Sangerville residents face 70 article at town meeting

Code of ethics
and property
maintenance ordinances
also on warrant

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    SANGERVILLE — Voters in Sangerville will convene at 9 a.m. Saturday, March 28 at the fire station for what could be a lengthy annual town meeting.
    There are 70 articles on the warrant this year including a proposed code of ethics ordinance and two competing property maintenance ordinances.

    In addition, there will be elections for one member of the board of selectmen, one School Administrative District 4 director, the fire warden and one Guilford-Sangerville Sanitary District trustee.
    Incumbents up for reelection are Selectman Tom Carone, SAD 4 Director Rebecca Holt, GSSD Trustee Rick Hall and Fire Warden Jeff Willey Sr., who is also the town’s fire chief. Nominations are made from the floor and candidates elected via secret ballot.
    The $1.98 million budget is slightly higher than last year, according to Town Manager Ken Woodbury, partially due to an increase in the Piscataquis County tax and an anticipated 5 percent hike in the town’s share of the SAD 4 budget.
    However, voters have the option of using some of the undesignated revenue to offset any increase in taxes. As of Jan. 31, Sangerville had just under $700,000 in surplus and the town’s 2014 mil rate was $17.70 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
    The code of ethics ordinance was placed on the warrant by request of Rick Dobson, who circulated a petition on the measure last summer. However, the board of selectmen and the town’s legal counsel are recommending that it not be approved.
    Dobson said previously that the reason he wants the code passed as an ordinance is because an ethics policy enacted by the board of selectmen could be overturned at any time by a simple vote of the board. An ordinance, however, can only be repealed or revised by a town meeting vote.
    Dobson has also expressed concern about the town’s lack of a recall ordinance.
    But a letter from town attorney Thad Zmistowski of Eaton-Peabody published in the town report described the ordinance as “confusing to a reasonable and fair-minded reader.” Zmistowski also wrote that part of the proposed code “prescribes largely unenforceable standards of conduct which could lead to difficulty in application and abuse by disgruntled inhabitants.”
    One of the major differences in the two competing property maintenance ordinances is that the citizen-initiated proposal includes a list of 22 examples of unsafe or unsanitary conditions while the planning board ordinance is more general in nature. It states that property “shall be maintained to prevent unsafe, unsanitary and nuisance conditions.”
    The planning board version also permits the code enforcement officer to offer an extension to remedy an infraction for “violators under hardship circumstances.”
    Among the monetary articles are several requests for funds to make repairs to the historic town office complex and to finish renovations started a few years ago.
    Proposals include new carpeting, a records storage area, insulating the basement, repairing the front door casing and the purchase of two heat pumps. “The carpeting is down to nothing in some places,” said Woodbury. “It’s like a painted floor.”
    One article asks for $47,100 to replace more clapboards, re-shingle the entrance on the parking lot side and install some new siding.
    Major big-ticket items include $161,450 for road maintenance, $197,000 for road improvements and $245,138 for general government expenses.
    The Sangerville Historical Society will also host a fundraising luncheon at the fire station on town meeting day.