By a wide margin, Damariscotta residents passed an interlocal agreement with Newcastle for joint public works services at their Annual Town Meeting June 15.
The agreement will take effect July 1 and remain in effect through June 30, 2012. The towns will determine whether to renew the agreement prior to its expiration.
The voters passed every article in the nearly three-and-a-half hour open meeting, although many, including the interlocal agreement, drew scattered opposition.
“The biggest asset the town has is its roads, its buildings and its grounds,” Damariscotta Road Commissioner Steve Reynolds said. “You’ll see a much better level of service for the towns.”
Reynolds first day as the towns’ full-time superintendent of roads, facilities and grounds will coincide with the start of the agreement.
Damariscotta Town Manager Greg Zinser said the town would see immediate and long-term savings from the measure, as well as noticeable improvement in road maintenance.
The agreement will also provide the towns with the expertise of an engineer, Reynolds, capable of overseeing major construction projects.
“You can’t afford not to have a technical person running your highway department,” Newcastle Town Administrator Ron Grenier, a Damariscotta resident, said.
A handful of residents, including former selectmen Brent Hallowell and Josh Pinkham, raised questions about the agreement’s fiscal impact and about the necessity of full-time public works staff.
The article, after lengthy debate, passed with only a few hands raised in protest.
Debate about contributions to 13 non-profit organizations, each considered separately, accounted for a large chunk of the meeting.
All 13 articles passed, for a total appropriation of $39,487, almost half of which, $19,000, will go to Skidompha Public Library.
Resident John Roberts, before announcing his intention to vote against every non-profit appropriation, said the requests are “nickel and dime-ing us to death.”
Grenier pointed out that the non-profit requests, which, in Damariscotta, require a petition to get on the ballot, amount to a tiny fraction of the municipal budget. Lincoln County taxes and education budgets account for two-thirds of the town’s budget, Grenier said.
Damariscotta’s total municipal budget, not including non-profit requests, is $2.44 million including the local share of the Great Salt Bay Community School budget ($1.84 million), the secondary education budget ($1.03 million), and the county tax ($402,668).
“If you’re one percent over budget on something, you’re still over budget,” Roberts said. He expressed concern about the town’s property tax rate driving young residents out, calling himself “one of the lucky few who can still afford to live in this town.”
The evening’s closest vote was on a request by Kno-Wal-Lin, a home care and hospice organization, for $1981. The article passed, 39-20, after several residents voiced their displeasure with the organization’s failure to send a representative to the meeting.
Eight other organizations didn’t send representatives, yet escaped the criticisms aimed at Kno-Wal-Lin.
Questions about the Damariscotta Police Dept. budget, a major issue in the months leading up to the meeting, resurfaced, as did queries about the future leadership of the department in the wake of former Police Chief Steve Drake’s resignation.
Former Selectman Walter Hilton said the town “dismissed probably the greatest chief in the state of Maine” in Drake. Hilton also asked if the town is compensating acting Police Chief Chad Andrews for his new responsibilities.
Damariscotta Town Manager Greg Zinser said the town isn’t, but the matter “is under review” and he’s discussing it with Andrews.
Hilton said the town is doing “a great disservice” to Andrews, who stepped into the role of acting chief over two months ago.
Citizens also questioned Zinser and the selectmen about the town’s search for a new chief.
“We are contemplating, at this point, bumping that process up,” Zinser said.
Dick McLean, the chairman of the Damariscotta Board of Selectmen, said he would recommend that the town consult the Maine Chiefs of Police Association during the search, as they have in the past.
Former Selectman Brent Hallowell asked if the town could cut the budgeted salary for a police chief.
“It really depends on who you get into that position,” Zinser said. “If we find someone with a lot of experience, we need to compensate for that experience.”
Maine District Court Judge Michael Westcott said he worked with Drake as a judge and, formerly, as a prosecutor. “He knew what the hell he was doing,” Westcott said. “Sometimes when there are conflicts in personalities, there are other ways to solve them than to wield the ax.”
The roughly 50 residents in attendance ultimately passed the article in question by a substantial margin.
In other business, Deb Arter lobbied the town to consider installing a receptacle for returnable cans and bottles at Riverside Park. Arter, as a member of the Old Bristol Garden Club, helps maintain the town-owned park.
“I think $200 for a can, considering I’m watering flowers and taking care of dog poop, is not too much to ask,” she said.
The town appropriated a slightly higher amount for the county tax assessment than initially expected. The bill came in at $402,668, $2668 higher than the amount on the warrant.
“We thought we were estimating, if anything, a touch on the high side,” McLean said.
In other business, voters elected Bob Nee to serve as an alternate on the Damariscotta Budget Committee.
