County EMA van will have a new home

By Stuart Hedstrom  Staff Writer
    DOVER-FOXCROFT — The Piscataquis County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) vehicle will now be housed inside in

the town of Dover-Foxcroft’s former solid waste incinerator building at the transfer station property, after an agreement between the agency and town was approved by the selectmen during a Sept. 23 meeting.
    “Up at the gate where the landfill is we have what we refer to as the old incinerator building,” Town Manager Jack Clukey said. He said the structure is currently being used to store bottled water and “aside from that we’re really not doing anything with the building.”
    Piscataquis County EMA Director Thomas Capraro had made a proposal to store the agency emergency vehicle in the building, which would take it out of the parking lot next to the courthouse complex on East Main Street. Capraro said the van runs on diesel fuel, so the vehicle has to be plugged in during colder months, and has been broken into so he is hesitant to store other pieces of valuable equipment inside the van.
    Under the agreement that was presented to the board, the Piscataquis County EMA will make some repairs to the old incinerator building. The agency will also pay a yearly $600 maintenance fee, the monthly building electricity costs, heating costs if such a system gets up and running and agree to a three-year contract with the town.
    “We talked about it and thought it was a great asset for the town — it is a building we’re not really using,” Selectman Scott Taylor said about the solid waste committee’s discussions on the proposal.
    In other business, the selectmen certified the text for the proposed amendments, concerning electronic signs, to the Land Use Ordinance for the election on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
    “There’s always a public hearing before a referendum,” Clukey said, with the board scheduling this session for the next meeting on Monday, Oct. 14. The wording for the amendments will be finalized by then, but Clukey said the hearing will provide an opportunity for the  public to ask questions such as what happens if the amendment passes or does not pass.
    “Work is going on at Moosehead, they have taken down the attic,” Clukey said about the Riverfront Redevelopment project. He said with the attic gone crews are now conducting roof work.
    Two new windows for the property are prototypes and if approved by the state and the National Park Service, developer Jonathan Arnold will proceed with replacing the rest of the windows with the new models.
    Taylor and Clukey said on Sept. 21 the town hosted a Punt, Pass & Kick competition. “We did that at Foxcroft on Saturday morning,” Taylor said. “We didn’t have a large turnout but we did have 16 show up.”
    Several of the winners in the test of football skills for boys and girls under the age of 16 advanced to the sectional competition in Dedham, where they will have a chance to move on to a regional round in Foxboro. Mass.
    “Even though we didn’t have all the numbers we hoped for, it was a good first year,” Clukey said, with another Punt, Pass & Kick competition being considered for next year along with some new ideas to improve the event.
    Taylor added that the town is considering having a similar type of competition in the spring for baseball.