by Mary Grow

Vassalboro selectmen signed the final warrant for the June 5 and 13 town meeting at their May 4 meeting, after public hearings on two ordinances that are included and a final discussion of school funding.

The ordinances, in Articles 24 and 25 of the 68-article warrant, are titled “Town of Vassalboro Shoreland Zoning Ordinance as revised November 2016” and “Vassalboro Sanitary District Charter, as revised March 2017.” Copies of both are available at the town office and on the town web site.

Planning board members and sanitary district trustees attended the hearings to answer audience questions. There were none about the sanitary district charter; several people were interested in the revised shoreland ordinance. Planning Board Chairman Virginia Brackett told them:

• The revisions presented June 5 are the same ones that voters rejected in November. She said without exit polling, she did not know why voters did not approve the changes. Selectman Lauchlin Titus surmised that voters did not understand the changes and therefore voted against them.
• The major change is from volume to floor area or impervious surface as the standard for deciding how much a building in the shoreland can be expanded. The change means, for example, that basements can now be allowed, as they do not change the area of impervious surface. Brackett and others think voter approval of the changes would increase expansions of camps and houses within 250 feet of lakes.
• The revised ordinance transfer authority over timber harvesting in the shoreland zone from the town to the state, a change Brackett expects would provide more expert regulation.

A two-page handout summarizing changes from the current to the proposed ordinance is also available at the town office and on the web site.

Selectmen commended planning board members for their hard work on the ordinance revisions.

The one issue remaining in the town meeting warrant presented May 4 was a wording question in the article added to deal with possible additional state school funding, beyond what the school board currently expects.

Over a series of meetings, school board and budget committee members and selectmen have predicted the legislature will provide more than the $3.644 million in the current list of school revenues. That figure is more than $249,000 lower than the current year’s subsidy.

However, no one knows what the final figure will be, and legislative action is not expected until after Vassalboro’s town meeting.

To deal with anticipated post-town-meeting changes in the state education subsidy, school officials proposed an article at the end of the school budget asking voters to authorize giving part of any additional state revenue to the town to make up for the amount required from property taxes, $338,681 in the budget as it now stands. Initially, the school board approved that wording, while selectmen endorsed an article that would have given the town all unanticipated state revenue.

At the May 4 meeting, School Board Chairman Kevin Levasseur asked indignantly if town officials expected a million dollars if the state should somehow provide that much. Selectmen agreed on an article saying the town will receive up to $338,681 in additional state revenue, if it materializes; should the state subsidy increase even more than that, the rest would go to the school budget.

In other business May 4, selectmen again discussed the request to designate a handicapped parking place in front of Hairbuilders on Oak Grove Road. Town Manager Mary Sabins said a representative of Lucas Striping told Road Commissioner Eugene Field that marking the area would cost about $100, and that it needed a 16-foot-wide area. Selectmen advised asking Field to measure to see if that much space is available without running into the road or onto the sidewalk.

Sabins and Selectman Philip Haines reported briefly on a meeting they attended at which a preliminary plan for a fishway at the China Lake Outlet Dam was displayed.

The next regular Vassalboro selectmen’s meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, May 18.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro selectmen scheduled public hearings for 7 p.m. Thursday, May 4, on two of the currently 68 articles on the June 5 town meeting warrant.

• Art. 24 asks voters if they will approve amendments to the town’s Shoreland Zoning Ordinance. Voters rejected the changes in November 2016 on a written ballot by a little over 200 votes, 981 in favor to 1186 opposed.
• Art. 25 asks if voters will approve a revised Sanitary District Charter.

Copies of both documents are available at the town office and on the Town of Vassalboro web site.

Selectmen reviewed a draft of the town meeting warrant at their April 20 meeting. The warrant is still incomplete, because the budget committee has not finished its review; a budget committee meeting was scheduled for Tuesday evening, April 25. Selectmen agreed with appropriations recommended by the budget committee earlier in April, including changing some of their previously-recommended amounts and deleting the article that would have asked voters to buy a police vehicle.

They are scheduled to sign the final warrant on May 4, during the selectmen’s meeting that follows the public hearings.

The deadline for submitting signed nomination papers for elective positions on the board of selectmen, school board and sanitary district board of trustees is 4 p.m. Monday, May 1, for candidates’ names to appear on the June 13 ballot.
The June 5 open town meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at Vassalboro Community School. June 13 written-ballot voting will be from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the town office.

In other business April 20, selectmen discussed requesting a state-approved handicapped parking space in front of Hairbuilders on Oak Grove Road with owner Beth Morse, Public Works Director Eugene Field, Police Chief Mark Brown and David Allen of the Maine Department of Transportation.

Morse explained that drivers ignore her unofficial sign, making access difficult for her customers who use wheelchairs, walkers or canes. Selectmen wondered how many other town businesses might need handicapped spaces on public ways, how much additional street painting would cost and how the restriction could be enforced. They plan to get more information and return to the topic at one of their May meetings.

Selectmen signed a proclamation designating May 7 through 13 as Municipal Clerks’ Week. According to the International Institute of Municipal Clerks’ web site, the week “will feature a week-long series of activities aimed at increasing the public’s awareness of municipal clerks and the vital services they provide for local government and the community.” Town Manager Mary Sabins said Vassalboro town office staff will “continue to provide service to the public as we have always done,” with no special events planned.

by Mary Grow

VASSALBORO — At the end of their third 2017 meeting, Vassalboro Budget Committee members agreed on two things: they cannot start making recommendations on the 2017-18 municipal budget until after they talk with school officials about the school budget, and they might need more than one other meeting after two joint meetings with the School Board.

The school board is scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 30, at the school, to be joined at 7 p.m. by the budget committee. The two boards meet again Tuesday, April 4, probably at 7 p.m. at the school. The budget committee plans to meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 13, at the town office, and if necessary Tuesday, April 18, same time and place.

As in past years, budget committee members have differing views on basic questions, including whether and if so how they should recommend a municipal budget that will not raise property taxes; whether town equipment needed part-time should be rented or bought (referring specifically to the excavator the public works department has been leasing); and whether necessary equipment purchases should be financed by setting aside reserve funds or borrowing money when it’s needed.

After their initial meeting March 9, budget committee members met March 21 with representatives of non-profit and social service agencies and March 23 to consider capital improvements and other issues.

Committee members heard presentations from Nan Bell of the Family Violence Project, which served 23 Vassalboro residents last year; Lucille Murphy of the Waterville area Literacy Volunteers, an agency that has not previously asked for town support; Jim Wood of Kennebec Valley Community Action Program (KVCAP) transportation services; Lee Duff of Friends Advocating for Vassalboro Older Residents (FAVOR), also making its first request; Jim Hart of the China Region Lakes Alliance (CRLA); and new police chief Mark Brown.

Murphy said there has been “an alarming increase in illiteracy in Maine” that Literacy Volunteers aims to combat. She added that the percentage of children not reading proficiently by fourth grade has been found to be an indicator of future need for prisons. Brown nodded agreement.

Wood has been working with Town Manager Mary Sabins to expand transportation services to Vassalboro and perhaps China. Duff said FAVOR’s purpose it to determine how best to organize support for senior citizens, including but not limited to KVCAP transportation.

Hart summarized three major CRLA projects: the courtesy boat inspections that seek to protect China Lake and nearby lakes from invasive plants; the Youth Conservation Corps, which includes the LakeSmart program recognizing landowners who minimize pollution from their properties; and the Alewife Restoration Initiative (ARI) aimed at restoring sea-run alewives to China Lake via the Sebasticook River and Outlet Stream.

Family Violence asked for $4,925 from the town; the selectmen and town manager recommend $2,500. Literacy Volunteers requested $500, not supported by the selectmen. KVCAP asked for $1,350, supported. CRLA asked for $15,000; the selectmen recommend $5,000. FAVOR’s $1,000 request has the selectmen’s endorsement.

Police Chief Brown’s main concern was the proposed new police vehicle, suggested by his predecessor, Richard Phippen (who is a budget committee member). Brown has specifications on a Ford Explorer, with an estimated cost of $35,000 including equipment. Trading in or selling the current vehicle would contribute toward the new one.

Committee Chairman John Melrose raised a broader issue: does Vassalboro need a policeman, or should town residents rely on county and state law enforcement? The 2017-18 request for public safety totals almost $68,000, with almost $14,500 for animal control, $26,476 for dispatching and the rest for the police chief’s salary, benefits, equipment and vehicle maintenance.

At the March 23 meeting Sabins summarized the town’s revenues and answered committee members’ questions about employees’ salaries and benefits. She recommends three percent salary increases next year except for herself; her contract calls for a two percent increase.

by Mary Grow

The Vassalboro selectmen’s March 9 meeting was followed by an initial 2017 Budget Committee meeting at which major department heads presented funding requests.
Selectmen and two cemetery committee members discussed a plan to find out for sure who is buried where in Vassalboro cemeteries, a plan set back by recent denial of a grant application for the project.

Town Manager Mary Sabins and Selectman Philip Haines know of a man with ground-penetrating radar they could hire to work on the project. Board Chairman Lauchlin Titus said two area women who call themselves grave-dowsers might help. Cost of the project is estimated at $50,000. Currently, Sabins said, the town has more than $12,000 in the fund that came with the Cross Hill Cemetery when it became a town-managed graveyard plus more than $5,000 in interest from the cemetery perpetual care fund. The principal in the perpetual care fund cannot be spent, she said.

Selectmen are likely to propose asking voters to contribute to the project. They did not have an opportunity to present the idea at the budget committee meeting.
Another issue at the selectmen’s meeting was the 2016 town report. Board members unanimously accepted Titus’s suggestion that the former mill superintendent’s house in North Vassalboro be the centerpiece, and talked about some of its history. Anyone with documented knowledge about the building or any of its owners or inhabitants is invited to get in touch with Sabins at the town office.

Budget committee members spent two hours hearing presentations from Transfer Station Manager George Hamar, Public Works Director Eugene Field and Sabins on 2017-18 budget requests for solid waste disposal, road maintenance and town government.

Sabins recommends three percent salary increases for town employees, except two percent for herself.

The transfer station budget shows increases in trash-hauling costs and equipment maintenance. The latter, Hamar said, is because the town’s old backhoe, which he used to borrow from public works, has been turned over to his department. Although he adds maintenance and fuel costs, he gains convenience.
Field said the past winter depleted the supply of road salt more than usual, and he is also low on culverts. The longest discussion was over paving and – mostly – repaving town roads. Field had asked for almost $900,000; selectmen recommend less than $400,000.

The selectmen’s March 9 list includes part of Taber Hill, Cross Hill and Cushnoc roads, Holman Day Road, Webber Pond Extension, Mill Hill and more of the Hunt Road. Titus said they deleted the Nelson Road and town buildings’ parking lots from Field’s list to save money.

Budget committee members asked questions, but made no decisions. Their next meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 21. Sabins plans to invite representatives of two social service agencies applying for town funds for the first time and one whose budget request has been cut, and to notify other out-of-town agencies of the meeting. Also scheduled to attend are Police Chief Mark Brown to talk about replacing Vassalboro’s 2007 police car and a representative of Vassalboro Rescue to discuss that budget request.
On Thursday, March 23, selectmen will again meet an hour earlier than usual, at 6 p.m., leaving time for a 7 p.m. budget committee meeting.