Many local resident have been busy volunteering their time for the benefit of the town. So selectmen decided it was time to recognize the good that is constantly being done.

Town Clerk Clem Worcester said the three-person Board of Selectmen honored their first Volunteer of the Year at their last meeting – Robert Fortin, a lifelong resident of the town who has given hundreds of hours to municipal committees.

“Every time we turned around, we saw Bob doing something for the town,” said Worcester.

Fortin, a retired paper mill worker, has served many years on the Planning Board and the Route 2 Corridor Committee. He is the town’s representative on the Tri-Town Solid Waste and Recycling Committee and the Oxford County Solid Waste Board.

He has often helped out at the new town office, plowing or coating the walkway into the building, among other things.

Fortin received a certificate and lapel pin designating him a “volunteer.”

Fortin and his wife, Elsie, reside on Main Street. They are the parents of two adult children.

Worcester said selectmen will likely choose a deserving person each year to honor. And, he said, the board hopes to install a plaque in the town office with the inscribed name of each year’s honoree.

– Eileen M. Adams
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Planning Board

schedule changed

The Planning Board will soon begin meeting twice a month, on the second and fourth Thursdays, so that work can get started on revising the decade-old Comprehensive Plan.

Town Manager Joseph Derouche said the economic climate of the town has changed considerably since the document was adopted in 1994. And with the town now having a Pine Tree Zone within its borders, many more changes are likely to take place.

He said the town is going after a $10,000 state planning grant to help pay for the update. A representative from the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments is expected to help the Planning Board rewrite the document.

He said the Planning Board will likely take a look at expanding the town’s development zones up Route 17 and east toward Dixfield along Route 2.

Board meetings will start at 6 p.m. in the town office. Additional members are invited to join with the Planning Board to work on the document that will serve as a template for the town’s future.

Derouche said many of the recommendations made in 1994 plan were met, including the expansion of water and sewer lines and lighting in the downtown area.

He hopes that a new, revised document will be in place within a year.

– Eileen M. Adams

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