WEST GARDINER — Residents enacted telecommunications tower restrictions around Cobbossee Lake and Cobbosseecontee Stream amid a lively debate on municipal finances at Saturday’s annual Town Meeting.

Approximately 90 West Gardiner residents unanimously passed a budget that’s less than 3 percent higher than last year and raises roughly the same amount from property taxes.

The new ordinance requires a public hearing before construction and that towers be constructed a quarter-mile from the two waterbodies, said Gregory Couture, the chairman of the selectboard.

It was drafted in response to a plan to build a cellphone tower on Crams Point, a peninsula on Cobbossee Lake off Neck Road. In July, Black Diamond Consultants, a company with an office in Gardiner that works in the telecommunications sector, got a work permit from the town in late July to build a tower.

The town halted those plans with an emergency moratorium on towers in August, and selectmen have said the company hasn’t been in touch since. Still, residents passed it as a preemptive measure.

“What this ordinance is, is a safeguard,” said resident Steve McGee. “It doesn’t say that you cannot do it; it tells you how to do it the right way.”

Advertisement

Selectmen proposed a $1.1-million budget that was passed with some changes at the meeting on Saturday at the fire station. For example, residents granted $30,000 for a highway equipment fund, most of which will go toward repairing the town’s 27-year-old loader or buying a new one, said Road Commissioner Gary Hickey.

But the process wasn’t without debate. Former Town Clerk Heidi Peckham, who left the post for a state job in 2013, raised a number of concerns about lax accounting practices in the town office. At one point, she said that Couture shouldn’t necessarily get all of his $12,000 salary.

In West Gardiner, selectmen receive $6,000 annually, but former chairman Victor Goodwin Sr., who was on the board for 44 years ahead of his 2013 loss to Earle McCormick, made $12,000 by the end of his tenure in recognition of his long work hours at the town office. That carried on to Couture, but Peckham said it was intended to be specific to Goodwin, who she said filled a town manager-like role.

“Just because someone else comes in doesn’t mean that they automatically can use that money when it wasn’t exactly appropriated for that person,” she said.

But Selectman Merton Hickey defended Couture, saying if he were made head selectman, he’d give the extra $6,000 to Couture because he does more work and “has kind of taken over what Victor did.” With only a few dissenters, residents approved the recommended salaries.

Earlier in the day in municipal elections, Couture and Hickey won re-election to their posts. Debra Couture, the selectman’s wife, and Carrie Boudway won re-election to Regional School Unit 11’s board.

Michael Shepherd — 370-7652

mshepherd@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @mikeshepherdme


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.

filed under: