Vacant board seats vexing Wales leadership
WALES – Filling three seats on the Planning Board and finding a new town clerk will be priorities at the annual town meeting Saturday.
Elected positions in Wales are filled at town meetings. Nominations are taken from the floor and the people then vote.
Filling the Planning Board positions is critical, said Selectmen Brian Severy. “The biggest issue right now is that the Planning Board is involved with a comprehensive plan that must be approved by the state,” he said, adding that the board needs a full complement of members to complete the state-mandated plan. “Right now we do have enough members for quorums but just barely.”
Town Clerk Monica Brownell is not running for re-election. No one has expressed an interest in the part-time elected position. “We’re hoping somebody runs,” Severy said. “We’ve talked to a few people and we haven’t found anybody that’s interested. It’s tough to get people interested in town politics.”
One seat on the three-member Board of Selectmen comes up for re-election each year. This year Paul Burgess, a 24-year veteran on the board, may or may not face a challenge. No one has expressed an interest in running for that seat either. That doesn’t mean that it’s not going to happen at the last minute, Severy said.
One position on the School Committee is up this year. That incumbent is Russell Swift. “I have not heard whether he’s running again or not,” Severy said.
He said the major issues on the 40-article warrant include budget items. The proposed municipal budget was not available. There is no town manager. Severy said the mill rate is currently 24.5. “I don’t know if that’s going to go up or not. It depends on what happens at town meeting. We don’t set the mill rate until late August or September,” he said.
As for school spending, he said, it’s always a major issue. “We’ve given into the fact that it’s going to go up every year. We try to keep it under wraps,” Severy said.
“We’re only up 3.85 percent and I think they’ll approve it,” said Union 44 Business Manager Jackie Barrett. “We’ve been trying the past few years to keep it right around 3 percent. Last year it was 3 percent exactly.”
Severy also cited a recent spurt in growth as a likely topic of discussion. Three new subdivisions are planned. “With the Sabattus interchange coming in, I suspect we’re going to be growing quite rapidly in the next five years,” he said.
The town meeting will begin at 9 a.m. at Wales Central School on Center Road.
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