by Mary Grow

Vassalboro planning board members have sent to the town select board the long-discussed ordinance amendment that has for convenience been referred to as a solar ordinance.

After another two hours’ review at their March 7 meeting, planning board members decided they are satisfied with the draft they have worked on for months and voted unanimously to forward it.

Select board members will decide whether to put this version, or perhaps an amended one, on the warrant for the June 13 written-ballot part of the annual town meeting.

The proposed ordinance will be available for public review after select board members agree to put it to a vote, and a public hearing will allow residents to ask questions and express opinions.

With voter approval, the solar provisions will become a new Section XI of Vassalboro’s Site Review Ordinance. Amendments are proposed to other sections of the ordinance, too, some correcting or clarifying unrelated provisions and some – additional definitions, for example – auxiliary to the solar section.

The solar provisions were the topic of a Feb. 28 public hearing. At the March 7 meeting, planning board members reviewed written comments received after the hearing. Four members of the Main Street Maine coalition, formed after a solar company proposed an installation between Route 32 and Outlet Stream north of Duratherm Window Company, commented from the audience.

Buffer areas, fences, screening and in general isolation of a solar installation were one major topic. Board members accepted a suggestion to reduce the requirement for an eight-foot fence – which might require expensive special construction, they found – to the seven feet a ReVision energy comment said is in the National Electrical Code.

Board members agreed that a requirement for area testing for contaminants should be for monitoring wells, not soil tests. Board member Paul Mitnik pointed that water has widely-accepted standards for contamination, while soil does not. Chairman Virginia Brackett said a monitoring well is smaller and less expensive than a household well.

Brackett does not expect solar panels will contaminate soil or water. Mitnik pointed out some solar installations are deliberately placed on contaminated ground that cannot be used for farming or other purposes.

Requirements for inspections during and after construction were modified substantially. Of the proposed requirement for weekly inspections during construction, Mitnik, a retired codes enforcement officer, said he did not know what a CEO would look for every week. As for monthly inspections during operations, Brackett said nothing happens on a solar site.

Brackett reacted similarly to an audience member’s suggestion of an emergency response plan: for what, foxes killing mice? The draft ordinance requires the operating company to train Vassalboro firefighters before operations begin and to maintain access to the fire chief’s satisfaction.

Provisions requiring immediate notice to the town if the panels stopped generating electricity were deleted as board members accepted the ReVision argument that in addition to planned maintenance shutdowns, solar panels “cease to produce electricity every day between sunset and sunrise.”

As the discussion ended, board member Douglas Phillips told the audience he did not think changes made were substantial enough to require another review by the town attorney, but Town Manager Aaron Miller could decide to consult her.

Phillips reminded audience members that in addition to ordinance requirements, the planning board can attach conditions to any permit approved, whenever board members find they are needed to meet local conditions.

Planning board members had two other items on their March 7 agenda. They postponed action on a shoreland application on Birch Point Road, Webber Pond, because the applicant was not present.

They approved a second six-month extension on SunVest’s permit for a solar farm on Webber Pond Road, adding a requirement that when the company gets the connectivity permit from Central Maine Power Company it is waiting for, the town is to have a copy.

Board members decided that the six-month town-wide moratorium on new solar development voters approved in November 2022 did not prevent them from extending a pre-existing permit.

The next regular Vassalboro Planning Board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 4.

On April 4, “We’re not going to do solar; we’re done,” Brackett said.

by Mary Grow

Matt Pouliot

District #15 State Senator Matthew Pouliot visited the Vassalboro select board’s Feb. 16 meeting to speak briefly about legislative issues and to ask what’s important to Vassalboro officials and residents.

He began with the state-wide need for affordable housing and the problem of balancing responses to state issues with local control. The example he gave is the 2022 Maine law allowing auxiliary housing and duplexes on lots zoned for single-family residences.

In response to an earlier email from board member Chris French about the difficulty of finding licensed codes enforcement officers, Pouliot said legislators have no proposals yet, but there is talk of an incentive to Maine community colleges to provide training.

Board members, town manager Aaron Miller and audience members told the senator local issues include upgrading the transfer station (Miller suggested a state infrastructure grant); municipal staffing, as town employees retire or deal with health issues; and ambulance service, as Delta Ambulance joins others in Maine in asking municipalities for an annual payment.

Pouliot said one bill about ambulance service has been introduced.

He added that he has introduced legislation about siting solar farms. The purpose, he said, is to encourage solar development on sites like capped landfills, ledgy areas and PFAS-contaminated land, rather than on good farmland.

Pouliot offered his email address, mpouliot57@gmail.com, and said he welcomes constituents’ emails.

Select board members’ main decision Feb. 16 was to create a new transfer station task force and appoint its seven members: Dan Bradstreet, Amy Davidoff, select board member French, Doug Phillips, Zach Smith, Maggie Stickle and Jim Webb.

Miller and transfer station manager George Hamar will be advisors to the task force. French said the group will examine facility operations and equipment, recycling options, grant opportunities and other relevant topics.

Vassalboro’s trash hauling contract was on the Feb. 16 agenda; the current contract expires in August, select board chairman Barbara Redmond said. Miller had two quotes. Action was postponed to the board’s March 16 meeting; Miller asked Hamar to see if he could get figures from additional haulers.

Also postponed for a month were further discussion of:

• Changing the town office entrance to make it handicapped-accessible, while Miller gets more information on alternatives;
• Bids for a generator at the town office, until other budget figures become more definite;
• Revisions to Vassalboro’s Marijuana Business Ordinance, until Miller and board members make sure it matches state law and consider whether to recommend additional changes; and
• Revisions to Vassalboro’s No Parking Ordinance, pending consultation with the state Department of Transportation.

Further discussion of the proposed 2023-24 town budget is scheduled for a March 9 meeting.

In other business, selectmen unanimously authorized road foreman Eugene Field to buy a $9,000 bush hog for roadside mowing, with the intention of adding to the 2023-24 budget another $9,000 for the currently-unavailable flail mower Field said does a better job. Field reported he was unable to find a roadside mower to rent this summer.

Select board members have canceled their March 2 meeting, because only one member was available that evening. The March 9 and March 16 meetings are scheduled to start at 6 p.m. in the town office meeting room.

Vassalboro Community School (contributed photo)

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro school board members discussed various topics at their Feb. 14 meeting, excluding the 2023-24 budget. The budget will be the topic of a Tuesday, March 7, workshop, set to begin at 5:30 p.m. instead of the usual 6 p.m. at Vassalboro Community School (VCS).

Principal Ira Michaud reported on both ends of the student enrollment. Eighth-graders made their annual visits to high schools they might attend – Erskine Academy in South China, Waterville and Winslow high schools – and are excited about their prospects. Screening for next year’s kindergarten and pre-kindergarten classes is scheduled for May 3 through 5.

Michaud commented that since Feb. 14 was celebrated both as Valentine’s Day and as the 100th day of school this year, “to say the energy was boiling over is an understatement.”

On another in-school note, Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer reported that “Our lost and found is robust.” If students or parents do not claim their missing items by March 31, they will be donated to charity; board chairman Jolene Gamage recommended sending them to the Olde Mill, in North Vassalboro.

Pfeiffer said the school received a $10,000 gift willed by the late Mary Vannah, of Vassalboro. He recommended a committee be set up to recommend use of the money.

The overall budget remains in good shape, finance director Paula Pooler reported, and the school meals program, which ran in the red for several years, has a surplus of over $60,000 so far this school year.

During the extremely cold spell Feb. 3 and 4, water pipes froze and burst in three places, Pfeiffer said. Flooding was confined to the kitchen, where drains got rid of the water. After an immediate repair, more work was to be done over the February vacation week (Feb. 20 – 24), with the goal of preventing a recurrence.

Assistant principal Tabitha Brewer shared information on truancy and absenteeism. Attendance has not recovered fully from the covid-caused turmoil, but is improving, she said; school staff work with families to get students back to classes.

Pfeiffer and Michaud both praised the VCS Parent-Teacher Organization.

A VCS parent asked about the school’s Gifted and Talented Program. Pfeiffer recommended she talk with Brewer and curriculum coordinator Carol Kiesman.

Board members accepted the resignation of kitchen manager Mary Dumont. She and art teacher Susan Briggs are retiring at the end of the school year; Pfeiffer said both positions will be advertised soon.

Pfeiffer expects to need to schedule another budget-focused meeting after the March 7 one. The next regular Vassalboro school board meeting will be the evening of March 21.