POLAND – Residents heard for the first time recently what November’s tax-cap referendum could mean to their schools.

If Carol Palesky’s 1 percent tax cap passes, school officials are looking to cut about 11 percent from their current budgets, according to data presented to the Poland Regional High School Committee.

“This is the first time we’ve rolled this out,” said Bill Doughty, assistant superintendent for School Union 29.

Town and school officials plan to hold a public hearing some time before the November election and to mail information to all Poland registered voters, Selectman Steve Robinson said.

“My insistence is that we present information in a fair and reasonable manner,” said Robinson. “That way, people can make an informed decision.”

After hearing the details of possible reductions, committee members voted 6-1 to approve a resolution saying that the tax cap would be “devastating” to Poland schools and children.

Farmington: Doctor moves for challenge

FARMINGTON – Dr. Iris Silverstein has touched thousands of children’s lives in her 22 years in Maine. Now she’s moving on to practice medicine at Children’s Hospital in Boston to pursue her interest in helping kids understand themselves.

“I feel it’s a real privilege to be a primary care pediatrician for a family. You get to share in their lives,” Silverstein said, “It’s really unique and I’m going to miss that.

Silverstein, a pediatrician in Farmington for 19 years, is going to direct the pediatric medical care of patients on the inpatient psychiatry unit, an 18-bed unit, and also work in the Developmental Medicine Center. She will work with children and adolescents with severe mental health problems who need hospitalization.

“I really wanted a new intellectual and professional challenge,” Silverstein said. “And, I’ve been doing a lot of work and seeing kids with school problems and emotional difficulties. This is an opportunity to work with people who are doing what I’m really interested in.”

Lisbon: Pay rate, health costs up

LISBON – Selectmen approved a three-year labor contract with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the union that represents eight town office employees and the Beaver Park ranger.

The new pact gives 3.5 percent wage hikes each of the first two years and a 4 percent hike in the third year. In return, employees have agreed to pay 15 percent of their health insurance costs in the first two years, and 20 percent in the final year. They currently pay 10 percent of the cost.

At the request of Development Director Dan Feeney, selectmen tabled a request that the town share the estimated $56,000 cost of a sewer extension for Gendron Realty. Feeney said that since the item was placed on the agenda, less costly alternatives have been found.

In other business, a review of the plan for the second segment of Lisbon Trail was presented. It was noted that a proposal to bring the trail down Frost Hill Avenue to Lisbon Falls was strongly opposed by neighborhood residents at a recent meeting. Consequently, other routes will being considered, including one running under the new bridge and along the railroad tracks.

A special entertainment permit and liquor license was granted to the Left Hand Club. Adopted was a proclamation that Nov. 21-28 be designated National Bible Week in Lisbon.

Wilton: Tax cap officially opposed

WILTON – Selectmen passed a resolution opposing the Palesky tax cap proposal that will be on the November ballot.

Town Manager Peter Nielsen said the initiative could mean a 64 percent reduction in the municipal budget. He estimated that the town budget would go from $2.2 million to $826,000. He presented a possible scenario that includes no money for services like the police department, library, hydrant rentals, transfer station, recycling, recreation or social services.

“If they vote yes then they get a reduction (in property taxes), but it doesn’t tell you what happens after that and where the money is going to come from to run your town,” Chairman Jeff Rowe said.

In other business, selectmen took no action on a concern voiced by resident Debbie Aseltine about large boats going into Wilson Lake at the Pond Road boat launch. Aseltine lives on the lake with her husband, Ron Aseltine.

Aseltine said the area is very shallow, and she has seen boats as large as 17 feet being put in the water at the boat launch. She said the area is being dug up and she is concerned about milfoil coming into the waters. No one inspects boats at the launch before they go into the water as they do at the head of the lake.

Lewiston: Rock ‘N Robins bar gets reprieve

LEWISTON – The City Council took aim at Rock ‘N Robins bar, giving the owner two weeks to corral rowdy customers.

Councilors tabled a plan to put bar owner Mike Berube on a three-month probation. They’ll take up the issue again at their Oct. 5 meeting.

Berube conceded that the Lisbon street bar has become a Thursday night hot spot in the Twin Cities, attracting hundreds of young customers. Police Chief William Welch said he has had enough and urged councilors to pull Berube’s special-use permit. The permit allows the bar to have dancing, DJs and comedy acts.

“I have to keep at least half of my force – my officers on duty for that particular shift – devoted to that club,” Welch said. “I just don’t think we should do it anymore. We’ve had calls for assaults, drunkenness and fights week after week.”

The last straw was an Aug. 27 incident that ended with an officer being assaulted, Welch said. Police had to respond to a near riot with drawn clubs and Mace, he said. The bar has had 106 calls for service in the past year.

Auburn:

Savings for cities sought

AUBURN – Libraries, fire departments, police and public works – they’re all up for discussion, according to the Twin Cities’ mayors.

Mayors Normand Guay of Auburn and Lionel Guay of Lewiston said that they would convene a 10-member committee to review both cities’ municipal services, looking for departments that could be combined. They expect a report back from the panel in nine months.

“Everything is up for discussion,” Lionel Guay said. “We want them to look at every department, at every service.”

He and his brother are looking for well-known members of the community who don’t currently serve on city boards or work for either Lewiston or Auburn.

“We’ve contacted a few people so far,” he said. “But we’re waiting to release names until we can release the whole list.”

The timing has little to do with a looming property tax-cap vote, they said.

But talk of combining the cities goes back eight years ago, to the LA Together effort, Normand Guay said. That group studied the issue and issued a report of its own.

“They came up with the plan; now we’re acting on it,” he said.

Minot: $500,000 tax-cap cut seen

MINOT – The School Committee and Board of Selectmen accepted Town Administrator Gregory Gill’s budget analysis if a 1 percent tax cap is imposed. The result would be a $500,000 cut.

In order to develop a picture of what the impact on school and municipal programs would be under the Palesky tax-cap proposal, the two boards agreed to split the revenue shortfall.

Union 29 Financial Officer Stacie Everett was directed to prepare a budget $250,000 less than the current one, and Gill likewise was asked to show the effect of cutting that amount from municipal government.

Gill’s report noted that the tax-cap proposal allows a town to collect taxes amounting to 1 percent of property valuation, plus the amount of a town’s existing debt.

Thus, according to Gill’s figures, the town would be allowed to raise $1,565,434 through property taxes. This amounts to a tax rate of about $10.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

The fact that Minot has a relatively low tax rate – $14 per $1,000 – means Minot would not be affected as severely as many other area towns, school Superintendent Nina Schlikin pointed out.

“You are far better off than either Poland of Mechanic Falls. At Elm Street School, they are being asked to consider a $660,000 cut and you know that has to come out of personnel. School budgets are mostly salary costs. People and programs, that’s the only option you have,” Schlikin said.

Stratton: Three

charged in bust

STRATTON – Two men and a woman arrested on drug charges were not growing marijuana for their own personal use only, according to Maine Drug Enforcement Agency supervisor Gerry Baril.

Police arrested Justin Kuhni and his girlfriend, Courtney Steeves, both 26, at their home in Stratton. Several area law enforcement agencies had received information that led police to a field near the home, where they found marijuana plants growing.

The harvest, weighing about 78 pounds, and 24 pounds of dried marijuana found in the house, is atypical for someone growing marijuana for just themselves and a few friends, Baril said.

Police also found 35 grams of hashish and 23 grams of psilocybin mushrooms in the residence.

“They are more than just local growers. They are commercial growers, growing for profit,” Baril said.

Both are charged with unlawful trafficking of drugs.

Also charged was Ryan Cowper, 25, of Coplin Plantation, who was arrested the following day with one pound of marijuana in his home. He is charged with furnishing Schedule D drugs.

Lisbon: Officials

split on tax cap

LISBON – Selectmen failed to approve a resolution opposing the Palesky tax-cap proposal on the Nov. 2 ballot. The vote was 2-2 with L. Scott D’Amboise abstaining.

Selectmen E. Charles Smith and Layne Curtis said they were unconvinced about the dire predictions being made about revenue losses and opposed the resolution. Smith said he was “not totally opposed to changing where our revenue comes from.”

Chairman Mike Bowie noted selectmen had worked very hard over the last “three or four years to keep our property taxes at a minimum.” He said what bothered him most about the cap is that “it takes some of government out of taxpayers’ hands.”

Bowie and Selectmen Paul Chizmar voted in favor of adopting the resolution, and Smith and Curtis opposed it.

School Committee Chairman Harold Moran told selectmen the possibility of a cap’s being enacted “scares me terribly; it’s going to cost programs” in the Lisbon school system.

“The cure is worse than the disease,” Noyes Lawrence said.

Livermore: Grant

for new firetruck

LIVERMORE – Livermore Fire Department is one of several in Maine to share in $1.2 million from the Department of Homeland Security, Maine senators announced.

The funds are part of the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program.

Livermore’s share will be $202,500, which Chief Randy Berry wants to use for a tanker-pumper to replace the department’s current 1967 tanker. The local share will be $22,500, or 10 percent, which the town has already approved.

Because of its poor condition, Berry has already taken the old pumper out of service, as he was afraid it was not safe to use. One of the aims of the grant is to get firefighting vehicles older than 1979 off the road, he explained.

“Firefighters die driving those,” he said of the old tanker, which was built from an oil tanker on a Department of Conservation chassis back when his uncle, Carlton Berry, was chief.

Auburn: Officer

joining airport

Helicopter pilot and retiring Air Force Lt. Col. John McGonagill will take over the helm of the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport.

McGonagill is scheduled to take over the job on Oct. 7, replacing acting airport manager Phil Simpson.

Simpson, a Wiscasset resident, said he asked the airport’s board of directors to replace him this summer.

“I just couldn’t take another winter driving those roads,” Simpson said. “I even went off the road once, when it was really bad. So I asked them to find a replacement before the winter.”

Simpson came out of retirement in June 2003 to take the Auburn position. He had served as assistant director of Maine aviation until 1996, working 30 years for the department. He also worked as director of the Augusta State Airport for part of 1997.

Rangeley: Road

fix a safety thing’

RANGELEY – Officials defended improvements to the Dodge Pond Road in the face of residents’ concerns at a recent selectmen’s meeting.

“Why such a massive undertaking?” resident Bill Booker asked. He wanted to know why so much work was being done on a road used by only three year-round residents. “Who approved this? Who pays?” he asked.

Town Manager Perry Ellsworth explained that no federal money was involved in the $150,000 project, which was “part of the budgetary process started last year before I came here.”

Explaining why the construction was taking place, Road Foreman Everett Quimby said, “There are environmental concerns with spring washouts going into the pond. This project will improve the drainage, put proper ditching in place, straighten a dangerous curve and remove a hill. It’s a safety thing,” he said.

Residents voiced their hopes that the road will remain gravel and that trees lost or damaged will be replaced by the town. Ellsworth said the paving decision has not yet been made.

Lewiston: School

gets straw vote OK

LEWISTON – Voters have given their OK to a more expensive, slightly larger Farwell Elementary School project.

Fewer than 30 Lewiston residents turned out for a public meeting on the issue. In a straw vote, they unanimously supported the project.

The latest proposal calls for the old school to be torn down and a two-story, 53,125-square-foot building built in its place. The new school would have four extra-large classrooms, 12 regular-sized classrooms, separate music and art rooms and spaces for tutoring, conferences and special education. Voters could also elect to add a 3,395-square-foot middle school-sized gym.

The school would be set on 4.8 acres and would accommodate 425 students.