Whitefield voters at the annual town meeting Saturday rejected a new town office, approved $15,000 in fire department stipends, and agreed to shut off the streetlights.
There was an attempt to increase the stipends by accessing $24,000 that would have been drawn from surplus for the town center’s initial loan payment. A legality prohibited the transfer, however.
Later in the meeting, when the original crowd of 212 had dwindled, resident Phil Russell won a long-pitched battle. As he has done annually for at least 20 years, Russell recommended zero dollars on the streetlight article. Many of them don’t work anyway, he said.
A majority of the remaining three-dozen voters agreed, saving the town $3,815. They then swiftly applied the money to the Whitefield food bank request for $200, upping it to $4015.
One voter’s suggestion to nip a proposed small increase in town office staff pay failed, the $150,000 road budget passed, and there was no quibbling over an additional $3500 for salt shed maintenance in the $238,300 snowplowing article.
Total spending plan approved was about $828,000.
Tabling the measure to the 2010 meeting, as one voter suggested early in the debate, was not possible, ruled moderator Brian Huntley.
Many opponents thanked the hardworking committee that spent three years formulating the project but said the time isn’t right, the economy is too perilous.
Proponents’ arguments that the time is good because building costs, including borrowing rates, would be low were not persuasive. Brad Tait said, “This is a very poor time to tackle this. I think it could be brought back next year, or two years from now.”
Others, such as George Hendsbee, worried about unknown maintenance costs. He wanted to know who would take care of the building. “It’s a lot bigger than what you have now. Has anybody looked at heat, electricity, plowing?”
Board of selectmen chairman Steve McCormick said those costs were unknown.
Also unpersuasive were building committee chairman Erik Ekholm’s remarks. “Twenty years ago we came to this meeting for a new town office. We asked for $50,000,” he said, referring to the moving of the original townhouse from a mile down the road, followed by building new offices underneath it, supplying water and a heating plant.
“It met incredible resistance,” he said. “We’ve gotten 20 years of use out of it. Before that, we had a little room in the school.”
Barbara Welch Delvecchio said that for years tax increases of three, five and even ten percent have been voted at town meeting, “but my tax bills haven’t gone up more than $100.” Town officers are “frugal, and office staff are prudent,” she said. “I think we can afford to build this for our community.”
Retired psychologist Chuck Acker drew parallels between economic depression and psychological depression. Each involves a failure of confidence, he said. Investing in the town office would be “an investment in our own success,” he argued, enabling the community to move forward and meet its own needs. He likened it to “our own stimulus package,” generating optimism and pride in community.
But worry prevailed. Karen Stulz, a former town clerk, said that “without actual figures” of Whitefield’s portion of the regional school unit budget, she couldn’t support the article.
When George Fergusson asked if the amount requested were enough, North Whitefield Fire Chief Tim Pellerin said, referring to the 30 active volunteers, “We didn’t want to seem greedy. You’re having as hard an economic time as we are.” The pay would be $10 per call. “We’re just trying to get a little compensation” for time and gas mileage, he added. The stipend is a way to retain the volunteers.
The town office will administer the fund, to be paid out twice a year.
To Stephen Smith’s query about billing the insurance company when emergency personnel control traffic at accident scenes, Pellerin said an ordinance approved by townspeople would be necessary. “Damariscotta is looking at this now,” the chief added.
McCormick said upkeep efforts have been made but not consistently. “From here on out, there will be a budget for maintenance.”
Louis Sell, who chaired the dam study committee two years ago, recommended not using sandbags, except to plug leaks on the east side. He urged a more “permanent repair”, such as installing metal gates to close the west-bank culverts, estimated to cost $5000 in 2007.
Dam study committee member Steve Smith said sandbags were meant to be a temporary aid to “slow down leakage.” The intention to repair or replace the gates has not changed. “We’re looking at phasing in repairs over many years.”
Earl Lemieux, who oversees the food distribution from Whitefield Union Church, said, “Each year we feed 67 families and we are kind of slow getting food,” which is handled through St. Denis Church and Auburn-based Good Shepherd Food Bank. Every now and then the Girl Scouts or donation jars placed in stores bring in items, he added.
The article was amended to provide Whitefield’s pantry $4015, with a town office account set up to manage the money.
Road commissioner David Boynton, unopposed, received 188 votes. For three seats on the planning board, incumbent Steve Smith received 157 votes, and write-ins were Bob Bills, 30, and Beth Whitman, 10.
