CARRABASSETT VALLEY – A forest management plan expected to elicit discussion at Wednesday’s town meeting will get initial consideration at a public hearing at 6:30 p.m. Monday night at the Town Office.
The annual town meeting, at which voters will consider more than 60 articles, will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Anti-Gravity Center. Polling for a contested selectman’s race and for unopposed school board and sanitary district positions will be 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Town Office. Absentee ballots are available before Wednesday at that office.
Town Manager Dave Cota said a forest management plan had not been established for 1,203 acres that the town purchased from the state in 2000. The lot is adjacent to 930 acres the town owns.
It has 23 commercial tree species, three inland wading bird and waterfowl habitats, and at least two alder or cedar wetlands, according to the management plan prepared by Michael Kankainen. Timber harvesting was done there in the 1990s and, in his report, Kankainen suggests the town adopt essentially the same timber harvesting and forest management plan for the state lot as has been used for the town lot. If voters pass the plan, logging this summer could yield $50,000 in revenues for the town.
Cota believes some residents may have concerns about it, so a public hearing was scheduled before the town meeting.
“There will be people who agree and don’t agree about this,” he said.
In the selectman’s race, George Abbott is challenging incumbent Jay Reynolds for a three-year term on the five-person board.
Abbott, a condominium manager and 29-year resident of the town, has served on the appeals board and ladder truck study committee, and as a volunteer firefighter. He currently chairs the land committee. He said he feels many town votes have been close because not enough information is available to voters before they’re asked to make decisions.
“My big concern is that anything that comes to the town is well-researched with all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed,” he said Thursday.
Incumbent Jay Reynolds has served one term. The 22-year resident and manager of the Bag and Kettle has served on the ladder truck study committee and the Planning Board. He is president of the Redington East Homeowners Association. He said he hopes the town will continue down its current path.
“I think the town is heading in a good direction and I’d like to keep it going in that direction,” he said.
Both candidates cited the importance of maintaining open communications with members of the Penobscot Nation, who own 24,000 forested acres in town – nearly half the town’s acreage, according to Reynolds.
Items that voters will be asked to approve include:
• $121,794 for town officers’ salaries.
• $137,000 for communications center operations, up $25,000 from last year due to a patrolmen’s salary increase.
• $60,000 for computer software for the communications center, which is expected to be offset in part by a school surplus.
• A zoning ordinance to set standards for home occupancy. It would not supersede any housing development covenants, said Cota.
Comments are no longer available on this story