Good afternoon Sangerville,
I would like to remind everyone that the town office will be closed this coming Monday January 20th to observe the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. which is a state and federal holiday. Interestingly enough it is also inauguration day, which is always the third Monday in January. This is only the second time since the government created this holiday that inauguration day has fallen on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Our select board met Wednesday night. Several weeks ago, we recognized the need to begin reviewing policies. We started this month with a rewrite of the town’s personnel policy. The most significant part of the rewrite was restoring the fire department pay to minimum wage instead of a per call stipend. This is consistent with the practice of almost every municipal call fire department in the state of Maine. Wendy Lorigan volunteered to fill a vacant position for Sangerville on the school board and the selectmen voted for her to fill the position until town meeting. Our thanks to Wendy for helping out with this need. We also set a date for the annual town meeting for 2025. It was a consensus that we return to the tradition of having town meeting the last Saturday in March, so annual town meeting in Sangerville this year will be on Saturday March 29, 2025.
In the early history of small towns in Maine, Sangerville included, town meeting was a big annual event at the end of a long winter. It was part of the tradition to have a big potluck dinner at the end of the meeting and socialize with friends and neighbors. We are hopeful, we can begin to bring that tradition back. Our plan is to have the town meeting in the morning with a public dinner or lunch immediately following it. Debate at town meetings can sometimes be heated, that is a good thing, it shows people still retain passion for our community. I would make the request, that no matter how passionate any debate is that we remember rules of basic civility and courtesy. I believe part of the value to sharing a community meal at the conclusion of a town meeting, reminds us that we can disagree, sometimes strongly and still get along as friends and neighbors. I would welcome any ideas or thoughts anyone has on this proposal.
I have been asked many times recently what is going on with our town hall project. First of all, we are working on it. The town hall committee will have their first meeting as an official standing committee of the Town of Sangerville, this coming Tuesday January 21, 2025, at 6:00 PM at the fire station. This meeting is open to the public as all our meetings are and I encourage any interested citizens to attend. This week our engineers have been in town twice. We have had roof contractors they have engaged, that are certified and experienced with slate roofs on historic structures, evaluate the roof and plan to provide us with estimates for the work which will be included in the overall budget of the project. Both contractors were encouraging that the required repairs probably will not be as expensive or extensive as we feared. More survey work was done on the building and lot. I also met this week with Chris Maas and Mary Annis from the Dover-Foxcroft Historical Society. They were key people in the renovation of Central Hall in Dover-Foxcroft a few years ago, which was a very successful project. They gave me some great advice and have offered to help us in any way they can.
As I have rambled on long enough for one post, I am going to conclude this and wish everyone a safe and happy weekend.
Brian