CHESTERVILLE – Residents will elect two selectmen from a six-candidate field and cast votes on rental fees, land use regulations and the sale of liquor at the annual town meeting Monday.
The meeting will begin on the morning of March 12, with polls open from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. at the town hall. Residents will elect two selectmen to one- and three-year terms and weigh in on four questions pertaining to the sale of liquor in Chesterville. After polls close, a Chesterville Historical Society supper will take place at the hall. The remaining 43 articles will be taken up by assembled residents at 7 p.m.
A North Chesterville Extension Homemakers’ bake sale will be running throughout the day.
According to Rachel Heseltine, the deputy town clerk and treasurer, neither incumbent Selectman Ross Clair nor Chair Tyler Jenness is running for reelection this year. Allan Mackey and Daniel Morse are both running for the three-year term. Four candidates are running for the one-year term: Carroll Corbin, Guy Iverson, Anne Lambert and Maitland Lord Jr.
Article 3, which will also be decided at the polls, features four questions pertaining to the sale of alcohol in Chesterville. The first asks if the town will authorize the state to allow the operation of agency liquor stores on every day except Sunday. The second asks if permitted stores can sell liquor on Sundays. The third and fourth questions similarly ask if the state can issue licenses to allow the consumption of alcohol at licensed establishments on non-Sundays and Sundays, respectively.
The questions appear on the warrant as part of a Citizen’s Initiative. Heseltine said that petitions with adequate signatures were submitted by the owner of The Corner Store. Beer and wine can already be sold in Chesterville, but the last two questions would allow their consumption at a licensed establishment.
An article on the warrant will address rental fees for the town hall, setting them at generally lower rates and making the rental free for town-affiliated groups and events. Currently, the hall can be rented at the cost of $100, with the participating party recovering $25 after an inspection following the event. The new fee schedule would lower that cost to $50 for residents, counting the $25 refundable deposit.
Memorials, funerals and benefit events would cost $25, with all funds refunded after passing inspection. Town affiliated groups, trainings and events would be charged no fee.
Residents will also be presented with a new Land Use Ordinance. Heseltine said that the new ordinance represented regulations being reduced to match state requirements; the document in question would go from 16 to roughly three pages in length. One significant change, Heseltine said, was the elimination of building permits for regular residential construction projects, replacing the permitting process with a notification form.
Other regulations, such as those relating to the town’s shoreland or wetland areas, would continue to apply.
The warrant includes a budget with two sets of recommendations. The selectmen are recommending a municipal budget increasing by $14,676 over the current fiscal year’s expenditures, or 1.63 percent. The budget committee is recommending a smaller increase, $1,876 or .2 percent. Those figures apply only to the Chesterville municipal budget, not the RSU 9 school budget or the Franklin County budget, neither of which will be set until later this year.
Funds recommended by selectmen beyond the budget committee recommendations include town government legal and training expenses, a combined $3,500; transfer station supplies and building maintenance, a combined $1,000; training at the Public Works Department, $500; and an extra $10,000 for the town’s Capital Improvement Reserve, a new item that the budget committee is recommending funding at $15,000.
The budget committee is recommending $45,700 for equipment maintenance at Public Works, $2,200 more than the selectmen recommendation.
A third board, the Road Committee, is recommending an additional $81,454 funds be raised and appropriated to fund road construction this year. That $272,750 recommendation is higher than the selectmen/budget committee recommendation of $191,296.
Where different recommendations between the participating committees exist, Heseltine noted, the warrant will indicate those differences via separate columns for each expenditure. Articles without dissenting recommendations will provide a single number.
The North Chesterville Extension Homemakers will be having their bake sale during the day NOT after the polls close. I will be setting up at 9:15 a.m.
Thanks, Linda. We’ll make that change.
Thank you! I appreciate it!
That would be interesting if they were to vote to sell liquor at the annual town meeting! LOL