Residents vote during the annual Town Meeting in Harrison on Wednesday night, where close to 150 people participated. Nicole Carter/Advertiser Democrat
HARRISON — Residents passed 36 of 40 warrant articles Wednesday night at Harrison Elementary School during the annual Town Meeting that lasted two-and-a-half hours and at times veered of course — and included heckling of town officials and Moderator Vern Maxfield.
Tensions were compounded by the sound system, which produced continual feedback that made it difficult for people to communicate — whether they were speaking into the mic or not.
Much of the residents’ pushback centered around two warrants asking residents to approve adding employees to town payroll.
Article 18 proposed adding an assistant public services director at an annual cost of $99,275, including salary and benefits.
The premise, according to Town Manager Cass Newall, would add a supervisor equipped to work in multiple departments: parks and recreation and transfer station.
“This is an additional person that can function essentially as an understudy. They can be clerk of the works to multiple projects — the downtown project, the public works garage, road construction supervisor, as recommended by the state of Maine,” Newall said. “This person could fill in at parks and recreation; they could function in all the different departments.”
Some residents questioned whether a salaried manager should be doing work normally done by hourly employees, and the article was defeated.
Article 20 called for hiring a fulltime chief for the fire department at a cost of $74,000 (beyond what the current position pays, including stipend), and/or for the department to be staffed with station coverage seven days a week between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., at an annual cost of $210,000.
The same proposal was included in Harrison’s 2022 town meeting warrant and had been voted down. At that time some residents proposed that the town contract with the state of Maine for a no-cost study about the feasibility of a paid fire-fighting crew.
The study was not done, but the request was added to the warrant for voter consideration again this year.
After one resident made a motion for a vote on spending a total of $284,000 on hiring staff, the article was voted down. Residents reaffirmed their request to have a feasibility study done before staffing the town’s fire department.
The third article voters rejected was a change to the building permit ordinance that would require fire suppression systems installed in residential houses built on lots smaller than 40,000 square feet.
Code Officer John Wentworth explained that the change was proposed in anticipation of the state of Maine loosening building lot size restrictions as a solution to the housing crisis. During discussion of the article, he confirmed that the state is not expected to address the issue until the next fiscal year, and voters ultimately decided to vote down the article and revisit next year.
Throughout the meeting, a handful residents questioned proposals and costs of several warrants. In some cases Maxfield cut off discussion when it became bogged down; in others residents interceded to move the motion toward a vote.
The final article that was rejected was Article 39, which asked voters to decide whether to vote on all warrant articles by secret ballot in the future. While a small but vocal contingent supported ballot voting to allow more residents to take part in the process, a large majority of voters opposed it, choosing to keep the annual Town Meeting.
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