By BEN JACKSON
Only about 60 residents made it to the March 2 annual town meeting in Brooksville, half of whom left before voting on the school budget. All the incumbents won their seats, and every article voted on passed as worded, in both town and school warrants, with one exception: an amendment to the 2010 budget for winter roads. Newly reelected selectman John Gray said, “We had a pretty good February, and hopefully we’ll have a good fall and rest of spring [knocking on wood]...Seems to me we can drop this by $25,000. We would take that from taxation.” The $250,000 figure was what went into the roads account last year from taxes.
The move puts next year’s winter roads budget at $225,000, and the total amount coming from taxes at around $550,000, plus $162,350 from automobile excise.
The total town budget decided upon is approximately $845,000, less than a 1 percent increase from last year.
Discussion centered around clarifying various articles on the warrant. Resident Edson Blodgett wondered if moves to appoint rather than elect positions of town clerk and tax collector would lead to conflicts of interest (“the same person collecting the money as spending it”).
“We do have auditors to make sure everything is above board,” said Gray. Switching to appointment is mostly a matter of “extending our hours [at town office],” he said.
Robert Tredwell of the Budget and Advisory Committee said that the person who “spends the money is neither the tax collector nor the town clerk, it’s the treasurer.”
A letter from the Harbor Committee described articles M14 through M19 as efforts to “simplify and clarify” the committee’s statutory authority over town landings, and combine separate town landing and Harbormaster accounts into a single “coastal account.”
Article M20 raises half of the $60,000 spent so far on engineering drawings for the proposed road to Walker Pond—the other half is raised by Sedgwick. Gray says the state is “quite excited about this particular access...[and there is] a good chance of recuperating that money.” Once the road is completed, additional money would be needed for management, such as preventing the introduction and spread of the rapidly colonizing aquatic plant, milfoil.
Lake Larson started discussion about the light pollution and the number of street lights in town. “Apart from a few necessary places, I don’t think we really need so many in town,” she said. Selectman Richard Bakeman thought there to be about 35 street lights in town. Gray said, “it’s not easy to get rid of one of these lights,” but that residents could file a request with the selectmen, who would consult those living near the light in question before going forward.
One of the most substantial expenditures for the town is paying for use of the Blue Hill-Surry Transfer Station. For 2010 the amount is more than $96,000, very near previous year’s expenses. Glass will again not be recycled unless the disposal facility finds a market for it.
The town voted to use $8,000 from the salt shed reserve account to start planning a structure. “Sooner or later we need to have a salt shed to protect our sand and prevent our salt from washing away and leaching into the environment,” said Gray. He said since the town of Brooklin built its salt shed, the quality of their roads has improved as well.
Non-resident Sandy Cohen of Peninsula Power, along with resident Ralph Chapman, addressed the meeting before the vote on Article M59 began. The article asks if the town “should explore the use of alternative energy technologies and encourage proposals...at future town meetings.” Cohen said his nonprofit group is seeking to “develop wind energy resources locally” in the towns of Brooklin, Sedgwick, Blue Hill and Brooksville. Peninsula Power won a $10,000 grant (a piece of the federal stimulus money) for a feasibility study, but a second grant of $40,512 awarded under the same program will replace it (state regulations only allow one such grant per town).
Chapman wrote the grant and hopes to form a “community energy planning committee” composed of area residents, with the aim of researching energy consumption patterns and drafting a “regional energy plan, with wind as one of its components.” The grant will involve a “home weatherization project,” making use of thermal images of houses in town.
Chapman says the grant will accomplish “roughly half of what Sandy’s grant would have,” and Peninsula Power will be involved in the project. Cohen says he came out of Berkeley’s “computer revolution” and that “this is the next revolution.”
The entire $1,640,125 of the school budget passed (a 3.25 percent or $55,000 drop from previous year), including the $601,350 in funds above what the state determines to be necessary for education. This was done, as required, in a secret ballot, 31 to 1. To make extra-extra sure residents really want to spend more per pupil than do larger school systems, another referendum vote is to be held Monday, March 8, with polling between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. (not 10 a.m.-8 p.m. as printed in the warrant).
Voters will have the chance to opt not to have to fulfill the double voting requirement for the next three years by voting “no” on budget validation question (question two on the election ballot).
Election results
- Selectman (3 years), John Gray, 166
- Town clerk, Amber Bakeman (1 year), 170
- Fire chief, Matt Dow (1 year), 161
- Rd Commissioner, Mark Blake (1 year), 161
- School board, Helen Condon (3 years), 124*; Dana Hooper, 137*; write-in, Jim Picariello, 47
- Planning Board, (3) Gerald Gray, 166
- Budget and Advisory Committee (3 years), Earl Clifford Jr., 163; Ann Ebeling, 152; third seat open, uncontested
*elected
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