POLAND – Residents heard for the first time recently what November’s tax-cap referendum could mean to their schools.
If Carol Palesky’s 1 percent tax cap passes, school officials are looking to cut about 11 percent from their current budgets, according to data presented to the Poland Regional High School Committee.
“This is the first time we’ve rolled this out,” said Bill Doughty, assistant superintendent for School Union 29.
Town and school officials plan to hold a public hearing some time before the November election and to mail information to all Poland registered voters, Selectman Steve Robinson said.
After hearing the details of possible reductions, committee members voted 6-1 to approve a resolution saying that the tax cap would be “devastating” to Poland schools and children.
Harrison: Crystal Lake Park to get gazebo
HARRISON – Some major improvements are in the works for the town-owned Crystal Lake Park just outside the village.
At a special town meeting, voters agreed to rezone the park to conform to village zoning so that a gazebo can be built at the park by the Crystal Lake Park Improvement Committee.
The park’s shoreland zoning designation restricted the construction of any structures closer than 100 feet, so the site needed to be rezoned to allow the gazebo, said Town Manager Mike Thorne.
The park, created in the 1960s, is restricted to recreational use because it was developed using state Department of Conservation grant funds, he said.
The committee wants to make the improvements before next year’s bicentennial celebration, said Thorne.
The gazebo will be used by the Recreation Department for arts programs and evening outdoor concerts.
Lisbon: Pay rate, health costs both go up
LISBON – Selectmen approved a three-year labor contract with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the union that represents eight town office employees and the Beaver Park ranger.
The new pact gives 3.5 percent wage hikes each of the first two years and a 4 percent hike in the third year. In return, employees have agreed to pay 15 percent of their health insurance costs in the first two years, and 20 percent in the final year. They currently pay 10 percent of the cost.
At the request of Development Director Dan Feeney, selectmen tabled a request that the town share the estimated $56,000 cost of a sewer extension for Gendron Realty. Feeney said that since the item was placed on the agenda, less costly alternatives have been found.
In other business, a review of the plan for the second segment of Lisbon Trail was presented. It was noted that a proposal to bring the trail down Frost Hill Avenue to Lisbon Falls was strongly opposed by neighborhood residents at a recent meeting. Consequently, other routes will being considered, including one running under the new bridge and along the railroad tracks.
A special entertainment permit and liquor license was granted to the Left Hand Club. Adopted was a proclamation that Nov. 21-28 be designated National Bible Week in Lisbon.
Paris: Jail looks
at ankle bracelets
PARIS – Oxford County Jail Administrator Ernie Martin sees ankle bracelets as one way to relieve overcrowding.
He has contracted with Behavioral Intervention of Boulder, Colo., to come to the jail to provide training on the electronic monitoring program, which will allow some inmates to serve the latter parts of their sentences at home.
The jail has done home monitoring without electronics in the past, but this will be the first time the leg bracelets will be used, Martin said. The bracelets emit an electronic signal if movement occurs beyond a designated range from the offender’s home.
“If we have to board people out, it can cost $100 a day,” said Martin. The 27-bed jail frequently houses 30 to 40 inmates, sometimes as many as 50 or more in the spring, he said.
Policies are still being developed for the program, but Martin said that in general only minimum-security inmates would be eligible for the program. “Most likely we’ll stick to misdemeanor cases,” he said.
People with a medical condition or other special needs may also qualify for the program, he said. “I don’t think you’ll see it happen unless it’s a very special situation or we are acutely overcrowded.”
Lewiston: Bar
gets reprieve
LEWISTON – The City Council took aim at Rock ‘N Robins bar, giving the owner two weeks to corral rowdy customers.
Councilors tabled a plan to put bar owner Mike Berube on a three-month probation. They’ll take up the issue again at their Oct. 5 meeting.
Berube conceded that the Lisbon street bar has become a Thursday night hot spot in the Twin Cities, attracting hundreds of young customers. Police Chief William Welch said he has had enough and urged councilors to pull Berube’s special-use permit. The permit allows the bar to have dancing, DJs and comedy acts.
“I have to keep at least half of my force – my officers on duty for that particular shift – devoted to that club,” Welch said. “I just don’t think we should do it anymore. We’ve had calls for assaults, drunkenness and fights week after week.”
The last straw was an Aug. 27 incident that ended with an officer being assaulted, Welch said. Police had to respond to a near riot with drawn clubs and Mace, he said. The bar has had 106 calls for service in the past year.
Paris: Skate park
plans discussed
OXFORD – Full pipes, half-pipes, bowls, steps and trannies were just a few of the technical terms tossed around as a skate park design was considered for Paris.
A handful of local skateboarders and bikers were present at the Skate Park Planning Committee meeting, where designer Wally Hollyday of California Skateparks presented his ideas.
“We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us so we can get (the park) built,” Hollyday told the crowd before showing pictures of parks his company has built around the country.
For Paris, he suggested a park that would cost $177,000. Through the donation of materials, equipment and labor, the committee may be able to build the park for as little as $70,000, he said.
The park, Hollyday said, should be a place for skateboarders and bikers as well as “someplace where parents can hang out and watch what their kids are doing, and a place where your friends who don’t skate can watch what you’re doing.”
Auburn: Savings
for cities sought
AUBURN – Libraries, fire departments, police and public works – they’re all up for discussion, according to the Twin Cities’ mayors.
Mayors Normand Guay of Auburn and Lionel Guay of Lewiston said that they would convene a 10-member committee to review both cities’ municipal services, looking for departments that could be combined. They expect a report back from the panel in nine months.
“Everything is up for discussion,” Lionel Guay said. “We want them to look at every department, at every service.”
He and his brother are looking for well-known members of the community who don’t currently serve on city boards or work for either Lewiston or Auburn.
“We’ve contacted a few people so far,” he said. “But we’re waiting to release names until we can release the whole list.”
The timing has little to do with a looming property tax-cap vote, they said.
But talk of combining the cities goes back eight years ago, to the LA Together effort, Normand Guay said. That group studied the issue and issued a report of its own.
“They came up with the plan; now we’re acting on it,” he said.
Minot: $500,000
tax-cap cut seen
MINOT – The School Committee and Board of Selectmen accepted Town Administrator Gregory Gill’s budget analysis if a 1 percent tax cap is imposed. The result would be a $500,000 cut.
In order to develop a picture of what the impact on school and municipal programs would be under the Palesky tax-cap proposal, the two boards agreed to split the revenue shortfall.
Union 29 Financial Officer Stacie Everett was directed to prepare a budget $250,000 less than the current one, and Gill likewise was asked to show the effect of cutting that amount from municipal government.
Gill’s report noted that the tax-cap proposal allows a town to collect taxes amounting to 1 percent of property valuation, plus the amount of a town’s existing debt.
Thus, according to Gill’s figures, the town would be allowed to raise $1,565,434 through property taxes. This amounts to a tax rate of about $10.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value.
The fact that Minot has a relatively low tax rate – $14 per $1,000 – means Minot would not be affected as severely as many other area towns, school Superintendent Nina Schlikin pointed out.
“You are far better off than either Poland of Mechanic Falls. At Elm Street School, they are being asked to consider a $660,000 cut and you know that has to come out of personnel. School budgets are mostly salary costs. People and programs, that’s the only option you have,” Schlikin said.
Lisbon: Officials
split on tax cap
LISBON – Selectmen failed to approve a resolution opposing the Palesky tax-cap proposal on the Nov. 2 ballot. The vote was 2-2 with L. Scott D’Amboise abstaining.
Selectmen E. Charles Smith and Layne Curtis said they were unconvinced about the dire predictions being made about revenue losses and opposed the resolution. Smith said he was “not totally opposed to changing where our revenue comes from.”
Chairman Mike Bowie noted selectmen had worked very hard over the last “three or four years to keep our property taxes at a minimum.” He said what bothered him most about the cap is that “it takes some of government out of taxpayers’ hands.”
Bowie and Selectmen Paul Chizmar voted in favor of adopting the resolution, and Smith and Curtis opposed it.
School Committee Chairman Harold Moran told selectmen the possibility of a cap’s being enacted “scares me terribly; it’s going to cost programs” in the Lisbon school system.
“The cure is worse than the disease,” Noyes Lawrence said.
Paris: 3 towns
hoping to share
PARIS – Residents should not be surprised if they see a road crew from Norway working in Oxford this winter, or a truck from Paris driving around Norway.
Selectmen from all three towns agreed they will do their best to help their highway departments share more services. For starters, the towns intend to sign a mutual aid agreement that would give department officials the right to share equipment without having to seek selectmen’s approval.
“You may see somebody else’s equipment in another town, but we’re all trying to get together and save some money and make things happen,” Paris Town Manager Steve McAllister said.
Materials used to patch roads, a 20-ton trailer, a highway roller and engineering services were among items the towns said they could share or purchase together.
There may be other shared items as time goes on, the boards acknowledged. Much would be at the discretion of the highway departments.
Auburn: Officer
joining airport
Helicopter pilot and retiring Air Force Lt. Col. John McGonagill will take over the helm of the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport.
McGonagill is scheduled to take over the job on Oct. 7, replacing acting airport manager Phil Simpson.
Simpson, a Wiscasset resident, said he asked the airport’s board of directors to replace him this summer.
“I just couldn’t take another winter driving those roads,” Simpson said. “I even went off the road once, when it was really bad. So I asked them to find a replacement before the winter.”
Simpson came out of retirement in June 2003 to take the Auburn position. He had served as assistant director of Maine aviation until 1996, working 30 years for the department. He also worked as director of the Augusta State Airport for part of 1997.
Lewiston: School
gets straw vote OK
LEWISTON – Voters have given their OK to a more expensive, slightly larger Farwell Elementary School project.
Fewer than 30 Lewiston residents turned out for a public meeting on the issue. In a straw vote, they unanimously supported the project.
The latest proposal calls for the old school to be torn down and a two-story, 53,125-square-foot building built in its place. The new school would have four extra-large classrooms, 12 regular-sized classrooms, separate music and art rooms and spaces for tutoring, conferences and special education. Voters could also elect to add a 3,395-square-foot middle school-sized gym.
The school would be set on 4.8 acres and would accommodate 425 students.
Oxford: Vacancy
may prompt vote
OXFORD – Now that Michael Thompson has quit the Board of Selectmen, the remaining selectmen must decide whether to call an election to fill his seat.
Selectmen are not required to hold a special election before the annual town meeting next June, but they have the option of doing so. The election could be held Nov. 2, according to legal advice the town received from the Maine Municipal Association.
Thompson had nine months to go on his term when he walked out of a recent meeting. Selectmen are expected to formally vote to accept his resignation.
Thompson quit the board once before this year, but he reconsidered his decision and was allowed back.
Selectmen asked whether Thompson’s resignation needed to be in writing to be official. MMA lawyer Richard Flewelling told interim Town Manager Sharon Jackson that an oral resignation is also legal.
A resignation can be withdrawn, however, until it is accepted by the board, Flewelling said.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
