Gorham council hears sewer update, approves open space plan

[0:08] Council Chair (presiding officer): Good evening and welcome to the regular town council meeting October 6th. Apologize for the late start. We'll stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Roll [0:25] Councilor (e.g., Councilor Hamblin/Willis-type member): call [0:35] Town Clerk (roll call): please. Chairperson Phillips present. President Present. Chairperson Siegel [0:52] Council Chair (presiding officer): move on to the acceptance of this September 1st 2026 regular town council meeting. Is there a motion? Second by Councillor Willis and I'll go a little slower for you okay. All right any other changes comments? All right all those in favor. Seven yeas. This is a time of open public communication. This is for items not on the agenda tonight. So if anyone would like to speak on an item, we'll do three minutes. If you could just come up to the podium and state your name and where you're from. [1:39] Jim Means, Gorham resident/public commenter: Good evening. We have a light agenda and a small crowd tonight. It's been a really nice few guys. Good evening. My name is Jim Means. I've been a taxpayer and a resident living in Gorham for over 30 years. You'll recall that at last month's meeting, at the town council meeting, myself and another resident, who was a water and sewer engineer, brought to your attention the deficiencies of the sewer project planned by the Corum Fairways developer. During that meeting, Councilor Siegel asked the town manager to send a report to the town council on the status of this water and sewer project in the next few days. The town manager said he would be happy to oblige and then added some very alarming words saying that town staff and the developer were working together to assemble needed property easements and property and that he envisioned a public-private partnership for this project. This is not what the contract zone approved by the town council on March 4th, 2025 says. This contract under order 2522 includes the requirement for public utilities and specifies to make this project financially viable, the developer needed to add single family homes to the development to extend water and sewer to the property. You will also recall that during that March meeting several counselors, two of which are here tonight, advocated for this project specifically saying that the developer was going to pay for this public sewer to be installed a long bracket from the developer's property to the existing sewer on the behalf which would benefit the south Gorham district. Public sewer means just that users can connect to this service but that is not what is being planned and you heard why last month one can only Conclude that the contract zone requirements for public sewer was either changed without public notice or the town staff was ignoring the contract's own language. If the project has now morphed due to some backroom deal, then all the taxpayers of Gorham will be economically damaged by the costs of some unidentified public-private partnership, since we will all be burdened by the public portion. I need to add that none of you had the courtesy to respond to the two emails that I sent to you via the town website, asking for a copy of the proposed report. You have failed the town council's goals of 2026 to improve communications with the public. Of course, this is nothing new since you just jacked our real estate taxes by another 8%, more than double the 3% inflation environment in defiance of your stated goal to keep the cost of living down. I would say thanks, but I would not mean it. Thank you. [5:18] Peter Mason, Reed Allen Community Fund representative: Good evening, Peter Mason, 35 Robey Street. I just want to mention here on behalf of the Reed Allen Community Fund, and we're having our 30 annual golf ball drop a week from this Friday on October 16th at the homecoming game. So we're gonna hoist up about six or seven hundred golf balls about 50 feet in the air and then pull the ripcord and drop those, so the one closest to the hole wins a thousand dollars. Second place is 250, and then the furthest from the hole is a $50 gift card. So ReidAllen.org. New speaker. New speaker. [5:57] Council Chair (presiding officer): Anyone else? All right. We will move on to counselor communications, and I will start on my left with Counselor [6:08] Councilor (member, e.g., Councilor Diabor): Kush. New speaker. New speaker. I'm, oh, wait, one thing. I want to dedicate my nine-gallon blood donation pin to former Councilor Lee Pratt. [6:21] Councilor Hamblin / Councilor Willis: Councilor Hamblin? Nothing for me tonight, thank you. Councilor Willis? Nothing to report this evening. [6:27] Councilor Siegel: Councilor Siegel? I just want to remind people that absentee ballots are now available. You can order them online or you can call the clerk's office. There are many ways that you can get your absentee ballot sent to you, and you can already start voting if you'd like. And then I would also say to the public comment, wait like two minutes and your wish might be granted. [6:54] Councilor Diabor: NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. COUNCILOR DIABOR? NEW SPEAKER THE GORHAM HISTORICAL SOCIETY WILL HAVE ITS FIRST ANNUAL HERITAGE DAYS OCTOBER 18TH, 10 TO 4 AT CHERRY HILL. WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A BUNCH OF GOOD STUFF, SOME HISTORY STUFF, TRACTORS, COWS, ALL THE good stuff food chili cook-off so join us please thank you counselor sims oh thank you madam chair [7:20] Councilor (member): just the holiday shopping season starts earlier every year and i just want to encourage everyone to join me in supporting local small businesses this year as much as possible i'm going to be shopping local every moment i get so i encourage everyone to do the same thank you thank [7:36] Council Chair (presiding officer): thank you all right we'll move on to the town manager's report which i think is [7:42] Councilor (e.g., Councilor Hamblin/Willis-type member): going to be somebody else thank you thank you madam chair i do have a couple things one i want to thank the gorham police department they've been making a special effort in our school zones much to the displeasure of individuals that have been stopped but it's that time of year and we're trying to have more of a focus on as school gets up and running just remembering that we're back in session and slow down the school zones. I also want to thank Kim this evening for filling in for Lori from our clerk's office and taking diligent notes and helping us with the meeting. Also, I want to emphasize the elections coming up November 3rd, as well as to thank all of our staff. So a municipal election is a massive undertaking when you have about 20,000 people. we have a lot of volunteers as well as the clerk's office staff that helps facilitate that so I just want to thank Laurie and Kim and everyone that works for them this evening the council did ask for an update which yet that we provided some in writing but an update on sewer and water infrastructure in the town and we thought it would be prudent to bring in Charles Norton AND JUST GIVE A FAIRLY BRIEF, HOPEFULLY, HIGH-LEVEL OVERVIEW OF THE PROJECTS THAT WE HAVE GOING ON RIGHT NOW, WHICH IS MORE THAN A COUPLE, AND THE PROJECTS THAT ARE ON DECK FOR THE FUTURE. WE HAVE SOME FEDERAL MONEY COMING OUR WAY FOR LITTLE FALLS THAT CHUCK WILL GET INTO. SO IF THAT'S OKAY WITH THE COUNCIL, WE'LL HAVE CHUCK GIVE A QUICK OVERVIEW, AND I THINK [9:22] Chuck (Town Engineer/Public Works staff): YOU HAVE SOME SLIDES, RIGHT? NEW SPEAKER. YES, I HAVE A COUPLE OF PDFs I CAN THROW UP ON THE SCREEN. I'm typically not on this end of the mic. I'm usually sitting over there, so bear with me with the technology here, but there we go. So the town manager asked me to give a brief update on some of the sewer projects we have going on around town. The first one is the Main Street Sewer Extension. So if you remember, this is the sewer extension going from the Mosier's Corner intersection towards the west. So it's a portion of Force Main as well as Gravity Sewer. Just to update on the project is we've put I believe about 90 percent of the infrastructure into the road at this point. The last major item for this project is a big ticket item, it's the pump station. We're currently working with our contractor, who's Shaw Brothers, Portland Water District, to coordinate a pre-construction meeting for that. We've been going through shop drawings and submittals and approvals through PWD. So I would expect that the actual construction for that project, or for the that piece of the project, the pump station, to start here within the next couple of months. As we go, I can answer any questions if anybody has anything. [10:34] Councilor (member): I'll just fire a quick one. If I'm somebody watching this and I don't know the difference between force main and gravity fed, would you just explain those two terms? Yep, so in general, [10:45] Chuck (Town Engineer/Public Works staff): like water, you need that to roll downhill, right? So you need you need a positive gradient to move sewage in the pipes underground. If you don't have that positive gradient, you need to be able to pump it up to a higher point and then let it flow downhill. So if you know Main Street in that section, you have a piece from Mosher's Corner, it kind of goes up to the top of the crest of the hill, goes down, back up, and then back down. So that force main puts the, or collects the sewage down at the pump station, pumps it uphill, and then it gravity feeds down to the basin at Martin's Point. So, again, a lot of that infrastructure in the roadway has been completed. That also includes stubbing out to certain properties along Main Street, along that section. So once the pump station is online, then we can start allowing gravity to be fed to that pump station. Then that will get pumped up the hill. Anything else on Main Street? [11:45] Councilor Siegel: Just clarifying here, we're just talking about sewer. Is there already public water in this spot? [11:50] Chuck (Town Engineer/Public Works staff): Yep. Yeah. So Main Street already has public water. It's actually quite an old and tricky water main that runs down Main Street. And there's a large 42-inch, 42-inch, that crosses Main Street as well. [12:08] Councilor Siegel: Right. And that's the water that serves Portland, right? [12:12] Chuck (Town Engineer/Public Works staff): Yeah, that's the big transmission line. Yeah. Anything else on Main Street? Nope. Moving along to the South Gorham sewer study. So I'm going to touch a little bit on the development project that's going on down there, but we also concurrently have a town-led sewer study going on for South Gorham. So we were awarded a grant through the federal government to study sewer in the south of Gorham. We're looking at things like topography, ability to serve, what might need to be served by gravity, what might need to be served by force main. And so that study is ongoing. We're currently, we've done the overall study of the area, and we actually had some funding left over, so we expanded, we expanded that project to include some design of gravity sewer on Brackett Road. So first here on the screen in red we have some proposed, sorry, we have some proposed gravity sewer, that green dot and the lower right hand corner, I don't know if you can see my cursor, that's the proposed pump station that's going in, getting installed from the developer of the Gorham Fairways project, and that pump station opens up Brackett Road to be serviced by some gravity sewer. This originally we looked at, could we get gravity sewer down Brackett Road here, and what we found that there was some issues with grade, and so ultimately it's not shown on this plan, but in further design of this plan we're actually going to come and cut across the MTA parcel, that piece of land that's owned by MTA, planning on coming down bracket, cutting across the MTA parcel, and then getting into the pump station down here. By having that pump station located down at McClellan and bracket, we also have a potential, or the study has shown that there's a potential to pick up even more gravity sewer a little bit further north on bracket Road that may need to have its own relay pump station to move some of that sewer over a hill right in this area and then down to the gravity system down here. Like I said, we're pretty much complete with the study portion of that project, and we're currently working with Sebago Technics, who's the design engineer for that, who is providing us with some gravity sewer design. [14:59] Councilor Diabor: Are you going to put stubs in here? Are all these going to be stubbed in or no? [15:03] Chuck (Town Engineer/Public Works staff): So the gravity system, the design that we're doing is in the middle of the road, and to residencies, I don't believe that we're going to be showing any stubs, but it would easily be able to be tied into. Because what we plan to show is how to get gravity in this section. Because you have your force main coming up from the development, but you also need gravity to be able to get back down. [15:31] Councilor Siegel: I'm just trying to understand, so I understand from the public input here. Will residents of Brackett Road be having access to this sewer? [15:40] Chuck (Town Engineer/Public Works staff): Yeah, so if a gravity sewer was built, I mean, this would all be public infrastructure, yes. So, again, we're in the design portion of it. We haven't progressed on to funding an actual construction project. [15:52] Councilor Hamblin / Councilor Willis: But you said if. So right now it's a forced sewer going down Brackett? Nothing's in the road yet. [16:00] Chuck (Town Engineer/Public Works staff): So part of the Gorham Fairways project, they are proposing a force main in Brackett Road that goes all the way up to essentially the Crosstown Trail. And then by having that pump station on McClellan Road, it allows us to propose additional infrastructure to get the sewer down there. Otherwise, the town, or if we extended sewer in this section, we would be on the hook to build the whole thing, right? So they're building the pump station, and it's sized accordingly to be able to accept all of that gravity sewer. [16:36] Councilor Hamblin / Councilor Willis: Okay, so looking at your map, you don't have this going all the way down Brack. So this is a different project. [16:43] Chuck (Town Engineer/Public Works staff): So this is the town-led South Gorham sewer study. So their project is a completely separate project, a separate construction project. This is kind of in tandem with that. [16:53] Councilor Hamblin / Councilor Willis: Okay, and has this been funded at all, what you're looking at now? [16:56] Chuck (Town Engineer/Public Works staff): Yes, the study is completely funded, yep. The study but not the sewer, correct? Yeah, the construction project would have to be, okay, thank [17:03] Councilor Hamblin / Councilor Willis: you [17:06] Council Chair (presiding officer): have a question, yeah [17:08] Councilor (member): thank you madam chair, so what portion of can we, is it possible to get the map back up, thanks, so what we're looking at here is the plans for the additional sewer infrastructure that would conceivably be funded in the future when a funding source is [17:37] Chuck (Town Engineer/Public Works staff): identified? Correct. So the portion that's the town's project is the sewer study. And so a piece of that is it's broader than what you're looking at right now. So if I zoom out, so we looked at the entirety of South Gorham. So I was zoomed in on that little piece right around McClellan bracket, but we also looked at, and these purple and green shaded regions are just kind of how the topography breaks in the area, but we looked at the entirety of South Gorham, and then I was just zooming in on this one piece down by the developer project, right? And do we have a map of what the developer project entails right now somewhere? I do. Before you leave that map. [18:27] Councilor (member): The bottom of that was County Road, correct, the Greg? Yeah, so seeing it's just small on here, so yep, we're seeing so from County up, here's, here's 114. [18:36] Chuck (Town Engineer/Public Works staff): Here's the overlap, this is County Road, yeah, this is North Scarborough right down. [18:40] Councilor (e.g., Councilor Hamblin/Willis-type member): Here, I'm sure Chuck would, it be fair to say with your map you don't put back up, but the simplified version of the developers' requirements to meet their obligations of their contract zone is they need to get their sewer for their project in that area up to this main sewer line, so basically it's a similar path where that gravity would feed. The town is taking advantage of excess federal funding to design components that could either be built by the town later or developers later should a development come along that line or a funding opportunity present itself to expand the gravity components. Is that a, that's accurate? Okay, Chuck, could you also, unless the council has questions on this section, give a very brief high-level overview of, we also had some other federally, federal earmark funding or congressionally delegated spending, I believe is the correct, yes, for Little Falls. I have that map right here, the map. [19:45] Councilor (member): Before we leave that subject, do you mind, Chuck, going back to that last map? Yep. Okay, sorry, I didn't mean to just jump in. So when I'm looking at this, you mentioned, and I don't have a pointer, the one at the end of, thank you, right there, the green pump station, that's paid for by the contractor. Correct. If the contract zone gets fulfilled and it moves forward to development phase. The yellow one back up on bracket, back up bracket heading north on bracket there, yeah. Yeah, so that yellow one there exists only in theory and is not part of the project. That would have to be paid for by the town, is what it's sounding like here. [20:25] Chuck (Town Engineer/Public Works staff): Not necessarily. So it's not funded as part of the Gorham Fairways development. This, again, our consultant engineer who's doing the study took a look at a bunch of different scenarios for this area. And the topography being what it is, there was a couple of different options whether or not we tried to show a relay station, a station that would be connected into the force main that's heading up Brackett, or what's more plausible is a more local pump station that would pump it south. So pump it south towards where the gravity section would be, let it flow downhill to that bigger pump station on McClellan, and then it would go north. So that would be a pump station that would likely be built as part of some other development some [21:13] Councilor (member): other development that's another follow-up so how does the developer get sewer to the green pump station where like right now it sewers not in that area correct the current developer correct so we're at the corner of bracket and mcclellan that green pump station that you referenced would be their responsibility to build sewers not there currently there's no sewer in that area. They would need to bring sewer to that area from somewhere to have it be available for that pump station. Is that shown on this plan? [21:44] Chuck (Town Engineer/Public Works staff): So you see the red line that kind of travels down McClellan? Yep. That's in general where they're the, at least the current project, the Gorham Fairways project, they're going to utilize gravity down McClellan into this pump station to pump north. Anybody along Brackett would utilize any future gravity system to come south down Brackett and then get into that pump station. [22:09] Councilor (member): Permission to ask a question that you can choose not to answer if it's not in your purview to answer it. What, based on that plan, if they're just bringing sewer to there and then over to Brackett, what's the public benefit? That pump [22:24] Chuck (Town Engineer/Public Works staff): Pump station is, we've been working with the contractor and with the developer or with the design engineer to make sure that is sized adequately for much more than what is proposed on that site. So the most recent number they gave me was something in the 200,000 GPD range that it's currently. And there's also the way that they designed that pump station, there's actually opportunities for expansion if needed in the future. so say a large development came in wanted to send even more down to that pump station those pumps can be upsized and there's not a major infrastructure cost to bring additional force mains up bracket thank you so [23:10] Councilor Siegel: Just to clarify here, the developers putting in sewer along [23:13] Chuck (Town Engineer/Public Works staff): McLellan is what it sounds like. So again, the pump station is a prerequisite for any sewer in that area, right? And that is a heavy up front cost. So there's, there's costs associated with that. There's costs associated with getting the force main in the road and running it all the way up. I think it's all the way up to the Crosstown Trail. That's got to be what, two and a half miles, something in that, in that ballpark. So it's, it's quite a significant initial cost. And then that being sized the way it is can allow for additional flow to run to it from outside that development. And it of course can be, because it's a, it's a public utility at that point, [23:54] Councilor Siegel: but then we'd still have to actually be the ones to put in the sewer. [24:01] Chuck (Town Engineer/Public Works staff): Somebody, whether or not it's the town through some sort of funding mechanism, or if it's a developer who's looking to add more development in that area, could for a lower upfront cost than building the entire thing, right? They could tap into that system. I [24:19] Councilor Siegel: understand what you are saying, and that there is public benefit here with this pump station for basically massively reducing the long-term cost, I still feel like this isn't exactly what we were sold when discussing the contract zone, which I also recognize you as the town engineer, that is not your purview in any way. It just feels a bit like a bait and switch. But thank you for explaining this whole thing, because it is complicated in a lot of ways. [24:57] Councilor Hamblin / Councilor Willis: Do you mind if I ask Counselor Siegel why do you feel it's different from what was discussed in the contract zone? Just share with me the difference? [25:08] Councilor Siegel: Yes, I'm eying Chair Phillips, who is giving me the eye, so I'll talk very quickly. The initial discussion was just that there would be sewer extended along Bracket Road to the project. That was kind of what was initially discussed, and so the assumption was that would open it up to the residents of Bracket Road with that sewer. Well, I understand this will make it massively cheaper for the town to do that project, or someone to do that project in the future, which makes it very likely to happen. It's just not exactly what was discussed, and I do understand that there is levels of feasibility in the initial discussions versus what can actually happen and, you know, projects change. But, yeah. New speaker, thank you. New [25:57] Council Chair (presiding officer): speaker, are you ready to move on to Little Falls? [25:59] Chuck (Town Engineer/Public Works staff): NEW SPEAKER. THIS ONE WE CAN BE REAL QUICK ON. SO AS EFRIM HAD MENTIONED, WE HAD BEEN SUCCESSFUL ON OBTAINING SOME ADDITIONAL CONGRESSIONALLY DELEGATED SPENDING CDS GRANT FUNDS. WE'RE STILL WORKING THROUGH THE PROCESS OF MAKING SURE WE GET ALL OF OUR DUCKS IN A row as far as the finances go. But the opportunity here is to add some sewer up in Little Falls. So right now, if you look at the screen, the line work in green shows where we have existing sewer up in the Little Falls area. But you can see there is a decided lack of sewer as you come on the south leg and west leg around the Little Falls roundabout. So what we would be looking to do and what we hope we can achieve up here is construct a bunch or a lot of gravity sewer in this area so this line i think we would bring all the gravity over to the malison pump station i believe it's it moves across the river here but hopefully picking up union acorn a piece of 202 newell street and potentially more obviously this is all going to be subject to construction costs and when we go out to bid but that's the plan for this one I [27:23] Councilor Siegel: just want to say, because I know this project has come up a couple times. Good job to town staff. This was multi-years. I think this was like a multi-attempt. And then also to people looking at this and thinking, this doesn't seem as important as other areas. There are different pools, just so everyone knows, there are different pools of funding for different areas of Gorham. And so this was an area where we could get a pool of funding for it. And that's specifically why this area is going forward. Yeah. [27:56] Councilor (member, e.g., Councilor Diabor): Just for clarification, I guess, for me in looking at maps, it looks like the Little Falls, what used to be the Little Falls School, has public sewer. [28:15] Chuck (Town Engineer/Public Works staff): Right down here on Acorn? Yeah. I believe that's the case, yes. [28:19] Councilor (member, e.g., Councilor Diabor): And then this whole big Little Falls recreation area that we're building on technically doesn't. there [28:29] Chuck (Town Engineer/Public Works staff): yeah so the there is a there is a bathroom that was installed on this site right by my cursor that does run out to a it runs out to a basin in 202 right at the end of Malison thank you any [28:52] Council Chair (presiding officer): other general questions for Chuck [28:54] Councilor (member): about sewer water just getting one clarifying question for this project [29:00] Chuck (Town Engineer/Public Works staff): here we do have federal funding that has been secured so yes we 've been in or we've been granted some of that some CDS funding we're still working with our federal partners to go through and make sure that we have all of our ducks in a row we federal funds come with a lot more strings attached to them than other things so yeah we're still working through it and we've discussed and got some pricing on engineering fees on this one they're a little old at this point so we'll have to get them updated, but we'll continue to move through the project. Thank you. [29:34] Councilor (e.g., Councilor Hamblin/Willis-type member): Thank you, Madam Chair. And I think it's important to note on this project there is a match. It didn't come without strings, and you know, we're not 100 committed to it yet, but I think it's over half a million. It's six hundred thousand, six hundred thousand that we're on the home floor, but fortunately to funding can be used for infrastructure work. That's probably our long-term plan, but it does obviously unlock millions of dollars in funding that likely for a project that probably wouldn't happen on its own. One clarifying question on that. [30:10] Councilor (member): Actually, so town would have to front some matching requirement. Would the town then be allowed to enact a sewer impact fee to then pay for it, even though there's federal funds supporting it? [30:24] Councilor (e.g., Councilor Hamblin/Willis-type member): Yeah, and I think that's one of the reasons that we're kind of holding on. The town enacted an impact fee on the Main Street section for the same component to recoup some of that cost, or maybe even all of it. We do the same thing here. Obviously, you're looking at smaller or large-scale development potential, but there's still a lot of property served, and there's a lot of bedrock in this area that makes septic systems challenging. We've run into that over the years. So if it can be done, it would have a pretty substantial public benefit to the area. [31:04] Council Chair (presiding officer): Anything else you want to add? No? Okay. All right. Thank you, Chuck. All right. Now we'll move on to, we'll go from sewer to the school committee report. Sorry, Michelle. [31:21] Michelle Littlefield, Vice Chair of Gorham School Committee: Sorry, I'm used to it. Michelle Littlefield, vice chair of the Gorham School Committee, and I have to apologize out of the gate. I forgot to print new copies in my stand-in duty, so I'll make sure that you get these emailed to you. I have a few updates for you, so I'll start with our enrollment update. The state of Maine has transitioned to a new student data collection system called Connect. So as you can imagine, with software transitions, they're not always easy, so staff are working hard to resolve some issues and they're compiling, completing the upload and the verification process. SO WE EXPECT TO HAVE A FINALIZED OCTOBER 1 FIGURE FOR YOU AVAILABLE IN NOVEMBER, BUT I'LL GIVE YOU THE PRELIMINARY NUMBERS TO START WITH HERE FOR K-12. GREAT FALLS, WE HAVE 403 STUDENTS AT NARA GANSET, 408 AT VILLAGE, 384, THAT'S 23 ABOVE OUR PROJECTIONS. GORHAM MIDDLE SCHOOL IS 672, WHICH IS NINE BELOW OUR PROJECTIONS, AND THEN GORHAM HIGH SCHOOL 871, WHICH IS TWO ABOVE. So for, if you don't want to do that math real quick, I'll do it for you. It's two thousand seven hundred and thirty eight students, which is 16 total above our projected number. Keep in mind that's K to 12. We also have 72 students enrolled in pre-K at Narragansett and another 63 students enrolled throughout our community partnerships for a total of 135 pre-K students. So combined, that brings our total enrollment, pre-K to 12, to 2,873 students. For comparison, last year we were at 2,834 students. So if our preliminary numbers hold here, that represents an increase of 39 students over last year. And like we said, we'll provide those finalized numbers next month. Moving on to early childhood special education, just an update here. Here, our new Early Childhood Special Education program is serving eligible four-year-olds in Gorham, and we're providing services to more than 50 students. Our collaborations with our public pre-K programs are going very well. We have an on-site program at Narragansett that's designed to support students with more intensive needs, while other students receive services through a walk-in model. We're also working closely with our regional partners to make sure our service delivery is as efficient and responsive as possible. Possible. Excuse me. Overall, we're very pleased with how things are going, and most importantly, children are receiving the services that they need. A hiring update. Like many schools, we're continuing to experiencing some staffing challenges in a few critical areas. So we're currently seeking three full-time bus drivers for our transportation department. So if you or someone you know might be interested, please contact transportation director Mitzi Smith. If you already have a CDL, that's fantastic. If not, that doesn't need to stop you. We have an earn while you learn program that allows new drivers to be paid while they work toward their CDL, and we're currently offering a $2,000 sign-on bonus. We're also seeking three full-time educational technicians for our special education programs. As a reminder, to qualify as an ed tech 3 in Maine, an individual needs 120 college credits but does not need to hold a college degree. These positions offer days school day schedules that can work especially well for individuals looking to balance work and family while making a meaningful difference for our Gorham students. Individuals can contact Special Education Director Kathy Hamlin for more information about those openings. Moving on to our Anne Frank, A History for Today exhibit at GMS, as some of you may have heard about. If you've not yet had an opportunity to visit, you absolutely have to do that. Students from Mrs. Whitaker's Katahdin Program were selected to host this internationally traveling exhibition developed by the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam in partnership with the Anne Frank Center. The exhibit is being hosted at GMS in the auditorium from September 24 through October 8, so we're coming up to the end here. It's designed for audiences in grades 6 and above. What makes this opportunity especially meaningful is that every visit is docent led by our own eighth grade students. Our students aren't simply learning history, they're developing their skills as communicators, leaders, and educators while helping our broader community engage with important lessons about history, human rights, prejudice, and civic responsibility. So again, please consider going. We had open community nights that were on October 2nd and 6th, but the final open night is tomorrow, October 7th, from 5 30 to 6 30 p.m. And then just a shout out to our sponsors. Thank you very much to Aaron Chad Bourne from Demetria's Team Real Estate. Maine Community Bank and Truer G and Baldachi Title Services, an update on a purposeful play grant application. So a huge, a huge thank you from us to Gorham Rec, Zach Lambert, Baxter Memorial Library, Sarah Kopperberg, and North Gorham Public Library's Diane Atwood for their collaboration on a major grant application submitted last month to the Nellie Mae Education Foundation. If awarded, the grant would provide $500,000 over three years to support a community-wide initiative focused on purposeful play and learning for our youngest children. The work would bring schools, recreation, libraries, families, and other community partners together around a shared approach to supporting children from birth through early elementary years. We expect to hear more about the grant within the next few weeks, but regardless of that outcome, the planning process itself has strengthened these important community partnerships and identified exciting opportunities for continued collaboration. So this is work that we intend to continue. We also have a quick shout out for and thank you for go-cat another big thank you to Georgia Humphreys and the go-cat team for helping us produce an informational video about the upcoming november 3rd school bond question so having a strong local partner can help us quickly develop and share clear information with residents and that's incredibly valuable we appreciate gocat's continued partnership in helping keep the gorham community informed and engaged another quick reminder that adult education has a new home. We have moved, adult education has moved from Gorham Middle School to 381 Main Street. It's a new location, but the same great programs and commitment to lifelong learning. We're excited about the opportunities the new space provides and encourage community members to stop by, learn more about the programming and check out the new location. We also want to recognize our outstanding staff members who've received some recognition recently. Congratulations to Hollis Cobb, who has recently was selected as Maine School Business Manager of the Year. And to Sam Lenson, GHS physical education teacher, who was selected as Maine's middle school physical education teacher of the year. We have long known that Gorham is so fortunate to have some of the very best educators and staff in Maine. So it's great to see these people recognized statewide for their talent, their professionalism, and the commitment they bring to their work. So congratulations to Hollis and Sam. Coming up on homecoming. Homecoming is coming. So our celebrations are during the week of October 13th to 17th. So we encourage everyone to check the district website for information about activities and opportunities. It's always a wonderful way to celebrate our schools and the tremendous sense of community that makes quorum special. But I will throw out a couple of dates for those of you that won't check the website. We have our game on the 16th at 6 30, 6 30 excuse me, versus Scarborough and our dances the 17th at 7 p.m. Also just another plug for the Reed Allen Community Fund golf ball drop. I think there are just a few thousand away from their goal so let's help them get there. Last item but not least is celebrating our school bus drivers. So October 19th to 23rd is National School Bus Safety Week and it provides a wonderful opportunity to recognize the incredible work of our Gorham bus drivers. It's a very hard job. Our drivers do much more than transport students safely to and from school. They are often the first smiling faces our students see from the school department each morning and the last they see each afternoon. So when you see one of our drivers please just take a moment to thank them for their service to our students our families in our community. And then last but not least I have some upcoming dates for you just because I know it's important. We have no school Friday for in-service this week. Our next regular meeting for the school board is the 14th and our next workshop is the 28th and then just a heads up to everybody in the village October 21st is a wednesday early release so look out and i think i hope that's it. Thank you. Anybody have any [39:33] Councilor (member): questions for michelle? I got one. I don't think you mentioned it. I think you started a new shout out program and you had your first recipients in september. So there's a, i'll let you talk [39:44] Michelle Littlefield, Vice Chair of Gorham School Committee: about that if you want to. Yes we did. Unfortunately i can't remember the names of all three but three amazing staff members were recognized. So this is a new program that started that folks within in the community can nominate a staff member in within the district. So if you know of someone who just deserves a shout out recognition for what they do please feel free. You can look I think at our school district information the social media channels in the website for how to go about submitting that shout out. [40:12] Councilor (member, e.g., Councilor Diabor): Sorry it's mundane kind of but anecdotally do we have any idea how the [40:20] Michelle Littlefield, Vice Chair of Gorham School Committee: One-way street by the softball field is going, I mean, I think it's going well. Yeah, I mean, I think it's been noticed that things have changed, but overall, I think it's, it's going well. Yeah, thank [40:31] Councilor Siegel: you. Yeah, any [40:34] Council Chair (presiding officer): other questions? No, we're good. Okay, all right. Before we move on to the agenda items, Ephraim forgot to mention something, so go ahead. I did, I sincerely apologize. Thank you, [40:44] Councilor (e.g., Councilor Hamblin/Willis-type member): Madam Chair. We had this big project going on last month, trash carts, recycling carts. I don't know if anybody heard about it. I think it wasn't perfect, but it went fairly well, considering we sent out 13,000, 14,000 of these things. I wanted to thank Public Works and specifically Kelly Meslin, our office manager up there, who basically helped orchestrate that whole program with the contractor. There was probably hundreds of emails, phone calls, just people were looking for information, putting out all the releases. So I just want to recognize her work as well as the work at Public Works. I don't know if anybody, I think I know I sent to the council, but just seeing how many carts there were and the undertaking to get that out and educate people on that process was a very big lift. So I want to thank them. [41:43] Councilor (member): I've got one follow-up question on that I had written down, but I'll say it publicly since the opportunity arose and it's not on the agenda. I believe we need to set some fee structures for people acquiring carts moving forward. So I wrote down that I'm hoping maybe that could be on the next finance committee meeting, that we could at least begin that discussion. [42:04] Councilor (e.g., Councilor Hamblin/Willis-type member): The public works director has hit me up on it. We're still kind of in that transitional phase. I mean, there are some people we're still finding that don't have them that are allowed to have them under the ordinance in the contract, but we will be finding out when we transition out of that phase in the near future and then setting that fee structure. There is a cost to the town moving forward for these carts, and we were able to obviously take advantage of buying them in bulk, and that won't be there in the future. [42:34] Councilor (member): True. So I'll ask another question because of what I do professionally. If I build a house in Gorham and it's new construction and I don't have a set of carts with it, do I call Public Works and am I paying a fee to get those carts? [42:46] Councilor (e.g., Councilor Hamblin/Willis-type member): Right now, not yet, not yet. You will be in the future. Yep, we didn't have a definitive date, and again, because we're still finding properties throughout town occasionally that did not get a set for whatever reason, and they're calling. There will have to be a cut off. The council will probably establish that cut off in the next month or two, what they think it's going to be, in addition to what the cost for those cards [43:12] Councilor (member): will be in the future. Great, thank you. [43:16] Council Chair (presiding officer): Any trash questions? No? Okay, I think we've covered everything. Alright, I guess we'll move on to the public hearing, so if you could just read through, you just need to read this part, and then we'll do the item. Okay. [43:33] Town Clerk (roll call): So on item 202610-2, public hearing to hear comments on renewal applications for automobile graveyard junkyard permits for 2026 to 2027, admin sponsored. [43:47] Council Chair (presiding officer): All right. We'll open the public hearing number one. If anyone would like to speak on this item, please come to the podium. Seeing no one getting up, we'll close the public hearing and we'll go on to the item. [43:59] Councilor Hamblin / Councilor Willis: Oh, [44:07] Town Clerk (roll call): sorry, it's a proposed order. Order that the Town Council renew applications for automobile graveyards junkyard permits for 2026-2027 as follows. Steve Luce, LKQ Cork, Gorham Auto, 192 Narragansett Street. Marty Allen, Casco Federal Credit Union, 375 Main Street. Gary Nelson, Chet's Auto Sales, 475 Ossipee Trail. Sean Moody, 's Coworker Own, 200 Narragansett Street. John D'Ambrosio, Dumbo Enterprises, 86 Longfellow Road. [44:45] Council Chair (presiding officer): All right, is there a motion? So moved by Councillor Willis, second by Councillor Hamlin. Any discussion on these items? This is one of those standard things we do once a year, so we have the information in front of us, so all right, all those in favor, 70 a's. [45:06] Councilor Siegel: All right, public [45:11] Town Clerk (roll call): hearing number two on item 2026 10-3, public hearing to hear comments on a proposal to amend the town's general assistance ordinance by updating the maximum levels of assistance as required by the state, admin sponsor. All right, public hearing [45:27] Council Chair (presiding officer): number two is now open. Anyone would like to speak on this item? Seeing no one, because I know everybody in the room, getting up, we're gonna close the public hearing. Order [45:42] Town Clerk (roll call): 26-98, ordered that the Town Council amend the town's general assistance ordinance by updating the maximum levels of assistance as required [45:51] Council Chair (presiding officer): by the state. Their motion by Councillor Hamblin, second by [45:58] Councilor (e.g., Councilor Hamblin/Willis-type member): Councillor Siegel, thank you madam chair. Real quickly, this is something that's required of municipalities every year, our general assistance. We contract with the town of Wyndham to split operational costs. Essentially what this fundamentally what this is, somebody comes in applies for general assistance, which is a state sponsored or state required safety net system. You live in a home with X amount of people, you have income requirements or may they factor in your income and all the components and it can basically computes what you were eligible for assistance at during that under that program. Not expert in program, but we have experts should you have a question. It's a fairly standard process to adopt this every year. Thank you, thank you. Any questions? All right, [46:55] Council Chair (presiding officer): all those in favor seven years. Item [47:03] Town Clerk (roll call): 2026 10-4 action to accept a resignation from the cemetery Advisory Committee admin sponsor. Okay ordered that the town council accept the resignation from deborah duffy from the cemetery advisor committee and be it further ordered that the town council thanks deborah for her work on the committee. [47:25] Council Chair (presiding officer): Is there a motion? So moved by councillor cush. Is there a second by council dearborn? Any discussion? All right, all those in favor. [47:46] Town Clerk (roll call): Item 2026 10-5 action to appoint a person to the cemetery advisory committee appointments committee sponsor. Order that the town council appoint harley voice to the cemetery [48:00] Council Chair (presiding officer): advisory committee. Is there a motion? So moved by councillor willis. Is there a second? SECOND BY COUNSELOR SIEGEL. ANY DISCUSSION? I THINK SOMEBODY AT SOME POINT SAYS THANK YOU TO EVERYBODY WHO APPLIED. WE ALWAYS HAVE ALL THOSE PEOPLE. I THINK WE TALK ABOUT THAT A LOT. [48:20] Councilor Diabor: I WANTED TO SAY HARLEY WAS VERY, EXCITED. THIS WAS THE ONE THING SHE WANTED TO BE ON. [48:30] Council Chair (presiding officer): MORE PEOPLE THAT NERD OUT ABOUT CEMETERIES. THAT'S GREAT. all right all those in favor seven years item [48:42] Town Clerk (roll call): 2026 10-6 action to consider adopting an open space and trails master plan admin sponsor and order that the town council adopts the open space and trails master plan for the town of gorham as recommended by the open space and trails master PLAN COMMITTEE AND PRESENTED BY NORTHSTAR PLANNING AND ALA IS THERE A [49:07] Council Chair (presiding officer): MOTION MOVED MOTION BY COUNCILOR HAMLIN IS THERE A SECOND BY COUNCILOR SIMS WE JUST HAD A WORKSHOP ON THIS SO BUT I'LL HAVE THE TOWN MANAGER GIVE A [49:19] Councilor (e.g., Councilor Hamblin/Willis-type member): BRIEF OVERVIEW. THANK YOU MADAM CHAIR. YES, THE SO THIS WAS ON THE AGENDA FROM A COUPLE MONTHS AGO. THE COUNCIL OPTED TO HAVE A WORKSHOP TO GET A MORE formal presentation on the open space and trails master plan for the public. we routinely as municipality work on master plans for any number of reasons. one could be funding, we can seek outside funding, nonprofits can seek funding, but fundamentally provides a guide to municipal staff and future councils on soliciting information from the public on what they're looking for A SPECIFIC TOPIC, IN THIS CASE OPEN SPACE AND TRAILS. IT IS NOT AN EXACT BLUEPRINT OF WHAT THE FUTURE OF THIS TOPIC WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE TOWN, BUT IT'S A GENERAL GUIDE THAT THE COUNCIL, STAFF, THE PUBLIC CAN UTILIZE, AS WELL AS TIE INTO MAJOR PROJECTS LIKE THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN. I THINK WE HAD ALL THE COUNCILORS IN ATTENDANCE FOR THAT WORKSHOP. we're able to ask questions of the committee members as well as the consultant and that's available online if anybody's looking to watch that [50:33] Council Chair (presiding officer): any questions? all right, all those in favor? seven yeas. wait, that's it? okay. [50:45] Town Clerk (roll call): is there a motion to [50:46] Councilor (member): adjourn? before we make a motion to adjourn, I want to acknowledge the fact that change may come in November, so I want to thank Chairperson Phillips for serving as chair this year and thank councillor Sims for their time. they are both running for reelection, so we may sit here as a council of seven again in November, but just in case we don't, thank you to both of you, and with that I would make a motion to adjourn.