by Mary Grow

Four Vassalboro Planning Board members present at the June 2 meeting unanimously approved a solar energy project at 515 Main Street (Route 32) almost opposite Ron’s Auto Parts. (For more information, see The Town Line, May 14)

ReVision Energy, represented by Senior Project Developer, Nate Niles, and Construction Project Manager, Al Copping, plans a community solar farm on Bernie Welch’s land. The solar panels will be surrounded by a seven-foot chain-link fence; residents in Central Maine Power Company’s service area will buy shares in the output.

Planning board members found that the project meets all criteria in Vassalboro’s land use and shoreland ordinances. They added two conditions to their approval:

• Although the state transportation department has allowed two entrances onto the highway, after construction is complete only the north one is to be used. Niles said there will be almost no traffic in and out of the area.
• Trees to be cleared between Main Street and the fence will be replaced with shrubbery that will provide visual screening from the highway, without blocking sunlight from the solar panels.

Niles expects work on the development to begin this summer. When he and Copping made their initial presentation May 5, he said work should take two to three months, will be done during daylight hours and should not be very noisy.

Turning to the only other item on the June 2 agenda, board members decided unanimously that Lorilee Dumont can enlarge her Dunham Road building from which she runs her catering and restaurant business without board review. However, should she later want to expand the business, she would need to appear before the board.

Codes Officer Paul Mitnik explained that Dumont wants to add a deck so she can continue to seat six tables of diners while maintaining social distancing. She does not plan to add tables, he said.

The June 2 planning board meeting was in person, not virtual. It was held in the Vassalboro Community School cafeteria so that board and audience members – all masked – could sit at least six feet apart.

The next meeting should be scheduled for Tuesday evening, July 7, the first Tuesday of the month.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro selectmen have cancelled their May 28 meeting for lack of agenda items. Their next meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 11, as an in-person meeting in the town office meeting room.

The meeting includes a public hearing on the Vassalboro Sanitary District’s application for $166,000 from Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds for the sewer pipeline project.

Garvan Donegan of the Central Maine Growth Council is scheduled to report recommendations for future use of TIF funds, which to date have supported the Sanitary District’s sewer connection to Winslow and the Alewife Restoration Initiative (ARI), the project intended to permit alewives to migrate into China Lake.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro officials plan to hold an open town meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday, June 22, at Vassalboro Community School (VCS), believing they can do so safely and within state guidelines.

Town Manager Mary Sabins said consensus was reached after many email and personal discussions among selectmen, town office staff, VCS technology coordinator David Trask, School Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer and two attorneys with whom Sabins consulted. Selectmen unanimously approved at their May 14 meeting.

Written-ballot local elections are scheduled for Tuesday, July 14, at the same time as state primaries and referenda. Vassalboro polls will be at VCS, not in the town office as usual.

Discussion of the open meeting focused on conforming to state safety regulations to protect everyone involved. The current plan has the meeting moderator at one end of the VCS gymnasium flanked by socially-distanced staff and officials, facing spaced chairs, with no more than 50 people in the room.

The cafeteria would be set up to accommodate a separate gathering of up to 50 more people. Trask said setting up a two-room sound system would be no problem. Various ways to convey messages from people in the cafeteria to the moderator were proposed.

What if 101 people show up, Trask asked. “That’s gonna be a problem,” Sabins replied.

No one wants to discourage voters from attending the meeting. Selectmen think some residents may be hesitant about joining a crowd; and Sabins said she believes there is only one potentially controversial agenda item, the proposal to buy a new fire truck.

Town office to re-open

Town Manager Mary Sabins said at the May 14 selectmen’s meeting that the Vassalboro Town Office is scheduled to reopen to the public on Monday, June 1, with appropriate protective measures for staff and members of the public.

The May 14 discussion covered how to check voters in safely – perhaps by setting up plastic-shielded check-in desks outdoors, Trask suggested – and how to let them out at the end of the meeting while observing distancing. With four separate doors, the exodus from the gym would be comparatively easy, Trask said.

The other main topic May 14 was the planned fishway at the China Lake Outlet Dam in East Vassalboro. Matt Streeter, Manager of Maine Rivers’ Alewife Restoration Project (ARI), displayed on-screen detailed plans for the project that will let alewives complete their annual migration from the Sebasticook River into China Lake.

The fishway that lets the small fish swim upstream in the spring will be along the east bank of the stream, with access for construction over the Cates property, Streeter said. In the fall, out-migrating fish will exit through a tilting weir close to the west bank.

The fishway will not interfere with the town’s managing the dam to control China Lake water levels in accord with state regulations, Streeter said.

Streeter’s presentation covered the fishway itself and related topics like run-off control during construction and protection of archaeological resources if any are found.

Sabins and selectmen were concerned about the town’s responsibility to maintain the fishway. Streeter said the wooden baffles that are its main feature should last 10 years or so; replacing them is a simple and inexpensive bit of construction. He offered to provide spare baffles the town could store until needed.

The Department of Marine Resources has primary responsibility for opening and closing the gates that control entrance to the fishway and the weir, depending on water and fish flows, Streeter said. He agreed it would be helpful if town public works staff were also knowledgeable.

The Outlet Dam is not intended to host people watching alewives; the viewing area will be at Box Mills dam in North Vassalboro. Streeter and selectmen talked about at least a sign, and if necessary a fence, to keep people away from the stream.

ARI spokespeople have said they intend to have the Outlet Dam fishway built in the summer of 2021.

Vassalboro selectmen have cancelled their regular May 28 meeting due to lack of agenda items.  Their next regular meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening, June 11.

UPDATE: This article has been updated from the print version to show the May 28 meeting has been cancelled.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Planning Board members reviewed two preliminary applications for solar power development in town at their May 5 virtual meeting. They expect one to be ready for a public hearing (if needed) and perhaps final review at their June 2 meeting.

Both projects involve solar panels on metal supports inside a high fence with a locked gate (emergency access is provided for the fire department). Both are close to highways and to connections with Central Maine Power’s system.

The smaller and more nearly ready project is on land owned by Bernard Welch, at 515 Main Street, almost opposite Ron’s Auto parts. The developer is ReVision Energy, represented at the planning board meeting by Project Developer, Nate Niles, and Construction Project Manager, Al Copping.

The project will cover about four acres and will be a community solar farm like the one at Three Level Farm, in China, also developed by ReVision. Niles explained that customers as a group will sign a lease agreement with Welch, own the equipment and share power from the solar panels, with ReVision building and managing the project.

Construction normally takes two to three months, and Copping said the work is mostly “low noise” – the pile-drivers putting in the poles to support the panels are the noisiest equipment.

Niles added that solar projects make no demand on water supplies and generate no waste.

The solar farm is expected to run at least 25 years. Niles agreed with board Chairman Virginia Brackett’s suggestion that instead of decommissioning the project when the panels lose efficiency, usually after 30 or 40 years, new panels could be installed.

Board members discussed at length ways to give residents a chance to ask questions and make comments before the board makes its decision. They decided if ReVision’s final application is received soon enough, they could begin their June 2 meeting by determining if it is complete and, if it is, hold a public hearing by inviting advance input and instructing interested residents on ways to join the meeting virtually.

The larger project, to cover about 20 acres of a 28-acre site, is proposed by Longroad Energy Management LLC, represented by David Kane and by Kara Moody and Brooke Barnes from consulting firm Stantec. It is located at 2579 Riverside Drive, shown on maps as on the east side of the road a little south of the southern end of Burleigh Road (old Route 3).

Moody and Barnes said the project will include solar panels and auxiliary equipment; an existing access road will be extended farther into the property. Since the land is mostly agricultural, little clearing will be needed.

Moody said there is no definite timeline yet; she expects to present a revised plan later this spring.