Election day will be June 10

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — With the referendum ballot set to be decided at the polls on Tuesday, June 10, citizens had a final chance to inquire about the election items during a public hearing as part of a May 28 selectmen’s meeting.
    “We have got budget articles and we have land use articles and we have a citizens’ initiative on here,” Town Manager Jack Clukey said about the 12-article ballot, which includes another article on elected positions.

    A question from the public inquired about a seat on the RSU 68 board of directors, for a three-year term, in which no candidate is listed on the ballot. “It normally would be filled by a write-in candidate,” Clukey said, saying the individual who receives the most votes through this method would have to choose to accept the position.
    “If you do write it in you have to fill in the oval or it doesn’t count,” Town Clerk Lisa Niles said. Niles said full instructions for write-in candidates and other aspects of the ballot are posted in each individual voting booth.
    The last of the 12 referendum questions is a citizens’ initiative asking, shall an ordinance entitled “Town of Dover-Foxcroft Moratorium Ordinance Regarding Private Distribution Corridors to include Paved Highways, Pipelines and High Tension Transmission Lines” be enacted?
    “The purpose of this is to allow the town, people in the community, to have a conversation on what we want,” resident Dr. Lesley Fernow said when the board asked if any member of the public wanted to explain the article. She said the moratorium will bring democracy back to the citizens’ level and away from corporations.
    “I don’t believe we have protections in our comprehensive plan now to protect ourselves from an international corridor,” Dr. Fernow said. “For six months we want to have a conversation and we don’t want anything to happen with a large international corridor without a conversation.”
    If enacted the moratorium would be in place for six months, with another six-month moratorium a possibility later on. Meetings will be scheduled to look at the issue more in-depth while the moratorium is in place.
    When asked what the moratorium would cover, Dr. Fernow said “it’s a specific thing we are talking about, very specific” and not for a small road or power lines being installed to a new home.
    “Also we are going to tie it in to the comprehensive plan, which we are going to rewrite this year,” Selectman Scott Taylor said. Board member Gail D’Agostino added that included in the proposed 2014-15 budget is funding for a consultant to work on updating the comprehensive plan.
    In other business, Paul Matulis mentioned that he had been asked again about the status of a home on West Main Street next to Butterfield’s Ice Cream.
    Code Enforcement Officer Connie Sands said on June 19 she is scheduled to go before a judge in order to get permission to enter the home, where she is planning to be joined by a building inspector, the fire chief and a police officer. “If I get into the house then I can make a determination about condemning,” she said, mentioning the process has been delayed in part due to one of the property owners residing in Georgia.
    In his town manager’s report, Clukey said the Piscataquis Valley Adult Education Collaborative has finalized vacating the Morton Avenue Municipal Building to move across town to the Penquis Higher Education Center. He said the Eastern Maine Development Corporation is planning to make the same move by July 1.
    Clukey said in recognition of Maine Arbor Week the town planted a pair of trees at Kiwanis Park “to help out the Kiwanis’ efforts, they put in a lot of time and effort at the park.” He said the green space continues to be the target of vandalism and anyone witnessing any such destruction is encouraged to report it to the police department immediately.