by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Planning Board members have four applications on the agenda for their Tuesday, April 6, meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. The meeting will be virtual; it will be available for simultaneous viewing on the website vcsvikings.org.

The applications, in order, are:

• From Kelley Gooldrup, to combine lots 9 and 10 in the Stone Road subdivision;
• From Jack’s Place Too, LLC, to expand a deck at 201 Tilton Lane, in the Webber Pond shoreland zone;
• From Elizabeth Austin to open a juice bar at 913 Main Street, in North Vassalboro; and
• From Sunvest Solar, Inc., to build a solar facility on David and Jennifer Jones’ land on Webber Pond Road.

Sunvest Solar is presenting a pre-application; company representatives will explain the proposed project, but no decisions are expected.

Vassalboro has two approved commercial solar projects, ReVision Energy’s, on Route 32, and Longroad Energy’s, on Riverside Drive. Another application, from Sebago Technics for a property off Cemetery Street, is pending.

by Mary Grow

At their March 16 meeting, Vassalboro School Board members heard cautious optimism from three administrators. All three expect a gradual return to something closer to normalcy before the end of the school year.

For Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer, the state emphasis on vaccinating school staff is “a game-changer.” For Principal Megan Allen, the revised national CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guideline allowing students’ desks to be three feet apart, instead of six feet apart, will allow more in-school instruction.

Saying Vassalboro Community School (VCS) will “reopen” is the wrong wording, Pfeiffer said, because the school hasn’t closed completely, except for a few brief intervals. However, more students will spend more time in the same room with their classmates and teachers.

The CDC requires students and adults to be masked. The new rule does not apply where masking is impossible, as in lunchrooms, where six-foot separation is still required; and adults are expected to continue to stay six feet apart.

Allen said how many students return for how long will depend on class and classroom sizes. About 55 students have chosen to learn fully remotely, she said, and one of her goals is to make sure they do not lose out as classroom education is re-emphasized. She hopes there will be space for them to rejoin their classmates for the last few days of the school year, if they want to.

Assistant Principal Greg Hughes said winter sports, basketball and cheerleading, will continue through March. He expects to start baseball and softball indoors with students remaining in their cohorts, to mingle groups when play moves outdoors and perhaps to resume games against other schools.

Pfeiffer will not be surprised if there are more federal and state policy changes before the semester ends.

The superintendent expects more than $500,000 in new stimulus funds. Part of the money will be used for “learning recovery,” additional time and additional staff to help students make up for what they were unable to learn under pandemic conditions.

Looking to the 2021-22 school year, Allen said if there is enough interest, a second pre-kindergarten class will be added. The class would need a teacher and an aide, increasing personnel costs; but, Finance Director Paula Pooler added, the state subsidy would also increase.

School board members reviewed the regular education section of the proposed 2021-22 school budget, which is projected to increase as it does every year with salary increases, new equipment and program adjustments. They did not review the proposed special education budget. Because their budget review was unfinished, the planned March 23 meeting with the town budget committee was canceled.

The next regular Vassalboro School Board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 13, a second Tuesday rather than the usual third Tuesday to avoid meeting during school vacation week.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro selectmen heard a report on town finances and continued town meeting plans at their March 18 meeting.

Investment advisor Matt Weaver, senior vice-president at First National Wealth Management’s Damariscotta branch, assured board members their investments are in good shape. The portfolio’s value continued to increase over the past year, he said, and he is moderately optimistic about the future, despite continuing uncertainty.

Weaver recommended no changes in Vassalboro’s investment policy. Selectmen unanimously renewed the policy.

Selectmen continued to make final adjustments to their budget recommendations and to the warrant for the annual town meeting.

Main topics March 18 were a decision on hiring a wage consultant and continued discussion of proposed changes at the transfer station.

Town Manager Mary Sabins sought approval to contract with LBouchard and Associates, Human Resources Consultants, based in Jefferson, to develop a wage and salary plan for town employees. Company owner Laurie Bouchard was recommended by two unrelated sources, she said.

Sabins wanted to have Bouchard develop a plan to be implemented in the coming fiscal year. She proposed a town meeting warrant article authorizing up to $3,800 from surplus for Bouchard’s work, plus a to-be-determined figure to increase wages in fiscal year 2021-22, if needed. She plans no pay decreases, even if Bouchard finds that some Vassalboro employees earn more than their peers in similar towns.

Selectmen voted unanimously to authorize Sabins to contract with Bouchard, to have the study done in the fall of 2021 and to implement results in fiscal year 2022-23, funding the process as part of the administration budget.

Additional consideration of the much-discussed transfer station project led to a consensus that at a minimum, two things should be done promptly: the electrical system needs a complete upgrade, and Vassalboro needs either a new compactor or major repairs to the current one.

Other components of the plan developed by Al Hodsdon, of A. E. Hodsdon Engineers, of Waterville, include siting a new compactor at an angle, to allow adding a second compactor and to improve the traffic pattern; putting trash containers under cover so the town will no longer pay to have rainwater hauled with its trash; and adding a second transfer station driveway off Lombard Dam Road.

Selectboard members Robert Browne and Barbara Redmond leaned toward a new compactor and an electrical upgrade for the coming year, with the possibility of a second phase of improvements later. Browne thinks a roof to keep the rain out is a good investment

Board Chairman John Melrose proposed Sabins ask Hodsdon for an estimated price for a new compactor and an adequate electrical system.

Selectmen have limited time to agree on what they want done if they are to ask town meeting voters to fund the work in 2021-22.

In other business March 18:

• Sabins said China has offered to let Vassalboro share its April 24 on-site paper shredding program, for $100. Selectmen did not object. On April 24, Vassalboro residents may bring confidential documents that should be shredded to the China transfer station between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
• Selectmen authorized Road Foreman Eugene Field to buy a new generator for the town garage from Augusta Fuel for $11,050, installed. Funds will come from appropriations voters approved in March 2019 and March 2020.
• Melrose reported briefly on on-going discussions about a land swap with the Kennebec Water District.
• Sabins said she has been asked to rejoin the Maine Municipal Association Board of Directors, to fill the past president position after the incumbent resigned, and wanted to make sure selectmen did not object. They did not.

The next regular Vassalboro selectmen’s meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, April 1, at Vassalboro Community School.

Town meeting set for June 7

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro’s 2021 town meeting is scheduled for Monday, June 7, at 6:30 p.m. It will be in person at the Vassalboro Community School gymnasium, as it was last year.

On Tuesday, June 8, polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the school for written-ballot voting: annual municipal elections and decisions on three referendum questions.

To be elected this year for three-year terms are one selectman (John Melrose’s term ends) and one school board member (Jolene Clark Gamage’s term ends).

Candidates must submit nomination papers signed by at least 25 registered Vassalboro voters to the town office by noon Friday, April 9, to have their names on the ballot. As of the morning of Monday, March 22, Town Clerk Cathy Coyne said the following people were circulating nomination papers: for the Board of Selectmen, Michael C. Poulin; and for the School Board, Chris French, incumbent Gamage and Poulin.

The June 8 referendum questions ask voters if they want to:

• Adopt the new “Town of Vassalboro Marijuana Business Ordinance,” which would replace the 2017 “Ordinance Prohibiting Retail Marijuana Establishments”;
• Affirm the 2021-2022 school budget approved the previous evening; and
• Continue the school budget validation referendum process for three more years.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Budget Committee members met March 11 to decide what questions they need to ask town selectmen when the two groups meet March 18.

On March 18, selectmen are scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. in the Vassalboro Community School gymnasium. The budget committee is to join them at 7 p.m.

The selectmen’s agenda includes two items that budget committee members talked about: plans to renovate the transfer station, and town employees’ wages and salaries.

Selectmen are scheduled to discuss whether to contract with a wage consultant. Budget Committee members have questions about town wage and salary policies.

Selectmen have been discussing plans for improvements at the transfer station with Waterville engineer Al Hodsdon, of A. E. Hodsdon Engineers. Some of the budget committee members have a suggestion for funding the project.

The March 18 selectmen’s agenda further includes the annual investment report from Matt Weaver, senior vice-president at First National Wealth Management’s Damariscotta branch, and review of the Vassalboro investment policy; discussion of a land agreement with Kennebec Water District; scheduling a public hearing on the proposed new town marijuana ordinance, a substantial revision of the current document; and continuing preparations for the June 7 and 8 town meeting.

Budget committee member Michael Poulin, who regularly listens to selectmen’s meetings, said selectmen have a cost estimate of more than $300,000 for transfer station updates and are talking of spreading the work over several years.

Committee member Douglas Phillips recommended advising selectmen to issue a short-term – five or six year – bond and get the improvements done quickly. He said the compactor has broken down frequently; the open-top trash containers fill with snow and rainwater that the town pays to have hauled away with the trash; and the traffic pattern, which requires backing up to disposal containers, invites accidents.

Several other committee members supported the bond idea. The committee did not vote on it.

The public works budget also raised questions to be discussed at future meetings, as did Vassalboro’s use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds.

Poulin said selectmen have allocated TIF money almost entirely to two projects, extension of the Vassalboro Sanitary District’s sewer to connect to Winslow, and the Alewife Restoration Project (ARI) that involves removing or modifying dams on Outlet Stream. He would like to see the town’s TIF document amended to spread funds more widely.

His comments sparked discussion of where to draw the line between budget and policy. Policy is the selectmen’s responsibility, not the budget committee’s, members agreed.

Poulin asked whether the committee’s goal is to hold the tax rate down, or to advise selectmen on needed expenditures. The answer from other committee members was, “Both.”

After the March 18 meeting, budget committee members are scheduled to discuss the 2021-22 school budget with the school board on Tuesday, March 23 and to meet with selectmen on Thursday, April 1. Both meetings will be at Vassalboro Community School at 7 p.m. The school board will meet at 6 p.m. March 23 and the selectboard at 6 p.m. April 1.