Alna voters rejected a proposed ordinance regulating mining and blasting and increased funding for several line items at a nearly five-hour annual town meeting on Saturday, March 23.
Several amendments to increase compensation and road budgeting lines led to a final approved municipal budget of $1,201,526, an increase of $126,561 or 11.77%. Voters will consider the education budget this summer.
At town meeting, some questions were asked about the administrative accounts budget line in Article 17, which includes funding for legal fees. Audience members attempted to table the article and use the time to develop a requirement the select board ask for voter authorization of large legal fees.
Select board member Coreysha Stone said the line item also included other expenses the town is obligated to pay and tabling the article would interfere with Alna meeting its other obligations. The motion to table failed and the article passed as written at $65,000.
In the salary and stipend budget category, newly elected Road Commissioner Mike Trask asked to raise the role’s stipend from $1,235 to $5,000. He said the current amount was unchanged since he held the role 20 years ago, and the increase would hold over until town officials could find a fair stipend to vote on next year.
“It’s not fair no matter who has the job,” he said.
An increase to the planning board chair’s stipend from $435 to $1,000 was also passed due to the additional work audience members said the chair role now involves in ordinance development.
Audience members questioned increases in the code enforcement officer role, which increased to $15,000 from last year’s $6,500. Outgoing select board Chair Ed Pentaleri noted residents had approved the initial expense for Bruce Engert’s salary at a special town meeting in December after his November hire and said he was the only candidate to be found after turnover in the position.
Voters also passed an expanded general highway maintenance account proposed by Trask, who asked the line item increase by $50,000 to a total of $125,000. He said the town has not been raising enough money for road maintenance over past years and preparing for projects. Until voters doubled it at town meeting last year, the item had been $25,000 per year since 2009, he said.
Stone said the town could be paying “pennies on the dollar instead of $10 on the dollar” for work if it began saving ahead, and said the roads are Alna’s biggest investment.
“If we don’t start, we’re going to be worse off than we are now, and we’re in pretty bad shape,” Trask said.
Article 37 was amended down by $4,000 to $121,000 based on updated figures of the town’s financial commitment to the Wiscasset Transfer Station.
Article 43, funding for the Friends of Head Tide Church, was amended from $500 to $1,500. When proposing the change, Beth Whitney said she hoped to see the steeple back on the Head Tide Church. Merry Fossel said grants will fully cover the expense and work will begin in the fall. The amendment still passed, with an audience member noting that the church might still need some paint.
Article 46, updates to the building code that include renaming it the land use ordinance, passed with little discussion. Planning board Chair Cathy Johnson said the updates were required to meet the state law L.D. 2003, designed to expand housing options. The amendments allow landowners to build an additional dwelling unit at certain lot sizes.
The mining and blasting ordinance was defeated by written ballot, 93-73.
The draft required planning board review of any blasting, bedrock quarrying, or mining operation. With exemptions, it would prohibit industrial metallic mineral mining, bedrock quarrying by 2029, rock crushing, concrete mixing, or asphalt batch plants, and mining or quarrying on more than 25 acres. It also set standards for operations, inspections, permits, and appeals.
Johnson said the sunset provision was made in response to residents who wanted quarrying and blasting outlawed immediately.
Ian Messier, chief engineer for Topsham-based Crooker Construction, said the company’s pit would close under the ordinance because the company needs to be able to blast to access material. He said the company wanted to be a good neighbor and would not pursue an application to work below the water table if the town did not want it to do so. Concerns about the water table prompted initial interest in developing the ordinance.
Messier said the pit resources are in particular demand as area towns rebuild their roads from recent storms, and the pit’s closure would harm the region as well as Alna.
Several residents in favor of the ordinance said the town has a responsibility to regulate corporations and that they had environmental concerns.
Other audience members said the ordinance was not ready, targeted particular owners, and could open the town to expensive litigation related to enforcement.
The town’s legal counsel Aga Dixon, of Drummond Woodsum, spoke at the meeting and said she does not believe the ordinance could be challenged as unconstitutional. The town has home rule authority and it can be difficult to win in cases against ordinances adopted at town meetings, she said.
A solar ordinance was enacted almost unanimously. The floodplain management ordinance passed with no discussion.
The final warrant article asked residents whether to turn the office of road commissioner into an appointed position. Stone said the question was put on the warrant due to resident concerns about how work is prioritized and whether the model is financially sustainable. Pentaleri added that with an elected commissioner, the select board does not have authority to control the road maintenance it is accountable for.
Residents said the elected position lets townspeople choose a resident to fulfill the role and vote them out the next year if they are unsatisfied. Trask also said an appointed position, like a job, means the candidate has say over how much they are paid.
“The system works the way we have it, and we can do a fine job the way it is,” he said.
