VASSALBORO: Town seeks ideas for use of ARPA funds

by Mary Grow

At their Oct. 27 meeting, Vassalboro select board members planned for a December discussion of ways to use federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.

Town Manager Mary Sabins intends to ask town departments and committees for suggestions, as she did last year. After audience member Holly Weidner offered ideas, board chairman Barbara Redmond invited her to submit them in writing to the town office.

The officials set the end of November as the deadline for suggestions. This timetable should let them consider recommendations and integrate ARPA spending into their proposed 2023-24 municipal budget.

If board members stick to their every-other-Thursday schedule, the December meetings will be on Dec. 8 and Dec. 22.

The first 70 minutes of the Oct. 27 meeting were spent reviewing the personnel policy, 20 single-spaced typed pages. With town employees in the audience and occasionally participating, board members and Sabins discussed a wide variety of provisions.

As planned, board members made no decisions. Sabins said much of the original (November 2011) version was written by a lawyer; she recommended current town attorney Kristin Collins, of Preti-Flaherty’s Augusta office, be asked to review changes.

Town Manager Mary Sabins intends to ask town departments and committees for suggestions, as she did last year.

One change board members seem likely to approve is an increase in the annual amount the town pays to reimburse public works employees for boots. The current figure is $100; an invoice among the bills paid Oct. 27 showed an employee’s new steel-toed, waterproof boots were priced at $169.99 (he bought them on sale, and even with tax exceeded his reimbursement by less than $10).

Since some of the changes discussed will impact the town’s 2023-24 budget, select board members hope to have a final document approved by early 2023. Their next meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening, Nov. 10.

Because the second November meeting would fall on Thanksgiving Day, it will be rescheduled. As of Oct. 17, the tentative date is Tuesday, November 22.