FORT KENT, Maine – Fort Kent’s Town Council will now move from meeting biweekly to meeting monthly following a change to the town charter that was approved at the municipal election earlier this month.
Town Council Chair Corey Pelletier said on Monday that the council made this choice so it could improve efficiency and public access.
“Moving to one meeting a month helps us stay focused and make better use of everyone’s time,” he said. “We’ve found that with a more streamlined agenda, we can still get everything done effectively without needing two meetings.”
The town council had previously met twice a month, every other Monday at 4 p.m. Under this new change, the council will meet on the third Tuesday of each month at 5 p.m.
Pelletier said the decision to move meetings from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. will ideally help with public participation, as more residents will be available at 5 p.m. He said that Mondays were not an ideal day of the week to meet, particularly with the town office itself closed every Monday of the week.
Following the change, the town recently posted the upcoming meeting dates via its social media page. For the rest of the year, the next council meeting dates will be on July 15, Aug. 19, Sept. 16, Oct. 21, Nov. 18, and Dec. 16.
Voters also approved two additional changes to the charter during the election. To more uniformly fit with the new meeting dates, the town’s annual meeting will now be held on the third Tuesday of March.
A third change to the charter will also add email as a valid method of notifying council members and the town manager about special meetings.
“Overall, it’s about making the process more accessible and focused,” Pelletier said.
