FAYETTE — For the first time in 10 years, someone from the Maine House of Representatives attended the Select Board meeting Tuesday to provide information on their work in the Legislature and answer questions from constituents.

State Rep. Sharon Frost of Belgrade is serving her first term representing the District 58 towns of Fayette, New Sharon, Vienna, Belgrade, Mount Vernon and Rome. She is not enrolled in any political party.

“I just want to become familiar with my constituents and let everyone know I am always easy to reach at sharon.frost@legislature.maine.gov,” she said.

Town Manager Mark Robinson noted the significance of Frost’s visit. “It has been 10 years since we have had a state representative come to a Select Board meeting,” he said.

Frost is a member of the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee, and the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee.

“I’m blown away as a newbie that I’m on two committees,” she said. “It is going fairly well, but it’s time-consuming.”

Advertisement

She said she is cosponsoring a bill addressing nonaquatic invasive species, and efforts to assist farmers in New Sharon with Department of Transportation weight limits for transporting compost. Additionally, she is working on legislation to clarify the distribution of funds by school boards.

Board Chairperson Lacy Badeau asked about a constitutional amendment to limit tax increases for seniors, noting its potential impact on municipal funding.

“There was a tax stabilization (program) in play for a short amount of time,” she said. “As a municipality, we want to make sure we don’t end up not having enough tax funding to accomplish what we need to do. We do have a significant population over 60, so that definitely is a concern for us as far as what that would look like. I am not saying we don’t support helping out our seniors.”

Frost acknowledged the challenges of the previous program, saying, “Unfortunately, from what I understand with that bill — I wasn’t in the Legislature at that time — what happened was more people took advantage than should have, and then they stopped it altogether.”

She said the hope is the Legislature can reevaluate that to get some help to the seniors who need it, but not have other taxpayers pay the price. “That is the hope,” she said.

Frost encouraged the board and residents to participate in legislative hearings.

“There are public hearings on all the bills, so definitely someone should make a point of speaking. Not just to me, but to the committees,” she said.

Join the Conversation

Please sign into your Sun Journal account to participate in conversations below. If you do not have an account, you can register or subscribe. Questions? Please see our FAQs.