RANGELEY – The selectmen Tuesday night announced a resolution written at their last meeting expressing concerns about Poland Spring Bottling Co.’s bid to open a pumping station in Dallas Plantation.
Board members meeting on Oct. 4 began their discussion about the water bottling company’s application to build a pumping station near Rangeley by looking for both the positive and negative effects of a station, Selectman Robert Welch said. “We were asking, can someone come in and show us something positive,” he said, and added that during the discussion none of the board members came up with any positive effects a station could have.
“The board went 100 percent against,” the proposed pumping station, Selectman Jim Stone said.
Selectmen also discussed the possibility of rewriting the town’s comprehensive plan and some of its ordinances. Spurred by questions from members of the public, including Crossroads Coalition member Jim Proctor, the board members admitted that many town ordinances are ineffective and need to be rewritten if they are to be effective.
“We jump around like a bunch of chickens sometimes trying to solve problems,” said Welch. “The town has many issues that it needs to face.” Among those issues, Welch said, is a lack of affordable housing in town. Board members encouraged interested residents to join the ordinance committee, for which there are currently three vacancies, or call the town office to discuss other options.
Selectmen voted to hold a special town meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 1, in the town office to vote on spending $135,000 more than planned for renovations to a sewage pumping station. The station has backed up into stores and homes for the past five years, Town Manager Perry Ellsworth said.
He said bids on the project came in too high for the town to stay within its original $550,000 budget for the project, and he said he hopes the town will approve the additional funds needed to “do the project correctly.”
Selectmen Chairman Jim Jannace spoke in favor of the measure, saying that the town is “living on borrowed time” with regard to the current pumping station.
Selectmen also voted to allow the Fire Department to purchase a snowmobile and a snowmobile trailer using money from the town Donations Fund and from private donors. Fire Chief Rudy Davis said the department received $2,000 from an anonymous donor to be put toward the purchase of a $5,500 used 2004 Polaris snow sled from Larry Koob of Oquossoc Marine. The remaining funds will come from the town Donations Fund. Davis said the department also received $1,466 toward the purchase of a new snow machine trailer. The remaining funds for the trailer will also come from the Donations Fund.
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