Two Vassalboro select board members spent the first hour of their April 9 meeting discussing the Mill Hill bridge project with Calderwood Engineering structural engineer Mohamed Mohamud, who attended the meeting virtually.
Select board members have known for more than a year that the existing culverts need replacement, and have feared a collapse that might require immediate work to restore access to the four or five families who live past the culverts on the dead-end road.
They thoroughly canvassed options with Mohamud, without reaching consensus and without getting a firm cost estimate to present to town voters. As the discussion wound down, acting board chairman Chris French was considering postponing a fund request from the June town meeting to the November elections.
“It’s a big project, and we’re behind, and there’s still some grants we’re looking at,” French said.
Turning to Town Manager Aaron Miller’s first draft of the June 1 town meeting warrant, board members talked briefly about some of the proposed articles, including fund requests, ordinance amendments and “a lot of standard language:” the requests made to voters year after year, many to authorize select board members to act on their behalf until the next meeting.
Select board members plan a more detailed review of the warrant at a Thursday, April 16, meeting, when they hope board chairman Frederick “Rick” Denico will be back. They are scheduled to meet with the budget committee on Wednesday, April 21, a meeting advertised on the website as the budget committee’s final meeting to review and make recommendations on school and municipal funding requests. Both meetings are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. in the town office meeting room.
In other business, Miller reported that the lawsuit between the town and the owners of the Rage Room, in North Vassalboro, has ended with a consent decree that he presented and select board members signed.
The Rage Room has operated since last summer in defiance of Vassalboro Planning Board requests that the owners apply for and receive a business license. Under the consent decree, the owners will clean up the property by July 1, and will pay the town $100 a month for five years to cover attorney’s fees.
Miller said Recreation Director Danielle Brox is drafting policies for groups using town recreation facilities. There should also be one for groups using other town facilities, like the town office meeting room, he said.
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by Mary Grow
