Vassalboro Sanitary District board finally has quorum

photo: vsdistrict.com

by Mary Grow

Now that the Vassalboro Sanitary District’s board of trustees has a quorum – three of the required five members – they held a meeting, on Oct. 29 in the Vassalboro town office meeting room.

Lauchlin Titus volunteered to chair the board and was elected. Raymond Breton is vice-president and Jenna Davies, treasurer.

The board still needs two more members, who must be residents of Vassalboro but must live outside the areas served by the VSD.

The trustees had not met since January, according to records on the VSD website. Since then, Rebecca Goodrich, the only office employee, had run business operations on her own. A threat to default on a loan put pressure on select board members and residents to find at least three trustees (see the Sept. 25 issue of The Town Line, p. 2).

Anonymous donor gives to help customers pay bills

Vassalboro Sanitary District trustee Jenna Davies said an anonymous donor sent $5,000 to be used to help VSD customers pay their sewer bills, requesting preference be given to elderly women. Trustees accepted the donation with appreciation and agreed to develop an application form and distribute copies to district customers.

“Hopefully other people will see this and contribute. Vassalboro is a very giving town,” board chairman Lauchlin Titus said.

When VSD connected to Winslow in 2020, that was the least expensive way to meet new clean water requirements. It still left the district owing several large loan repayments.

Trying to meet expenses, previous boards raised sewer rates, to the point where users are hit hard and some are in default.

Davies asked about encouraging VSD customers who don’t send all their water into the sewer – because they irrigate extensive gardens, for instance – to install meters, so they can pay VSD only for their contributions to it. Trustees plan to inform customers of the option.

District finances, understandably, were a major topic at the Oct. 29 meeting. Davies and Titus presented ideas for improving them.

One possibility is renegotiating the agreement with Winslow, through which Vassalboro’s wastewater flows on its way to the Waterville treatment plant. Vassalboro’s rate is based on Winslow’s largest commercial client; Titus said Vassalboro now sends four or five times as much water as that entity.

The VSD owns five pieces of land in town, Titus said; how about trying to sell some? Breton and Davies agreed by consensus that Titus should consult with a local realtor.

Titus wondered if one parcel might be suitable for a solar array that would provide electricity for the VSD.

Board members decided they need to keep the headquarters building on Cemetery Street, in North Vassalboro, as an office and for storage. Goodrich told them it has no internet connection.

For future income, Titus suggested, when an alewife harvest starts on Outlet Stream, VSD officials should ask the select board to assign the income to them, on the ground that their water quality improvements made the harvest possible.

He said a Department of Marine Resources salmon study, now in the third year of a planned 10 years, is delaying alewife harvesting. Perhaps, he said, the VSD trustees should ask select board members to ask DMR staff to speed up their work.

Titus further suggested VSD again request money from Vassalboro’s TIF (Tax Increment Financing) fund. TIF contributions helped with the connection to Winslow.

Another suggestion was that the board periodically ask for new bids for services. Charles “Chuck” Applebee, from the current consultant, Wiscasset-based Water Quality and Compliance Services, endorsed the idea.

Applebee recommended trustees develop a realistic list of services to ask for, not just the minimum affordable. He repeatedly talked about deferred maintenance due to lack of funds; board members proposed ways to deal with several issues.

Trustees reaffirmed a previous board’s decision to sell a truck and a tractor that are no longer used. Bids will be due by Dec. 1, to be opened at the December board meeting.

In the Oct. 29 audience was Laurie Stevens, regional director (Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont) for RCAP (Rural Community Assistance Partnership) Solutions. She explained several ways her organization can assist VSD, at no charge because RCAP is federally funded. Trustees approved working with RCAP.

Vassalboro select board member Frederick “Rick” Denico urged trustees to update the VSD website, so it will be a source of accurate and reliable information.

Trustees agreed they will schedule monthly meetings for 2:30 p.m., the third Wednesday of each month (subject to change), with their next meeting Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 19.

However, on Nov. 5 the town website said the next meeting would be at 2:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 17.

They asked if they could continue to use the town office meeting room and its recording system, for a while at least. Denico said select board members would discuss the request at their Oct. 30 meeting