CHESTERVILLE – Residents chose two new selectmen to serve on the board, reduced local land use regulations and allowed the sale of liquor within town lines at Monday’s town meeting.
A four-way race for a one-year term came down to the wire, with Maitland Lord Jr. narrowly topping Anne Lambert, with 69 votes to 65. Guy Iverson was just behind with 52 votes, trailed by Carroll Corbin with 27. The race for a three-year seat was more one-sided, with Allan Mackey tallying 127 votes to Daniel Morse’s 59. Fourteen write-in candidates also earned mentions.
Lord and Mackey will be replacing outgoing Selectman Ross Clair and Chair Tyler Jenness on the five-person board.
Also appearing on the ballot portion of the town meeting were four questions regarding the sale of alcohol in town. Residents approved questions that would allow the sale of all liquor – selling beer and wine is legal in Chesterville – as well as the consumption of alcohol at licensed establishments. They did balk at one of the four questions, voting 95 to 118 against allowing liquor to be consumed at establishments on Sunday. Those questions were part of a Citizen’s Initiative launched by the owners of The Corner Store in Chesterville.
Residents approved a new Land Use Ordinance without discussion, effectively reducing local restrictions and requirements back to the state level. Among these changes is the elimination of building permits for most basic construction projects; residents instead will fill out a notification form. Other regulations, such as those relating to the town’s shoreland or wetland areas, will continue to apply.
That issue touched on the town’s budget, with the Code Enforcement Officer’s salary and expenses being moved into the Administration line. Here, the meeting hit a snag after residents voted against funding that line at the selectmen’s recommended $163,282. It appeared that residents’ “no” vote would result in zero dollars being raised for the cost center, effectively closing the town office. Moderator Jim Grippe, however, accepted a motion to reconsider, which passed overwhelmingly.
Residents then approved an article budget of $159,782, embracing the Budget Committee’s recommendation. The $3,500 difference, according to members, was represented in the committee folding in some of the CEO’s expenses into the Administration line, rather than increasing it.
The savings were not insignificant, as residents voted against upping the LD1 property tax levy limit from $541,950, by a vote of 30 to 35. As a result, voters needed to trim roughly $29,000 from the most expansive budget recommendations in order to hit the $541,950 limit. Residents kept a careful eye on the limit throughout the meeting, bringing up the issue multiple times.
The bulk of that reduction was made up without significant dissent in the Capital Roads Projects article. The Road Committee announced that it had unanimously decided to embrace the budget committee and selectmen’s recommendation of raising and appropriating $150,000 for road projects, rather than their previous recommendation of $201,494. As the larger number was included in the warrant article, the $50,000 reduction put the town well below the LD1 limit.
The $150,000 would be augmented by $41,296 in state road assistance money, and Chesterville’s portion represented an increase over last year’s appropriation of $120,000. However, Public Works Director Michael Cote noted, $150,000 only represented approximately 1.5 miles of re-constructed roads. At that rate, Cote said, it would take the town 45 years to redo every road in town.
Residents also supported establishing a $25,000 Capital Improvement Reserve for the purchase of equipment for the town. Funds spent out of that account, selectmen noted, would require a special town meeting vote.
In total, the budget approve Monday represented an increase of roughly $11,176, or 1.3 percent.
I have been attending the annual town meetings for over 25 years. I have never seen so much confusion. I have never seen the vote called so quickly as to limit discussion. I have also never seen a moderator not allow answers to questions (Public employees hourly rate is public information). These three reasons are why the administrative budget was voted down. Luckily a motion to reconsider the article was made and passed. That allowed us to vote in the admin budget. This meeting was very sad and disappointing.
I am in total agreement with “disappointed”! I believe in a transparent government and felt this meeting was anything but. People were being hushed and hurried. The articles were not explained and sometimes very confusing. The moderator limited discussion at the expense of people being confused and walking out of the meeting. I hope the next meeting improves, people are trying to be involved in their local government and getting discouraged, this is not acceptable.
Maybe the confusion and limited debate was causes by the moderators time schedule. He stated at one point early in the meeting that we had to move quickly because there were 40 some articles. Maybe he was afraid the meeting would last beyond his bed time. Definitely time for a change.
Poor performance by the moderator at best. Certainly not democracy in action
Jason, that is very discouraging that we had to rush/move quickly through the articles because of the quantity. I tried to vote having the most knowledge that I could on every article. There were many questions that the moderator answered instead of the department heads and I would have liked to have heard from the specific department or our Selectman. I will be going to the Selectman meeting to try to get some answers as to what went wrong at our Town Meeting.
I’m not from Chesterville, but if the moderator is out of line then it is upto the taxpayers to stop them or stop the meeting by everyone walking out. The department heads should have spoken up as well as the constituents.
Roberts Rules of Order would have one state “Point of Order”. Often when certain individuals are trying to force a personal agenda; like nominate a raise of a position filled by a family member, then push to vote without discussing, they will call to vote,with a planned second just to avoid discussion. A seasoned moderator would follow due process by still opening for discussion. If not call out, “Point of Order”. That should aide to bring the moderator back on track to open for discussion.