| Joanne Cole |
Brickyard Hollow Brewing got its on-premises liquor license from the Select Board last Monday, but with concerns over noise levels for neighbors and parking along Route 100 during events. The partnership for New Gloucester and Gray rec programs got its blessing at last, and the warrant for the May Town Meeting got its first review, including contested budget items regarding cemetery expansion and a proposed raise for the Assistant Librarian.
In other action, the board declined to let the Environmental Resources Committee use its budgeted funds to offer composting supplies at a discount. The board also discussed relinquishing maintenance responsibility for certain town roads, providing childcare at Town Meeting and creating a committee to resume planning for the Upper Village, among other topics.
Brickyard Hollow Brewing license, concerns. A public hearing for an on-premises liquor license for Brickyard Hollow Brewing Company drew support but also concern from residents. Brickyard Hollow is acquiring Nu Brewery at 437 Lewiston Road and plans a kitchen expansion for pizza and other food offerings. Brickyard Hollow also apparently will continue holding special events, including concerts. President Brad Moll recently told the Press Herald that much of the appeal of the New Gloucester location was outdoor space that’s ‘perfect for live music and disc golf.’
Noise and parking were the concern for neighbors. Resident Lisa Marie Lindenschmidt spoke of “massive, high-blasting music, literally across the street.” She and her husband, a musician and recording engineer “all about music,” had been excited to welcome Nu Brewery. It was initially quiet, Lindenschmidt said, but last year brought a lot of “really, really loud” shows. She also expressed safety concerns, as cars line Route 100 during shows. Later, board member Stephen Hathorne, who lives nearby, supported the business but described the noise as “unbearable at times” and “in your face.”
Public Works Director Ted Shane was in the Meetinghouse for another matter and told the board that towns can set decibel limits or require fencing as a condition of license approval. The board was disinclined to go that route. Instead, they unanimously approved the license without conditions but directed Town Manager Bill Kerbin to discuss noise and parking with the new owners. No one from Brickyard Hollow attended the meeting.
Road closures and maintenance. As requested, Public Works Director Ted Shane had prepared a memo with his recommendations of town roads that should be “given back to the homeowner” to maintain because they lack three houses and adequate turnaround, which Shane said are statutory requirements. Shane singled out Mercier Drive (off Route 122), Dave Snow Road (off Morse Road), Morgan Hill Road (off Hatch Road), Underpass Road (off Cobbs Bridge Road), and the gravel portions of Swamp Road and Tobey Road.
In letters to the board, residents Charles and Ellen Peters and Sara Dyer of Underpass Road and Sonny Mercier of Mercier Drive objected to any change in the status of their roads. They cited decades of town maintenance as precedent, workable turnarounds, and the need for access in the event of a fire or medical emergency, among other points.
As for the gravel stretches of Swamp Road and Tobey Road, Public Works Director Ted Shane said they and Quarry Road are easier to consider because they have no homes. Shane sketched a picture of expense and futility, with town crews doing needed bushhogging and grading and picking up dumped items, only to find the roads subsequently beaten up by logging trucks. “Who are you fixing it for? The logging trucks, really,” he said.
The board took no action regarding any of the roads. Instead, they directed Manager Bill Kerbin to investigate the process of formally discontinuing a town road and report back.
Gray-New Gloucester Recreation MOU approved. The board voted 4-1 (Hathorne) to approve as written a Memorandum of Understanding between New Gloucester and Gray that sets out the details of their partnership on facilities, programs and resources. The MOU addresses practical elements, like planning, staffing, payroll and equipment purchases, within an overarching aspirational mission to “enrich the lives” of New Gloucester and Gray residents and visitors. The Gray Town Council had previously approved the agreement, as had New Gloucester’s Parks & Recreation Committee.
Town Meeting. The board looked ahead to annual Town Meeting—May 1 this year—and discussed how to encourage attendance. Typically, between 100 and 150 residents have attended in recent years, generally skewing older, perhaps because the meeting is held on a school night. (For comparison, more than 3,100 residents voted last November.)
At the March 20 board meeting, member Peter Bragdon inquired about offering childcare through the Recreation Department, as was done for last year’s town meeting. He called it “a simple gesture” that wouldn’t use taxpayer funds.
Member Stephen Hathorne objected, saying, it would be “illegal” to provide childcare. “I’m not here to babysit anyone’s child. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever,” Hathorne said. Bragdon responded that other towns offer childcare. Dustin Ward said he wanted to help those wtih children attend, while Tammy Donovan said parents should get a babysitter and make a plan to be there.
A motion to have the town manager and recreation director explore ‘feasible childcare’ failed 2-3 (Bragdon and Ward in favor; Larrivee, Donovan, Hathorne opposed). Members did agree to purchase additional roadside banners to publicize town meeting.
Town meeting warrant/budget articles. The board held its first review of the draft town meeting warrant with budget articles and recommendations from the Budget Committee. The committee and board had aligned on nearly all items. Two differences involved the Library budget and the Cemetery Association’s $160,000 proposed expansion project. They remained differences after the board’s March 20 meeting.
On the Library budget, the Budget Committee had ultimately voted to support an additional $2,500 for book purchases and what amounted to a $2 per hour increase in the Assistant Librarian’s wage, after initially proposing to use the books line to fund the raise. Both the books and raise had drawn strong community support. A majority of the Select Board had supported the books budget but not the wage increase, only a cost-of-living adjustment.
Revisiting the Library budget on March 20, board members again split. With questions about staffing levels a recurring issue in the background, Tammy Donovan proposed increasing the hours from 36 to 40 hours per week and taking away overtime. “If you want a raise, work four extra hours a week,” she said. Member Dustin Ward replied, “I’m not going to ask someone to work more hours. Because that’s not a raise, that’s just asking them to work more.”
Peter Bragdon, whose attempt to discuss an added part-time person got little traction, explained that the 37th hour was paid at the regular rate. “They’re not asking for overtime,” Bragdon said. Chair Paul Larrivee said it was up to the manager to decide who gets a raise. “I do not want to be part of giving one person a two-dollar-an-hour raise,” Larrivee said. “That’s not my job.”
Earlier, Town Manager Bill Kerbin had commented that New Gloucester staff salaries are low compared with towns in the surrounding area. “We are almost across the board below, significantly below, local salaries in other places,” Kerbin said. He added, “So recruitment is a problem, but also retention could be an issue.”
In the end, the board left the Library numbers as they were, with the Budget Committee’s Library recommendation $2,200 higher than the board’s, reflecting the Assistant’s wage increase.
On the Cemetery Association’s expansion project, the Budget Committee had recommended funding the complete multiyear project at $160,000, while the board favored $50,000 in ARPA funds for surveys and planning. During the budget process, committee and board members alike had raised questions about the Cemetery Association and its relationship with the Town. The Association’s by-laws don’t describe the relationship, Peter Bragdon said, and there are “a lot of gray areas.”
An item on the March 20 agenda aimed to clarify the Town-Cemetery Association relationship, but no one from the Cemetery Association attended, nor had an invitation gone out. Now board members were wondering whether the Cemetery Association was perhaps “a private entity,” as Stephen Hathorne put it, receiving taxpayer dollars, or maybe a corporation. Manager Bill Kerbin had asked the Maine Municipal Association for guidance but hadn’t heard back.
On the merits, Paul Larrivee distinguished between the Cemetery Association’s annual requests for cemetery maintenance—$33,000 this year—and its $160,000 capital project. He said, “We’re going from maintenance to expansion, two very different things.” Larrivee asked “where would the money go” if voters approved a project that extends over three fiscal years. Finance Director Lori-Anne Wilson replied, “I would think there would be a check that would be cut July 1st to the Cemetery Association.” Larrivee expressed concern at releasing $160,000 in taxpayer funds without oversight by the Town or manager.
Stephen Hathorne didn’t like the Cemetery Association’s having originally sought ARPA funds, then seemingly changing course to request taxpayer funding, and now apparently wanting assurances from the Select Board that ARPA can be used this way.
Dustin Ward proposed to scrap the item altogether. “Three months in and the closer we get, it’s not sitting well,” Ward said of the expansion funding request. “It’s not going to sit well at Town Meeting.” The board decided to leave the budget item in for now and await further clarification about the Association’s status and possible use of ARPA funds.
Composters from ERC. The board declined to let the Environmental Resources Committee use $400 of its budgeted funds to offer composters at a discount. Lauren Jordan, chair of ERC, proposed $20 discounts for the first 20 residents wanting to purchase lobster trap-style composters. Jordan promptly hit headwinds. Stephen Hathorne objected that the arrangement might be illegal and amounted to using tax dollars to benefit a small number of residents.
Jordan suggested that composting would save tax dollars by keeping waste out of the Transfer Station hopper—thus avoiding hauling and incineration or disposal fees—but board members were not persuaded. They preferred that ERC seek donations to support a $10 discount this year and pursue grant opportunities next year. See a lobster trap composter and how to order one at this link.
Committee to study Upper Village parcel nixed. Peter Bragdon proposed forming a committee to “start moving” on plans for the town’s parcel at 1036 Lewiston Road, the site of the former Public Works garage in the Upper Village. Progress on Upper Village planning has stalled with the departure of Planner Natalie Thomsen, and Bragdon thought a committee could start work before the next planner settles in.
Others preferred to wait for a planner. That view prevailed, and Bragdon’s motion to create a committee failed, 2-3 (Bragdon and Larrivee in favor; Donovan, Hathorne, Ward opposed). Earlier, Manager Bill Kerbin told the board that the town planner search committee would be reviewing applications and hoped to schedule interviews soon.
Public comment. Along with letters from residents concerned about the status of their roads, the board heard from Debra Smith and Don Libby. Smith urged the board to support the Environmental Resources Committee’s composting and recycling initiatives because of the resulting environmental and financial benefits. She also commented on the Cemetery Association’s $160,000 expansion request, saying it has raised “a lot of questions,” among them, that officers/employees of the Cemetery Association had voted in favor of full funding as members of the Budget Committee. [Smith is a contributor and editor with NGXchange.]
In his comment, resident Don Libby urged the board to be cautious in future budgeting, particularly the use of the town’s Undesignated Fund, and to undertake financial planning for LD 2003, the new law that loosens zoning restrictions in order to increase housing supply statewide. As a member of the Land Management Planning Committee, Libby had recently asked the board to join LMPC in formally supporting a bill that would exempt towns under 10,000 from key provisions of LD 2003.
At this meeting, Libby spoke of a “tremendous impact in housing numbers in this town” that could result from LD 2003–as many as 200 units of affordable housing on 10 acres in the Upper Village or 100 houses “on top of the hill here”–along with costs and services: paving, Fire Rescue, “dare I say, police,” recreation, trash, water level and quality, possible extensions of water and sewer. He called for financial planning by the board. “We shouldn’t be trying to get out of it,” he said of LD 2003. “We should be trying to protect what we have so it’s not impacted.”
To view the video of the March 20 Select Board meeting, click here. For Select Board meeting agendas and supporting documents, click here.
