Lake, the Sebasticook River and the ocean, and is expected to restore an annual run of between 800,000 and 950,000 adult alewives. The restoration of the Vassalboro’s nearby Webber Pond alewife run already provides revenue to the town of Vassalboro, in 2017 this totaled more than $18,000. The China Lake run is expected to be at least twice the size of the Webber pond alewife run.

For more information about the Alewife Restoration Initiative: Landis Hudson, landis@mainerivers.org phone: 207-847-9277.

The Vassalboro public hearing, selectmen’s meeting and Budget Committee meeting postponed from March 8 due to snow are rescheduled for Thursday evening, March 22, with the public hearing at 6 p.m. followed by the selectmen’s meeting and the Budget Committee scheduled for 7 p.m. (ep)

The public hearing, held jointly with the Planning Board, is on proposed amendments to Vassalboro’s Building Permit Ordinance. Information on the proposed changes is on the town’s web site. (ep)

The selectmen’s agenda includes a discussion with Codes Officer Richard Dolby of dealing with violators of town land use regulations; a discussion with Kim Lindlof of the benefits of joining the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce; a potential appointment to the Conservation Commission; a discussion with Leon Duff and others who propose naming the Vassalboro Community School gymnasium in memory of James Mitchell; a review of responses to the request for proposals for alewife harvesting and perhaps awarding of the harvesting contract; a review of tax-acquired properties and discussion of disposal options; and preliminary plans for the 2017 town report. (ep)

The Budget Committee planned to spend most of its March 8 meeting in discussion with town department heads. (ep)

There is one vacant seat on the Budget Committee, to be filled at the June 4 town meeting. People interested in the position are invited to attend Budget Committee meetings or to submit their names to the town office.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Budget Committee members used their March 1 organizational meeting for a preliminary, partial review of the proposed 2018-19 municipal budget developed by Town Manager Mary Sabins and town selectmen.

As the meeting ended, they tentatively scheduled future meetings for March 8, primarily to talk with town department heads (Road Foreman Eugene Field, Transfer Station Manager George Hamar, Police Chief Mark Brown, Fire Chief Eric Rowe or a representative, First Responders Chief Dan Mayotte); March 20 with the school board; and March 22 with representatives of three nonprofit organizations asking for town funds.

• Interested residents are welcome at all budget committee meetings – especially, Selectman Lauchlin Titus said, residents who might seek election to the committee in June. John Melrose’s seat is vacant, because he was elected to the board of selectmen in last November’s special election.

Likely topics for the March 8 discussion include new vehicles for the public works department and the police chief, a new roof for the Riverside fire station and mileage reimbursement for First Responders.

Sabins said Field is ready to buy a new truck while the one he drives has trade-in value; selectmen prefer to wait a year. The police cruiser raises the same question: replace it now, or wait until next year (and increase the 2018-19 maintenance budget). Firefighters want $25,000 for a metal roof on the Riverside station, including replacing the fairly new shingles on the addition so snow sliding off the metal won’t damage them. Titus said a complication is that the town does not own the building, though he said the fire department might consider turning over ownership. Budget committee member and firefighter Donald Breton said the department’s deed says if the department ceases to exist, the land reverts to the previous owner’s heirs, but he does not know whether any are still alive.

Sabins said the first responders answered more than 300 calls last year. They request $3,500 for mileage reimbursement (not for stipends). Newly-elected budget committee Chairman Rick Denico said he recently witnessed a traffic accident and was pleased at how quickly Vassalboro First Responders and firefighters reached the scene.

Budget committee members will probably not ask to hear from representatives of non-profit organizations and social service agencies that received funds for the current year and submitted written requests for 2018-19. They would like to meet on March 22 with people from 47 Daisies, The Town Line newspaper and the China Region Lakes Alliance.

According to its website, 47 Daisies is a community farm on Webber Pond Road offering naturally grown produce (the web site lists vegetables, berries and mushrooms) and flowers, educational programs and public access to the property. The organization asks for $2,500 in town support, its first request. (ep)

The Town Line has applied for town funds previously, but not for the last few years, so its request for $3,000 is being treated as new. The China Region Lakes Alliance is open for discussion because Sabins and selectmen recommend only one-third of the requested $15,000 and because at least one Vassalboro resident has expressed interest in talking with the budget committee.

Other points from the March 1 meeting:

• The selectmen and Sabins present different recommendations for the 2018-19 administration budget, primarily because Sabins recommends three percent employee raises and selectmen recommend two percent.
• Sabins reported that the new Fiberight plant will not be ready to receive waste from Vassalboro’s transfer station by the scheduled April 1 opening date – the delay might last most of 2018. In the interim, she said, Vassalboro’s waste will go to the Crossroads Landfill in Norridgewock, at the same tipping fee ($70 per ton) and a lower trucking fee ($200 per load versus $225) because of the shorter distance.
• The Cemetery Committee is asking for $40,000, mostly for mowing and to begin computerizing cemetery records. Sabins said she is applying for the second time for a grant to help with the records and expects a decision before the town meeting warrant is final. Meanwhile, she said, Vassalboro “has no cemetery records to speak of”; a volunteer census in the 1990s compiled lists of names, but without tying them to graves.
• Sabins reported discouragingly low ridership on the Kennebec Valley Community Action Program (KVCAP) buses serving Vassalboro and China, despite a survey that found transportation the most needed service in town. Nonetheless, she recommended continuing the program for another year. KVCAP has asked for $1,450, she said. She added that FAVOR (Friends Advocating for Vassalboro’s Older Residents), prime mover in starting the bus service, will sponsor a second senior service fair in May, in the planned community center in the former St. Bridget’s Church in North Vassalboro.