| Joanne Cole |
The Select Board opened 2024 by checking items off their to-do list. They buttoned up an agreement with the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office to use space in the Public Works building and approved a revised application for appointment to town boards and committees, topics previously discussed at length.
At the January 8 meeting, they also heard from Fire Rescue Chief Craig Bouchard about a possible $15,000 state grant to support EMS. That bit of cheer was offset by word of significant pump troubles with Engine 3. The board also heard a presentation about speeding from BLING volunteers (Building Livability in New Gloucester), which collected speeding data across town and shared recommendations.
The board confirmed the seasonal closure of the dirt portions of Tobey Road and Swamp Road, blessing new gravel piles at each end to inhibit access. They deferred considering the status of town-owned properties, including the Morse Road pit, until after budget season. A revised Code Enforcement and Planning fee schedule got some discussion and will come back after additional tweaks. In short, a full and lengthy agenda kicked off the new year.
EMS Stabilization Program to support bonuses, education. Fire Rescue Chief Craig Bouchard shared news that the department is eligible for $15,000 in funding from Maine’s EMS Stabilization Program. The Legislature approved $31 million in funding following a blue ribbon study of the statewide crisis in EMS staffing and service. A portion of money is now being released.
No match is required, but the department must apply by January 27 and identify an allowable use, Bouchard said. Wage increases emerged as the department’s top priority. EMS personnel are leaving because of the pay, the commission report said, and New Gloucester’s wages “are in the lower category,” compared with other towns of similar size, Bouchard said.
“We are short on ALS providers,” Bouchard continued. He said he’s trying to increase the department’s ability to provide the advanced life support service that the town was promised back in 2018. “That is what I’m striving for, but I can’t do that with the wages that I’m offering now.”
Board members were hesitant to lock in raises going forward, particularly with budget discussions coming soon. They landed on using the grant funds for tuition reimbursement to help members advance to the next level, along with stipends or bonuses to reward longevity.
Engine 3 woes. Engine 3, the department’s front line attack engine for structure fires, recently failed its annual pump pressure test, Chief Craig Bouchard told the board. In addition, a discharge governor was not reducing water pressure properly, a serious enough hazard to firefighters on hose lines to warrant taking Engine 3 out of service for immediate repairs.
As for the pump, Bouchard outlined possible repairs and costs, depending on what’s revealed once it’s taken apart for inspection. Fixes would range from $7,500 to $29,000, he said, assuming the pump’s transmission is acceptable.
Did the board want to proceed to repair and replace the pump, in hopes of extending Engine 3’s life as a full-service unit for a further five years, until FY30 when a replacement ordered as planned in FY27 would actually arrive? Or do they want to use Engine 3 as-is, without the capacity to serve as a hydrant truck, but replace it sooner, in FY26?
The board opted for the optimistic, it’ll-last-for-five-more-years-after-repairs scenario. Now it’s on to having the pump taken apart and inspected. Costs of repair/replacement can be included on the warrant for Town Meeting in May.
Later in the meeting, the board discussed the current year’s budget in light of the unanticipated Fire Rescue repairs and likely overruns in Public Works due to storm response – and with months of winter still ahead. “We’re in a tough spot,” said Paul Larrivee. Manager Bill Kerbin will closely monitor ongoing expenditures, he confirmed.
Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office relocation. The board formally approved an agreement for the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office to relocate its in-town satellite office to space in the Public Works building. CCSO will pay all associated expenses but no rent. The 4-1 vote (Hathorne opposed) followed review by the town’s attorney and a green light from MDOT.
In recent years, the CCSO has been based in the Community Building behind Town Hall, central for launching patrols across town but problematic because of inadequate facilities for women, safety issues and other concerns.
Under the agreement, the Sheriff’s Office will occupy what had been designated – although not used – as a women’s locker room and adjacent shower room at Public Works. At the January 8 meeting, resident Peter Bragdon in public comment and member Stephen Hathorne in board discussion questioned the disparity in facilities for men and for women, were women to join the Public Works staff.
Board members noted that the new arrangement does provide separate lockable space for women—a principal concern of the Sheriff’s Office–and that a lockable shower/changing area can be used by women or men. It turns out that Public Works staff have taken two showers in the building’s four years, when an employee came in after hours because of a power outage at home, according to Director Ted Shane.
The contract has an initial one-year term. Shane confirmed that if issues arise with the Sheriff’s Office and Public Works coexisting, he will bring them forward. Member Dustin Ward and Chair Paul Larrivee commented that changes at the Town Hall Complex might once again make it a site for the Sheriff’s Office in the future.
BLING shares speeding analysis, recommendations. Three residents from the Building Livability in New Gloucester volunteer group updated the board on BLING activities aimed at making the town safer for walking, biking, and getting around in general. They also shared results of a speed data collection effort and offered recommendations.
Leading off, Anne Maurice gave an overview of speeding in town—pervasive to the point of keeping walkers off some roads altogether, she said—and shared BLING’s traffic-calming initiatives over the last 18 months, including yard signs urging drivers to slow down and hi-viz pedestrian flags. Those efforts clearly are not enough, Maurice told the board, “We need your help.”
Maurice outlined three steps the town could take: buy additional dynamic speed feedback signs that tell a driver how fast they’re going, support BLING’s “pace car” program where residents pledge to obey the posted speed limit and to not text when driving, and actively consider safety whenever paving and road maintenance projects are being planned, perhaps adding more signage and striping.
BLING volunteer Debra Smith then shared details of BLING’s speed data collection project. [Read BLING’s full report here.]. Nine volunteers, trained in using radar guns by the Bicycle Coalition of Maine, collected data at different times of day in 18 locations across town, a “snapshot” of speeding.
The results, comparing measured speeds against posted speeds, “are kind of shocking,” Smith said. “That even school district vehicles are not going the speed limit.” Areas with posted speed limits between 15 and 35 mph saw up to 100 percent of drivers exceeding the speed limit, Smith said. Those tended to be congested, transitional areas where the speed limit drops, such as on Route 231 approaching Pineland.
70 percent of drivers exceeded the 35 mph limit in other locations, Smith said. 40 and 45 mph zones saw less speeding comparatively, but still well short of compliance. School zones and trucks speeding in residential areas were also problematic. Improved signage around schools could help, she thought, as would changes to truck routing, as with the current ordinance that restricts trucks from Snow Hill Road.
BLING’s Julie Fralich encouraged the town to add signage and other cues for drivers and to work with Pineland, the School District and DOT on locations where they have greater authority than the town does. Fralich also particularly urged the town to buy permanent rather than movable speed feedback signs for the high-speeding transitional areas Smith had described. Research shows that as soon as the trailer-type movable radar signs are moved – the town has two of those – speeding picks up again, Fralich said.
Smith had invited questions and suggestions from the board. But immediately after the BLING members concluded, Vice Chair Tammy Donovan objected that their presentation shouldn’t have been heard by the board at all. “I would just like to say, we do have a public safety committee in-house now,” she said, “and that presentation should have gone through the public safety committee. That’s where the point is. The public safety committee would then bring it to us.”
An agenda, including the planned presentation and a report from BLING, had circulated among the full Select Board without objection from Donovan or others as early as mid-December.
“If you would like to talk about stuff like that, you have three minutes’ public comment,” Donovan continued criticizing the three volunteers directly. “But a presentation that takes up that much time”—it lasted 13 minutes, about a minute apiece beyond their allotment, had each BLING member spoken as an individual—should go through the public safety committee, she said.
Donovan was referring to an “in-house advisory group” that was to have been created when the board disbanded the Public Safety Committee–a standing town committee–in July. It was to comprise the Fire Chief, Public Works Director, Town Manager and two residents with public safety experience.
It appears that the advisory group has not met yet, making them an impractical alternative to the Select Board. In addition, the advisory group’s meetings will not be open to the public, Manager Bill Kerbin told NGX in October, because the advisory group is not appointed by the Select Board and therefore not subject to Freedom of Access/open meeting laws. If that’s the case, the avenues for residents to share ideas and information about public safety in public may have narrowed to three minutes at the Select Board.
Code Enforcement and Planning fee schedule to come back; joint meeting date set. Town Planner Kathy Tombarelli had proposed a revised fee schedule for permits and reviews by the Planner and Code Officer. Changes include listing fees that applicants have been responsible for but were omitted and ensuring charges are consistent and reflect the work involved. She’ll return with a clean schedule for formal approval.
The board set Tuesday, February 27, for a joint meeting of the Land Management Planning Committee, Planning Board and Select Board to review proposed zoning ordinance changes. If approved and finalized, the amendments would go to voters at the annual town meeting in May.
Public session on Town-owned properties to await mapping, review. The board decided to hold off scheduling a public hearing on possible disposition of the Town’s Morse Road pit and other properties until after budget season and a board workshop.
The delay will give staff time to map and investigate the properties, and the workshop will allow the board to winnow the list with an understanding of which parcels should be retained and what can be done with the others.
The property conversation started in October 2023 because of complaints about target practice at the town’s former gravel pit on Morse Road. The Morse Road 40-acre parcel’s assessed valuation of $400,000 and potential value to neighboring Pineland drew the board’s attention, which then expanded to include other Town-owned properties.
At the January 8 meeting, Chair Paul Larrivee shared that he had gotten more complaints on Christmas Day about shooting until after dark at the Morse Road pit. It was “a whole bunch of new rifles with bump stocks,” Larrivee said. He added, “I just want to tell the people who called me, ‘I hear you.’”
There are about 20 parcels on a working list of town-owned properties, not counting the Town Hall Complex, Public Works and the like. Several parcels are land-locked, member Stephen Hathorne noted. Others, like the fields at Rowe Station Road and parcels in the Upper Village and on Grange Hall Road, should be retained, members thought. They’ll sort it all out at a workshop before any public hearing is held.
Swamp Road and Tobey Road seasonal partial closures. The board confirmed closing the dirt portions of Swamp Road and Tobey Road from December 1 to May 15. There are no residences on either road. Closure signs are up as usual, but being ignored, apparently also as usual.
What’s new is a plan to block access with gravel piles at each end. The gravel will then be used to repair them after “spring.” People have driven through snowbank barriers in the past, Public Works Director Ted Shane said.
Paul Larrivee had recently driven Swamp Road. “It’s destroyed,” he told the board, and a car with Virginia plates was stuck in the road. Larrivee said that property owner Maine Woodland Trust is interested in exploring adding gates that Public Works could control for seasonal closures.
Apparently, there’s more to come, including spring.
View video of the January 8, 2024, Select Board meeting at this link. Find contact information for Select Board members and links to meeting agendas, minutes and related documents at this link.
NGX editor’s note: The story has been updated with a link to BLING’s speed collection report and with other details, including board members’ budget concerns.
