Vassalboro budget Committee begins work on 2025-26 FY

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March 18 meeting

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Budget Committee members began their first 2025 meeting on March 18 by re-electing Peggy Schaffer committee chairman. Town Manager Aaron Miller summarized some of the budget highlights, and Vassalboro Historical Society members explained part of their request.

Committee members then reviewed the first nine accounts on their budget sheets.

They quit at 9 p.m. as they reached the recreation budget, expecting a long discussion on that topic to start their March 25 meeting.

The committee was presented with Miller’s budget draft number six. Select board members had reviewed the prior drafts, which changed slightly based on their recommendations and as more and updated information became available.

The Vassalboro Historical Society asked for and received $5,000 for the current year; the 2025-26 request is for $10,000.

The additional money, spokesman John Melrose explained, would let the organization again hire a part-time curator, whose job would primarily be to continue digitizing town records so they will be available on line. Melrose talked about the numerous and varied records and other resources the society has and the need to make them more widely available.

Because Vassalboro owns the former schoolhouse that is the society’s headquarters and museum, the town pays building maintenance and repair expenses. In the past, town funds have not covered operating expenses.

After the historical society discussion, major accounts reviewed included administration, public works, solid waste, road work and paving, the volunteer fire department, public safety, ambulance service and capital improvements.

As of March 18, the administration request for 2025-26 totaled $666,836, up barely over $37,000 from the current year. Major discussion topics included increases in technology, which Miller explained as mostly updates of antiquated systems and changes that would keep the town office operating during power outages.

The March 18 public works request stood at $637,269, a decrease of well over $10,000 from the current year. The main reason is that new public works director Brian Lajoie is lower on the pay scale than his predecessor was.

For the transfer station, the March 18 draft totaled $404,198. The increase of almost $27,000 was mainly in projected disposal fees and hauling costs. Select board member Chris French explained that higher hauling costs are recommended in anticipation of the reopening of a Hampden recycling facility, which is farther from Vassalboro than the Norridgewock landfill currently taking the town’s waste.

Road work costs were projected at slightly over $545,000, a decrease of almost $25,000 from the current year.

The Vassalboro fire department’s request for $111,849 was more than $15,000 over the current year. The largest requested increases were in stipends for the firefighters and Chief Walker Thompson’s much-discussed request for a $5,000 stipend for assistant chief Bob Williams.

The public safety request for more than $103,000 represented an increase of almost $4,600 over the current year, mostly for mileage for the animal control officer and dispatch fees.

As expected, Delta Ambulance’s fee per resident rose, increasing the town’s 2025-26 bill to almost $147,000.

For capital improvements, discussed at length by both select board and budget committee members, the March 18 recommendation stood at just over $366,000. The increase over the current year would be a little over $239,000. Select board chairman Frederick “Rick” Denico Jr., pointed out that the 2024-25 capital reserve budget was the lowest since the 2020-21 fiscal year.

Committee members also reviewed the smaller budget request for first responders, an increase of $905 to a little over $18,000.

The price of electricity was discussed as several town departments were reviewed. Electricity is not a large budget item, but committee members had questions about the consistent increases and whether Vassalboro is benefiting from its membership in a community solar farm.

They continued the discussion on March 25.

March 25 meeting

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Budget Committee members resumed their review of the draft 2025-26 town budget on March 25, with Town Manager Aaron Miller’s seventh draft in front of them. They spent the first half hour talking inconclusively about the recreation program and another 20 minutes on the fire department’s request.

From the summer of 2022, recreation was headed by Community Program Director Karen Stankis. She resigned in March.

Before select board members created and voters funded Stankis’s position, town-sponsored recreation was youth sports, with a volunteer commissioner for each sport and the group maintaining Vassalboro’s ball fields on Bog Road and coordinating activities.

Stankis oversaw most of the maintenance and coordination tasks, and expanded activities to include residents of all ages.

Youth sports commissioners, Michael Cayouette and Michael Phelps, discussed the program with budget committee members.

Cayouette asked whether they plan to recommend a new director. Meanwhile, he said, he cannot get approval to use Vassalboro Community School facilities for planned baseball clinics; Stankis used to coordinate with school personnel, and he does not qualify as an “accountable person.”

Miller said he will find out what town officials are qualified to oversee town activities at school facilities and try to get Cayouette in.

Cayouette said the number of Vassalboro youngsters in town sports programs has declined; many join Augusta or Winslow programs instead.

Select board member Chris French said with Stankis’s resignation, the select board needs to decide whether to continue her position, decrease the program back toward its pre-2022 focus or perhaps expand it still more. No decision has been made.

The preliminary 2025-26 budget includes funding for a part-time director, Budget Committee Chairman Peggy Shaffer said.

Discussion will continue among select board and budget committee members and sports commissioners.

Vassalboro Fire Chief Walker Thompson repeated his request for a $5,000 stipend for assistant chief Bob Williams. He listed the many administrative-type things Williams handles: overseeing vehicle inspections and maintenance, dealing with insurance company representatives and the state fire marshal’s office, representing Vassalboro’s department at meetings when Thompson is unavailable, assisting with town responsibilities like inspecting solar arrays and marijuana growing operations.

Thompson said Williams put in 389 administrative hours last year and put 3,138 miles on his personal vehicle.

The chief reported that since Jan. 1, 2025, Vassalboro firefighters have responded to 49 calls, compared to 21 by the same time in 2024. They get stipends for responding to calls (and for required truck checks, but not for activities like training and department meetings), he said.

Asked if the budgeted amount for 2025-26 firefighters’ stipends, $25,000, is sufficient, Thompson replied if the call volume stays up, “Probably not.”

Budget committee members made no recommendations on the fire department budget request.

They continued with brief discussions of other accounts, including:

— The Vassalboro Public Library request for $74,000. Committee member Douglas Phillips pointed out that the town now pays so much of the library’s expenses that it has become “almost a town library” instead of a private organization.
— Utilities, listed as street lights and hydrants, including discussion of whether the town is billed for more hydrants than it uses.
— A return to the Vassalboro Historical Society request discussed a week earlier. Select board member Michael Poulin said the proposed $10,000 curator seemed to have changed from an archivist to a program director. Budget committee member William Browne said this organization, like the library, is moving toward becoming a town entity.

Budget committee member Douglas Phillips urged the group to try researching on line – a lot of information has been made available, he said.

The total amount Vassalboro taxpayers can expect to be billed in 2025-26 remained unknown as the March 25 meeting ended. Two major accounts, the school budget (always higher than the municipal budget) and the Kennebec County tax, were undetermined.

As of March 30, the Vassalboro School Board had not set a time for continued budget review, after a partial review at their March 4 meeting (see the March 13 issue of The Town Line, p. 3). School board and budget committee members were scheduled to meet at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 3, at the school.

EVENTS: History of Sanitary District topic of WHS talk

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Kennebec Sanitary Treatment District

Join local resident and Kennebec Sanitary Treatment District Superintendent, Nick Champagne, for a photo journey through the process of creating the facility and how it serves to keep the Kennebec River clean. First, we will learn the common misconceptions about what KSTD is and does, and the areas it serves (much more than just Waterville). He will walk you through the steps of the incredible earthwork which was done to prepare the site and everything that went into the building process. Then the journey will bring you to what they do today, much of what was not envisioned back when it was created.

Nick also wants to hear your memories about what this area of Water Street was like before the facility was built.

Saturday, April 5, door opens at 2 p.m., Nick’s presentation begins at 2:30 p.m. Admission is free, donations gladly accepted! Light refreshments are available.

Look for the Redington Museum sign at 62 Silver Street.

VUMC receives grant to remove steeple

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Employees of Burke Roofing, from West Gardiner, working at Vassalboro United Methodist Church last fall, as they repaired the roof and removed the steeple. (contributed photo)

The $40,000 price tag came as an unexpected shock to folks at the Vassalboro United Methodist Church (VUMC) last fall when, in the middle of installing a new lift/elevator they found major damage to their steeple and roof that required immediate attention. Fortunately, the $80,000 required for the lift installation had already been raised but another $40,000 felt insurmountable to them at the time. During the planning and installation of the lift they had become known within Methodist circles as “the little church that could,” and they were determined to continue on that course.

Some of the VUMC leadership team set a plan in motion – first to find a contractor who could do the job, then to get estimates and finally to identify and secure funding sources. The United Methodist Foundation of New England agreed to extend VUMC a three year loan, during which time they could try to raise enough money to pay it off by 2027, when the balance would become a mortgage. Challenge accepted.

An anonymous donor set off fundraising efforts by issuing a $5,000 matching grant. Through individual donations and three special events VUMC raised what was needed, and they received the matching grant in February. To date $13,172.68 has been raised and $10,000 applied to the loan principle. The rest has been retained to make the interest payments on the interest. More will be applied to the principle when sufficient funds have been accumulated with the goal of paying off the loan by 2027.

Donations can be made to the building fund at the Vassalboro United Methodist Church at 614 Main Street, Vassalboro 04989, write building fund in the memo line. FMI about VUMC programs and services phone (207) 873-5564; email vumc.info@­gmail.com or follow the Vassalboro United Methodist Church Facebook page.

Vassalboro cemetery committee mulls over which trees to take down

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by Mary Grow

During a short March 17 meeting, Vassalboro Cemetery Committee members decided the survey of trees in the Nelson Road Cemetery should be redone before the town seeks a contractor to take down any of them.

Committee member David Jenney said after previous discussions with cemetery committee and conservation commission members, Timothy Basham, owner of Basham Tree Service, Inc., in South China, had marked five of the seven pine trees in the cemetery for removal, as potential hazards.

Jenney was not convinced the other two pines should be left.

Committee members Jane Aiudi and Cindy Spaulding said they had trouble distinguishing Basham’s marks from other pieces of tape and flagging in the cemetery. Since residents, too, were supposed to weigh in on what trees should be removed, they recommend a clearer marking system.

Aiudi and, from the audience, conservation commission member Steve Jones wanted more information on the grading system Basham used to decide what trees should go.

Chairman Savannah Clark said she will ask Town Manager Aaron Miller about having the work redone to meet the concerns.

Committee members briefly discussed three other matters.

— Clark said select board members seem to favor adding insurance to cover town volunteers, like residents who inspect and help maintain cemeteries, in the 2025-26 budget.
— Committee members are not sure whether they are allowed to spend interest from cemetery funds, with select board approval. Apparently the auditor has said no; but Aiudi and Jenney are sure interest has been spent in the past. Clark will clarify with Miller.
— Committee member Jody Kundreskas reported that stone restorer Joseph Ferrannini, of Grave Stone Matters, in Hoosick Falls, New York, will be in Vassalboro from July 10 to July 13. Committee members will decide later where to ask him to apply his expertise.

The next Vassalboro Cemetery Committee meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, April 21.

Vassalboro select board discusses town recreational program future

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro select board members began their March 20 meeting with a short discussion of the town recreation program, since resident Michael Phelps had attended the meeting to hear about it.

Now that Community Program Director Karen Stankis has resigned, town officials are pondering whether to continue the program they approved in 2022, go back to youth sports only or develop a new option.

Select board members proposed continued discussion at the March 25 budget committee meeting and at their April 3 meeting. They agreed on one point: cooperation between the town and the school, which has included sharing facilities, ought to continue.

The major items on the March 20 agenda were continued discussion of the town’s personnel policy and a review of the fund policy.

The personnel policy, which has been discussed at multiple meetings since the spring of 2024, will be reviewed once more and forwarded to the town’s attorney for his review. Board members hope to have it ready to take effect July 1.

Discussion of the fund policy included consideration of the shortage of available money in late summer: Vassalboro’s quarterly taxes are paid at the end of September, November, February and April, leaving a five-month gap.

Town Manager Aaron Miller does not expect any financial problems before the September taxes come in.

Board members considered briefly rearranging tax due dates. Action, if any, was postponed until another discussion at the April 3 select board meeting, with auditor Ron Smith, head of RHR Smith & Company, invited to participate if he is available.

In other business March 20:

— Board members unanimously approved closing the transfer station on Easter Sunday, April 20.
— Miller said the technician who planned to make repairs to the town office boiler advised replacing it instead, as he feared one repair would merely lead to another and another. Miller will seek quotes for a replacement.

The next regular Vassalboro select board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 3.

VASSALBORO: Revised plan for safer transfer station facilities expected

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by Mary Grow

At their March 20 meeting, Vassalboro transfer station task force members decided on new instructions for engineer Jeff Senders that they expect will give them a revised plan for a safer facility.

The group, with select board members and transfer station staff, have talked for several years about redesigning the Lombard Dam Road facility to eliminate the need for residents to back up to a hopper to dispose of trash.

An earlier design that included a drive-through building has been replaced by a simpler idea, providing covered hoppers that residents can drive alongside. Other proposed improvements include covering all waste containers against rain and snow; minimizing two-way traffic; and, if station manager Adam Daoust has his preference, putting cement pads as bases wherever any form of disposables is stored.

Daoust and task force members discussed installing scales, to weigh things like demolition debris. Currently, according to the town website, disposal of demolition debris requires a demolition permit from the transfer station, with fees based on volume.

Earlier recommended improvements were designed by Waterville-based A. E. Hodsdon engineers. In November 2023, Vassalboro select board members sought bids to build a 60-by-80-foot Hodsdon-designed metal building at the transfer station.

Receiving only one bid, from SENDERS science, engineering and construction in Camden, they postponed action. Company head Jeff Sanders visited the facility in January 2024; at a Jan. 25 meeting, select board members contracted with the company to redesign the facility, help seek grants to fund the work and get required permits.

By November 2024, Senders had submitted three versions of a plan, each with a roofed, open-ended drive-through area and separate entrances from and exits onto Lombard Dam Road. New station manager Adam Daoust told select board members at a Nov. 13 meeting the plan seemed overly complicated; he recommended adding covers over two hoppers and leaving the two-way driveway.

Meanwhile, the town had foreclosed on a property adjoining the transfer station on the east, opening the possibility of buying land for a future expansion. This possibility is complicated by a woods road running off Lombard Dam Road, which may or may not have a legal right-of-way, and by wetlands and a small stream on the property.

Town Manager Aaron Miller has had the adjacent property surveyed. At the March 20 task force meeting he said he had hired an appraiser to value it.

Under current state law on foreclosed properties, the town is allowed to recoup all costs associated with the property before paying the heirs what is left of the appraised value – or, perhaps, buying some land from them.

Before the meeting, task force member Douglas Phillips had visited China’s transfer station. He approved of the small drive-by bins provided for residents with only a few bags of trash and recommended Vassalboro find space for similar bins, if emptying them frequently will not be too much extra work for Daoust and his assistant.

Phillips said China staff use a forklift to empty the bins; the Vassalboro facility doesn’t have one. No one knew whether all available types of small bins require a forklift.

Task force members and Daoust came up with a list of what they want Senders to include in a revised plan. They asked for three options, as with the previous Senders plan.

The next task force meeting will be scheduled after Miller finds out how much time Senders needs to provide the requested plans.

Update on plans for improving water quality on Webber Pond

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Webber Pond.

Watershed survey planned for May 15 – 17

submitted by Susan Traylor
Webber Pond Association, Chairman of the Water Quality Committee

Given worsening water quality in recent years that has resulted in nuisance algal blooms (including harmful cyanobacteria), in 2024 a group of local community volunteers sought and obtained state and federal grants, along with support from the towns of Vassalboro and Windsor, the China Region Lakes Alliance, the Sage Foundation, and Lake Stewards of Maine/Maine Lakes to develop an updated Watershed Based Management Plan (WBMP) for Webber, Three mile and Three cornered ponds. This “Tri-WBMP” will include a 10-year “Action Plan” to help restore water quality in all three ponds.

A WBMP is an important planning tool for restoring water quality in lakes that don’t meet state/federal water quality standards. Webber Pond and Threemile Pond are listed as “impaired lakes” because they don’t meet state standards, while upstream Threecornered Pond is listed as “threatened” based on available water quality data. The previous WBMP for these interconnected ponds expired in 2015. We need an updated WBMP to request state and federal funding for restoration efforts. Water and sediment sampling and analysis are underway to update our understanding of the cause of the recent water quality declines, and to assist with developing science-based recommendations to restore (Webber and Three mile) and to protect (Three cornered) water quality.

In addition to sampling, a watershed survey will be completed this spring on all 3 ponds to identify areas where polluted stormwater runoff (primarily soil erosion) is resulting in excess phosphorus in the ponds. Excess phosphorus is the primary cause for severe algae and cyanobacteria blooms.

Volunteers are needed to assist with the watershed survey planned for May 15-17, 2025. We will be providing more information for potential volunteers in the next couple of weeks. The survey is non-regulatory and participation is voluntary. Landowners do not need to be present for the survey, but they are welcome to participate and ask questions.

With the help of a team of experts, the data collected will be analyzed and used to develop a list of recommendations and estimated costs for improving water quality over the next 10 years. The Tri-WBMP should be completed by late 2026/early 2027. Approval of the plan will allow local project partners to seek additional state and federal funding to implement recommendations. The ultimate goal is to improve water quality, prevent toxic algae blooms and enhance recreational use of the ponds, with benefits to property values and the local economy.

Up and Down the Kennebec Valley: Vassalboro Ctr. / Getchell’s Corner

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Getchell’s Corner church (Photo by Roland D. Hallee)

by Mary Grow

When Henry Kingsbury started his detailed description of the Town of Vassalboro in his 1892 Kennebec County history, he named six “post hamlets” and five “prominent localities.” Each post village was also a “manufacturing and mercantile” center, he said.

The first village he named was then called Vassalboro, or Vassalboro Corners, and had been first known as Getchell’s Corner or Corners, recognizing early settler John Getchell Sr., and his sons. Alternate spellings of Getchell include Getchel, Gatchell and Gatchel.

Kingsbury wrote that John Getchell bought the area where in 1892 the stores stood, and his sons “were scattered above and below, along the river road.”

(The river road was what is now a section of old Route 201, called Dunham Road, along the Kennebec. Current Route 201 is farther from the river; the old road roughly parallels it for about a mile. Dunham Road forms a four-way intersection with Station Hill Road, which ends at the river, and a short connector between old and new roads named Alpine Street.

Getchell sons Kingsbury named were Abial (or Abiel), who settled south of the blacksmith named Stephen Hanson, and John Jr., on the east bank of Southwick Brook. (Contemporary maps name neither of the small brooks that flow into the Kennebec north and south of the four corners.)

Kingsbury also mentioned a brook “back of Isaiah Gifford’s residence” that might have been Southwick Brook. He wrote that there was “evidence” the brook had been dammed and “tradition” telling of a pail factory and an ashery that Jacob Southwick had run.

(An ashery, Wikipedia says, “converts hardwood ashes into lye, potash, or pearlash,” all ingredients in soap-making.)

These factories must have been well above the Kennebec, because Kingsbury said Southwick ran a plaster mill downstream from them on the east – inland – side of the river road.

At the mouth of the brook, Kingsbury wrote, John Getchell’s sawmill had “gone into decay” before 1816. In 1816, Southwick and Prince Hopkins built a large tannery near the remains of the mill that apparently ran until Southwick died in 1855.

(Jacob Southwick’s brother, Dr. Edward Southwick, built a tannery in North Vassalboro that was in 1820 the largest in New England, according to both Kingsbury and Alma Pierce Robbins, in her 1971 Vassalboro history.)

There were two other tanneries at Getchell’s Corner, Thomas Frye’s “near Philip Hanson’s barn, in the rear of the hotel” and Thomas or Ebenezer Frye’s in an old currier’s shop on what was in 1892 George S. Smiley’s lot.

FamilySearch says Thomas and Ebenezer Frye or Fry were brothers, two of Joshua and Mary (Jones) Frye’s eight children born in Vassalboro between 1790 and 1806.

The Corner area hosted at least four 19th-century boot and shoe factories, Kingsbury said. Franklin D. Dunham started the biggest one about 1835, in a building that used to be in front of his 1892 house; when it burned, he moved into a building south of the post office, where the business ran until 1879 or 1880.

Dunham sometimes had as many as 100 people working in his factory. “He turned the business into the manufacture of brogans prior to and during the civil war,” Kingsbury wrote.

(Wikipedia defines a brogan as a heavy, ankle-high boot and says brogans or something similar were common military footwear, including for both Civil War armies.)

Getchell’s Corner Grange (Photo by Roland D. Hallee)

The other boot and/or shoe factories were owned by Joseph Estes, in the building that was in 1892 the Grange Hall, contemporaneously with Dunham and sometimes employing 50 hands; by Caleb Nichols, above his store; and by William Tarbell, in a building “on the green next north of the Congregational chapel” that had been moved and converted to a stable by 1892.

There were also at least two hat shops and one clock-maker (Oliver Brackett) at Getchell’s Corner.

By 1892, the major industry was the Portland Canning Company’s 1882 factory that processed primarily corn and apples – in 1890, “over 6,000 one-gallon cans of apples,” Kingsbury wrote.

Kingsbury did not date the first store in the settlement, which he said John Getchell Sr., ran. A “corner store” still operating in 1892 was built “early in the century as a double store,” shared by Joseph R. Abbott and Daniel Marshall. It went through a succession of owners, including Southwick and Hopkins, and Nichols in partnership with one of the Prescotts, Josiah or E. W.

The hotel mentioned above Kingsbury said was Vassalboro’s first. Daniel Marshall opened the building that became the hotel as a tavern “soon after the war of 1812,” and it went through a series of owners and was still open in 1892.

When daily stagecoaches between Augusta and Bangor ran through Vassalboro, the hotel was a stop where horses were changed, Kingsbury said.

“Tradition” said there was another hotel in a house that burned in 1830, “probably the house in which John Getchell had the first store.”

So many businesses required a local bank, Kingsbury wrote, and in the 1820s the Southwicks organized Negeumkeag Bank, which ran until around 1840, with Dr. Edward Southwick (Jacob’s brother, Kingsbury said) president. Kingsbury said the bank was capitalized at $50,000, and quoted a Jan. 1, 1829, state report that “showed its bills in circulation to be $51, 615.”

After the bank closed, Kingsbury said, the Southwicks moved “the queer old strap, wrought iron safe” to Burnham, where they ran a tannery.

The Getchell’s Corner post office opened April 1, 1796, Kingsbury said. The first postmaster was Jeremiah Fairfield; his successors to 1892 included Abial Getchell (March 25, 1818 – Jan. 14, 1826) and his son, Goodloe H. Getchell (Sept. 23, 1845 – March 2, 1852). Thomas Frye served as postmaster for two short periods in the early 1840s and early 1850s.

Writing in 1971, Robbins said there had been “many changes in both buildings and location,” but there was still a post office at Vassalboro “now more familiarly called Getchell’s Corner,” as there is in March 2025.

Robbins wrote that Miss A. Howard founded Vassalboro Academy, a school for young ladies, at “Vassalboro Corner” in April 1837. Kingsbury said the school building was “used for religious as well as secular instruction.” The Methodists bought it in 1868, after meeting there for several years, and made it into a Methodist church. Robbins said it remained in use “until the fire in 1886 [probably an error for 1896; see below].”

The first Vassalboro Masonic Lodge was organized at Getchell’s Corner in June 1827; it moved to North Vassalboro in 1870. After the Civil War, Kingsbury described a second Masonic Lodge, Negeumkeag, established in 1872, which in 1892 “owns its hall and numbers forty-six members.”

Kennebec Lodge, I.O.O.F. (International Order of Odd Fellows) started in December 1889, using the Masonic Hall.

Oak Grove Grange, founded in North Vassalboro in May 1875, moved to Getchell’s Corner (date unspecified) and in 1892 had its hall “a few rods south of the Congregational chapel,” with a store the Grangers had opened in November, 1889.

Houses mingled with the other buildings, and farms surrounded the business and residential center. The 1856 map of Vassalboro shows more than three dozen buildings at Getchell’s Corner; by 1879, there were fewer, but the area was still designated Vassalboro Corner.

In 1850, Robbins said, the railroad was run along the east side of the Kennebec from Augusta to Winslow, mostly at first to serve John D. Lang’s woolen mill, in North Vassalboro. By 1861, passengers as well as freight were important; Robbins wrote of residents in horse-drawn buggies meeting summer people arriving at the Riverside and Vassalboro (Getchell’s Corner) stations.

According to Robbins, the railroad may have been the village’s undoing. “It was never proved without a doubt that the sparks from the Maine Central engines set the fire that burned nearly the whole little village of Getchell’s Corner,” she wrote.

This event was in 1896 – Robbins gave no exact date. Losses included the hotel and post office, businesses and stores and about 30 houses. Getchell’s Corner never recovered.

Captain John Getchell Sr.

The FamilySearch website says Capt. John Getchell, Sr., was born in South Berwick on Feb. 23, 1747 (Ancestry says around 1741). On Nov. 21, 1766, he married Sarah Cloutman (1745 or 1746 – 1835) in Kennebec (County?); the couple had at least four sons and a daughter. He died Oct. 14, 1818, in Vassalboro.

The sons, according to this source, were William (1773 – ?); John Jr. (1777 – 1853); Abiel J. (1779 – 1855); and Josiah (1796 – 1896). Daughter Susan was born in 1782 and died in 1815.

FamilySearch has little information about William.

John Jr. was born in Vassalboro; he married Elizabeth Bunker on April 5, 1795, in Vassalboro, and they had at least five daughters between 1797 and 1814. He is buried in Vassalboro.

Abiel married Letitia Harwood on Jan. 20, 1802. Three of their eight children, Captain John and Sarah’s grandchildren, stayed in Vassalboro, to wit:

— Goodloe Howard Getchell, born Nov. 23, 1802, in Vassalboro and died there in 1875.
— Mary Ann, born in Vassalboro July 3, 1804, married Samuel Gibson and died in Vassalboro, aged 99.
— Abiel John, born in Wiscasset in 1814, but lived in Vassalboro in 1850 and was buried there after his death in 1861 (as was his widow, the former Ann Plummer, who died Jan. 23, 1906).

Of Abiel and Letitia’s other children, Horatio was born April 22, 1807, and died July 24 the same year; Lucretia Harwood, married in 1841, was in Iowa in 1870 and died in 1888 in Arkansas; Alexander Hamilton lived in Wales, Monmouth and Greene; Hiram was born in Monmouth and later lived (and died) in Brownfield; and Hannah Margarete Cochran was born in Sebec and died there in 1861.

Josiah Getchell, Captain John and Sarah’s youngest son, was born in Brunswick, FamilySearch says, and seems to have had no Vassalboro connection.

WikiTree offers a completely different John Getchell, also called Gatchell and Getceell, born in Scarboro April 25, 1719. On Nov. 7, 1742, this John Getchell married Mary Barbour, of Brunswick. He served in the Revolutionary War.

John and Mary’s two daughters and four sons (Dorcas, Samuel, John, Mary, Hugh and Robert) were born between February 1743 and September 1754. WikiTree gives no birthplaces.

It does, however, say that on June 23, 1768, Getchell bought from the Kennebec Proprietors land on the east side of the Kennebec (“in what is now known as Sidney” – an error, the Sidney that separated from Vassalboro on Jan. 30, 1792, was and is on the west side).

WikiTree continues about this John Getchell: “He held many important town offices in Vassalboro, being the largest land-owner there, and residing at what is still known as Getchell’s Corner.”

To add to the confusion, some maps locate Getchell’s Corner farther south in Vassalboro, near Taber Hill; and on-line sources offer an Elihu or Eliha Getchell, Sr. (1766 -1838), who (according to FamilySearch) was born in Berwick; married Mary Savage in 1787, in Hallowell, and had at least four sons and four daughters; lived in Vassalboro “for about 30 years”; and died in Medford. The Ancestry website connects this Getchell family with Tabor (Ancestry’s spelling) Hill in Vassalboro.

Main sources:

Kingsbury, Henry D., ed., Illustrated History of Kennebec County Maine 1625-1892 (1892).
Robbins, Alma Pierce, History of Vassalborough Maine 1771 1971 n.d. (1971)

Websites, miscellaneous.

CORRECTION: This article has corrected a reference (third paragraph) from the print edition which referred to Route 202 when it should have referred to Route 201 instead. Thank you to the reader who caught the error.

Erosion control discussed by conservation commission

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Janice Clowes, president of the Vassalboro Historical Society, captured the silhouette of the monument in the park, next to the historical society building.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Conservation Commission members continued discussion of plantings in Monument Park, in East Vassalboro, at their Feb. 12 meeting. As at previous meetings in December 2024 and January 2025, they came to no decision (see the Jan. 2 issue of The Town Line, p. 2, and the Jan. 16 issue, p. 3).

Their goals are to improve erosion control along China Lake and Outlet Stream, while preserving views of the lake, and to create a demonstration erosion control garden. Issues are what to plant, where to plant and how to pay for plantings and maintenance.

They decided they should visit the area before making a decision, and scheduled a meeting there at 5 p.m., Tuesday, March 25.

Another ongoing discussion was about trees in China cemeteries, a topic that requires cooperation with the town’s cemetery committee. Commission Chairman Holly Weidner plans to confirm with Town Manager Aaron Miller that the plan he proposed last fall remains in effect.

In new business Feb. 12, Weidner reported briefly on meetings she attended about the TriWatershed Management Plan, which includes Webber Pond, Three Mile Pond and Three Cornered Pond; and about China Region Lakes Alliance plans.

CRLA is currently without an executive director. Weidner said board members are interviewing candidates to oversee the summer 2025 Courtesy Boat Inspection (CBI) program, intended to protect regional lakes from invasive species.

Weidner proposed Conservation Commission members review the town ordinance that established the commission and defined its duties, to make sure the document is up to date and to consider how well they are implementing it.

The commission is allowed to have seven members; it now has six, Weidner observed.

The next Vassalboro Conservation Commission meeting is scheduled for Wednesday evening, April 9.

Vassalboro select board looks at budget version five; ready for presentation

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro select board members spent their March 13 meeting going over two familiar documents, the draft 2025-26 budget (now in version number five) and the personnel policy they have been discussing at intervals since the end of May 2024.

They made progress on both.

After more than an hour’s review, they decided the budget is ready to be presented to the budget committee, in advance of a discussion between the two boards scheduled for Tuesday evening, March 18.

The personnel policy took another three-quarters of an hour. Board members asked Town Manager Aaron Miller to distribute the revised version so they can consider it individually.

Community Program Director resigns

by Mary Grow

Karen Stankis has resigned as Vassalboro’s Community Program Director, effective March 20.

Vassalboro voters approved funding for the new position at their spring 2022 town meeting, effective July 1. Stankis has been director since August 1, 2022, adding a variety of activities in addition to the youth sports that predated her position.

The main reason she resigned, Stankis said, is that although she knew the job was part-time when she was hired, she has learned that 30 hours a week is not enough time to develop and manage a complete parks and recreation department, supplementing youth sports with varied programs for all ages.

She thanked many people who have helped expand town recreational activities, including participants, youth recreation sports directors and other leaders and sponsors.

“I hope the town will continue to fund the position,” she said. “Recreation offers much more to a town than youth sports.”

Miller said since the March 6 budget discussion (see the March 13 issue of The Town Line, p. 2) he has learned that Vassalboro’s fuel oil dealer is likely to abide by the 2025-26 contract price and add a surcharge when justified by tariffs.

The longest March 13 discussion was over the recreation budget, including board member Chris French’s proposal to have a recreation director paid for 40 hours a week and expected to spend 10 hours in the town office, filling in as needed over lunch hours and when a regular staff member is absent.

Miller said current staff members are doubtful, mostly because they believe the need is for another bookkeeper, not for general office help.

He and board member Michael Poulin recommended discussions of the recreation program with the budget committee and the recreation committee. Other suggestions included a survey of residents and/or discussion at the June 2 town meeting.

The next regular Vassalboro select board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Thursday, March 20. A transfer station task force meeting is scheduled for 5:15 p.m., that day.