Dover-Foxcroft referendum ballot hearing set for May 27

By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — On Tuesday, June 9, residents of Dover-Foxcroft will head to the polls at the Morton Avenue Municipal Building to vote on the 2015-16 fiscal year referendum ballot. Prior to the referendum, citizens will have the opportunity to ask questions during a formal public hearing on Wednesday, May 27 as part of the selectmen’s meeting starting at 6:30 p.m. (a session moved to a different night on account of Memorial Day).

    “We are in the process of getting ballots and it will be a few days so people can vote absentee,” Town Manager Jack Clukey said during an April 27 selectmen’s meeting.
    Clukey said there will be no candidates on the ballot for either of the town’s two vacancies on the RSU 68 school board after no one submitted the required paperwork for these positions. Instead, a pair of write-in winners will be elected to the board.
    “It’s early now, so someone who might be a write-in candidate has time to get the word out,” he said, mentioning that school board members Chris Maas and Blake Smith both have terms up at the end of June. The two vacancies make up 40 percent of Dover-Foxcroft’s five seats on the RSU 68 school board, which has nine members between the four district communities.
    Select Vice Chair Cindy Freeman Cyr asked her fellow board members “to think of folks we might encourage” to fill the two RSU 68 seats.
    In other business, the selectmen appointed Paul Matulis to represent the community on the board of directors for the new Dover-Foxcroft Area Food Cupboard.
    “When the Dover-Foxcroft Area Food Cupboard formed as an organization, they set their entity up with various seats on the board and basically each town can have a designee,” Clukey said. “That person would be willing to come to our meetings and keep us apprised.”
    In his report, Clukey said he was in Augusta the week before to testify at a legislative hearing regarding access of the Riverfront Redevelopment Project to the renewable energy pilot program. He said his comments concerned “an adjustment to the renewable energy project to allow us to participate” through the dam on the Piscataquis River. Clukey said he described to the committee how important the revitalization of the former Moosehead Manufacturing facility is to the community.
    Board member Gail D’Agostino asked Clukey about interest from a potential tenant in the Riverfront Redevelopment Project restaurant space. “The developer said there is someone interested, I don’t know who it is,” Clukey said.
    The town manager also reported that the comprehensive planning committee would be meeting on Wednesday, April 29 at 6:30 p.m. “They are really getting close to closing up the first phase, which is inventory and analysis,” he said.
    In the summer, the selectmen hold a single regular meeting per month. This year these Monday dates will be June 15, July 13 and Aug. 17.