Busy agenda for selectmen’s Feb. 18 meeting

Staff Report

    GREENVILLE — The Greenville Board of Selectmen will have a busy agenda on Wednesday, Feb. 18 which includes solid waste disposal, cost-sharing for the Big Moose Mountain radio repeater and scheduling public hearings on three Community Development Block Grants.

    The meeting gets under way at 6:30 p.m. in the municipal meeting hall.
    The town is required to hold a public hearing and also to gain authorization to accept Community Development Block Grant funds at a town meeting prior to submitting the full application for business assistance funds.
    Katahdin Cookie Works and Leisure Life Resort are both applying for Micro-Enterprise assistance projects; while Puckerbrush Bar and Grill, to be built on the site of the former Black Frog Restaurant, is seeking an economic development grant.
    Ken Woodbury, the former co-director for the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council, is continuing to work on these applications on the town’s behalf, according to Town Manager John Simko.
Woodbury, who lives in Greenville, recommends that the board schedule the public hearings and special town meeting on Wednesday, March 4, just prior to the regularly scheduled at the following times:
    5:30 p.m. – Public hearing on Puckerbrush
    5:45 p.m. – Public hearing on Cookie Works
    6 p.m. – Public hearing on Leisure Life
    6:15 p.m. – Special town meeting to approve Puckerbrush, Cookie Works and Leisure Life Resort.
    Elsewhere on the agenda, the long-pending solid waste contract between the town and Moosehead Rubbish may finally be ready for ratification. The pact has been on the agenda a few times before and was originally scheduled for a vote in December.
    Simko said that the agreement has been vetted by the contractor, Sean Bolen, and the town’s attorney so they should be ready for final approval.
    Simko is also working on a cost-sharing proposal for inviting outlying communities to “re-join and share costs” in the operation of the transfer station. He plans to present the document to the board for discussion; and if they agree, he’ll schedule meetings with the four outlying jurisdictions and discuss the proposal with them.
    Speaking of cost-sharing, the town of Greenville has been billed $99 per month for the past several months for rental of heated space in a radio equipment building owned by the state and located on top of Big Moose Mountain.
    Initially, a radio repeater system for the Greenville and Shirley fire departments, county sheriff’s department and C.A. Dean Hospital was purchased jointly by the town and Piscataquis County and located at the municipal airport. “In 2014, new radio equipment was purchased with grant funds secured by the town of Greenville (thanks to Police Chief Jeff Pomerleau) and installed in the new building, constructed and maintained by the Maine Office of Information Technology (OIT),” Simko wrote. “The building is heated and has both solar panels and a back-up generator fed by propane tanks.”
    The town manager is asking the board to authorize him to send a letter to the town of Shirley and C.A. Dean Hospital, requesting that each pay one-third of the cost. 
    In other matters, 2015 is an off-year for statewide and national elections, so the board will have to set a date for Greenville’s municipal elections. The annual town meeting will be Monday, June 1.
    Two options to be discussed are to hold the local elections on Tuesday, June 2 or one week later. “(Town Clerk) Roxanne Lizotte and the staff tend to favor Tuesday, June 2 in an effort to get both elections and town meeting done in one week,” Simko wrote.
    The board will also discuss planned testimony at the legislature’s public hearings on Gov. Paul LePage’s proposed budget. “The town of Greenville, its school department, and C.A. Dean Hospital have collaborated on an analysis of this proposal as it will likely affect Greenville residents,” Simko added.