Brownville

Warrant approved for March 18 town meeting

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer

    BROWNVILLE — A 39-article warrant was approved for the 2013 annual town meeting after the selectmen gave their approval to a final draft of the document and the town budget during a Feb. 13 meeting. The town meeting will take place on Monday, March 18 at 7 p.m. at the Brownville Elementary School.

    Town Manager Matthew Pineo said that the budget for 2013-14, excluding water and sewer, totals just over $1 million at $1,003,419. “Overall the budget went down,” he said, with the spending plan reduced by .68 percent from the current fiscal year. Pineo said Brownville’s portion of the SAD 41 budget will not be known until after the annual town meeting — the district voters will head to the polls in June — at which point the impact on the mil rate will be determined.

    The selectmen also gave their approval for the dedication of the town report chronicling 2012. Pineo said the report will recognize “all the volunteers who helped us through the flood this year.”

    In other business, Brownville officials met with Town Forester Doug Reed to discuss the community’s woodlots (which together total about 400 acres). “Last time we talked about boundary lines, for what we call the Norton Pond lot,” Reed said about a discussion during the January meeting centering on the need to properly mark some of the parcels including the over 110 acres off the Schoodic Lake Road.

    Reed said he could be able to properly blaze about a mile of the perimeter of the Norton Pond lot, which could have portions be harvested as early as this summer, for about $400. “I’m walking it anyways,” he said, which would make the cost less than having someone else, such as a surveyor, perform the work.

    “If we’re going to cut a lot we need to know where our lines are,” Select Chair Walter Cook said, adding that the blazing work is not covered under the contract the town has with Reed.

    Pineo said for the March 13 select meeting the language for the request for proposals for harvesting portions of the lot should be finalized so the work can then go out to bid. Reed said in the spring he would have a showing for interested contractors to view the site.

    In January Reed said beech trees would be cut in the harvest, as summer is a better time for this work to be done to help limit the spread of disease for the species. The work is done two acres at a time, with only specific tree species cut such as beech which is a pulpwood. He said a very rough estimate of stumpage prices for the harvesting could fall within the $10,000 to $15,000 range.

    The selectmen made one hire and one appointment during the meeting. Nick Cavell was hired as a reserve police officer for Brownville, and he also serves in a similar position with the Milo Police Department.

    Dr. Ben Kittredge was appointed as health officer for a term running through March 31, 2016. Pineo, who had been serving as Brownville’s health officer, said Kittredge recently moved back to the area after living in Florida and he also serves as health officer for Milo. “He is requested to come back and do that duty here for no pay,” Pineo said before the appointment was approved.

    Pineo gave an update on a pair of projects, saying that a new woodstove will be built at the town garage. He said the stove would be custom built by Mike Nelson for about $2,400, which would come from the town-owned property account, to replace the 25-year-old existing model. The stove would provide longer heating times to reduce the use of propane to keep the garage warm.

    “If we can reduce that propane usage to almost nothing it would be real helpful,” Pineo said, adding that the total project cost would be about $3,000 with the new stove connected into the existing ductwork. “It’s all going to be square and I can’t wait to see it built. He’s building it specifically for this building.”

    Pineo said since the project costs less than $10,000, a formal motion from the board is not needed, but he said he will always bring forth information to the town officials before work begins.

    The other project is the replacement of two doors at the Junction Fire Station, with Overhead Door of Bangor providing the best price for the job at just over $5,300 which would also come from the town-owned property account.

    “You can see right through them,” Pineo said about the existing station doors. “We tried a seal and patching but they are rotten.”

    Cooks said two new insulated doors would replace the existing doors “which should help reduce our heating.” He added, “I think we will see a payback, we are paying $800 a month to heat the place.”

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