Ten town officials need to be elected, 31 town officials hired and approved and over 110 warrant articles voted on-and that’s just to get things started.
On July 1 Chebeague Island becomes Maine’s newest town. No one on this island with a year-round population of 350 is moving anywhere, and yet their political future will change radically: they will be in charge of their own destinies.
Since September of last year the nine-member Transition Committee has been preparing for Chebeague’s separation from the town of Cumberland. That committee has already hired a town administrator designate, a superintendent designate, a town clerk designate and a deputy town clerk designate.
The town administrator designate is Ron Grenier, of Damariscotta. The superintendent of schools designate is Alton Hadley, who is already serving as the part-time superintendent of the Arundel school system. Chebeague residents Susan Campbell and Karen Hamilton were named as town clerk and deputy town clerk designates, respectively.
All these appointments will have to be voted on by Chebeague’s first town meeting, which starts at 8 a.m. on July 1. The over 110 warrant articles for that meeting were mailed out to all Chebeague residences during the week of June 18.
“This warrant is essentially our road map for the next 12 months,” said Grenier.
The Transition Committee also recommended a five-member Board of Selectmen and a five-member School Committee. The island’s first election for these positions will be held at a meeting at the Chebeague Recreation Center on June 24.
Starting a new town is no small task. It means creating a whole new set of rules and regulations, administered by newly elected boards and newly appointed officials. Over 100 volunteers worked on 10 subcommittees to help with the transition and come up with new ordinances, which cover municipal tasks such as administration, solid waste, land use, public works and public safety, according to Beth Howe, chair of the Land Use Subcommittee.
“One of the things that has been very impressive about the Transition Committee is that all the people, without exception, are employed full time,” Howe said. “People have really juggled a lot,” she said.
Howe is retired from her job as a professor in the University of Wisconsin Planning Department and has enjoyed working to set down new ordinances for Chebeague. “For me, personally, it has been fascinating,” Howe said, about drawing up the new ordinances. “As each one developed you essentially see the new town taking form in its legal structure.”
The Transition Committee realized at the start of this process that it did not have the power to adopt new polices for a Town of Chebeague Island. So in many cases, ordinances were adapted from what already exist governing Cumberland. Once the town is formed, Chebeague officials will then review these ordinances after 180 days to make necessary changes.
For the zoning and subdivision ordinances, the Land Use Subcommittee decided to use Cumberland regulations, removing rules that obviously don’t apply to Chebeague, Howe said. The committee applied for, and received a $10,600 grant from the state to create a comprehensive plan for the new town. In addition, the Island Institute has assigned one of its fellows to help with the comprehensive plan. After it is finished, “then we can go back to change the ordinances to conform with the plan,” Howe said.
However, the Marine Issues Subcommittee, chaired by Leon Hamilton, did come up with its own ordinances, specific to Chebeague Island. “This ends up being the beginning of a multi-stage process,” said Howe.
The Transition Committee posted job descriptions for the new town employees in the spring. It has been proposed that Chebeague hire nine people for the school, including two full-time teachers; and 22 people for the municipal side of government, including a full-time town administrator, town clerk and two full-time public works employees, according to Grenier, town administrator designate.
Assistance from Cumberland officials has been a crucial part of the transition process. “They have been enormously helpful,” said Howe. Cumberland Town Manager Bill Shane and Town Clerk Nadeen Daniels will help run the June 24 election and have provided logistical support over the past several months. Stephen Moriarty, chair of the Cumberland Town Council, has come to Chebeague almost every week since January to help out the Transition Committee.
On May 21, at its last meeting held on Chebeague Island, the Cumberland Town Council approved several measures to help the new Town of Chebeague.
The Town Council unanimously decided that Cumberland will prepare and mail the new town’s fiscal 2008 tax bills; will send town clerks over to Chebeague for one or two days a week, as needed, to be billed out on an hourly basis; to provide mooring and shellfish permits through the end of 2007; and to issue building, plumbing, electrical and related permits for the new town until the end of 2007. The council also unanimously released all claims Cumberland may have on town-owned land on Chebeague Island, and deeded all publicly owned property on the island to the Town of Chebeague.
With all these details to take care of, the Transition Committee has not overlooked a practical one: where will the new town office be? It is going to be in a space now used for storage in island Fire Station, and is the size of a one-car garage bay. “To me, this is fine,” said Grenier, “I don’t foresee the need for a separate town hall.”