Town officials organize post-annual meeting

By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

MILO — A day after the 2016 annual town meeting, the selectmen made some adjustments to the municipal office hours and their monthly schedule.

“It’s come up several times that it may be beneficial to the town if the town office stayed open a bit later,” Town Manager Damien Pickel said during the March 15 session. Select Chair Lee McMannus added that a number of residents commute from Milo and return home after the town office 5 p.m. closing.

After a bit of discussion, the selectmen opted to have the office open later on the first Tuesday of the month on a trial basis. “The town office will be open an extra hour and we will see how it goes,” McMannus said.

The board also opted to have one regular meeting a month instead of two, with the session also taking place the first Tuesday of the month. “I don’t think we need two right now,” McMannus said, with other meetings to be scheduled if needed instead of a second session taking place monthly on the third Tuesday.

In other business, McMannus said now former Selectman Jerry Brown had been heavily involved in the Derby shops property on B&A Avenue. McMannus said he talked with Brown, who will be continuing his involvement with the site, about the idea of forming a related sub-committee. The selectmen favored such a group, and McMannus and Izzy Warren will represent the board in the Derby shops discussions.

Last year a special town meeting vote authorized the selectmen to express an interest in the property to investigate the land condition and potential for its reuse, and then come back to the town with its findings for possible future action.

“We are getting close to deciding if we want that property or not,” McMannus said. He said a public hearing should be on the horizon, with a special town meeting to follow.

The board approved a request by the Maine Department of Transportation to go over any needed posted roads for upcoming paving work. Pickel said the department sent a letter detailing “a resurfacing project that’s going to start at the four corners and go up to the Billington Road,” from the Stagecoach Road intersection in Sebec east into Milo.

In his police department report, Pickel — who will continue to serve as both town manager and police chief after this arrangement was approved as part of the budget OKed at the annual town meeting — said he has been at the Penquis Valley School every morning to meet with students since one of their peers was involved in a serious vehicle accident on March 5. The student remains in the ICU at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

Pickel said he also had a call from Penquis Valley Principal Jeremey Bousquet asking him to speak to students about a few driving issues. The police chief mentioned newly-licensed drivers illegally transporting their friends as an example of what he planned to talk about.