On June 22, approximately 35 residents attended the Vinalhaven annual town meeting, held at the Smith Hokanson auditorium. The meeting was called to order and Bob Candage was elected as moderator. Most of the 47 articles passed quickly, but there was interesting discussion on a few.
There were some questions about some town expenses (approximately $9,000) for the sewer system being maintained on the site of the old fish plant, maintenance of the Old Fire Hall and paying for the pay phone at the Thorofare site. In other articles, money will be spent on some new playground equipment for the Owen Webster Playground located on Ambrust Hill.
A big change on Vinalhaven these past few months has been the demolition of the Fish Plant on Main Street. The decision for demolition was made at a special town meeting in mid June, during which $50,000 was appropriated for the project. There will be money eventually needed for the site development but voters turned down an article appropriating these funds (Article 33) at the recommendation of Marjorie Stratton. This way, voters will have the opportunity to see plans for the site before appropriating funds.
One of the more talked-about issues was the Ambulance and Medical Center account ($91,000) for emergency ferry transport for critically ill patients. Ted Johanson mentioned that often Medicaid won’t pay for air transport, which may be why the ferry is used. There is talk of passing some of the cost of emergency ferry transport on to those who use it. Burke Lynch, who is in charge of the ambulance crew, said that last year’s total of 185 ambulance transports was going to be considerably less this year (projected to be less than 100 transports if the current rate continues), which could potentially save thousands of dollars, meaning not all the appropriated funds for this would be used.
The long discussed sidewalk improvement project (headed by the local Sidewalk Committee) is now able to move forward with a recently received $130,000 grant from Safe Routes to Schools. The project is organized into phases and while it has been posted for a while, the town has received no bids on this project (except from one company that after the fact bid twice as high as was expected). The Sidewalk Committee will stick with the project that was originally planned. While the town is excited about these improvements, some expressed concern about a lack of snow removal in past winters, making it difficult for senior citizens to travel. Marjorie Stratton explained that while there is money available for capital improvements there are no funds available for maintenance. A concerned citizen proposed an ordinance for local business owners to clear snow in front of their own businesses, which would help alleviate this problem.
Other subjects mentioned included the town’s taking over bookkeeping for Island Community Medical Services; Betsy Bates thanked for her years of service as town librarian; multiple citizens expressing frustration over trying to have bright streetlights near their homes turned off; and funds being put away every year for future paving projects on the island.
Nicole Ouelette is place-based education officer at the Island Institute.