VASSALBORO SANITARY DISTRICT: Lack of quorum adjourns meeting; some questions still answered

photo: vsdistrict.com

by Mary Grow

More than a dozen people came to the Nov. 17 meeting of the Vassalboro Sanitary District (VSD) board of trustees.

Board chair Lauchlin Titus called the meeting to order and announced that at 6:17 that morning, he had received Jenna Davies’ resignation from the board. Therefore, the theoretically five-member board is down to two members, Titus and Raymond Breton.

Two members is not a quorum, and the meeting could not be held. Titus adjourned it.

Audience members asked questions anyway, focused on VSD finances, and Titus allowed a half-hour unofficial discussion before he indicated it was time to leave. Because the audience included Brandy King from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and Kirsten Hebert, executive director of Maine Rural Water Association, some of the questions got answered.

Titus said if additional questions were sent to him, he would try to get answers posted on the VSD website.

King’s main message was that DEP has done all it can to help relieve the about $3 million in debt the VSD incurred from the $8 million connection to the Waterville disposal facility, via Winslow. She explained some of the financing process.

Hebert’s organization is likely to play a role if Vassalboro’s and other towns’ legislators try to get debt relief through the state legislature. She said she can also offer help with local VSD administration.

Titus said any new volunteers to serve on the district’s board would need to be appointed by the select board, which next meets Thursday evening, Dec. 11. The member or members would then need to be sworn in by the town clerk, who would not be in the office until Monday, Dec. 15.

Before the quorum was lost, the next VSD board meeting was planned for the afternoon of Dec. 15.