| Joanne Cole |
Without controversial issues to spur attendance, New Gloucester’s Annual Town Meeting came and went on Monday evening with 81 voters participating, down from 137 last year. Those on hand at the May 6 meeting considered 38 warrant articles and approved some $7 million in municipal spending.
Voters also approved amendments to the town’s zoning ordinance, including ones intended to bring the Town into compliance with the statewide housing expansion law, LD 2003. A new floodplain management ordinance and a streamlined procedure for amendments to previously approved site plans also passed without comments or questions. The proposed amendments now go to a town-wide ballot vote on June 11.
The May 6 Town Meeting opened with tributes to Steven Libby and the late Lenora Conger, to whom the Town’s most recent annual report was dedicated. Board Chair Paul Larrivee and Vice Chair Tammy Donovan read the citations praising the pair’s years of service, and town meeting attendees then rose to express their appreciation.
Budget discussion and votes. Nearly all of the more than two dozen budget items on the May 6 meeting warrant sailed through unanimously or with only a handful of dissenting votes, including two big-ticket items: a new dump truck and plow ($350,000) and a new loader ($225,000) for Public Works. $585,000 in additions to capital reserve accounts for long-term projects and purchases-to-come also passed easily, as did taking $500,000 from the Undesignated Fund Balance (surplus) to reduce the FY25 property tax rate.
Several comments from residents sought information about differences between the Select Board’s and Finance Committee’s funding recommendations or clarification of what was included within a given item. But a few topics did prompt more-extended discussion: paving/chip seal for town roads; demolition of the former salt and sand shed; and repairs to a small former garage now used for storage behind Town Hall.
Paving/chip seal. The Select Board and Finance Committee differed over funding for paving/chip seal by nearly $100,000. The Select Board recommended a total of $700,000, with $200,000 for Morse Road to come from the Pineland TIF account (i.e., not FY25 taxation).
The Finance Committee proposed $605,000, reflecting members’ view that the Town has invested significant sums in roads in recent years; the $5,000 was meant to encourage an engineering study of the comparative longevity and value of traditional asphalt paving versus chip seal treatment.
The pros and cons of asphalt and chip seal carried onto town meeting floor. Chip seal’s initial cost is cheaper, and it has become Public Works’ preferred resurfacing method except on roads with the highest volume of heavy truck traffic. Speakers brought up their own observations of chip-sealed roads and shared neighboring towns’ views, also apparently split over its use.
Public Works Director Ted Shane pointed to New Gloucester’s eight-years-and-counting test case: Bennett Road, which got chip seal on half its length and traditional asphalt on the other. They’re “wearing equally,” Shane told the meeting, adding that he expects that a chip sealed road will last about 12 years.
Voters passed the full $700,000 amount for paving/chip seal.
Resident Richard Cadigan asked again this year that the town meeting information booklet list the roads slated for paving/chip seal. At the microphone, Shane named Morse Road, Gloucester Hill Road, Chandler Mill Road, Church Road and Cobble Hill Road as next up. Actual costs will ultimately determine which and how many get attention.
Demolition of the former salt and sand shed. Also generating discussion was $40,000 from surplus to fund demolition of Public Works’ former salt and sand shed in the Upper Village. For years, the Town has tried without success to sell or give away the aging structure. This spring, at the eleventh hour and after the Town Meeting warrant was set, Rumford popped up to express an interest. However, Ted Shane cautioned attendees that no deal has officially been struck.
Over objections that a buyer or developer of the parcel, not taxpayers, should shoulder the cost of removing the structure, voters approved the $40,000 request, perhaps with hopes that Rumford may yet make most of it go away at no cost to the town. Residents Brian Shedlarski and Paul Gillis suggested that the presence of the structure likely diminishes buyer interest, impedes any vision for the property and could reduce an offer by more than the $40,000 needed to take it down.
Former garage at the Town Hall Complex. A modest element within the proposed Buildings and Grounds budget–repairs to the small former garage behind Town Hall–generated the evening’s longest discussion and the only vote count needed.
The Finance Committee recommended some $12,000 more than the Select Board for Buildings and Grounds, $162,616 versus $150,617. The difference involved repairs to the freestanding one-bay garage next to the History Barn. Once the community’s first fire station, the building is not considered historical. It is is currently used to store recreation program equipment and trash from Town Hall.
Resident Joe Davis noted that voters last year had approved funds for garage repairs. How much money was that and what happened to it, Davis wanted to know. Ted Shane, who oversees Buildings and Grounds, said that $10,000 was approved but rolled over when estimates proved high. The additional amount requested this year—about $15,000, or $25,000 in all—would allow replacement of clapboards, repairs to the roof, and straightening the structure, which currently leans toward the History Barn and the Library.
The Select Board had recommended only an additional $3,000 to cover minimal upkeep. Stephen Hathorne, a board member, urged approval of the the lesser amount, in part because the garage structure may eventually be moved or replaced if a redesigned Town Hall Complex takes shape; an ad hoc committee is gearing up to consider needs and plans for the municipal campus.
Fifteen minutes and several speakers later, voters approved the lower amount for Buildings and Grounds 43-35, the only matter close enough to merit a tally of the vote.
Other budget items passed easily, including departmental budgets that had been contested in recent years, such as that of the Library. The Library’s approved budget will add a new part-time position to the Library staff, intended to help implement and run an interlibrary loan system, MILS, and support programming and patrons.
The Fire Rescue and Parks and Recreation budgets, both a focus of voter questions in the recent past, were swiftly approved, albeit with Fire Rescue funded at the Finance Committee’s $795,000 recommended amount, some $12,500 less than the Select Board had proposed.
The Administration budget, which covers the town manager, finance director and clerk positions, also passed at $495,065 and will fund an added full-time position in the Town Office. (Health insurance and other benefits are accounted for separately for all town departments.) A three percent cost of living increase for all employees was included in departmental budget figures.
This year’s light attendance–81 voters, according to Deputy Clerk Teresa Grenier–marks a sharp downturn from the 137 voters attending last year’s Annual Town Meeting and the 122 voters of 2022. For comparison, the March 2024 presidential primary–with Biden and Trump their parties’ leading nominees–saw 776 ballots cast in New Gloucester, and for the November 2023 Maine referendum vote, a total of 1,884 ballots.
Whether this year’s attendance was an aberration or perhaps a sign of a new normal, only next May’s Annual Town Meeting will tell.
Watch video of the May 6, 2024, Annual Town Meeting at this link.
