BUCKFIELD — The Buckfield Village Corporation, a
quasi-municipal organization that provides water from North Pond to 185 homes
clustered around the village center, almost did not get a chance to hold its
annual meeting on Tuesday, March 23. The
Board requires that a minimum of eight customers, counting board members, be
present in order to make a sufficient quorum for conducting a meeting.
However, ten minutes past the meeting’s scheduled
start time, and with two warrants standing at the ready on which to vote, the
Corporation was still one warm body short.
After pondering their options, a quick phone call was placed by
Buckfield Town Office Assistant Candice J. Brooks, rousing her husband Tim to
the Municipal Center. Thus was the
meeting was saved.
“This is nothing new,” commented Board Chairman Joan
G. Pope, “We usually have to scramble.”
Now able to legally conduct a meeting, the first order
of business was to elect a moderator.
After the warrant was read by Board Treasurer Joan Austin, Town Manager
Cynthia M. Dunn was chosen.
Then the corporation turned to electing a new member
to the Board of Water Commissioners for a three-year period to 2007. The sole nominee was Richard R. Pope, which
caused a mini non-controversy when he ended up splitting the vote with “Dick”
Pope. Still, it was deemed prudent to
allow Richard Pope to retain both votes cast, and he was quickly sworn in.
The Board then voted on “what sum of money the Corporation
will appropriate from water service revenues” for salaries.
The approved amounts included $300 to each of the
three water commissioners, $200 to the
Commissioner Chairperson, $7,200 to the Clerk/ Treasurer, $28,000 to the
Superintendent, and $3,340 for assistants to the superintendent.
With all in favor, the salaries for the coming year,
totaling $39,640, were approved and the meeting adjourned.
Total elapsed meeting time: fifteen minutes.
Ms. Pope estimated that the salaries voted upon represent
the largest expense, more than one third, on the corporation’s estimated annual
revenue of $99,000.
Superintendent Lewis Williams, who was not present at
the meeting, is also in charge of the Hebron water company. Ms. Pope stated that it was hard to estimate
the hours Williams puts in as superintendent, citing a range from “a couple
hours a day” during slow periods to virtually full time in certain parts of the
year.
Over the coming year, the corporation sees a need to
rebuild nearly one mile of water pipe along Route 117 through the village
center. Ms. Pope stated that the State,
which plans work on the road to begin this year, will not complete any work in
the village until the water pipes, originally laid in 1905, are rebuilt.
“They can’t do he village until we do what we have to
do,” she said.
Although bids have not gone out yet, the estimated
cost of the project is estimated to be over $800,000.
Ms Pope stated a hope that residents will turn out to
approve the project. The Corporation
would like to complete the first half mile, from the Oxford Networks offices to
the village center, during the summer months.
“Otherwise you people won’t get your sidewalks,” she
lamented.
In order to secure grant money to help defray some of
the costs, the corporation is currently conducting a required income survey of
its customers. It is estimated that 60
survey responses still need to be collected in order for the corporation to
have the requisite number needed to apply for the Rural Development grant.
Still, even if a grant is secured, the corporation
still anticipated going to the Maine Public Utilities Commission in the coming
year for a rate increase.
Ms Pope noted that the corporation did not increase
rates when the new filtration system was put in. Even though residents did turn out during
that project in 1998 to reject a $1,000,000 project to build the filtration
system and reconstruct the dam on North Pond, work still was required to avoid
a $25,000 a day fine from the Environmental Protection Agency.
“We used what we had for money and got by,” she noted.
The corporation also hopes to extend the water mains
along Route 140 as far as John D. Long American Legion Post 58. This will allow developed Gene Bell to tie in
the roughly one dozen new house lots from his subdivision beside the Buckfield
Junior/ Senior High School, resulting in additional revenue for the
corporation.
Pope and the rest of the corporation expressed hope
that residents, including renters who reside in the village, will turn out at future
meetings due to the importance of the work to be done in the coming year.
“I don’t know why,” Ms. Pope said in reference to
usual customer turnout levels, “We have
never, never had good attendance.”
Regular meetings of the Buckfield Village Corporation
are held 6:30 p.m., on the last Thursday of each month, at the Buckfield
Municipal Building.
