by Mary Grow

At a May 22 meeting, Vassalboro Board of Appeals members unanimously denied Jonathan Blumberg’s appeal of a March permit granted by Codes Officer Richard Dolby to Bernard Welch of South Stanley Hill Road.

On March 20, Dolby issued a permit to allow Welch to modify a previously-approved auxiliary building, described as a shed for processing vegetables, by adding a stairway to upstairs living quarters. Blumberg believed the permit was improperly granted, for a variety of reasons.

In a preliminary action when the appeal was first presented May 8, Blumberg challenged the adequacy of public notice. Board members John Reuthe, Leon Duff and Gary Coull voted unanimously that notice requirements were met for the May 22 meeting.

Blumberg again challenged the list of abutters who were notified, claiming it should have included residents across South Stanley Hill Road and across Outlet Stream. Welch’s lot with the building for which the permit was issued extends west to the stream; he owns a separate lot on the east side of the road.

Board members, guided by town attorney Kristin Collins, found that Welch’s second lot was not involved and that Outlet Stream is a barrier.

In other preliminary issues, board members rejected Blumberg’s claims that Collins and Reuthe were not impartial. Collins said she had nothing to do with granting the permit. Coull and Duff voted that Reuthe’s connection with Welch’s wife Jody through the Oak Grove Foundation did not constitute conflict of interest or bias.

Oak Grove Foundation spokeswoman Joann Austin said Jody Welch is on the foundation’s board and Reuthe is a candidate for membership who attended an April board meeting.

With the preliminary issues out of the way, Blumberg presented arguments against the permit, starting with Welch’s violation of Vassalboro’s subdivision ordinance in 2015 and 2016. The town ordinance prohibits issuing a permit to someone in violation of any ordinance or who has done something requiring a permit without getting the permit.

He also questioned the validity of the curb cut permit issued by the state Department of Transportation; questioned the type or types of business in which Welch engages, whether farming, a bed-and-breakfast or something else, and whether a site review permit should have been required for a new commercial operation; and claimed the septic system approved with the building was too close to a wetland.

Board members found Welch’s earlier violation had been resolved before the March 2018 permit was issued. They emphatically rejected Blumberg’s interpretation of the town ordinance as meaning that someone who acted without a required permit was thereby forever barred from getting any other town permit.

They ruled that they had no jurisdiction to review the curb cut approved by the state.

They found that the septic system permit had been properly issued, based on information Dolby supplied from state shoreland maps and his report of an inspection by state officials and local soils scientist Jack Lord.

They ruled that the modification to the building did not require a site review permit. Collins read from the town ordinance that site review requirements do not apply to residences, home occupations or agricultural occupations.

Having unanimously rejected Blumberg’s arguments, board members voted unanimously to deny his appeal.

Blumberg asked that his objections to several board actions be recorded. Collins stated Blumberg’s right to ask for a reconsideration or to appeal the board’s decision to Superior Court. The board’s decision is final as of May 22, she said, but board members will need to reconvene at a date to be determined to sign a formal notice of decision in a public meeting.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro’s auditor is happy enough with the town’s financial position, but not with the school department’s.

Reviewing the audit for the year that ended June 30, 2017, with selectmen at their May 17 meeting, Ron Smith, director and managing partner of RHR Smith & Company, in Buxton, began by pointing out the inequitable distribution of the total Vassalboro budget, about $7.5 million in school funding and about $2.5 million in municipal funding.

Based on annual expenditures and depending on what time frame is used, a municipality with a $10 million budget should have an unassigned fund balance (also known as an unrestricted or undesignated fund balance, formerly called surplus) of at least $800,000 and maybe more than $2 million, Smith said.

Vassalboro was showing a surplus of around $1.2 million at the end of the 2016-17 fiscal year, or about enough to cover 45 or 50 days’ expenditures in the event of some kind of total national financial catastrophe.

But, Smith said, the surplus is masking a deficit in the annual school budget of more than $325,000 – about $70,000 in annual loss in the school lunch program and the rest in teachers’ salaries to be paid over the summer and not funded in the school budget. “You’ve got a healthy fund balance,” Smith assured selectmen, but if school funds were not counted in with municipal funds, the municipal surplus would be a healthier $1.5 million and the school would be visibly in deficit.

From an auditor’s standpoint, there are two ways to deal with the imbalance, Smith said: raise taxes to cover the school deficit, or ask voters to approve transferring town funds to the school budget. Neither can be presented to voters at the June 4 town meeting, since the articles for the meeting are already approved and being printed.

He recommended two prompt actions:

• Town Manager Mary Sabins should call the AOS (Alternative Organizational Structure) #92 office and find out what the school’s current deficit is, and
• Selectmen should meet with school board members.

Board Chairman Lauchlin Titus explained that as of July 1, 2018, the AOS will be dissolved, by the March vote of the member towns, and Vassalboro will have its individual school department. The school board’s plan is to hire a part-time superintendent and to contract with Waterville and Winslow for most of the services now provided by the AOS central office.

Selectmen concluded from listening to Smith that in addition to dealing with school-municipal relations, they need to revise the town’s investment policy, a one-and-one-half page document adopted in 2012. Smith agreed and offered to send Sabins copies of other municipal policies and help her craft one specifically for Vassalboro for selectmen’s review.

In other business, selectmen scheduled a public hearing on the Vassalboro Sanitary District’s application for Tax Increment Finance (TIF) funds to help with the planned sewer connection to Winslow. The hearing will be at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 31, during the selectmen’s meeting that begins at 6:30 the same evening.

Board members approved a liquor license for a wine and beer tasting event, part of the Save the Mill fund-raising series, scheduled for Saturday, July 7. Board Chairman Lauchlin Titus abstained on the vote, because his wife Linda heads the Vassalboro Business Association that is sponsoring the event.