Island Falls selectmen opt to ignore citizens’ petition

By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    ISLAND FALLS — The town’s board of selectmen voted July 18 to ignore a petition from a small group of citizens asking the town to stop the sale of town property.
    The petition, which was signed by 40 people, sought three things from the town. First, it sought to stop all sales of town-owned real estate until an ordinance was created to regulate such sales. Secondly, it called for a moratorium on the sale of all property, other than by a sealed bid process or vote of the public. Thirdly, it asked that any expenditure of public funds for building wood harvesting roads on town property be approved by voters before taking place.
    Town Manager Dave Dionne said after consulting with the town’s attorney, he was advised the town had three courses of action it could follow. The selectmen could accept, reject or ignore the petition. Not one person from the petitioning group attended the July 18 meeting.
    The petition stems from an article that was approved by voters at the annual town meeting, which allows the municipality to sell any “non-contiguous” pieces of town property of five acres or less that have no commercial value to the town, provided the sale is equal to or greater than its taxed value. All money realized from the sales of such parcels was to be placed in a Roads Maintenance Reserve account.
    That article was the final action item voted upon at the lengthy, and often heated, town meeting held in March. The article also came after a 45-minute recess for supper, during which time some residents opted not to come back for the second half of the meeting.
    Dionne said the opinion of the town’s attorney, Patrick Hunt, was to have a town meeting and to have a conveyance built into the sales of town lots to prohibit such things as trailers or shacks being erected on the properties.
    Selectmen stated they were reluctant to accept the petition because the town had already signed at least one contract for the wood harvesting operation and has a contract with a local realtor to sell four parcels of land. Those parcels are one property on River Street listed at $19,900; two parcels on Pleasant Lake listed at $67,000 each; and one property on Route 2 listed at $15,000.
     “If we sold the properties at those prices, the net revenue would be $156,232,” Dionne said.
    The town would then be able to collect taxes on the parcels, which would be about $2,274 per year, meaning the town stands to gain about $158,500 (after commissions) in revenue from the sale of the properties. Those funds, however, must be designated to the town’s “Road Maintenance” account and not used to lower the mill rate.
    “My recommendation, based on the legal opinions is to have a town meeting in late August,” he said. “This will allow the staff to have enough time to prepare the warrant, agenda and notices.”
    Selectmen at first seemed receptive to the idea of holding a town meeting, but changed their minds midcourse after a number of citizens at the meeting implored them not to take action on the petition.
    “Why can’t you take this residents’ petition under advisement and just ignore it?” asked resident Fred Anderson.
    Dionne said the town was within its legal rights to take no action on the matter, if the board wished.
    “That’s my recommendation,” Anderson said. “Send them a ‘thank you’ card for their input and dismiss it. Move on to your next issue. You were already given the authority (to sell the parcels). I urge you to act within your parameters.”
    “I love the idea of ignoring this petition,” said board member Terry Dwyer. “The only thing I’m worried about is lawsuits. How far will it go?”
    Board member Jeff Brooks said if the town tried to get out of its contracts, it could be faced with lawsuits from those individuals as well.
    Dwyer then made the motion to ignore the petition, which was seconded by Darrell Hartin. The measure passed 4-0.
    The board did agree that an ordinance was needed to better spell out how the town goes about selling properties it no longer wants. An ordinance committee does exist, but has few members. The town is also looking for members of the public to fill spots on its economic development and forestry committees.
    During the public comment portion of the meeting, Anderson suggested the board distance itself from any conversations being posted on the social networking site Facebook.
    “I encourage our government to go ahead and govern,” he said. “Shut Facebook off. Do not reference it all in your considerations. We elected you and gave you the power to govern. You are so busy putting out daily little fires that you are consuming all of your energy and resources with these innuendoes that are incidental.”
    Pete Conley expressed his gratitude to the selectmen for the work they do for the town.
    “The citizens truly appreciate the work you do,” he said.
    In other agenda items, selectmen heard an update on the town’s ambulance department from director Joe Levesque. As of July 18, the department had 59 ambulance calls, 24 fire calls and 12 ambulance transfers. For the year, the department has brought in $42,051, with another $18,130 waiting to be received.
    Levesque said they budgeted for 25 transfers for the year. Last year, the department did 15 transfers. He added the number of emergency calls has also gone up slightly for the first six months of the year.