At the start of the evening’s planning board meeting, Chairman Contreni said the planning board has a vacant spot among its alternates, and is still looking to fill that position. Interested candidates can fill out an application on the Town website.
In his Code Enforcement Officer’s report, Ron Sarol said he has continued with 911 addressing over the past two weeks, and has issued 7 permits. Two were for sign permits totaling five signs for two new Greenville businesses: The Juniper and Mimi’s Meat and Deli. The other five permits were for small buildings- namely, sheds and garages.
The action item of the evening was to vote on the now-completed Blair Hill Overlook Subdivision application. It was approved unanimously, and Gossage and Whitlow are free to move forward with the project. Chairman Contreni said, “Congratulations. Good luck with your project, Fred. Good luck Jen.”
Lauren Brinkmann, who spoke at the last planning board meeting about the Town’s vendor permit fee, handed out information to the board regarding other towns’ permit fees. As a reminder, Greenville’s vendor permit fee is $1000 for a 5-month period. The only town in Maine that appears to come close is Naples, reportedly setting the fee that high to discourage food trucks. Portland, in contrast, charges a $545 annual fee. David Case said his thought is that one thousand dollars, “…does seem a little bit high.”
Brinkmann said another thing for the board to consider is she also pays rent because her food truck is on private property. Many towns charge separate fees for vendors set up on private versus public property. Contreni said the board will most likely be agreeable to setting an annual fee rather than a seasonal one, but it’s not within the board’s purview to set a fee. Still, they intend to research the subject further and can make recommendations to the select board.
Contreni said Brinkmann’s information, “…will be very helpful to us as we do our research.” In closing, Sarol agreed he does believe this ordinance “warrants being looked at.”
Next on the agenda was Mike Boutin’s conditional use permit for a proposed 3000 square foot retail space on the triangle lot coming into town where “The Store” used to sit. Boutin anticipates as many as four retail spaces can be accommodated in the new space, with a minimum of two. The building will be one story, with parking on site. Boutin says the design will fit with the character of the town.
Contreni went over the requirements for Boutin to be able to continue the process, and he got the “green light” to move forward with the project. Contreni said, “I look forward to you working with Ron. Come back to us with a complete application.”
At the next meeting, the board intends to continue discussing the town’s vendor permit fee.
Town Manager Mike Roy and Selectman Pierce were absent from the evening’s select board meeting. Town Clerk Tammy Firman presented a property tax abatement of $4,117.73 for the selectmen to sign due to a mistake being made by the assessor on a property that was subdivided and the landowner, who was mistakenly charged twice, brought it to the Town’s attention. Firman also proposed an Executive Session to be held after the meeting to discuss “personnel matters,” which was passed unanimously.
Chairman of the Planning Board John Contreni presented the board’s proposed Property Maintenance and Dangerous Building Ordinance to the selectmen for approval. He shared the board started working on it in December of 2024 because there were, “no tools in our land use ordinance for dealing with dangerous buildings or properties that have not been maintained.” He also read a letter from Fire Chief Sawyer Murray who said the ordinance “covers the most important topics I get complaints on” and that it will be “a huge step forward for our community.” The proposed ordinance was passed unanimously by the selectmen and will go to vote at our upcoming Annual Town Meeting.
John Contreni, who also serves on the Town’s Budget Committee along with two others, shared some recommendations from the committee in regards to the budgetary process. Their first recommendation was to set expectations with the Town’s department heads going into the process. For example, instead of every department throwing their entire “wish list” into the hat, they would only be able to ask for a one percent increase, or two percent, or perhaps even a one percent decrease from the previous year based on what the town could accommodate. Contreni also shared the committee thought getting the weekly budget workbooks ahead of time (instead of the night of) the budget committee meetings would be extremely helpful.
Ultimately, the budget committee recommends approval of the “vast majority” of articles, with four exceptions: Article 9, “To see if the Town will raise and appropriate $221,920 for Fire Department;” Article 18, “To see if the Town will vote to appropriate up to $50,000 from the Town’s General Reserve Funds to the non-profit organization ‘Friends of the Mountain’ to fund its acquisition of the Big Moose Ski Mountain Property;” Article 31, “To see what sum the Town will be authorized to expend for Extra-Curricular and Co-Curricular Education;” and Article 36, “To see what sum the Town will be authorized to expend for Facilities Maintenance.”
Chairman Murray reminded those in attendance that, “These are all recommendations to our citizens,” and that there will be a public vote on each of these articles at the Annual Town Meeting. As required by law, the articles are posted publicly at Breton’s Store, Northwoods Outfitters, Jamieson’s Store, Shaw Public Library, and are available at the Greenville Municipal Building. The Annual Town Meeting will be held on Monday, June 2 at 6 pm in the Louis Oakes Auditorium at Greenville Consolidated School. If business is not concluded that evening, it will resume the following evening at 6 pm.
Some discussion followed the review of the articles, with Chairman Murray bringing up the highly contentious transfer station road. He said the Town has looked at all possible options, even considering eminent domain, and that they are revisiting the issue now with the current road owners and association. They have not been able to come to any agreement and, “…until that changes ownership we are [bound].”
Murray also said, “One of the things I think is important people understand during this budget process” is that our taxes are “off the scale.” We are, by far, the highest taxed municipality in the county. Just one consequence of this is that our school receives very little funding because of our state valuation. In this meeting, and in previous meetings, the selectmen brought up the topic of creating a TIF district in Greenville, which many towns in Maine are already doing. This is a topic we can expect to revisit in the future.
John Contreni, who serves on the board of Library Trustees, gave an update on the effort by the trustees to update the department’s bylaws. Their main focus was to recognize Shaw Public Library as a municipal department just like Recreation and Public Works, which the trustees say was unclear in the previous bylaws. We can expect the new bylaws to come to a public vote in the future, though they are not expected to be completed by the June 2 meeting.
During the public comment period, Bonita Doughty spoke to being disappointed she was turned down for Town funds to help pay for printing costs for her very popular Moosehead map, which has been locally available and free to the public since 2009. It continues to delight visitors and support local businesses each year. Doughty filled out the appropriate Town form, and was recently informed by Town Manager Mike Roy she was turned down for the $1,805.18 she had asked for.
Burt Whitman, who was present at the meeting when the decision was made, said they turned Doughty down because she is not a nonprofit organization, and with the Town being overwhelmed with requests, it’s been the only steadfast rule they have been able to stick to when deciding where funds should go.
Still, everyone in the room agreed the maps are an important asset for the town. Doughty doesn’t make a cent from these maps, and considers them her contribution to our community. Several options for covering costs were tossed around at the meeting, but Murray reminded us, “[We] can’t change this vote tonight because it’s not on the agenda.” If the issue is put on the agenda for a future meeting, it will be discussed further.