Sangerville building committee looks to have social media presence

SANGERVILLE —  To help keep the public better informed about its efforts to fix up the Sangerville Town Hall, the building committee is looking to be on several social media platforms.

This was a topic of discussion during a March 4 select board meeting at the fire station, with the board opting to move forward by having a policy drafted to be voted on at a future meeting.

Last month Interim Town Manager Michelle Nichols was emailed by Melissa Getchell of the committee about the possibility of the group having a presence on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

After checking in with the Maine Municipal Association, Nichols was told there are many positives with social media such as community education and reducing misinformation and it is beneficial for towns to have related policies in place.

“You can kind of control what goes out,” she said. “You cannot shut off comments so you need to have that open, even if you don’t like them you can’t delete them.”

The MMA advised caution about rushing into information such as answering questions. Only designated town representatives should have the log-ins and passwords for access.

“It’s how the town looks, because you are representing the town,” Nichols said.

“I think if we’re going to enter into something like this, we need a policy to regulate it for sure,” Select Chair Jeff Peters said.

Nichols will see what other towns have in place for policies and customize a document for Sangerville to be brought forward.

In other business, the board talked about solid waste disposal. Sangerville is currently part of the Mid Maine Solid Association and its transfer station at the Dexter/Corinna line, whereas Dover-Foxcroft has a facility about half the distance away.

Nichols checked and initially Dover-Foxcroft fees look to be about the same.

From the feedback he has heard, Peters said many residents would prefer the convenience of heading to Dover-Foxcroft if prices are similar.

He suggested having a related town meeting warrant item as a way to gauge interest in which direction to go.

“I would feel really better if the people of Sangerville made this decision and not the select board,” the chair said, mentioning he pays to have his trash hauled but many townspeople do not.

Only one bid for road grading came in, $24,600 from Harris Kubricky of Old Town. This is beyond the approximate $18,000 budgeted.

Harris Kubricky CEO Steve Harris said he is willing to work with the town to bring the price down, such as pushing back the start date for grading.

The select board will speak with the budget committee to come up with a plan and potentially award the bid at the Wednesday, March 18 select meeting.

Mowing work is in place as the contract with resident Orman Gray was formally signed.

“He was the lowest bid and we were very happy with the job last year,” Peters said. “We got really good feedback from last year’s mowing.”

Last month Gray submitted the low bid of three for a combined $18,000 for maintaining six areas, including Veterans Memorial Park, the lot at corner of High and Main streets, the town garage area, cable box area, Route 23 sign area and town hall lawn, as well as the seven cemeteries.

The bids had a close range from Gray’s $18,000 to nearly $21,900.

With Fire Chief Matt Blockler attending a training session, he submitted a written report. 

“We have added one gentleman from town to the roster and are actively looking for more folks that would like to help,” Blockler wrote with Peters reading the report aloud.

The fire chief was asked to look into what other area departments have for numbers and budgets with Sangerville’s roster at 20 firefighters and five junior firefighters with a $77,000 proposed budget and $40,000 proposed reserve.

Guilford has 27 firefighters and a $110,000 operating budget. In Dover-Foxcroft there are 42 firefighters and a $800,000 budget with $70,000 in reserve. Monsoon has 20 firefighters, two juniors and a $120,000 budget and $25,000 reserve (half of what it was following a fire truck purchase).