by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Public Works Director Eugene Field told selectman at their March 2 meeting that Darrell Gagnon’s work mowing town recreation fields and lawns around town buildings has been very satisfactory. Selectmen voted unanimously to renew Gagnon’s contracts for three years after the current year, Town Manager Mary Sabins reported after the meeting. Gagnon will be paid $15,600 in 2018 and again in 2019 and an additional $200 in 2020.

Field also joined in a discussion of 2017 road paving priorities as selectmen prepare to present their draft municipal budget to the town budget committee. The first budget committee meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, March 9; topics committee members hope to cover include funding for the transfer station, public works, paving and town administration.

Selectmen again discussed conversion of Vassalboro’s streetlights to LED lights and asked Sabins to inform the budget committee that the idea is under consideration.

Other actions at the March 2 meeting, Sabins said, included:

• A decision to advertise the 1984 fire truck for sale.
• Agreement to let residents take the woodchips accumulated at the transfer station as the result of a vehicle accident at no charge, to get rid of the pile.
• At board Chairman Lauchlin Titus’s initiative, a direction to the manager to inform the town attorney that the town intends to seek reimbursement for legal fees incurred in defending against “frivolous cases” filed by a resident.
• Two more requests to Sabins, recommended by planning board member Douglas Phillips: to ask the Maine Municipal Association if it is appropriate for the school board to fill vacancies without advertising them and to look into arranging for Vassalboro residents to have use of a document-shredding service.
• Scheduling the summer selectmen’s meetings for July 13 and Aug. 10, both Thursday evenings.

The next regular Vassalboro selectmen’s meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, March 9, an hour earlier than usual to accommodate the budget committee meeting at 7 p.m.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro has an unusual number of taxpayers whose taxes are seriously overdue, Town Manager Mary Sabins told selectmen at their Feb. 9 meeting.

With the foreclosure deadline for 2014 taxes – the date on which the town acquires the property if taxes are not paid – that night at midnight, Sabins said 26 parcels were on the verge of becoming town-owned. The blizzard that started as selectmen met that morning did not make her optimistic about people coming in at the last minute.

Town office staff made repeated efforts to reach people through mailings and telephone calls to make sure everyone was aware of the deadline, she said.
For the current tax year, the third quarterly tax payment is due Monday, Feb. 27, by town meeting vote. Voters also agreed to charge interest for taxes paid after the deadline.

In other business at a short meeting, selectmen again talked briefly about changing the town’s streetlights to more energy-efficient LED lights and agreed they need not rush to a decision. They have heard proposals from two private companies, but are waiting for information from Central Maine Power Company.
Selectmen were scheduled to begin discussion of the 2017-18 budget at a Feb. 13 workshop, but canceled it because of bad weather.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro selectmen heard two requests and one proposal at their Jan. 26 meeting. They granted one request and took the other two items under advisement.

Board members approved Frank Richards’ request that they write a letter to the president of the Kennebec Water District (KWD) Board of Trustees asking the district to support the project to restore alewives to China Lake, known as ARI (Alewife Restoration Initiative).

Richards is Vassalboro’s new representative on the board. One reason he sought the position, he said, was to try to get KWD to support ARI financially.
The current KWD position, as stated by General Manager Jeffrey LaCasse (see The Town Line, Jan. 19, 2017, page 8), is neither for nor against alewife reintroduction. KWD officials do not believe alewives are responsible for water quality improvements; neither do they believe the small fish will harm water quality.

Richards praised state Representative Timothy Theriault, of China, for introducing a bill, LD 55, co-sponsored by legislators from Winslow and Fairfield, that would impose a fee on KWD customers to go toward China Lake water quality restoration. (For another perspective on LD 55, see The Town Line, Jan. 26, 2017, p. 3. )

Selectmen agreed that board Chairman Lauchlin Titus and Town Manager Mary Sabins will draft a letter to KWD Board President Al Hodsdon.
The second request was from Holly Weidner, who asked selectmen as they prepare 2017-18 budget recommendations to reconsider the policy of flat-funding out-of-town social service agencies. Weidner argued that many of the agencies, like those dealing with sexual assault and domestic violence, perform valuable public safety functions and should be more generously supported. Selectman Phil Haines said selectmen and budget committee members constantly balance between the needs presented to them and the need to keep the local tax rate as low as possible.

Agency requests are included in the town meeting warrant, Sabins pointed out, giving voters the option to appropriate the full amount an agency wants when town officials recommend a lower amount.

Selectmen are scheduled to begin review of the proposed 2017-18 municipal budget at a workshop scheduled for 1 p.m., Monday, Feb. 13. The budget committee’s tentative schedule has social service agency requests to be considered the evening of Thursday, March 9.

The proposal at the Jan. 26 meeting, submitted by a representative of Maryland-based RealTerm Energy, was to replace current street lights with LED lights.

Paul Vesel, the company’s northeastern director of business development, gave selectmen and audience members a 33-page document describing plans for the change and projected cost savings.

In April 2016 selectmen heard another proposal on the same topic from Pemco & Company, LLC, of Florida.

In other business Jan. 26, Sabins reported on two initiatives from Vassalboro’s Senior Citizens Working Group. Members are still discussing provision of bus service in Vassalboro, she said, and they are planning a May 25 Senior Citizens Services Fair at which area organizations whose responsibilities include assisting seniors will be invited to distribute information about their services.

Selectmen approved a liquor license renewal for Natanis Golf Course, with board member and Natanis owner Rob Browne abstaining on the vote.

The next regular Vassalboro selectmen’s meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening, Feb. 9.

by Mary Grow

With the local marijuana referendum behind them – voters on Jan. 9 approved banning commercial non-medical marijuana businesses in town – and 2017-18 budget work not beginning until February, Vassalboro selectmen had a short and routine meeting Jan. 12.

Town Manager Mary Sabins has not forgotten the discussion of speeding through East Vassalboro on Route 32. She showed selectmen a solar assisted battery light borrowed from the state Department of Transportation and proposed buying two to go atop new warning signs at each end of the village.

Total cost for two lights and two signs would be less than $500, and, Sabins said, if the lights proved ineffective or annoying to neighbors, the town public works crew could use them to warn of construction work, downed trees and other temporary issues.

Selectmen unanimously approved. Because of Dig Safe requirements and frozen ground, the new warnings might not be installed until spring.

Board members renewed the agreement with Kennebec Water District for management of the China Lake Outlet Dam and approved a slightly revised contract with the town assessors and a minor revision to the town personnel policy.

They approved reports from Sabins on town finances; Road Commissioner Eugene Field, listing a lot of overtime plowing and sanding; new Police Chief Mark Brown; and the Vassalboro First Responders.

The First Responders’ report included concern about the high price of EpiPens, a tool members like to carry with them for immediate treatment of allergic reactions and similar conditions. They fear they will have to limit themselves to keeping an EpiPen in each Vassalboro fire station.

The next regular selectmen’s meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening, Jan. 26. Board members adjusted their February schedule to avoid meeting during school vacation week; at this point, they plan a meeting Thursday evening, Feb. 9; a budget workshop Monday afternoon, Feb. 13; and a meeting Thursday afternoon, March 2.