Buckfield Board of Selectmen
March 20, 2018
Buckfield Municipal Building
BVC agreement
What happened: Selectmen met with officials from the Buckfield Village Corp. to discuss the agreement for secretarial and billing services between the town and the water district.
What it means: Selectboard Chair Maida DeMers-Dobson noted the agreement and the reasons for it were questioned by some residents, which is why she asked about it last year. BVC Assessor Fred Horsfall shared the agreement, along with details about what the annual services cover for $5,500 the BVC pays to the town. Water district customers are allowed to come into the Municipal Building to pay their bills and do their business there, which is handled by Town Office employees.
What’s next: Town Manager Joe Roach will have the updated document reviewed by the Maine Municipal Association to check its legal status. Meanwhile, selectmen will think about whether it is an agreement on which they will act themselves or bring to the annual town meeting.
Budget schedule
What happened: Roach presented selectmen the fiscal 2019 budget schedule.
What it means: Department budgets are due to Roach by Friday. Roach with meet with department heads from Tuesday, March 27, until Friday, March 30.
What’s next: An overview with selectmen and the Budget Committee will happen at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 3. Joint meetings between the selectboard and Budget Committee is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 10, and 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 17. The two boards will tentatively finalize the budget during a joint meeting on Tuesday, May 1, and members will sign the town meeting warrant on Tuesday, May 15.
Bridge replacement
What happened: Roach shared he met with Jeff Stern and Ferg Lea of the Androscoggin River Watershed Council to discuss their next steps for the Shed Hollow Road bridge replacement project.
What it means: They fine tuned the details for requests for proposals (RFPs) for engineering services to replace the culvert bridge that once spanned Darnit Brook and was washed away in a storm this fall. It includes the game plan for replacing the structure and then the surrounding roadway. The RFPs goes out today, Wednesday, March 21, and are due by Tuesday, April 10.
What’s next: Federal Emergency Management Agency officials are in Buckfield this week to review the files for the storm’s damages, as Oxford County was declared a disaster area and federal funding should be available to cover the gap in funding from state and federal grants for the project.
Social services requests
What happened: Selectmen approved the recommended amounts for social services requests for fiscal 2019.
What it means: Requests include $150 for Androscoggin Home Care & Hospice, $1,425 for Community Concepts, $1,000 for Rural Community Action Ministry, $175 for Safe Voices, $350 for SeniorsPlus and $150 for Western Maine Veterans.
What’s next: The requests for social services will go to voters at annual town meeting in June.
Governance analysis
What happened: Selectmen rescheduled their public hearing for the governance analysis project for 6 p.m. Thursday, April 5, at the Municipal Center, 34 Turner St.
What it means: It was postponed due to a recent storm. Former Interim Town Manager Brad Plante put together the report to look at operations in town and to suggest best practices. Selectmen have met several times to discuss the document. The report is on the town’s website at www.townofbuckfield.com/.
Meeting rescheduled
What happened: Selectmen rescheduled their joint meeting with Sumner selectmen for the Buckfield-Sumner Solid Waste Committee for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, at the Sumner Town Office at 633 Main St. The meeting between the two boards of selectmen, which make up the Solid Waste Committee, was postponed due to a recent storm.
Automobile graveyard
What happened: Selectmen scheduled a public hearing on a proposed automobile graveyard permit.
What it means: Richard Dobson of Town Line Road submitted his application. The public hearing is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 1, prior to the regularly scheduled selectmen meeting.
What’s next: Scheduling it this far in advance allows for the Department of Environmental Protection to visit the site and for Dobson to notify abutters.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
