On Tues., June 8, voters in Waldoboro will face a town warrant that is almost entirely standard operating procedure, Town Manager William Post said.
The polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on June 8 at the Waldoboro Town Office.
With the exception of five proposed land use ordinance amendments, the warrant contains only the articles needed to allow town government to function normally, Post said.
“The important thing with this budget is that there was a significant loss in state funding, on top of cuts in state funding from last year,” Post said. This year, the state cut funding by almost 18 percent, a $92,803 reduction from last year. Last year, the state cut funding by almost $152,000, Post said.
“We knew we had to make cuts to keep things the same,” Post said.
Almost every department’s budget has been reduced, and the departments with increased budgets are the result of fixed, necessary costs, such as software licensing, Post said.
Overall, the proposed town budget is $3,595,959. This is a 2.6 percent ($96,141) reduction from last year’s budget. The amount raised from taxes in this year’s budget is $1,324,518, a .02 percent ($268) reduction from last year.
“In the economic climate we’re in, we wanted to do everything we could to keep property taxes stable,” Post said.
There are no proposed salary increases or cost of living increases for town employees in this year’s proposed budget.
The RSU 40 school budget is handled separately from the town budget.
The five articles related to proposed land use ordinance amendments are: a height exception for high voltage power lines; a height exception for wireless Internet transmission towers; approval of the updated shoreland zoning map; an amendment to the building setback in low value wetlands; and two changes to subdivision and development law.
The height exception for power transmission lines would allow CMP to build poles that exceed the current height limit.
When the ordinance change was drafted, CMP said these poles, used to support high-voltage transmission lines, were needed for CMP to complete their Maine Power Reliability Program, a multi-billion dollar statewide upgrade to the power delivery system.
Recently, the Public Utilities Commission decided that the Midcoast spur of the project – the part of the project that would run through Waldoboro – is not needed, Waldoboro Code Enforcement Officer Patrick Wright said.
The PUC will seek to meet the area’s electricity demands with solar electricity, Wright said.
Town officials still believe that the amendment will be a good thing for the town going forward.
“This is a well designed article, and one that will serve the town well in the coming years,” Post said. “It would be good for the town to look ahead.”
The ordinance, if it passes, would not allow the towers to be steel lattice structures, and includes a system for determining the visual impact of the new structures. If the visual impact on any abutter’s property is significant enough, the ordinance requires CMP to either mitigate the visual impact, or provide monetary compensation to the abutter.
The ordinance also contains provisions dealing with the negative health effects that some believe to be associated with the high-voltage lines.
Wright is concerned about the possibility that without an ordinance in place that allows the proposed poles, the PUC could, in the future, simply preempt local ordinance and force the town to allow the poles to be built.
“This is a way to mitigate the impact of the poles,” Wright said at a public hearing about the ordinance amendments. “By showing that we’re working with CMP and property owners, there’s a better chance that people will be compensated fairly if the poles are constructed.”
Another height exception has been proposed for the construction of wireless Internet transmission towers in Waldoboro. The change would allow towers – with the sole purpose of wireless Internet transmission – up to 120 feet tall to be built anywhere in Waldoboro except the historic village district.
Without that exception, the town will be unable to move forward with a federally funded project to expand Internet access to rural areas in Waldoboro.
If the towers can’t be built, the expanded access “might be able to reach one third” of the homes they could reach if the towers are allowed, said Jason Philbrook, president of Midcoast Internet Solutions, the company building the towers.
Without the exception, the company will have to use towers placed in other towns, and towers built within 300 feet of Rt. 1, Philbrook said.
“It’s important for people to understand that this ordinance change won’t open up the town for cell phone towers to be built all over the place,” said Post. The proposed ordinance is “very carefully worded” to apply only to wireless Internet towers, Post said.
The towers that Midcoast Internet Solutions uses are much lower profile than cell phone towers; they are a taller version of the communication tower at the Waldoboro Police Station, Philbrook said.
Voters must now approve the updated map. The map that is being presented to voters this year reflects compliance with the state minimums for shoreland zoning, Wright said.
Voters will also decide whether to approve an amendment to shoreland zoning ordinance that would reduce the building setback to 75 feet around low value wetlands. The shoreland zone, as it applies to other activities like logging and farming, around low value wetlands would remain at 250 feet.
The 75-foot building setback with a 250-foot shoreland zone reflects the state minimum requirement for shoreland zoning ordinance around low value wetlands.
If it passes June 8, the amendment to the subdivision ordinance will require almost all changes to previously approved subdivisions be reviewed by the planning board.
For example, if the owner of an approved subdivision wants to further divide any lots, they will need to bring the proposed change before the planning board for review. Changes such as moving wells and septic systems will need to be reviewed depending on how significant the change is, Wright said.
The other amendment concerns the maintenance of water supplies at developments. Currently, town ordinance requires there to be a water supply at developments for both consumption and fire protection, as needed.
The proposed amendment puts the responsibility for maintaining this water supply on the developer. The responsibility is currently on the town to maintain these water supplies at developments.
