Committee to look at LED sign regulations

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — During the annual town meeting in late April residents turned down proposed temporary amendments to the Land Use Regulations Ordinance concerning LED signs. Despite the vote by those at the meeting, town officials still looked to form a committee to help develop more detailed LED sign regulations than those that are currently in place.

    “We have some volunteers to be on our working group for signs,” Town Manager Jack Clukey said during a May 29 selectmen’s meeting. Earlier in the month Fred Muehl and Cindy Johnson from the planning board indicated they would be willing to serve on the committee, and Select Chair Elwood Edgerly and board member Gail D’Agostino also said they would fill two of the other seven positions to examine LED signs.
    The other three committee members will be residents Mary Merchant and Will Wedge — Wedge also owns Shop ‘n Save which has an LED sign in operation. The Piscataquis Chamber of Commerce nominated Scott Moulton of Rowell’s Garage to represent the business community during the discussions. Clukey said that Dr. David Frasz offered to either serve on the committee or contribute by attending the committee meetings, whichever may be more helpful to the process.
    Clukey said there has been no date set yet for the first LED sign committee meeting, but the planning board may schedule the first session during its meeting next week. The committee would work to get some the Land Use Regulations Ordinance amendments prepared for the November election.
    In other business, the selectmen voted to award the bid for timber harvesting at the airport and the gravel pit to John Dyer of Sebec. “We talked about the bids at our last meeting and there were a few questions centered around the pricing and how transportation figures into that,” Clukey said.
    “The prices of this contract can change, both parties agree to this,” Town Forester Kirby Ellis said as the market can alter stumpage rates.
    The two town-owned woodlots, totaling about 35 acres at the airport and 60 acres at the gravel pit, are ready to be harvested. The work could be done in the summer or winter at the airport, and possibly next March or April at the gravel pit.
    While trees would be removed at these two sites, a number of plantings were conducted earlier in the month at the former Maine Leathers property. “We have all the landscaping work done at the Vaughn Street park,” Clukey said. “Maybe sometime we will have an official name for that park.”
    “We will talk about signage and the amenity type things — benches and picnic tables — that come next,” he said. Clukey said the Recreation Committee is scheduled to meet in June, possibly on the third or fourth Wednesday, and the committee members will meet on Vaughn Street for a walk through the park.
    Clukey said the property is now open to the public for walking, fishing and kayaking. He said a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony will likely to be held to officially open the park.
    “We received two grants from the Maine Community Foundation Piscataquis Fund,” Clukey said in presenting the next item on his town manager’s report. He said the Piscataquis Heritage Hot Air Balloon Festival received $3,000 for 2014 with the award being designated to help the event grow in its second year. The other grant from the Maine Community Foundation Piscataquis Fund is for Senior Network, which received $4,500 for its programs aimed at the community’s elder residents.
    Clukey also reported that the public works department has been working on the gravel surface of the Dawes Road and the Gray Hill Road. Crews are hoping to get started on the Landfill Road sometime in June.
    During open session, D’Agostino said the Meet the Candidates Night held the week before featured some real healthy conversation from the candidates for public office as well as ways in which information can be distributed to the public. “It really was a good discussion of a variety of issues,” she said.
    “There were a lot of good comments that came out of Candidates Night,” Selectman Scott Taylor added.
    Clukey said he would be meeting soon with officials at the Center Theatre to discuss the possibility of using the theatre’s sign space to advertise town events. He said several business with LED signs have posted such information before, which has been helpful for those driving by, and the town may want to look at such a sign of its own.
    While items such as town meeting warrants are posted at several locations across Dover-Foxcroft as well being available at the Morton Avenue Municipal Building and on the town website, D’Agostino said some other locations were mentioned during Candidates Night. Some other possibilities could be at the Thompson Free Library, Thayer Parkway and the grocery store bulletin boards — per store owner permission.