WILTON — The Select Board at its Tuesday, Sept. 6, meeting approved two interlocal agreements to provide fire and solid-waste disposal services for Washington and Perkins townships.
The agreements were entered into with the Franklin County Commissioners.
The first agreement provides Washington Plantation with “structural … auxiliary or supplemental fire protection.” In exchange, the county will pay the town of Wilton $1,875 in three installments of $625 through April 2023.
The second agreement provides Washington Plantation and Perkins Plantation with solid-waste disposal services at the transfer station, with quarterly payments totaling $4,055.
Town Manager Perry Ellsworth told the board the agreements will serve approximately 60 people in the two townships.
He said the funds from fire-protection services has “historically gone into the equipment fund for the fire department.” Where to direct those funds, the amount of the funds should be reevaluated as the town puts together its next budget, he added.
The first installment of $625 has already been paid, Ellsworth said.
“They [the county] were paying us before we signed the first contract because they knew it was a special offer,” he said.
The solid-waste disposal services agreement offers residents in Perkins Plantation the option to go to the Wilton transfer station or one in Weld.
“I do have a little angst about this,” Ellsworth said. “Again it’s another one of those where we’re providing a service to the county.”
He had concerns because “this year we’re actually [having] to pay a fuel surcharge on top of the hauling cost.”
“We’re not making any money on this,” Ellsworth said. “But I think you need to sign it, it’s the best we can do because it’s the best that we asked for.”
The interlocal agreements were approved unanimously by the board.
In other business
Wilton is moving forward with appointments for two committees.
The cemetery memorial committee will provide oversight on construction of a veterans memorial at Lakeview Cemetery.
Voters at the town meeting approved up to $175,000 be spent on the memorial, coming from the town’s Cemetery Trust Account.
Ellsworth told the board the town has appointed two of three people they wanted on the committee in addition to Select Board Chair David Leavitt and Selectperson Tiffany Maiuri.
Ellsworth said engineering designs for the memorial are complete aside from the final addition of a flagpole.
“We need to pick a spot … before there’s frost on the ground,” he said.
Ellsworth asked the board how they wished to proceed; if they should move forward with the committee or wait until a third member of the public is appointed.
“I would think we need to get moving forward because it’s going to take some time to come up with a solid plan for it anyways and keep working on a third community member,” Leavitt said. “We need to start getting some meetings.”
Ellsworth said the town is also working on finalizing the Wilton Blueberry Festival committee so that things are planned earlier. This is to ensure committee members are thoroughly committed, so running the event doesn’t fall completely on Events Coordinator Renee Woodard and her husband, Ellsworth said.
At the board’s Aug. 16 meeting, Ellsworth said Woodard and her family “ran around crazy trying to get everything done” during the 2022 Wilton Blueberry Festival because not all committee members were active and present.
During the Sept. 6 meeting, Ellsworth said applications for the committee will include questions about why an applicant wants to be a member of the committee in order to ensure dedication to the event.
“More planning makes a better product,” Leavitt said.
Ellsworth plans for committee appointments to be finalized by mid-October.
The board also discussed updates to the new webpage.
Ellsworth said the town’s website, https://wiltonmaine.org/, can be better utilized to disseminate information,.
Maiuri said she believes the website’s design, layout, etc. is “sound,” but agrees it should be used more.
“We the town may want to focus our efforts on making sure we scope in, [that] what’s on the website stays current,” Maiuri said. “It’s a living organism – if you don’t feed it, it’s not going to grow, parts of it are going to die.”
Selectperson Phil Hilton said it was “very frustrating” when he could not find the minutes from Wilton’s 2021 town meeting on the website.
He added meanwhile, the town’s Facebook page is regularly updated.
“We should be able to look up important town documents,” Hilton said. “We’re not finding anything there because we’re not using it regularly and posting things.”
Ellsworth agreed. Town audits, updates on regular meetings, information on budgets, etc. should be there, he said.
“I’ve done that in the past so the community knows we’re transparent with the way we’re spending money,” he added.
Ellsworth said the town should decide who will feed information to the person in charge of handling the website, eventually learn how to update information on there.
Overhauling a website can cost $15,000-$20,000, Ellsworth said, and the town doesn’t have that money in its budget.
“I think we can make it better if we just work on it together,” he said.
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