Vassalboro sanitary district needs board members, or else…

by Mary Grow

Unless more people immediately volunteer to serve as Vassalboro Sanitary District (VSD) trustees, bad things are likely to happen, select board members learned at their Sept. 18 meeting.

When the meeting started, the number of trustees on the five-member board was zero. The district’s only office employee, treasurer Rebecca Goodrich, and Town Manager Aaron Miller told select board members that on Oct. 1, the VSD has a $48,000 loan payment due to the Maine Municipal Bond Bank.

Goodrich, on the VSD attorney’s advice, has been paying routine bills, by credit card or check. She is hesitant to pay $48,000 without authorization from the board.

If there is no board, and therefore no payment, the VSD will be in default. Select bord chairman Frederick “Rick” Denico, Jr., said he had been told that should that happen, it would be the first time ever, nation-wide, and would likely bring Vassalboro unfavorable publicity.

Miller said the district’s lawyer told him that, under state law, a default would allow the bond bank to seize real and personal property of the about 200 families and businesses in East and North Vassalboro that the VSD serves.

Denico and Miller said they had already had preliminary discussions with bond bank officials and others, leading to suggestions and offers of help.

Auditor Ron Smith, of Buxton-based RHR Smith & Company, had heard from Goodrich and planned to do more research and provide information and advice. He and select board members agreed there are two financial problems: the Oct. 1 payment, which Smith believes can be solved without a default, and creating a long-range plan to put VSD on a sounder financial footing.

The next, smaller loan repayment is due in April 2026, according to Brian Kavanaugh, Director of the Bureau of Water Quality at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). He, too, is optimistic that the Oct. 1 payment can be made, and offered his department’s help with longer-range planning.

Kavanaugh said the sanitary system was chartered by the town in 1972, and initially treated wastewater with sand filters in East and North Vassalboro. Changing water quality regulations led to a 2020 decision to connect with the Waterville treatment facility via Winslow.

The $7.8 million project was funded about 60 percent by federal, state and local grants, including from Vassalboro’s TIF (Tax Increment Financing) program, and about 40 percent by loans, Kavanaugh said. Loan repayments, plus steadily increasing operating costs (electric rates, supplies, maintenance, Winslow’s fee as that town’s costs also go up), have required drastic increases in sewer fees.

Kavanaugh compared Vassalboro’s fees, around $2,100 to $2,300 a year, to the state average, around $900 a year.

Vassalboro’s TIF money might be available for the Oct. 1 loan repayment, but select board members – and Smith — were not sure it could be used without specific authorization from town voters.

A variety of longer-range solutions were discussed. Two audience members urged select board members to ask voters town-wide to “be good neighbors,” as one woman put it, and help fund the VSD. Another suggestion was to abolish the VSD and have the town take over.

Select board members postponed any decision until they hear what Smith and Goodrich come up with. They took one action at the end of the discussion, unanimously appointing North Vassalboro resident Raymond Breton as a VSD trustee.

All five trustees must be Vassalboro residents, and three of the five must live in the area the VSD serves. Part of the Sept. 18 discussion was about how to help incoming board and committee members understand and carry out their responsibilities.

Smith was at the meeting to talk about the municipal audits, which select board members and Miller have discussed repeatedly. Smith said the audit for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024, is done, and the audit for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025, will be done by December.

As of June 30, 2024, both the town and the school department had positive balances, Smith said. The town’s general fund increased, from $1.7 million a year earlier to $1.9 million, mainly due to property tax and excise tax collections. The school has a “hefty” fund balance, around $700,000.

In other business Sept. 18, Miller introduced Vassalboro’s new sports coordinator and office assistant, Danielle Brox. Recreation committee chairman Michael Phelps said he and other committee members are glad to have her help and have been “peppering her with questions.”

Miller announced another committee opening, on the recreation committee. Phelps thanked retiring basketball commissioner Kevin Phanor for his service.

The agenda included a public hearing on the annual state changes to general assistance funding. Board members accepted the new state figures.

Discussions of the town personnel handbook, a revived capital expenditures committee and two appeals (one of a road name, one of denial of a marijuana growing license) were postponed.

The road name issue needs to go to the Board of Appeals, Miller said, and that board, too, needs at least one more member before the appeal can be scheduled. Current members are John Reuthe and Rebecca Lamey.

The manager said work on the Webber Pond fish ladder will require Dam Road to remain closed into October, and perhaps all that month (see the explanation on the town website, vassalboro.net).

The next regular Vassalboro select board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 2. Miller said it will include a two-hour SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) discussion with Vassalboro emergency services personnel.