DIXFIELD — Selectmen will take up the results of four local ballot questions when they meet Monday. They include two that are wind-related, a curfew for youth, and the defeat of a bond issue that would have allowed the town to connect with the Mexico sewage plant.
Town Manager Eugene Skibitsky said he will ask selectmen to set a special town meeting for a revote on the $250,000 sewer line request.
Voters turned down the question by a vote of 478-533 during Tuesday’s general election.
“That’s our feed to the waste treatment plant. Without it, we have no alternative,” he said Wednesday afternoon.
The sewer main runs under the Webb River Bridge, which is slated for replacement next year by the Maine Department of Transportation. The bridge connects Dixfield with Mexico along Route 2. A new sewer main that would be attached to the new bridge is the responsibility of the town.
The funds needed to replace the sewer main will not come from property taxes, Skibitsky said, but from users of the Dixfield Sewer Department.
A question calling for a curfew for youth was easily passed by a vote of 710-320. The curfew ordinance had been requested by Dixfield Police Department Chief Richard Pickett, who said the action would help reduce vandalism.
Skibitsky said the curfew will go into effect Tuesday, Nov. 9.
Also up for discussion is a local ballot question that residents defeated that would have brought the town’s Comprehensive Plan in line with any future ordinance that would govern wind development.Voters defeated the amendment question, 451-516.
The town had planned to place a proposed wind ordinance before voters, but learned at the last minute that several clarifications were required.
Voters also turned down a citizen-initiated question that would have banned all wind turbine development by a vote of 487-543.
Without a wind ordinance and no aligning amendments to the Comprehensive Plan, Skibitsky said Patriot Renewables LLC’s plan to construct up to 13 turbines along the Colonel Holman Mountain ridgeline must follow state regulatory requirements for such development.
Comments are no longer available on this story