Sanford going to the birds

SANFORD — If you thought Sanford went to the birds when residents voted to make it a city, you may be right.

The Town Council – it doesn’t become a City Council until Jan. 1 – has asked Town Manager Steven Buck to draft a Residential Chicken Ordinance “to address ongoing requests to keep chickens within the Compact Zone.”

Council Chairman Alan Walsh said Tuesday that Buck’s work will go before the council’s ordinance subcommittee and then to two readings by the full council, each accompanied by a public hearing.

“I expect we will vote on it at the second hearing,” he said. “My plan is that the council will take action by the end of the year.”

According to Code Enforcement Officer Shirley Sheesley, as things stand now, Sanford residents can keep chickens in the rural parts of town. However, they cannot be kept in urban and residential zones. Or, more correctly, because domestic chickens are nowhere mentioned in Sanford’s Table of Land Use, they are barred by omission.

The Table of Land Use does allow chickens to be raised “for commercial purposes,” with approval, in the Rural Residential, Rural Mixed-Use and Industrial Re-use zones. But the table makes no mention at all of chickens kept for personal uses.

“If it’s not listed in the table, it’s prohibited,” said Sheesley on Tuesday, explaining the violation orders she routinely issues to homeowners in the residential zones who keep chicken in their back yards.

One person who has recently received a violation notice is Morning Street resident Zendelle Bouchard, who says her efforts to maintain the right to grow and raise her own food has uncovered a tangle of outdated rules and regulations in Sanford.

On Sept. 12, Bouchard was issued a violation notice following unspecified neighborhood complaints about her 16 Wyandotte hens. The order gave Bouchard 10 days to get rid of the chickens. After that, she was to have been fined $100 per day.

“I presume the complaint was about noise, but there’s a guy with a dog on one side of me and one with a chain saw on the other,” said Bouchard. “So, I don’t think they make any more noise than my neighbors.”

Bouchard also noticed that cats and dogs are similarly undocumented in the Table of Land Use.

“Are they prohibited, too?” she asked.

When the answer came back that dogs and cats are OK because they are dealt with elsewhere in Sanford’s code of ordinances, Bouchard sat down to do some research.

What she found was that chickens also are permitted elsewhere in town ordinance, specifically, Article 1 of Chapter 78, which deals with animals. It reads, in part, “No person owning or having care of any domestic fowls, swine, cows or other animals . . . shall keep the same in any building or dwelling house within the compact area of the Town of Sanford without having first obtained a permit from the Town Council.”

“‘Domestic fowl and swine?’” said Bouchard. “That sounds like language from 80 years ago.”

As if proving Bouchard’s point, the passage also states that Sanford’s Board of Health is responsible for making chicken-owners obtain a council permit, and that, if any residents refuse, “the Board can access a flat fine of $20.”

Sanford long ago did away with its Board of Health, a throwback to the Spanish flu era of the early 20th century, when such boards were created across Maine to force the shuttering of public gathering places, such as theaters, to stop the spread of the disease.

“That [board] hasn’t existed since long before my involvement in the town, so, at least 15 or 16 years,” said Walsh. “I think, quite frankly, there are that and other places [in the codes] that need to be cleaned up.”

Instead, Sanford now contracts with a local doctor to act as a public health officer, but, according to the code enforcement office, “we haven’t contacted him for anything in several years.”

Bouchard inquired about a permit, but claims neither code enforcement or the Town Council was aware of the provision.

“It would be a difficult thing to create one, but it would not surprise me to find it’s accurate that it does not exist,” said Walsh. “I have never heard of anyone ask for one.”

Buck could not be reached for comment Tuesday. However, Bouchard says that in a recent meeting with him, the town manager acknowledged the council must create the permit or else update the ordinances.

It appears the latter option may be in the offing, and Bouchard says she would welcome the change, although she was not alerted to the council’s agenda item when it came up for discussion Nov. 13, and wonders what the process may be to eventual passage of provisions allowing her to keep her chickens.

A self-employed antiques dealer, Bouchard started raising chickens about a year before moving to Sanford in 2009. She brought the brood with her when coming to town, both for eggs and, occasionally, for meat. Since being served with the violation notice, she has “put six in the freezer,” leaving a stock of 10.

“I keep them because it’s very important to me to eat healthy, or to at least know where my food comes from,” she said. “Even in organic stores, the eggs do not always come from chickens that eat all-natural foods.

“I’m glad something is being done,” said Bouchard. “Everyone lately is interested the whole ‘eat local’ thing and you can’t get more local than your own back yard. Whether in a rural area or in the city, being able to raise your own food is a basic human right.”

Bouchard is not the only Sanford resident on the backyard bandwagon. Sheesley said she issued another violation notice last week to a Whitman Street resident, even though Buck has reportedly promised Bouchard there will be no enforcement action or fines accessed until the issue is resolved.

“It does seem like there are more and more of these [violation notices] issued,” said Sheesley, “but I don’t know how many. It’s not something I keep track of, how many chickens there are in Sanford.”

Sanford names three councilors to charter transition panel

SANFORD — Three people were named at Tuesday’s Town Council meeting who will lead Sanford’s transition from Maine’s largest town to its newest city.

Those members of the Transition Committee – Councilors Anne Marie Mastraccio, Brad Littlefield and Maura Herlihy – will concern themselves primarily with deciding how they and their peers will appoint members of a new seven-person budget committee, as well as set a process for engaging the public in the annual budget process.

“Those were elements in the new charter that were intentionally left to the discretion of council, so that they or future councils could make updates as needed without having to rewrite the Charter,” said Town Manager Steven Buck.

The new charter, which passed with 55.4 percent of the vote Nov. 6, takes effect Jan. 1.

“It’s my goal, as well as my responsibility as chairman, to make sure that the changeover is as smooth and seamless as possible,” said council Chairman Alan Walsh, who made the appointments.

The new budget committee, which will include three city councilors and four residents, replaces the current 11-person version, of whom nine were elected by the public. Because the new charter does away with town meeting, empowering the City Council with all legislative powers, including adoption of the annual $20.3 million budget, Walsh says its important to assure that the public is kept fully informed throughout the process.

Residents will get to weigh in on the municipal spending plan late next spring in a referendum to be held in conjunction with the annual school budget validation vote. That  makes effective public communication a key component of the process, said Buck, in part because all Sanford residents will have a say. Under the old charter, Sanford held Maine’s only representative town meeting, with 105 elected representatives empowered to amend the budget.

As with the school budget, voters will not be able to amend the documents. If they should vote it down, the city would operate under spending limits in its previous budget on a month-to-month basis, with all line items prorated accordingly, until a new budget is adopted.

Apart from budgeting season, there is one change wrought by Sanford’s upgrade to city status that will be evident year-round. That’s the creation of an elected mayor, who, beyond the usual ceremonial functions incumbent in the post, will sit as council chairman.

An interim mayor will be chosen from among council members in January to serve until the first election in November 2013. Already, Walsh has said he plans to throw his hat in the ring for the right to call himself the first mayor of Sanford.

“Absolutely, I plan to at least put in my name, although I can’t say what will happen,” he said Wednesday. “I feel it’s important to have a someone with recent leadership experience during the first year under the new charter.”

Next November, when the terms of Littlefield and Ken Burgess expire, one seat will be designated for the mayor, while the other will remain a three-year council position. After serving three years to Dec. 31, 2016, the mayor’s post will revert to a two-year term, with a limit of no more than three full terms to be served consecutively.

Then, in 2016, the terms of the three councilors who won election Tuesday –Walsh, Richard Wilkins and Fred Smith – will also change. At that time, one of the three will be shortened to a single year, before reverting to a three-year term in 2017. That will ensure that, from that point on, two of the six council seats will be up for re-election every year.

The new mayor is slated to make “not more than 25 percent above what councilors make.” The council annually sets its own rate of pay per the charter, currently clearing $4,000 each. That would make the mayoral stipend $5,000 – or, what the council chairman is now paid.

Sanford bond loss hits hard

SANFORD – The failure of an $11.3 million education bond on the Nov. 6 ballot saps $805,000 from a new manufacturing training program slated for Sanford. Even so, local officials say classes will still begin in 2013 – just on a smaller scale.

“We are going to have a very good program, just not the Cadillac we had been hoping for,” Jim Nimon, executive director of the Sanford Regional Economic Growth Council, said Wednesday. “The bond money would certainly have taken us to a higher level, much faster.”

“The loss of the bond is the difference between establishing an adequate facility versus a world-class educational program,” agreed City Manager Steven Buck. “We’ll squeak something together, it just won’t be as world class.”

That “something” will start with $257,000 appropriated by the Maine Legislature last session to help York County Community College launch a machine tool technology program in the former U.S. Optical Disc building at 1 Eagle Drive. The $805,000 bond would have purchased new manual and computer numerical-control machines for students to train on. Instead, classes will have to make due with two surplus CNC systems given by Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor.

“They were able to give us a couple of pieces of equipment because they no longer have a machining program there,” said John Rainone, dean of institutional advancement at YCCC.

Rainone says that while the Legislature’s annual commitment will pay for instructors and program administration for 12 to 14 students beginning next fall, the loss of the bond money means the program will have to be “phased in,” meaning program cycles will have to be launched annually, instead of in successive semesters. For that reason, and to invest in better equipment, YCCC is “reaching out to other organizations” to cover funding refused by voters.

“We really need this thing,” said Nimon, noting that despite “15 to 20” places for machinists to work in greater Sanford, where wages start at $18-$20 an hour, many jobs go unfilled for want of qualified applicants.

“That is what is being communicated to us by the manufacturers,” said Rainone. “These are excellent jobs – $35,000 to $50,000 a year – and ones that are coming back, that keep the economy moving, but they can’t get always the workers they need. So, we’re looking for donations of equipment, grants, even cash, to really be able to support this.”

Earlier this year, Pratt & Whitney, located in North Berwick, gave $100,000 to the Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges specifically for the new program, which will allow residents of the greater Sanford area earn an associate’s degree right in their own back yard. Nimon has noted that more than a third of all workers at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard live in and around Sanford. Despite this, and even though the shipyard, Pratt & Whitney, Arundel Machine and General Dynamics are some of the largest employers in York County, and all three rely heavily on the highly specialized skills of precision machinists, no relevant post-secondary program exists in the area.

“With this program, we will be able to prepare more Maine students for good-paying, highly skilled jobs that exist right here in York County, and that will mean a more adaptable work force in this region to help grow Maine’s economy,” said Scott Knapp, interim president of York County Community College.

Although the machining classes may not end up on Eagle Drive – no lease is signed at this time – YCCC’s new machine tools program will be located somewhere in Sanford, said Rainone.

For that reason, some are surprised Question 2 failed even in Maine’s newest city.

“I’m not sure enough people were aware of the importance of this to the region,” said Buck.

“Did we do as good a job as we could have educating the public? No,” said Nimon. “But it seems like every year one bond issue fails. You explain this electorate to me.”

Three other bonds proposals on the Nov. 6 ballot – for conservation, highway construction and water projects – passed with at least 60 percent of the vote. However, the education bond won support from only 48.9 percent of Mainers. Even in Sanford, the measure failed, albeit by a mere 33 votes, 4,538 to 4,505.

“I think everyone in this economy is trying to hold onto their dollars,” said Suzanne McKechnie, an economic development specialist at the growth council. “There may be some fear of taxes and so, people are being a little bit more conservative, I think.”

The prevailing theory is that, with stagnant job numbers in Maine and across the nation, voters were unwilling to fund all requests and simply trumped roads and the environment over education.

Nimon also suggested a greater yes vote may have been stymied by Gov. Paul LePage signaling he would not immediately authorize borrowing – bonds require his signature, as well as that of the state treasurer – even if the bonds passed.

“The governor remained philosophically opposed, even as late as an Eggs and Issues event this past week,” said Nimon. “These moral objections to debt have a lot of layers to them – we all have family members who feel the same way as the governor, but we have the capacity for it and debt like this is really worth the risk, because it would have created immediate jobs. So, I’m going to continue to advocate for this.”

“When you talk about manufacturing and bringing jobs to our region, it’s something that is very valuable to us,” said McKechnie. “We will continue working on this and trying to make it happen. We’re not giving up.”

Although voters thumbed their collective noses at post-secondary training, the state has promised other investments in vocational education that could help retain the region’s top employers, and maybe even lure in new ones.

“What excites me,” said Nimon, “is that, with almost $100 million already approved by the state for a new high school and regional technical center, we have the opportunity to get the attention of some world-class manufacturers.”

Sanford switching to city and other election results

SANFORD — Sanford is no longer Maine’s largest town  – it’s now the state’s seventh-largest city.

In a referendum vote held with Tuesday’s general election, a majority of voters – 55.4 percent – agreed to charter amendments that will remake Sanford as Maine’s 23rd city, of 492 organized municipalities in the state.

Changes wrought by the new charter include mothballing Sanford’s traditional town meeting in place of a council form of government, with an elected mayor. However, beyond that, residents will see few practical changes. Not even the sign on Town Hall will change right away.

“I had a sort of premonition it would pass, but I had no idea by how much or how little,” said Town Manager, soon to be City Manager, Steven Buck, on Wednesday, soon after the official tally was certified. “I guess in today’s middle-of-the-road politics, it was a definitive spread.”

“It’ll need to say ‘City Hall,’ of course, but I don’t think that’s going to happen in the next couple of weeks,” said Councilor Brad Littlefield, who represented the Town Council on a Charter Commission that worked 18 months to hammer out the new governing document.

“I expect we’ll wait until warm weather when we make that change, and maybe we’ll have a nice little ceremony, or something,” said Littlefield.

Proponents of the upgrade to city status said the primary benefit would be to project a “mature” image to businesses looking to relocate.

“To be a city creates the perception of something larger and more important than a town,” said Jim Nimon, executive director of the Sanford Regional Economic Growth Council.

However, Buck stressed that, as Maine’s seventh-largest municipality, Sanford already has a solid infrastructure and planning framework in place, regardless of whether it’s known as a town or a city. Apart from what “city” may signal to others, minor matters of governance are all that will change for local residents, said Buck.

“Under the new charter, the City Council is the legislative body of Sanford,” said Buck. “But, all residents still have the same ability to address the council, on matters on or off meeting agendas, and everyone will get to vote on the budget.”

At the Nov. 13 Council meeting, Buck said, councilors are slated to create a “transition committee” to smooth the way to Jan. 1, when the new charter goes into effect.

“There are a number of elements in the new charter that were left to the discretion of future City Councils, such as how appointments will be made to the budget committee, and the timeline for public presentation of the budget,” said Buck.

Also on tap will be a debate on who among the seven council members will serve as interim-mayor from Jan. 1 until Sanford’s first mayoral election in November 2013. At that time, when the terms of Littlefield and Councilor Ken Burgess expire, one seat will be designated for the mayor, while the other will remain a three-year council position. After serving three years to Dec. 31, 2016, the mayor’s post will revert to a two-year term, with a limit of no more than three full terms to be served consecutively.

Jonathan Mapes, who sat as vice chairman of the Charter Commission, won a seat on the Sanford school board as a write-in candidate Tuesday. He notes the new mayor is slated to make “not more than 25 percent above what councilors make.” The council annually sets its own rate of pay per the charter, currently clearing $4,000 each, per year. That would make the mayoral stipend $5,000 – what the current council chairman makes, said Mapes.

Mapes also says the vision is for the mayor to serve largely the same role as the current council chairman, along with certain added ceremonial functions. But while future voters will get to pick a mayor, other posts will disappear from the ballot. Gone along with town meeting representatives is the 11-member finance committee, nine of whom where previously elected, to be replaced by a new seven-person mix of councilors and council appointees.

In place of town meeting, where any of 105 public representatives could move to amend Sanford’s $20.3 million municipal budget, spending will now me subject to an up-or-down referendum, similar to the school budget validation vote. According to Littlefield, both the finance committee and town meeting changes take place immediately.

“Anybody who was elected yesterday will not take the office and will not be seated,” he said, noting that all current office-holders will be out of jobs Dec. 31.

In one final election change, terms of the three councilors who won election Tuesday – Alan Walsh, Richard Wilkins and Fred Smith – will change when they come due again in 2016. At that time, one of the three will be shortened to a one-year term, before reverting to a three-year seat. That will ensure that, from 2017 on, two of the six council seats will be up for re-election every year.

Beyond internal matters of governance, there is nothing legal that must be done to complete the change, said Buck. Certified voting results, which stood unofficially Wednesday morning at 4,517 yes to 3,630 no, will be forwarded to the town, now city attorney and to the Secretary of State’s Office. Other than that, it’s simply a matter of updating some paperwork the next time the U.S. Census Bureau pays a call.

Apart from City Hall, no other lettering needs to change, as all gateway signs into town and all municipal vehicles simply say “Sanford.”

“I think there may be one old Parks and Recreation truck that says ‘Town of Sanford,’ but that’s it,” said Littlefield, adding that city letterhead is not stockpiled. It and the website can be updated at “no cost,” while Buck says he had staffers hold back on business card purchases until after the election.

“The goal will be to use up anything that says ‘town’ on it by the end of the year,” he said.

Sanford struts stuff in marching band finals

OLD ORCHARD BEACH — “We are not,” said Megan Swenson, pausing to make her point clear, “the stereotypical band-geek people.”

Asked if that means they’re not like the characters on the Fox television program, “Glee,” about 20 students from the Sanford High School marching band answer in unison, “No!” and then trail off into laughter, pointing and giggling at each other, each one realizing they had blurted out an answer without intending it to come across as a chorus.

But if “Glee” is not so much about geeks as it is about different types of people with different backgrounds bonding over a shared interest, then the Sanford students are exactly like those characters.

“It’s like a family atmosphere. We’re just all so close,” said sophomore Victoria Blow

“We bond with each other a lot,” agreed Madison Caron.

On Saturday, all 53 members of the Sanford High School marching band came together to earn a bronze medal at the Maine Band Directors’ Association state finals at Old Orchard Beach High School.

“This was the culmination of 2½ months of really hard work from, at least in my case, a really great group of kids,” said 20-year veteran director Matt Doiron, following the team’s performance. “I was really thrilled with their performance. We have clearly improved every week. That’s the one thing you focus on.”

From mid-August, when the students first gathered at band camp, through rehearsals totaling as many as 20 hours in some weeks, to six Maine Band Directors’ Association competitions – on top of appearances at Friday night football games – the students progressed from learning basic positions to mastering movement while playing selections from “Hadrian’s Wall.”

“It’s a miracle when you think, about how much has been accomplished in just a few short weeks,” said announcer Roger Painchaud, referring to all 12 schools in Saturday’s competition.

Sanford did not post the highest score at the event. In fact, theirs was the lowest overall. But once a school had played a presidential inaugurations, as Sanford did for Barack Obama in 2009, it’s pretty hard to get flustered over a little thing like a number.

“That still hasn’t made us immune to budget cuts, but we’ve been really lucky in that the community has really identified our program as something important, and they do a decent job taking care of us,” says Doiron. “That’s been nice.”

At the events, each band is judged on its own merits against a slate of six criteria, including performances of the drum majors, the color guard and the percussion section, along with the entire band’s mastery of the selected music, the visual impact as the individual players move across the field in unison, and the general effect of the performance. Each category is given a score between 1 and 5 by a team of judges, working from atop the bleachers and on the field. The sum of all six categories generates a score which, in the final event of the season, results in a medal from each band member.

“Up until several years ago, there used to be a winner – first place, second place, and so on,” explained South Portland Band Director Craig Skeffington. “But then we realized that this is more about the performance, so now each band competes against itself, rather than each other.”

Like cheerleading, the marching band is a school activity that has long since progressed from part of the support system for a school’s football team. Today, it’s an activity in its own right.

“Bands don’t just play the school fight song as they march done the field anymore,” said Doiron. “Today, it’s really more of an artistic endeavor.”

That’s partly why Doiron and his fellow band directors prefer to remove the competitive aspect from the state finals.

”You have to be dedicated to do this,” said Kayleigh Verrell-Peters. “You have to really want to do it and everybody has to work together.”

As Sanford took the field for the medal ceremony, with the temperature plumenting and the snow beginning to fall from the first storm of the season, the Sanford students did not seem at all disappointed with their bronze showing. After all, said Verrell-Peters, “This was our best performance so far.”