Castine
Selectmen petitioned to return board to three members

BY SHARON BRAY
The two major items on the agenda for the selectmen’s January 19 meeting have been discussed at previous meetings over several years.

In phone calls to follow up on the most recent meeting, Selectman Gus Basile and Town Clerk Susan Macomber listed a petition to change the number of selectmen and a citizen concern about snow on downtown sidewalks as most discussed.

Doris Russell said in a phone call last week that she presented a petition asking to return the number of selectmen to three. At present three people serve as selectmen, but in November 2009, a majority of voters supported adding two more to make a five-seat board of selectmen.

The current selectmen had talked to the town attorney and said they were advised to elect the additional members at town meeting in November 2010.

In response to citizen questions at recent meetings, selectmen have described the November elections as the “official town meeting,” while the March (or later) public gathering is the “budget town meeting.”

Chairman of the Board of Selectmen Peter Vogell has said several times that more voters participate by secret ballot in November than show up at town meeting in March.

Russell, however, said she wants more townspeople to discuss whether five or three selectmen should be running the town. She stated that the March town meeting draws a larger representation of citizens than showed up at a pre-vote hearing on the increased number of board members.

Town Manager Dale Abernethy had consulted the town attorney when he first heard that the petition to vote again on the number of selectmen was being circulated.

Russell also talked to a lawyer to be sure the petition was worded correctly and was presented in time to be included at the upcoming town meeting.

“The petition is all legally correct,” Basile said. “We can vote on it at the March meeting.”

At the January 19 meeting, Castine resident Gordon MacArthur raised questions about the petition, and selectmen agreed to discuss it further at their February 8 meeting.

Much of the discussion about clearing snow from sidewalks was a repeat of what was said last year, according to Basile.

Problems with town equipment had resulted in more snow than usual pushed onto sidewalks from the street during the first snow storms of this year, Macomber said. Although plans were underway to remove the excess snow, the town crew had not done so before the January 19 meeting. By Monday, January 25, however, the crew had used a backhoe and dump truck to carry off much of the old snow, she said.

The board could, but is unlikely to, require Main Street property owners to shovel their sidewalks, Basile said. “And the town is not going to do it.”

Basile added that he is very pleased with the way “town-gown” meetings between selectmen and Maine Maritime Academy officials have been going. Since the two started meeting monthly, Basile said, discussion has been increasingly productive.

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