Damariscotta voters retained parking officers, approved a property maintenance ordinance and reduced the hours of a police department position at annual town meeting June 12.
The downtown parking officers, who work part-time from June 1 through Labor Day, will continue to do so against the wishes of the Damariscotta Board of Selectmen.
The Damariscotta Police Department administrative assistant, meanwhile, will drop from a full-time position to a 30-hour position, although the position will retain some health insurance benefits, again against the recommendation of the selectmen.
The 77 residents in attendance at the time of the vote on the public safety budget, which includes the police department, rejected two amendments before agreeing on a Damariscotta Budget Committee-recommended figure, 54 to 23.
Lynn Norgang moved to amend the article first, to restore the administrative assistant to full-time status but eliminate the parking officers.
Jim Cosgrove spoke against the amendment. He said the town should keep the positions, which he called “vitally important to keeping [the municipal] parking lot functioning as well as it does during the summer.”
“There would be anarchy in that back parking lot” without the officers, Cosgrove said, and the patrol officers could not dedicate the time necessary “just to keep the tourists from parking in the boat spots.”
“I think, at $5000, we have a bargain,” Cosgrove said, in reference to the budget for parking officer wages.
Chuck Dinsmore said it is impossible to calculate the benefits the parking officers provide to downtown businesses both because customers can find parking and because of the advantages of a “uniformed presence” downtown.
Norgang’s amendment failed 68 to 9.
Mary Trescot moved to amend the article to include a full-time administrative assistant and parking officers.
Damariscotta Town Manager Matt Lutkus, however, said Administrative Assistant Jodi Prior already works a part-time schedule because for “a number of reasons” she takes time off with and without pay “on an almost weekly basis” yet continues to fulfill the duties of the position.
Damariscotta plans to hire a new police chief before the end of the month, and Damariscotta Budget Committee Chairman Scott Hilton and others said the town should leave the decision to the new chief.
Acting Police Chief Todd Brackett agreed. “As a new chief, I would love to have that option,” he said.
“I think the town’s plan for the new chief is to have a chief that works in the cruiser on the street, kind of the George Hutchings fashion of chief, because we all miss George,” Brackett said.
The late Hutchings was Damariscotta’s first police chief, leading the department from 1971 to 1998. He died in 2003.
As the chief will spend less time in the office, he or she will “have to rely, to some extent, on the administrative assistant,” Brackett said.
Walter Hilton said if the selectmen and the budget committee believe 30 hours is enough, “we’re just wasting money if we increase it 10 hours and we don’t need it.”
The second amendment failed 54 to 23.
Finally, the voters approved the public safety budget recommended by the budget committee, which reduces the administrative assistant’s hours, prorates benefits for the position and keeps the parking officers.
The $731,762 budget includes the $475,657 Damariscotta Police Department budget as well as the Damariscotta Fire Department budget, fire hydrant fees and several less significant expenses.
The property maintenance ordinance, despite vocal opposition from Board of Selectmen Chairman Josh Pinkham and several others, passed 54 to 26.
The ordinance gives the town authority to require homeowners to maintain safe and sanitary conditions on their property.
Some residents said the ordinance is arbitrary and vague.
“I’m voting no on it,” Pinkham said. “I think sometimes one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.”
The ordinance could result in expensive clean-up for the town if violators cannot or will not comply, he said. “What happens if someone just throws up their hands and walks away from their property?”
Supporters said the ordinance protects the neighbors of properties with unsafe or unsanitary conditions.
“At this point, there is no ordinance on the books that protects a neighbor from another neighbor if their yard is being used, for lack of a better term, as a trash dump,” said Dr. Minda Gold.
Former selectman Dick McLean said he fielded many complaints about hazardous conditions on properties during his tenure on the board.
Residents would demand the board to take action, but “we didn’t do something about it because we had no legal authority, no wherewithal to do anything,” McLean said.
The voters also said yes to three questions regarding the purchase of a new fire truck, 66 to 1, 65 to 2 and 65 to 2, respectively.
The new truck will “reduce the overall tax burden on the town” as it will replace two aging vehicles, said Damariscotta Fire Chief John Roberts.
The town will withdraw $200,000 from a fire truck reserve account and borrow another $100,000 to complete the purchase.
The voters elected Scott Abbotoni, Marie Fuller and incumbent Mary Trescot to three-year terms on the Damariscotta Budget Committee, elected incumbent Connie Magistrelli and Ann Pinkham to one-year terms and re-elected Patti Whitten to another three-year term on the Damariscotta Cemetery Committee.
Eighty residents attended the meeting at its high point, with the number dwindling to 40 as the meeting passed the three-hour mark.
The annual town meeting was a landmark for Damariscotta as it was the first year of electronic voting in the town. Instead of the traditional bright-colored cards, residents used small electronic devices similar to remote controls to register their votes.
There were intermittent technical difficulties during the meeting, as votes would not register and the moderator, Jim Gallagher, would ask everyone to vote again.
Gallagher conducted two straw polls to gauge support for the new method, one at the midpoint and one near the end after a series of technical delays.
In the first poll, the overwhelming majority of voters indicated they would like to continue electronic voting at future town meetings. The second poll was closer.
The town spent $500 to rent the electronic devices and pay for on-site technical support.
