LIVERMORE — Attendance was minimal with little discussion Tuesday, March 21, at a hearing to review questions voters will consider at annual Town Meeting April 25. Six residents, two of them members of the fire department, the five selectpersons and the administrative assistant were there.

Resident Pam Manter asked what the proposed beach ordinance for the town beach at Brettuns Pond entailed and who would enforce it.

Several complaints were made last summer regarding trash found on the beach. Selectpersons discussed selling the beach.

“It’s very simple,” Selectperson Brett Deyling said. “It’s really just to give authority to the town to enforce the curfew at the town beach so we don’t have some of the issues that we have been seeing. The county will actually have something to stand behind if we call them and say ‘there’s somebody down there, we would like them to vacate the area.’ Right now there is no reason they would have to leave, there’s nothing in place to say that person in that car can’t sit there the entire night doing drugs.”

Manter asked if there would still be access at the boat ramp.

“Yes,” Selectperson Scott Richmond said. “We found last year, when we had problems down there, we don’t have any authority. We looked at [ordinances] from five or six other towns. I think Turner’s was closest to what we were looking for, was simple. It’s a necessity, allows us to set a curfew. If the Sheriff’s Department sees somebody there, they can go down. Because that is probably where most of the drug paraphernalia, stuff is coming from.”

The Select Board is also working with CMP and a landowner to install an additional street light in that area, Richmond stated. “If there’s light they won’t want to be there,” he added.

Copies of the ordinance are available at the Town Office/Fire Station Complex on the Crash Road, will also be available at the polls April 25.

Resident Andrew Sylvester asked why the amount asked for debt service was increasing [from $97,241 to $202,299.46], had the town taken on a lot more debt.

“It was the firetruck that we voted on,” Select Board Chair Mark Chretien noted.

The town had voted to put $100,000 towards it in previous years, had to take out a loan to get the deal on the truck, Richmond said. “That is why it is increasing,” he added.

In regards to purchasing a new truck for the highway department, Richmond said it would take a year to a year and a half to obtain because of supply issues. “There is one more payment on the 2019 Volvo this year, so by the time the new truck would come in we would have lost that payment.

“Already this year we have put $16,732.56 into the 2009 International, probably put that much into it last year,” Richmond noted. “It’s going to take so long to get one. We are on borrowed time with the 2009 International. It is eating us out of house and home.”

Town Meeting will be held by referendum ballot. Voting will be from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the gym at Spruce Mountain Primary School on Gibbs Mill Road. There will be 53 questions on the ballot plus municipal elections. Town Clerk Amanda Wheeler provided the following information March 27:

• Incumbent Scott Richmond is seeking another three-year term on the Select Board.

• Josh Perkins is seeking the two-year Select Board seat currently held by Randy Ouellette.

• There are no Regional School Unit 73 board of director seats to be determined this year.

During the Select Board meeting that followed the March 21 hearing, Deyling said Chris McHugh had asked if copies of 23 M.R.S.A. §2953 could be available April 25 so people could read the state law being voted on. It’s not clear, people aren’t going to look it up on their phones, Deyling added.

Article 11 on the ballot seeks to give authority to municipal officials on the closing or opening of roads to winter maintenance. McHugh owns property on Wyman Road and officials are going through the process of closing that road to winter maintenance.

In other business, Richmond said Livermore has a new Facebook page as the other one couldn’t be fixed.

“It looks exactly the same, should be on top of the old page,” Chretien said. There is something to note it is the new page, he added.

“This is the new and current page for the Town of Livermore, Maine,” is seen under the introduction section on the page.

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