by Mary Grow

Vassalboro town and school and AOS (Alternative Organizational Structure) #92 officials are working to bring down the 2018-19 municipal and school budgets to avert a large tax increase.

Budget committee members talked about both school and municipal budget requests at their April 5 meeting, which followed a short selectmen’s meeting. They had future meetings scheduled and therefore made no formal recommendations.

The current tax rate, Town Manager Mary Sabins said, is 14.5 mils, or $14.50 for each $1,000 of valuation. The preliminary budgets as of April 5 – which everyone emphasized are subject to change – would require a 2018-19 rate of 16.22 mils, or $16.22 for each $1,000 of valuation.

To reduce the new rate to 15.22 mils would require cutting 2018-19 expenditures by around $300,000, Sabins said.

At their previous meeting with the school board, budget committee members learned of $63,000 in savings on insurance costs that had not been figured in the school budget. They hope for additional education savings.

Sabins’ calculations did include an increase in state revenue sharing, bringing that source of non-local-tax income to $170,000 instead of the $160,000 she had expected. Going through the municipal budget and considering a variety of options, budget committee members came up with about $86,000 in cuts they might recommend.

One proposal discussed was to eliminate Police Chief Mark Brown’s position and rely entirely on the State Police and Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office for police coverage. The rationale was not dissatisfaction with Brown, but the possibility of saving more than $27,000, plus the cost of a new police car in the fairly near future. Sabins warned part of the savings might be offset by the need to pay Brown unemployment compensation.

Other items that might be proposed for reduction when the committee makes its formal recommendations include several public works department requests and the increase requested by Vassalboro First Responders.

After an April 10 meeting with the school board, the budget committee was scheduled to hold its final meeting to make recommendations at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 12, at the town office. A week later, selectmen are scheduled to review the draft warrant for the June 4 annual town meeting, where voters will make final spending decisions.

At the short April 5 selectmen’s meeting preceding the budget committee meeting, selectmen unanimously approved new contracts with Sabins and with alewife harvester Ronald Weeks.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro School Board members reviewed an unfinished 2018-19 budget and discussed it with budget committee members at two sequential meetings March 29. The preliminary $7.9 million budget at the beginning of the meetings would require an increase in local taxes of more than $495,000, which Town Manager Mary Sabins said would amount to somewhere around $1.30 for each $1,000 of valuation (about one and one-third mil).

However, that figure is already obsolete, according to AOS (Alternative Organizational Structure) #92 Superintendent Eric Haley and Finance Director Paula Pooler. For example, they had projected a nine percent increase in insurance costs, and had learned earlier that day that the increase will be zero, cutting about $63,000 in projected expenditures.

Haley and Pooler emphasized the number of expensive unknowns in each annual school budget. For example, when a special education student who needs a full-time educational technician moves into or out of Vassalboro, budget needs can increase or decrease by thousands of dollars.

Tuition costs are also hard to predict. The state does not set its figures until late in the calendar year, and the cost varies among the different high schools Vassalboro students attend, with Waterville the least expensive and Erskine Academy the most. If the state figures are higher than expected, or if more Vassalboro eighth-graders choose Erskine, or if more high-school sophomores choose the vocational schools as an option, tuition will be underfunded.

Special education is one reason the 2018-19 budget is projected to increase, Haley said. Another is teachers’ and educational technicians’ salaries, which have been negotiated. He shared results of a survey showing that Vassalboro pays most of its teachers and educational technicians less than they would get in comparable jobs in nearby school systems like Fairfield, Oakland or Madison.

Budget committee and school board members have another joint meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 10, after the school board meeting at 6 p.m. that evening (a week earlier than usual because of April school vacation).

The budget committee will also meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 5, in the town office. That evening’s selectmen’s meeting will begin at 6 p.m., also in the town office.

In addition to the budget, school board and budget committee members briefly discussed consequences of dissolving AOS #92. Vassalboro Community School will have its own part-time superintendent; school board members intend to contract with Waterville and Winslow to get the same central office services they have been getting, delivered by many of the same people, with costs determined by the same formula that has divided AOS central office costs among Vassalboro, Waterville and Winslow.

While Haley and most school board members favor a three-year contract, several budget committee members and selectmen advised starting with a one-year contract. Haley said he plans to provide enough staff members, replacements and two new hires, to serve all three former AOS schools; but he needs a three-year commitment to justify staffing. He doubts Vassalboro would find less expensive services elsewhere; Pooler warned Vassalboro might end up with none.

School Board Chairman Kevin Levasseur agreed, saying no other agency “has been beating down my door” to offer a competing proposal.

School board member Susan Tuthill said a three-year contract would allow a year to adjust, not only to the new arrangement but also to a new superintendent and principal; the second year would allow evaluation; and if problems developed, the third year could be used to explore alternatives.

Selectman John Melrose has talked with people in two other towns where go-it-alone schools have moved to in-house services. Lauchlin Titus, chairman of the selectmen, compared the proposed contract for school services with Vassalboro’s alewife harvesting contract, which started as annual and when the arrangement proved satisfactory went to three and now five years.

Pooler and Vassalboro Community School Principal Dianna Gram said the comparison is inaccurate, because Vassalboro is not “jumping into the unknown”; the school has had nine years of satisfactory service from the AOS office.

Gram was accompanied at the School board and budget committee meetings by her successor, Dr. Megan Allen, who will become principal when Gram retires at the end of June.

Maine Rivers, as part of the Alewife Restoration Initiative, has been awarded $200,000 from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundations’ (NFWF) New England Forests and Rivers grant program. The New England Forests and Rivers Fund strives to restore and sustain healthy forests and rivers that provide habitat for diverse native birds populations, as well as freshwater and diadromous fish populations. Since its founding in 1984, NFWF has supported more than 16,000 projects that protect and restore our nation’s fish and wildlife species and the habitats they need to thrive.

The goal of the Alewife Restoration Initiative is to remove impediments or install fish passages at the barriers that prevent native alewives from accessing China Lake’s spawning habitat. The project will improve the connectivity between China Lake, the Sebasticook River and the ocean, and is expected to restore an annual run of between 800,000 and 950,000 adult alewives. The restoration of the Vassalboro’s nearby Webber Pond alewife run already provides revenue to the town of Vassalboro, in 2017 this totaled more than $18,000. The China Lake run is expected to be at least twice the size of the Webber pond alewife run.

For more information about the Alewife Restoration Initiative: Landis Hudson, landis@mainerivers.org phone: 207-847-9277.

The Vassalboro public hearing, selectmen’s meeting and Budget Committee meeting postponed from March 8 due to snow are rescheduled for Thursday evening, March 22, with the public hearing at 6 p.m. followed by the selectmen’s meeting and the Budget Committee scheduled for 7 p.m. (ep)

The public hearing, held jointly with the Planning Board, is on proposed amendments to Vassalboro’s Building Permit Ordinance. Information on the proposed changes is on the town’s web site. (ep)

The selectmen’s agenda includes a discussion with Codes Officer Richard Dolby of dealing with violators of town land use regulations; a discussion with Kim Lindlof of the benefits of joining the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce; a potential appointment to the Conservation Commission; a discussion with Leon Duff and others who propose naming the Vassalboro Community School gymnasium in memory of James Mitchell; a review of responses to the request for proposals for alewife harvesting and perhaps awarding of the harvesting contract; a review of tax-acquired properties and discussion of disposal options; and preliminary plans for the 2017 town report. (ep)

The Budget Committee planned to spend most of its March 8 meeting in discussion with town department heads. (ep)

There is one vacant seat on the Budget Committee, to be filled at the June 4 town meeting. People interested in the position are invited to attend Budget Committee meetings or to submit their names to the town office.