Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Ponds named after people

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by Mary Grow

Webber Pond

Returning to early settlers who had ponds named after them and related topics (discussed in many recent articles in this series), your writer starts with a reader’s question: is Webber Pond in Vassalboro named for Charles Webber, mentioned at the end of the Jan. 11 article?

Vassalboro historian Alma Pierce Robbins’ account of the Webber family’s early days in Vassalboro says firmly, “Maybe”; and if not Charles, almost certainly a family member. Other sources offer an unusually wide variety of conflicting information that adds up to the same answer.

In her chapter on Vassalboro’s first families, Robbins compiled a list, using as sources the 1792 town valuation report (compiled by Charles Webber and two other assessors) and the 1800 national census.

From these sources she named five Webbers in Vassalboro by 1800: Charles and Charles, Jr., Eliot, Hannah and John. If an on-line genealogy is accurate, Charles was Charles B. Webber – few other sources use any middle initial – and he was one of Vassalboro’s first settlers.

On the town website, 11 Webbers are listed as buried in the Webber family cemetery in Riverside. One is Charles, born c. 1741 and died Nov. 20, 1819, identified as a veteran.

Riverside is the section of southwestern Vassalboro that used to be one of the town’s villages, first called Brown’s Corner and located on “the river road” north of the Augusta line. The river road was the current Riverside Drive/Route 201, approximately.

The 1856 Vassalboro map shows Brown’s Corner as an intersection of the river road and an east-west road crossing it at a right angle and going to the Kennebec. The intersection is south of Seven Mile Brook, between the brook and the Augusta line, and has a cluster of more than a dozen buildings.

Kennebec County historian Henry Kingsbury wrote that early 19th century buildings there included a tavern, a store, a post office (“which in 1826 did a total business of $33.25”) and a Grange Hall. There were successive mills closer to the river, and at the landing two local men “built several small vessels.”

Among those who came to Vassalboro before Charles Webber, according to several sources, was his brother, Joseph.

If your writer found the right Joseph Webber, he was born in York, Maine, July 24, 1727; married Sarah Sedgeley of that town on Jan. 10, 1754; and died in Vassalboro, Sept. 9, 1796. One source says he and Sarah had six sons and two daughters; at least three of the sons (Charles’ nephews) lived in Vassalboro or China.

Find a Grave says Charles Webber was born in January, 1741, in York. He married Hannah Call, born in 1744 in Amesbury, Massachusetts. After Hannah’s death in 1782 (Find a Grave says she “was buried on the first farm Charles owned”), he married Sarah Smiley (died in 1800).

An on-line genealogy lists 13 Webber children. Assuming it is (somewhat) accurate, Charles, Jr., was Charles B. and Hannah’s first child, born in Dresden, Maine, in 1764.

Their oldest daughter, Sarah (1766-1854), was the first white child born in Vassalboro. She married Judah Chadwick (1765-1816; probably one of the South China Chadwicks who have been mentioned previously, since the couple are buried in China’s Chadwick cemetery on Route 32 South [Windsor Road]).

Then came Mary (1769-1837), James (1771-1823), John (1773-1847), William (?c. 1774-?), Nancy (1777-?), Samuel (1779-c. 1891), Hannah (1780-1860; married Amos Childs, whose gravestone in the North Vassalboro Village cemetery identifies him as a Revolutionary veteran), George M. (c. 1782 [or 1776]-1831), Joseph (1783 [or 1775]-1817), Benjamin (Feb. 27, 1786-1834) and Jeremiah (July 17, 1786-1820).

Obviously one of the last two birth dates is an error; and this genealogy contradicts Kingsbury, who said Jeremiah was Charles’ only child by his second wife, Sarah.

Sons who might have kept the family name in Vassalboro, according to this on-line genealogy, included John, who married there in 1793 (and died in Ohio); Samuel, who married in Vassalboro in 1801 (and died in New York); George, who married his second wife in Vassalboro in 1820; and Jeremiah, who married in Vassalboro in 1805.

Jeremiah’s wife is variously identified as Balsora, Belsora or Belsova Horn or Horne. Another genealogy says they had eight children. The town website says Balsora died in 1829 and she and Jeremiah are buried in the Webber family cemetery, along with a Belsora who died in 1866 (one of their daughters?). Belsora’s seems to have been the last burial in the cemetery.

On-line sources say Charles B. Webber was a veteran of the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. French and Indian War records that are cited list him in Nathaniel Donnell’s company in April 1757, and in January 1759 in Capt. Ichabod Goodwin’s company in Col. Jedediah Preble’s regiment. (These military leaders were from York, Maine.)

In the Revolutionary War, sources say Webber was an officer in the militia. He seems to have served under (at least) two local commanders, Captain Dennis Getchell, of Vassalboro, and Colonel Joseph North, of Gardinerstown.

Webber moved to Vassalboro between the wars. Robbins wrote that in 1764, Charles Webber bought, for “twenty pounds lawful money,” the west end of lot number 63 on the 1761 survey of Vassalboro by Nathan Winslow (mentioned in last week’s article).

Kingsbury said Charles Webber in 1765 was the settler on the third lot along the river north of the Augusta line, which would have been lot 53 on the 1761 survey.

Robbins’ and Kingsbury’s histories each include a version of the 1761 survey, with the shape of Webber Pond (called 7 Mile Pond in Robbins’ book, as China Lake is listed by its old name, 12 Mile Pond) quite different.

On the survey in Robbins’ history, Seven Mile Stream comes from near the south end of the pond and enters the Kennebec through lots 61 and 62. Kingsbury’s version has the stream exiting the pond a little farther north and curving father south to enter the Kennebec through lots 57 and 58.

Referring to the 1800 census, Robbins wrote: “Charles Webber had ‘400 acres under water’; perhaps he had taken over ‘Webber Pond’.” Some deeds, she immediately added, called the water body Colman Pond (see box).

Then she wrote, “At least the younger generation of Webbers left the river at Brown’s Corner, where the first Charles settled, and cleared the area at the foot of the pond….”

Kingsbury found that Charles Webber was one of the residents who in 1766 petitioned the land-owning Kennebec Company to build, or let locals build, a grist mill at Riverside so they could grind their grain locally. Later, he owned at least one manufactory: as mentioned in the Jan. 11 article on Seven Mile Stream, Kingsbury said sometime in or after the 1840s Webber acquired the machine shop close to the Kennebec that built “sash, blinds and doors.”

Kingsbury listed Charles Webber as Vassalboro’s first town treasurer, in 1771, and as treasurer again in 1776, when he was also town clerk; as selectman in 1773, for two years; as a member of the six-man committee that set up Vassalboro’s first nine school districts in 1790; and as a selectman in 1791, for four years (compatible with his being an assessor in 1792).

* * * * **

Another confusing note: Linwood Lowden, in his history of Windsor, says that the first mill in Windsor was Charles Webber’s, built before June 1804 on Barton Brook, which Lowden described as the “brook emptying into Webber’s mill pond.”

When Webber sold the lot in 1810, Lowden said, he reserved the right to build a mill on the stream “commonly called the inlet of Webber’s Pond.” Lowden surmised he wanted to prevent competition with his 1804 mill.

Other early sources, brought to your writer’s attention by Vicki Tobias, of Tobias History Research, confirm that Three Mile Pond was called Webber (or Webber’s) Pond in the first decade of the 1800s. Tobias shared an 1808 map, showing C Webber owning a lot abutting the southeast end of the pond.

(The map also shows I, or perhaps J, Barton and Elijah Barton owning lots east of Webber’s. See the Feb. 29 story on Windsor’s Barton family.)

Kingsbury has one more Charles Webber story that your writer found nowhere else. At the end of the section of his history dealing with early churches in Vassalboro, he described “one other place and kind of worship” that would be remembered “so long as the links of tradition can touch each other – the church and teachings of Charles Webber, who resided on the river road near Riverside.”

Webber’s former house was in 1892 Wallace W. Gilbert’s, Kingsbury wrote. Across the road, on “the James S. Emery place” in 1892, Webber built a “small edifice” late in the 1700s where he named himself pastor and preached.

The unusual feature, Kingsbury said, was that Webber could not read: his wife would read the Bible to him, and he would expound. Kingsbury quoted Webber’s introduction to a sermon: “If Polly tells me aright you will find my text….”

Your writer saves you the trouble of looking back in this article: the Charles Webber who is supposedly the subject had successive wives named Hannah, who died in 1782, and Sarah, who died in 1800. Might his nickname for one have been Polly?

Riverside preacher Webber often called on sinners to repent, saying, Kingsbury wrote, that “it was as impossible for one [a sinner] to enter heaven as it was for a shad to climb a tree.”

Kingsbury concluded: “His eccentricities and goodness survive him, as does the old church, which, on another site, is the residence of Freeman Sturgis.”

The Vassalboro Colemans/Colmans/Colmens

The 1792 assessors’ report and 1800 census that Robbins cited name John Colman, Joseph Colman and Owen Colmen; Robbins found in town records an 1802 reference to Owen Coleman; and she wrote that brothers Dudley and Charles Colman came to Vassalboro from Nantucket.

Dudley and Charles, she said, “settled land bordering Webber Pond, farmed and operated a sawmill” at the pond’s outlet. Kingsbury mentioned a Coleman sawmill, “later known as the Foster mill,” well up the stream close to the pond.

Dudley and his wife Polly (Jones) and Charles and his wife Mary (Bryant) each had eight children, Robbins wrote.

An on-line genealogy says a Revolutionary veteran named John Coleman (May 12, 1744-Sept. 22, 1823) and his wife Lois (Danforth) (June 19, 1743-Oct. 3, 1823), of Newbury, Massachusetts, settled in Vassalboro in the late 1700s with their older son, Joseph (Aug. 8, 1765-c. 1858). This source adds that they “settled in the vicinity of Webber Pond where Joseph reared a large family.”

Another genealogy, compiled in 1898 and including some of the Sturgis and Colman families, says Joseph married Mercy Cross, in 1787, and they had five sons and five daughters, born between 1791 and 1815.

It would be helpful to know when Colman or Webber Pond acquired each of its names.

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

Oak Grove grants available

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The Oak Grove-Coburn school today, serving as the Maine Criminal Justice Academy.

The Oak Grove School Foundation is accepting applications for grants to support the education and cultural needs of students and non-profit organizations in the greater Central Maine area.

Recipients must be educational, charitable or religious organizations that are tax exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service code.

Grant requests should be received by April 5, 2024. Funding decisions will be made in May and shortly after the funds will be distributed in July. Recent grants have ranged $500-$5,000. The OGSF has also provided seed money for initiatives that last up to three years.

Groups interested in obtaining application forms and guidelines can email ogsftreas@gmail.com or visit https://sites.google.com/site/ogsfoundationorg/major-grants.

Applications may be emailed or USPS to Oak Grove School Foundation, P.O. Box 23, East Vassalboro, ME 04935.

Select board gets 2024-25 budget ready for budget committee review

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro select board members spent most of their March 7 meeting continuing to discuss the 2024-25 town budget, getting it in shape for budget committee review.

The Vassalboro Budget Committee is scheduled to meet Tuesday evening, March 19, Town Manager Aaron Miller said.

Select board members suggested a few more changes. They and Miller still await answers to some of the questions raised at earlier meetings, like an opinion from the town’s auditor on how some money can be rearranged (see the March 7 issue of The Town Line, p. 3).

Road work for next year was again a major topic. Public works department staff provided information on needs for equipment, paving and other work and discussed preferred ways to meet them.

Vassalboro nomination papers available

by Mary Grow

Nomination papers for Vassalboro elective officials are now available at the town office.

Two positions are open this year: Christopher French’s term on the select board and Jolene Clark Gamage’s term on the school board end. Town Clerk Cathy Coyne said as of March 11, both French and Gamage were circulating nomination papers for re-election, and Burton Miller was circulating papers for the select board position.

Members of each board serve three-year terms.

Signed papers must be returned to the town office by 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 16, with 25 signatures of registered Vassalboro voters, for candidates’ names to appear on the June 11 ballot.

The draft municipal government budget after the March 7 meeting, plus Miller’s estimate of the Kennebec County tax, totals $3.872 million, an increase of more than $300,000 over the current year.

In other business March 7, select board members approved spending up to $6,000 from unappropriated ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) money to finish paying for two additional heat pumps at the town-owned former East Vassalboro school building, now the Vassalboro Historical Society headquarters and museum.

Miller and board member Frederick “Rick” Denico, Jr., said they are still waiting for information on what, if anything, can be done to help Vassalboro Sanitary District (VSD) customers as they face another rate increase April 1.

Miller has been consulting the town’s attorney. Denico said Laurie A. Stevens, northern New England regional director for RCAP Solutions, submitted a report and recommendations, but he awaits answers to follow-up questions.

Stevens attended a discussion on the problem in December 2023, where she explained that her organization helps small towns with water and wastewater needs. RCAP Solutions is federally funded, so neither VSD nor the town is charged for services.

“Still in a holding pattern, unfortunately,” Miller summarized.

Board members postponed discussion of the town’s personnel policy to their March 21 meeting. Miller said staff members have given him suggestions for changes.

The March 21 meeting will include a public hearing on revisions to Vassalboro’s Marijuana Business Ordinance.

Vassalboro select board continues 2024-25 budget discussions

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro select board members continued discussion of the draft 2024-25 town budget at a special Feb. 29 meeting, focusing on two topics.

Holly Weidner, of the Conservation Commission, joined a wide-ranging discussion of protecting water quality in Vassalboro’s lakes (see the Feb. 29 issue of The Town Line, p. 3).

With Brian Lajoie from the public works department present, board members continued discussion of that budget section, considering next year’s priorities and longer-term needs, like replacing trucks as they wear out.

The select board holds a regular meeting at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, March 7. Board chairman Chris French intends continued budget consideration to be among the items on the agenda.

The water quality discussion began with a recap of plans to continue the Courtesy Boat Inspection (CBI) program.

Weidner corrected the previous report: inspectors have not found invasive plants on boats about to be launched in area lakes. The number of non-invasive plant fragments declines, she said, as inspections make more boaters aware of the need to clean watercraft thoroughly when they move from one water body to another.

The state requires sponsors of bass fishing tournaments and similar events to provide their own boat inspectors, she added.

Town Manager Aaron Miller said a recent meeting with interested parties affirmed the agreement that the CBI program will continue, overseen by the Vassalboro Conservation Commission, with the China Region Lakes Alliance (CRLA) hiring inspectors.

Weidner said Vassalboro had a watershed management plan from 2005 to 2015, prepared with help from the Kennebec County Soil and Water Conservation Commission. Towns with watershed plans, like neighboring China, are eligible to apply for water quality improvement grants.

Watershed Management Plan

In a post-meeting email about the 2005-2015 watershed plan, Holly Wiedner said it was named the Webber Pond Watershed Management Plan. It covered the drainage areas of three water bodies: Webber Pond, which is wholly in Vassalboro; Three Mile (or Threemile) Pond, shared among Vassalboro, China and Windsor; and Three Corner (or Three Cornered) Pond, in Augusta.

Select board members expressed interest in learning more about the prior plan and why it was allowed to lapse.

Proposed public works projects include reorganizing access to the fuel pumps at the town garage, which are used by multiple town departments; buying a skidsteer and a trailer to move it, and updating other equipment; and saving up money to add a storage building on the public works lot on Bog Road.

The skidsteer will let Vassalboro keep its commitment to the state to plow North Vassalboro sidewalks after the state transportation department rebuilds them, probably this summer. The new machine will have other uses year-round.

For the new building, Lajoie and board members plan what they described as a 50-by-50-foot pole barn with metal sides and roof. Lajoie said it would probably sit on a paved area. Board members will not have a firm price until they solicit bids.

After another discussion of paving costs, board members agreed tentatively to leave the 2024-25 paving budget at the current year’s $453,300. French insisted on using $100,000 left in the current account (mostly because the price of asphalt was lower than projected) for next year, to lower the impact on local taxes.

French’s proposal was approved after a discussion of how to manage the transfer to keep the auditors happy.

Miller reported one town project is done: adding surveillance cameras at town buildings was completed Feb. 29, when the transfer station’s cameras were installed.

The manager assured Weidner the final version of the proposed 2024-25 budget will include information voters need to evaluate it, like what roads are proposed for repaving. Board members talked briefly about varied funding sources, including appropriations from the alewife fund (income from the annual alewife fishery) and the Tax Increment Financing Fund (TIF, taxes on the gas pipeline running through Vassalboro).

VASSALBORO: New hire proposal withdrawn; select board nixes KVCOG membership

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by Mary Grow

After reviewing pieces of the proposed 2024-25 town budget at their regular meeting Feb. 22, Vassalboro select board members scheduled a special meeting for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 29, to continue discussion.

Two decisions were made Feb. 22.

— Town Manager Aaron Miller said he had postponed his proposal to hire a part-time town office staff member, given the difficulty of finding candidates for the position. Select board members did not argue.
— Paying for a membership in the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments was deleted. Board chairman Chris French said he saw no need for the organization’s help in 2024-25.

Board members reduced the proposed 2024-25 paving budget. They agreed to buy a skidsteer, to plow North Vassalboro sidewalks beginning next winter and for other, year-round uses, and to budget the first of three installments for a new loader. No public works department representative was at the Feb. 22 meeting.

They considered a proposal to offer family health insurance to town employees. Miller said five employees would be interested. French sees offering the coverage as a way to keep Vassalboro competitive in the job market.

There was consensus that adding family coverage to present policies is not necessarily the way to go; more options will be explored.

Conservation Commission spokesman Holly Weidner said the China Region Lakes Alliance (CRLA), for which $13,500 was recommended, is inactive for lack of an executive director. There is a proposal that China and Vassalboro lake associations take over the CRLA’s Courtesy Boat Inspection (CBI) program, with the Conservation Commission coordinating and getting the $13,500.

The proposed appropriation was labeled water quality and its place in the budget left undetermined while, Miller said, he “figures out what’s going on.”

Weidner said over the years CBI inspectors have found and removed fragments of invasive weeds on boats being brought to China and Vassalboro lakes and ponds.

Select board members’ recommended budget will be reviewed by the budget committee. Voters will make the final decisions at the June 3 annual town meeting.

The Feb. 22 meeting started with a public hearing on a revised solid waste ordinance, now renamed the Solid Waste & Recycling Ordinance. There were no public comments. This ordinance, like the budget, will need voters’ approval.

A second public hearing was on an application for a junkyard license for the property at 1499 Riverside Drive, which includes a junkyard and a business named ABC Fuel. There was agreement to consider the junkyard and the fuel business as separate, even though they’re on the same site.

Codes officer Jason Lorrain said although the application is for a junkyard license renewal, he considers it a new license, because, he said, former owner Olin Charette’s son is the current owner.

On Lorrain’s recommendation, select board members unanimously approved the junkyard license. Lorrain said the new license has the same conditions, like requiring screening, that previous ones had.

From the audience, planning board member Douglas Phillips said ABC Fuel needs a site review permit from the planning board as a new business.

In other business, select board members continued discussing with Lorrain, Phillips and Miller what changes, if any, need to be made in town ordinances to comply with the new state law commonly called LD 2003.

Intended to promote affordable housing, LD 2003 loosens density requirements in some parts of municipalities to allow one or two ADUs, Accessory Dwelling Units, to share a lot on which a single house currently stands.

There was agreement on two points: the law would not allow increased housing density along Vassalboro’s lakes and ponds, because shoreland zoning limitations would prevail; and the relevant document in Vassalboro is the town’s eight-page Building Permit Ordinance, not the Site Review Ordinance.

Miller said there are evidently two options: propose amendments to the Building Permit Ordinance for voters’ approval, or take no action, in effect leaving compliance with state law to the codes officer.

The codes officer, rather than the planning board, has primary responsibility for the Building Permit Ordinance. Lorrain has been studying the issue and presented some questions for select board discussion.

An ordinance amendment, if the chosen choice, would require a public hearing and a town vote. Renewed discussion was postponed until May, after board members finish preparing the 2024-25 budget.

Open letter to Maine legislators

The following letter was sent to all Maine legislators from Vassalboro Town Manager Aaron Miller:

Feb. 21, 2023

Dear Legislator,

I am writing to you today as a member of Delta Ambulance’s Board of Directors, Town Manager of Vassalboro, first responder for Whitefield, and resident of Alna.

Faced with inadequate funding, EMS agencies in Maine have struggled for years to keep their heads above water. In the years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of those services have been pushed beyond their tipping point.

Staffing shortages were exacerbated by delays in new EMS clinician graduations and agencies were subsequently forced into wage wars to recruit and retain existing field providers. Payroll along with other operating costs rose to levels never seen before while insurance reimbursements, the backbone of EMS funding, stagnated.

The Blue Ribbon Commission extensively studied EMS services across Maine and identified a large gap between reimbursement and expenses. The Commission recommended a dispersal of $70 million each year for five years to all of Maine’s transport services. Despite the Commission’s recommendation and clear demonstration of need, less than half of the $70 million was approved for a one-time infusion, and only $10 million was allocated for emergency funding. Furthermore, transporting services like Delta were capped at receiving no more than $200 thousand – an amount that quite frankly will do nothing for sustainability.

For the first time since 1972, Delta, which currently provides 911 coverage to 13 towns in the greater Augusta and Waterville regions, recently instituted service fees of $15 per capita to towns receiving their 911 coverage. At the end of last year, Delta announced that the per-capita charge will increase to $25 per capita for 2024 and that by 2025, it will fall somewhere in a range between the mid-thirties to seventies depending on other factors. These numbers reflect the necessary changes to reach a break-even budget.

Just recently, municipal officials in the towns of Albion, Benton, China, Fairfield, and Oakland have cited a “fiduciary responsibility” to their citizens and are asking for a reduced rate of $20 per capita this year – an amount that cannot be accommodated by Delta. If the BRC’s recommended amount had been approved and released promptly, it would have allowed for a slower per-capita rate increase and lessened the blow to towns already facing financial challenges of their own.

The funding was announced seven months ago. Delta still hasn’t seen any of these funds despite a successful application submission which was not made available until December. Can you please let us know when we can expect to receive these funds? What are the plans to effectively address the statewide issue and how will this be accomplished in a timely manner?

Sincerely, Aaron C. Miller

Vassalboro school board members see small piece of budget

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Vassalboro Community School (contributed photo)

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro school board members got an introduction to some small pieces of the 2024-25 school budget at their Feb. 13 meeting. There will be more budget discussion at future meetings.

The Feb. 13 agenda included presentations from:

— Finance director Paula Pooler on three accounts, a $500 one that will remain the same next year as this year and two that are slated to be reduced by around $8,000, total, in 2024-25;
— Transportation director Ashley Pooler, whose presentation sparked a discussion of whether to apply to the state for a new school bus for next year (the preliminary answer is yes); and
— Technology director Will Backman, who explained a proposed $8,000 increase in the technology budget.

Another minor budget issue that generated discussion was school board members’ compensation. They currently receive $40 per meeting, a figure Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer said (and, from the audience, select board member Michael Poulin agreed) is less than other area school or select board members get.

Board members want to think about whether to propose an increase, so a decision was postponed.

Future meetings will deal with larger budget figures. This year’s Vassalboro school budget, as approved by voters at the 2023 town meeting, totals a little over $9 million.

Paula Pooler said spending remains on track, and the lunch program, which ran a deficit for some years, is holding its own. Pfeiffer said there are planned kitchen upgrades at Vassalboro Community School, now that the lunch program can support them.

After another discussion of the day care program Jennifer Lizotte operates at VCS, board members agreed to consider extending the lease for more than a year at a time, so Lizotte can make long-range plans with confidence. The topic will be on the agenda for the March school board meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 19.

Vassalboro select board honors scouting

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Front row, from left to right, Tiger Scout Greyson Malloy, Wolf Scout John Gray, and Webelos Scout Henry Gray. Back, Webelos Scout Anthony Malloy, Arrow of Light Scout William Vincent, Scoutmaster Christopher Santiago, and Selectmen Rick Denico. (photo by Chuck Mahaleris)

by Chuck Mahaleris

On the 114th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America, the Vassalboro Board of Selectmen read a proclamation by Town Manager Aaron Miller recognizing the anniversary of Scouting on February 8 and also recognizing the service to the community performed by Scouts in both Cub Scout Pack #410 and Scout Troop #410.

“Whereas, the Scouts of Vassalboro have given service to the community through their participation in such worthy programs as the annual Scouting for Food Drive, Spring and Fall “Scouting for Food” Food Drives for Vassalboro Food Pantry, marched in Memorial and Veterans Day parades, participated with Vassalboro American Legion Post #126 for Flag Day Retirement Ceremony, volunteered to staff Blacksmith Shop for Vassalboro Historical Society, participated in Vassalboro Days and Duck Race, participated in Honor Flight Maine Welcome Home Ceremony at the Portland Jetport, completed Eagle Scout Project consisting of a Story Book on Hiking Path, volunteered at the Vassalboro Community School PTO Pancake with Santa, volunteered at Vassalboro Tree Lighting at the Mill and participated in the Wreaths Across America at the State of Maine Veterans Memorial Cemetery, in Augusta, on Civic Center Drive,” read part of the proclamation.

“Based on Robert Baden-Powell’s international scouting movement, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) was a remarkable institution that expanded rapidly following its introduction into America in 1910,” according to the Library of Congress. “Primary goals of the American movement were to help boys develop the skills, the knowledge, and the “character” required to better serve themselves and their country.” Since then, Scouting has expanded to include girls as members at both the Cub Pack and Scout Troop levels.

Selectman Rick Denico has a scouting background. He served as Scoutmaster of Troop #410, Kennebec Valley District chairman and member of the Pine Tree Council Executive Board. He encouraged the youth to get involved in their community and lend a hand as Scouting teaches.

Laura Jones announces candidacy for House

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Laura Jones

Laura Jones, retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, and Vassalboro native, has announced her election campaign for House District #61, in Vassalboro and part of Sidney.

“Vassalboro has always been where my heart is and where I was happy to return to. I served my country for 25 years and now I am happy to serve my community. I will continue to work as hard as I can in Augusta for the people of Vassalboro and Sidney.” said Jones.

Jones, 52, a fourth generation Vassalboro resident, was born in Waterville and raised in Vassalboro. Jones served 25 years in the military, with deployments and assignments to Haiti, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Japan. She currently works at her family’s business, Fieldstone Gardens, in Vassalboro. She has been very active in the community helping organize and promote community events for the Vassalboro Historical Society, Grange, Mill and Vassalboro Business Association. She currently serves on the Board of the Vassalboro Historical Society and is their treasurer.

“Laura’s contributions to the community since retiring from military service are commendable and her life experiences will serve her well in Augusta,” said Barbara Redmond, former Vassalboro selectperson. “Laura is an excellent candidate and will do a great job representing the residents of Vassalboro and part of Sidney in the legislature”.

Visit Laura Jones on Facebook and her campaign website.

VASSALBORO: New town park officially named Eagle Park

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by Mary Grow

It’s official: Vassalboro’s new town park on Outlet Stream and Route 32, a bit north of East Vassalboro village, is named Eagle Park.

Select board members made the decision unanimously at their Feb. 8 meeting, at the request of conservation commission chairman Holly Weidner. Weidner told them a Boy Scout intends to make a sign for the park as his Eagle Scout project.

The name is appropriate, Weidner said, because now that alewives can migrate the length of the stream, from the Sebasticook River to China Lake, the park attracts bald eagles (and great blue herons) that prey on the fish.

The Feb. 8 meeting included recognition of the week that includes Feb. 8 as scouting’s anniversary week. With troop leaders and members present, select board member Frederick “Rick” Denico, Jr., read a proclamation listing the Vassalboro Scouts’ many volunteer projects and activities.

Select board members spent much of the rest of their meeting talking about the Vassalboro Sanitary District’s (VSD) financial problems and about allocating remaining federal ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds.

The VSD is deeply in debt for the recent connection to the Waterville-Winslow sewage disposal system. Because of debt repayments, the fees charged to its 200 or so customers in East and North Vassalboro have risen steeply and will continue to rise.

Town Manager Aaron Miller said VSD officials have asked the town for $200,000 from the TIF (Tax Increment Financing) fund. Miller said he asked the VSD’s attorney and the town’s attorney to consider the situation together.

Meanwhile, Denico reported, he had connected VSD officials with U. S. Senator Susan Collins’ office, as Vassalboro’s state senator, Matthew Pouliot, recommended. Select board chairman Chris French added that state representative Richard Bradstreet had discussed VSD customers’ concerns with Maine Governor Janet Mills.

Vassalboro’s TIF money comes from taxes paid on the gas pipeline that runs through the town.

Miller said Vassalboro has about $84,000 in unappropriated ARPA funds. Board members discussed three potential uses and approved two, work on the fuel tanks at the public works garage (which are used by Vassalboro’s school, fire and police departments as well as public works) and buying generators for the town office, the food pantry and the Riverside fire station.

A third request was from Police Chief Mark Brown, for a rifle and related items, radar and additional equipment for the police vehicle. A discussion among board and audience members started with whether Brown’s duties justify the additional weaponry – board members said yes, all law enforcement officers face danger – and veered into speeding control.

The claim that Vassalboro select board members told Brown not to enforce speed limits was partially denied. Because he works only 15 hours a week – and, French reminded everyone, voters at the 2023 town meeting rejected a proposal to increase his hours to 20 a week – board members want to minimize time he spends in court defending speeding tickets.

Audience members divided over whether law enforcement is the best way to deter speeders. Weidner, referring to the recent meeting on East Vassalboro traffic, advocated for measures that make the roadway appear narrower – a narrow road is most likely to make drivers slow down, she said.

Board members unanimously approved funds for the rifle and radar, only; they await more information on vehicle modifications.

Douglas Phillips presented the Historical Society’s request for continued ARPA funding for lighting and other work at the former East Vassalboro schoolhouse, owned by the town and leased by the historical society as its headquarters and museum. Select board members unanimously approved.

Miller proposed adding a municipal buildings account in future budgets.

The historical society owns five East Vassalboro buildings, Phillips said: the Weymouth barn on the east side of Main Street south of the Grange Hall, and on the west side of the street the former Taylor house and barn, the adjacent blacksmith shop, the former East Village Fire House just north and the harness shop behind the fire house. Society officials are applying for grants to maintain these buildings.

In other business, board members asked Miller to draft an article for the town meeting warrant asking voters to delete the quorum requirement for a special town meeting. Since 1991, 125 registered voters must sign in before a special meeting can begin, a requirement select board members consider an obstacle to trying to hold a special meeting.

The next regular Vassalboro select board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 22. It will start with a public hearing on proposed amendments to the town’s solid waste ordinance (now renamed the Solid Waste and Recycling Ordinance).

Vassalboro planners take up three issues

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro planning board members discussed three very different issues at their Feb. 6 meeting, none needing a yes or no decision.

— The consideration of a new state law might lead to recommended amendments to town ordinances, which would need voter approval.
— An application for a commercial solar development is unlikely to re-appear until May or June.
— Planned repairs to a seasonal home on Webber Pond appear to be in the codes officer’s jurisdiction.

The state law, still widely called LD 2003, was passed in 2022 and is intended to provide more housing by allowing greater density. Vassalboro board chairman Virginia Brackett sees it as applying primarily to towns with zoning restrictions, which Vassalboro does not have.

After considering what the law and various words and phrases in it mean, board members asked codes officer Jason Lorrain to draft any amendments he thinks Vassalboro ordinances need.

Board member and former codes officer Paul Mitnik mentioned other ordinance changes he would like to have considered.

Annalise Kukor, of ReVision Energy, presented a revised preliminary plan for a solar development on Webber Pond Road. The site is on land owned by Eileen M. Flanagan, at 1026 Webber Pond Road, south of Vassalboro Community School.

The original plan, presented to the board on Nov. 14, 2023 (see the Nov. 23, 2023, issue of The Town Line, p. 3), asked for a waiver of setback requirements to allow the solar panels to be close to the rear boundary.

After discussion with the abutting landowners, Kukor said, the waiver request is withdrawn and the solar panels moved south to meet boundary setback requirements.

Board members had no objections to the preliminary plan. Kukor expects to need several months to have a final plan ready for board review.

Ron Blaisdell brought up the camp repairs. He explained that he is caretaker for several summer places on Webber Pond, and one needs a deck replaced, with minor changes including the addition of stairs.

He also needs to dig out and replace some overgrown shrubs on the property, he said.

Planning board members established that the rebuilt deck will not be closer to the lake than the original one. They decided that Blaisdell’s replacement projects fall under Lorrain’s jurisdiction, not theirs.

In other business, board member Marianne Stevens reported on some of the suggestions for slowing traffic through East Vassalboro Village that were discussed at a recent meeting of local residents.

Lorrain reported that he knows of two sheds crushed by fallen trees in the shoreland zone that need to be replaced. He anticipates applications to the planning board.

Lorrain asked about an issue involving enforcement of covenants in a board-approved subdivision. Mitnik and Brackett said the issue needs to be settled by subdivision residents; it is not the planning board’s business.

The next regular Vassalboro planning board meeting will be Tuesday evening, March 5.