Speakers labeled via automated voice-based diarization + AI name-matching against the city's official roster. Automated transcription can still mis-hear a name during fast speech (e.g. a rapid roll-call vote) -- clear near-misses are auto-corrected, but this is not manually verified line-by-line. Treat names as a strong best guess, not an official record.
[0:00] Council Chair/Mayor: Committee meeting. Meetings are broadcast live on Spectrum Cable TV, channel 1303, and streamed simultaneously on the Town of Bucksports YouTube channel. Roll call. Councillor Rankin. Here. Councillor Abbs. Here. And Councillor Harris here. So, the first item and only item on the agenda is the first quarter financial reports. You'll see those in your packets in the cover letter from the Town Manager.
[0:27] Town Manager: And tell me, do you have anything to add to that? Good evening. Thank you. Not a whole lot to add. A part of what was in your packet, you can see that this time point in the year we'd expect budgets to be right around 20 percent, 25 percent, excuse me, and our expense on the general fund side is at 21 percent, so not quite four percent short there of 25. And then on the revenue side, we were at 45 percent collected. That's largely driven by a property tax collection, but overall I think things are looking pretty good at this point in the year. Answer any
[1:08] Council Chair/Mayor: questions. I think the only thing to note that is so somewhat out of the town's control are the legal fee variances and the heating fuel variances, which is to be expected, but otherwise it wasn't anything to put that I had to pull out.
[1:24] Councilor: I think the department has obviously doing a great job to keep to stay four percent under at this point. It's only four percent, a small number, but it's it's not sure they're doing very well. I concur. The employees, the department has town manager, you know, just this is these are really good numbers for the first quarter. I just I do have one question for the town manager, and that's the ambulance uncollectibles are higher than anticipated. Is this because of slow insurance payments, or these just we're going to have to write them off because they're uncollectible? Do we have an idea yet?
[2:09] Town Manager: It is largely driven by what insurance companies will pay and what, you know, uncollectibles. We have, you know, contractual agreements with all of the big insurance companies, and they'll only pay this much of a total bill. And with this being the first year of us having a third party doing it, we've got a clearer picture, I would say, kind of what those write-offs look like, so we'll have a better picture going into next budget season as to what that number looks like. Thank you.
[2:43] Council Chair/Mayor: questions and comments from the council I think it's super helpful to be doing these correlated get a temperature check of where we are especially things like the fluctuating fuel to know that 's true that's something that could come out at the end of the year as an overage and so knowing sort of ahead of time where we're facing that thank you thank you Rachel also last item on the agenda for the Finance and Investments Committee meetings adjournment motion to
[3:17] Hans Kirschholz (public commenter): adjourn. Second. Good evening
[3:27] Council Chair/Mayor: everyone. Will call the regular meeting to order for October the 8th. Council hair took care of the whole YouTube portion of the, I won't repeat it, but just a couple of reminders. This would be, if you could turn off the electronic devices or sign with them, and if you at any point this evening would like to speak, please come to the podium and state your name and
[3:49] Brenna Youngblood (public commenter): address. Here, yeah, thank you. We do not have any presentations or
[4:05] Council Chair/Mayor: recognition this evening. We do have minutes to consider from our meeting on September the 24th. Those are included in your packet. Any questions on those? Believe
[4:20] Councilor: that was the one, yep. Under the first reading of the moratorium, it shows
[4:38] Council Chair/Mayor: the vote count incorrect. It says Counselor Eastman, Deputy Mayor Eastman voted opposed, and he voted in favor, Mr. On
[4:53] Councilor: that same, on the description, I appreciate the detail that's there, and I was just noticing that there's a, there's a sentence that talks about the state. I just think it, there's something that's not quite right in that sentence. Made myself a note, but where'd it go? The state study, which would be conducted following a moratorium, right? The state study is a already in progress and will be finished before the end of a of the proposed moratorium.
[5:39] Council Chair/Mayor: So you just need a motion to approve as amended? Motion to approve as amended. Second. Any other questions? All those in favor? Thank you. Under reports, documents, and correspondence, we have several items. The first is the departmental reports from September. I know later on we'll be talking about some court action for land use violations and I think the code enforcement officer did a pretty good job on his report all the reports are good but I'm highlighting that because it's later in there 's some great information in there about kind of the why as to what some of those are happening outside of that commentary any questions or concerns the second item there is we have the school street emergency
[6:37] Town Manager: Response commendation, Mr. Mayor. I included in your packets a letter from Deputy Chief Denning regarding an incident that occurred on School Street. Director Winchester, I don't know if you want to maybe speak to this? I don't see PC Denning, but certainly worth mentioning.
[6:57] Deputy Chief Denning (Police): We are notoriously bad about recognizing our public safety staff for these. We just kind of accept it's what we do, but this particular incident, We got a call, a report of a suspicious vehicle on School Street parked in the middle of the road just sitting there. So Officer Loven and myself rode up and when we got there we found a vehicle in the middle of the road, two occupants actively overdosing. The vehicle was still in gear, still running. Officer woven administered Narcan to one occupant and he was revived the female also was revived ambulance staff arrived treated both on scene and they were both taken to the hospital while in the room one occupant was also administered Narcan on the way to the hospital both survived because of the staff so DC Denning wrote the letter that you folks have in addition sergeant Harlan and sergeant Dow have also written one that will be forwarded to the main chiefs who will recognition to them so Job well done to our ambulance staff DC Denning captain Payson firefighter Mango firefighter Gavlik who's here and officer Manable should add
[8:33] Town Manager: The director Winchester was
[8:35] Council Chair/Mayor: A part of that as well thank you to all of you I know as the director said sometimes it's treated like it's just another day but I'm sure that was this is probably the worst use of an adjective today but an interesting day So, yeah, thank you again. Yep. I did want to acknowledge, it's not on the agenda, and I've sent it around so that everyone on the council can see, but we did receive a note from the Senior Citizens Center just thanking us for our continued support this year. So, I want to thank them for that note. I don't believe we have any discussion items we do have public hearings the first is an ordinance repealing and replacing appendices eight excuse me a through h of the general assistance ordinance for the period of October 1st 2026 through September 30th 2027. Mr
[9:40] Town Manager: Mayor as we said at the last meeting this is a housekeeping item we update these are established by the state on a yearly level for our general assistance program so that's what this item is and both these items have action under agenda
[9:57] Council Chair/Mayor: Items, yes, we'll take action on that item just a little bit. The second public hearing is a moratorium ordinance on data centers in the, I've been fighting my main accent for three weeks on that Dator sentence, the data centers in the town of Bucks Fort, Maine. Thank you.
[10:46] Ralph Chapman (public commenter): My name is Ralph Chapman from School Street. Just very briefly, there's been a few developments in the last two weeks. The towns of Dover-Foxcroft and the towns of Old Town have both enacted moratoria on data center development since we last spoke, and the city of Bangor extended their moratorium for an additional six months. The other news, earlier this week the data center advisory council was set up by the governor after she vetoed the state legislation on state moratorium issued a report earlier this week it's a draft preliminary report it's I think 12 pages long I have a copy of it if you haven't seen it 's public more than happy to make sure you have a copy all of you have a copy of it they make a specific point that their charge did not include any advice on a moratorium or on a ban. They're dealing with highlighting the issues to be considered, and so at least this gives a framework and a little bit of an outline of what we might be able to expect their end of January report to be. And then just as a last comment, on the issue of size, I want to let the council know that the town of Bucksport, roughly speaking, consumes 4 megawatts of electricity. And so a 20 megawatt industrial development would be five times the use of electricity than the entire town at the present time. Just to give you a feel for what megawattage means in that, I thank you very much. I urge you to pass the moratorium. Thank you.
[13:02] Council Chair/Mayor: You saw your interest in school, good.
[13:08] Kristen Bell (public commenter): Evening, my name is Kristen Bell, I live on Mast Hill Road here in Foxport, and I'm here tonight because I support the data center moratorium and the establishment of regulations for this industry in Bucksport. I'm concerned for the environmental harm to our community. I do not think the exploitation of our natural resources is worth it. Data centers cause increased electrical costs to locals, noise and heat pollution, and tremendous water use for cooling, and they really do not employ many people. I believe regulations should include 100% renewable resources for data center operations, no sweetheart tax deals to lure them here, and accountability for promises made. Let's be smart about this. Data centers are the infrastructure for AI, whose billionaire owners could really care less about us here in Bucksport. Thank you for hearing me out.
[14:15] Mac Economy (public commenter): Please. Hi. My name is Mac Economy. Economy. I live at 155 Main Street. Nancy Minot gave me a call earlier. She's got a cold. She's going to keep it for herself. She's not going to share, but she has written a letter and she asked me to read it. The letter says, I am Nancy Minot, a Bucksport resident. Thank you, Mayor Bissonnette and town councilors, for voting at the September 4th town council meeting to move forward with the moratorium ordinance on data centers in the town of Bucksport to this meeting for a public hearing and a second reading. I support a six-month moratorium on data centers in Bucksport. As I often do when I am thinking about my position on a particular issue Bucksport is considering, I refer to the heart and soul statements, which the Bucksport Town Council adopted on January 25th, 2018, with Resolve number 201A-39. They hang on this chamber's wall. These statements were the result of a two-year innovative community effort to find out what matters to its citizens through extensive public input in the course of community block parties, public events, activities, workshops, and personal interviews in 2016 and in 2017. It was resolved that the Town Council of Bucksport, in Section 1 of the Resolve, commit to using the statements to evaluate decisions in preparation for future policy strategic plans and operational and investment decisions in section 2 of the resolve the town council directs the town departments to use statements these statements in evaluating and recommending policy decisions or operational improvements in the town there's a lot of these statements there are a lot of there is a lot in these statements of what matters to our citizens to consider when crafting a town ordinance for data centers in our town. Community spirit, small town feel, vibrant downtown, the environment, education, healthy community, local economy, and mostly the citizens valued a forward-thinking and transparent town government that responds to the needs of the residents and local businesses that it maintains and supports community services and infrastructure ensuring an accessible safe and secure environment. Will a future town ordinance on data centers reflect these statements of what matters to these to our people? I encourage the town council and the town departments to use these statements and considering such an ordinance. There is much to learn to research and to consider about data centers and their effect on our town on what matters to our community. This will take time and a moratorium will provide that. Please vote tonight to support this majority moratorium ordinance. Thank You Nancy mine it for myself I would wish that this moratorium gives us time to put guardrails on developments so that businesses coming into our town don't exploit taxpayer negative negatively Pam
[17:38] Public commenter (Pino, MassDill Road): Pino, MassDill Road. I was, about 25 years ago, a member of a planning board in southern Maine. And we did have an experience where we needed to put a moratorium in place and write an ordinance dealing with cell phone towers that were popping up all over the state at the time. time. What we explained then and what I believe the purpose of a moratorium is, it gives everybody a chance to stand back, look at what the ordinances do cover at this point and learn what we need to know so that a new ordinance will cover all the bases before a proposal comes in. I know the last time we were here there were several people that suggested that it might be prudent to wait until a proposal comes in check it out and if need be tweak the ordinances to make sure that we're safe. Problem with that is that if a planning board or another authority in town takes a look and does a substantive review of a proposal even the first time that review goes all the way through the proposal the ordinances that are in place currently are the only ones that will apply. That proposal becomes grandfathered so once we fully understand what a proposal is we no longer have the option to do anything about it if it is doing something we don't want it to do. So it makes sense to me that a moratorium, number one, look through all the information we need to know. Number two, write an ordinance that safeguards the people of the town, the environment, and provides a clear path for an industry that would like to come to town that we would like to invite to town. Make sure that everybody's on the same page and then move forward with accepting proposals. So I fully support a moratorium to get our guests in order.
[20:07] Hans Kirschholz (public commenter): Hello, hi, I'm Hans Kirschholz of Elm Street. Max already spoke for Nancy on Heart and Soul. I just want to read the closing part of a letter that we, Nancy and I, sent to all counselors and I think you had a copy too, Jacob. I won't go going to the early part, just the last part briefly, because I know we've got a lot of statements. The letter says, some will say that a moratorium is extreme, that it will scare away legitimate business, that tweaks to existing codes will be sufficient, that maybe smaller data centers might be okay, and so on. And we say no. All such tweaks sidestep the central issue. We are up against some very powerful forces here. They are skilled, they are well financed, they get their way, and they don't give up easily. We as a town are on a learning curve. We do not fully know what we are facing. We need time to think. We need breathing room. We need more information. In short, we need and we need immediately a comprehensive moratorium to protect ourselves against the unknown and the unexpected. We fully support the moratorium under discussion. We encourage unanimous support from our town council. So, thank you all.
[21:35] Ralph Chapman (public commenter): Good evening. My name is Steve Bell. I live on Bastille Road. I want to thank you all for your service to our community. 45 years ago, I was a senior at the University of Maine, graduating with a degree in civil engineering. The economy was worse then than it is now. It was a bad year. It was the recession of 1982. I got a job with a paper mill, and I went on to build five paper mills and run the biggest tissue mill in the world. It uses only 100 megawatts of power to run the biggest tissue paper mill in the world. These data centers are a thousand times bigger than that, or more than a thousand times bigger than that. So just I heard some comments yesterday at a public meeting about not sure what a kilowatt is, not sure what a megawatt is, not sure what a gigawatt is. But most of the hyperscale data centers are proposed in the United States are over nine gigawatts, nine to twelve gigawatts. So that's huge. That's a hundred times more power than the state of Maine uses. So it's like Wisconsin. When Wisconsin acid was operating, that was about one gigawatt. So when you talk about nine gigawatts is nine whisk acids. So my concern is these are devastating numbers. Like whoever gets the hot potato is going to get burned, because there's no way to absorb that amount of emissions, that amount of heat, and that amount of noise. There are lots of studies out there, so if you just read a little bit, you'll learn It's not safe to live within a mile of these things. And that's there are small data centers. But they're usually associated with universities or small businesses that need data storage or high-speed data communication I've built a couple of them, but they use like 50 megawatts at the most, you know, or less, usually 10 megawatts. But the ones that are the enemy I think out here are the ones who are the hyperscale data centers that use, you know, nine to twelve gigawatts of power, and they just make they're they're they're just they're literally like a black hole in your community. They're not going to anywhere near to return any benefit to the residents of the community. So I think the moratorium absolutely right There's lots to learn and there's lots to be concerned about. Thank you. My
[24:24] Speaker O (unidentified): town form wrote out, I'll try to be brief, I spoke to the first reading and you caught my drift last time. These data center things are tricky. They're happening fast. They're getting more intense. The density of these things, they're putting more in the spaces. The amount of heat generated is incredible. There's a lot of issues. There's a lot of polluting issues, and that's something we can take a look at. The whole small to medium, small and medium according to who? I mean, who says it's small? I spoke to Michael Boubar, who's a senior policy analyst at the Piedmont Environmental Council in Warrington, Virginia. That part of Virginia, Loudoun County, has the highest concentration of data centers in the world. When I asked him this question, I said, "Michael, what's, what's a small, medium stuff?" Because there's differences of opinion on this, and he said every data center is unique to its position, where it's put. They all have issues, they all have issues, and all have to be regulated. But he said, "Don't get caught into the scale and the size, because that is site specific, it's site specific, the amount of water that these things use." The ones they like to have an open set, not a closed system, they, you can't do a closed system, but closed systems tend to be more expensive to build, and they tend to pollute heavily when they discharge. They discharge forever chemicals. Open systems use tremendous amounts of water. Where that's going to come from, and who knows with it. I won't get caught in the weeds, but there's many pollution issues regarding data centers and need to be looked at. But the pressure to have them is growing. These are, these are all AI driven. There's no, these, this is a box filled with computers. This is not a university or hospital using, they all can do that themselves pretty much. They all sometimes have data centers within their, in their buildings. These things just are huge money makers for big investment. Look at who invests in some of these things. These are big venture capitalists, and they're making a lot of money fast. And I don't think Bucksport should take good care of itself and write a very good ordinance to protect itself. We've spent a lot of time here trying to deal with the river. We've got an industrial site on the river, which is a location that we all know has one data center outfit that is already looked at, so but we've got to protect ourselves. And the thing that the, I think what needs to happen is a moratorium needs to happen, and we need to get some good help here writing good ordinance. We have some expertise here in town, and but we also this, or people have written ordinances before, this, they're out there. So I think this is an important issue. I think data centers are so unique, this is not just normal development. This is quick, massive development. And when they get in, taxes have not tended to go down. Energy prices have not gone down. They go up with these things. So there's a lot of issues. And at least that's the brief research that we've been able to do and get to. But I did speak to some people who know what they were doing. And in Virginia, where I spoke to these gentlemen, there's an organization, there's 50 organizations now, after the fact, that are trying to reform and bring back some of these data centers because of what they've brought to that area of Virginia. So I certainly strongly support the moratorium, and I hope you do, too. I'm
[28:44] Joan de Plessis (public commenter): sorry. I have no idea why this would be good for Bucksburg or any other town.
[28:49] Council Chair/Mayor: I don't want to interrupt you, but could you state your name and address? Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay.
[28:52] Joan de Plessis (public commenter): Joan de Plessis, Silver Lake Estates. And I don't understand any of this. My only problem is when I talk to AI, or if I call somebody and AI answers, that's extremely annoying. And then I think, why would we want to have more of this? But I just cannot understand what this is going to do for Bucksport. Bucksport. Bucksport needs another business here to bring in taxes, not something that's going to go out the other direction. Electricity, water, what are they going to do? I mean, I just need to know a heck of a lot more about this. Thank you.
[29:46] Katrina Bissheimer (public commenter): My name is Katrina Bissheimer, and I live out on Town Farm Road. And I just wanted to speak. I've written some and sort of tweaked my ideas a little. I think that data centers can generate tax revenue for our town, although not immediately or as much as we would expect them to. Data centers employ lots of people to build them and then employ fewer people to operate them long term. And in the meantime, many of the data centers throughout the U.S., they receive millions and billions of dollars in tax breaks or incentives, but without the long-term economic benefit from employment and the associated economic activity from that. They're not like a mill that employs hundreds of people, and I think that's what Bucksport has had in the past, and this is different. Currently Bucksport is still having difficulty with AIM, holding them accountable for the closure of the mill and the old landfill, and them trying to abandon the dams. What about when the data centers become obsolete and outdated? The average lifespan of a data center is 10 to 15 years. Who's responsible for the cost of that cleanup, toxic building, cooling materials that are often high in PFAs, formaldehyde, on and on, you know, and whatever else is left. Given Bucksport's history with this, we should make provisions for this now rather than finding ourselves in the same situation in another 10 or 15 years. There's also a lot of new information daily that there's some new aspect of data centers. The point is that technology around these centers is expanding so quickly that it takes time and research to understand what we might be dealing with. And this, combined with Bucksport's unique history, having been the mill town for many years, after the mill shut down, I heard other people talking about citizens work together to help define our values and what's important to our community in order to attract new businesses that align with those values. And given this, I would suggest the creation of a committee of both public officials as well as local citizens to research and make recommendations for ordinances for the data centers. One of the most precious resources that we have for Bucksport is the Penobscot River and the Bay, and we share that with other communities. It's been polluted. We know that specifically by Holtercam dumping tons of mercury in for many years, the river is finally under some restoration work that's being completed as we speak. And we do know that the data center is going to need water for cooling, and this is bound to impact it in some way, either from increased water usage or from pollution or from high temperatures. These are issues that need to be monitored, have parameters which require expert knowledge to understand and then develop the ordinances. There's also issues, as you've heard, around increased energy, rising electric bills, and also if they need more power, are they going to use diesel generators, what's the impact on sound and low density, particularly low density sound, air pollution, et cetera. So having targeted data center ordinances to address these many, issues associated with data centers is up front is essential to protect Bucks Forts, natural resources and the public. public. We wouldn't build a quality house without blueprints and the right contractors and experts. Why should we accept a data centre without specific guidelines or ordinances? The State of Maine, as you heard, is due to release and has released a preliminary report which will help provide some of those guidelines. I support at least a six month moratorium on all data centers, given the rapidly evolving technology used in these centers, to allow the town the time to develop research and develop meaningful targeted ordinances based on other towns experience, based on our unique history here in Bucksport, our river, and the state of Maine's upcoming report, and I feel like this will also allow citizen input to ensure that it aligns with everything that we've worked so hard for over the last several years and so I'm absolutely hopefully that hope that you all vote for it unanimously thank you hi
[35:27] Derek Cole (public commenter): my name is Derek Cole and I live on Elm Street want I want to say thank you for considering the moratorium. I know it's a kind of difficult discussion, and I know I personally am a little bit overwhelmed by the amount of information when I start to research this topic. And with that being said, I would like to touch on something that I feel like isn't being spoken about a lot right now, and that is that if you do proceed with this moratorium, just maybe consideration of broader conversation with the general public. I know that you all do, you know, what you are required to do and go beyond that for getting agendas out and public notices and making sure that we're all aware, but I have found that many of the people that I've spoken to, whether they're friends, family, colleagues, business owners, a lot of them aren't really paying attention as much as I wish that they were and some frankly just aren't seeing a lot of this stuff and I'm having to explain what's going on to them so in addition to asking that you guys do pass the moratorium tonight I would also sincerely appreciate it if we maybe start to consider broader outreach again to make sure that all those affected have room for conversation and input on this thank you so much Good
[37:12] Christopher Johnson (public commenter): evening. My name is Christopher Johnson. I live at 1153 River Road in beautiful North Bucksport. I'm coming here with a little bit of a different message. A couple of historical items. They've talked about tax deals. In one of the shoeboxes upstairs in the safe is a sheet of paper from the comptroller of the Seaboard Paper Company in 1930 addressed to the selectors of the town of Bucks Fort to make sure that the mill was never going to be charged more than $10,000 a year for the next 20 years on property taxes. So the sweetheart deals were going on back then, which is fine. Moving ahead 60 years, around 1994, I was involved in the AES hearings. I was a member of the planning board here in Bucks Fort, and those things were a challenge. Some of those went into 2.30, 3 o'clock in the morning. It was quite an interesting time. One of the things we made sure that we did is plan board members to stay organized. We realized that the lawyers were going to arrive, and they'll arrive on this if they haven't come out already. They'll be here, and they'll challenge every little detail. So we had to detail our records, and I guess my message to you is don't, don't let yourself get disorganized, especially the pressure is going to be on Jake and the staff here at the municipality. You folks will feel some, but the planning board will really get hammed. You'll have lawyers coming in front of them, I guarantee it. And they've got every right to do it. But we had a double system of storage of records, because we knew sooner or later one of the lawyers would come after us on our records. We doubled out double records. Those records are still upstairs, I believe, in the safe, and the records from that application are that high off the floor. So there was a lot of detail, but we've made sure that we had a double system. We found out he, one of them appealed the record-keeping, but we had a separate system in place, and realized one of the things that he appealed was because he hadn't put it in, simply hadn't submitted to the board. We didn't have it in either one of them. So we knew this was going to happen, and that's going to be on the planning board. They're going to have to really be organized and make sure, but eventually it's all going to come back on Jacob. It's all of these issues. He gets the phone calls from these applicants. So my comment is, the moratorium will help. It will help you get organized, or help the planning board get organized, and especially the staff.
[39:55] Council Chair/Mayor: Anyone else? I'm going to close the public hearing. Okay.
[40:05] Councilor: Anyone from the council? There was a hand at the last second. Okay. Hi friends.
[40:17] Brenna Youngblood (public commenter): Brenna Youngblood, Millville Root. Just wanted to come up and say that I'm in support of the moratorium still. I haven't changed my mind since the last two meetings. And that I could not agree more with everything that all of my other friends have come up and said in support of said moratorium. Him, I think we need to think about the future of our community and the longevity of it and people staying, and I just don't think the data center is gonna help any of that. I didn't prepare anything, so I don't have much else to say. I just wanted to note that. Thank you.
[40:56] Council Chair/Mayor: Can everybody talk a little louder?
[40:58] Katrina Bissheimer (public commenter): Straight out of here and there. Sure.
[41:07] Councilor: Council, do you have anything to add?
[41:14] Council Chair/Mayor: We have, the council can add stuff when we take this up on the agenda.
[41:19] Councilor: Okay, we'll wait until later. Sure.
[41:25] Council Chair/Mayor: New ordinances to consider. We have the first reading this evening of the ordinance amending Bucksport Town Code A250-41 to clarify the authority of council committees. We discussed that last time. Any questions? We'll have a public hearing in a second reading of that at our next meeting. We need that motion. Yes, motion to approve. Sorry, thank you. It's been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments? All [Councilor: the favor agenda] items we have the, we've had the public hearing now the second reading in action on the ordinance repealing and replacing dependencies A-H of the General Assistance Ordinance for the period of October 1, 2026 through September Questions? All those in favor? We need a motion. Motion approved. I'll get it together. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor?
[42:30] Councilor: Opposed? We'll start a new streak here. All right.
[42:35] Council Chair/Mayor: Second reading and action on moratorium ordinance on data centers in the town of Bucksport, Maine. That's a pleasure. The council motion approved. Second moving second. Questions comments from the council. Just a commentary on, and I promise I don't have anything long printed to read this time, but related to size, regardless of size, all of them need regulation of some sort that we don't have addressed in our current code, so I just wanted to be known. Let
[43:14] Councilor: the follow up on mr. Chapman's comments earlier about the main data center advisory council. We keep bringing, I keep bring, we whoever we keep bringing talking about this council that's been put in place. I want you to understand that this council consists of about 17 members right now, and then the public have also been in and out of this discussion. They include the co-chairs, main Department of Energy Resources, the other is the Department of Environmental Protection. I won't go through the list of 17, but there's some Pretty notable people in here from Chief Information Officer Jackson Laboratory, the president of Verse and Power, president of Maine Connect Connectivity, very influential people that are, that are in here now. I haven't seen the 12 pay read the draft report that Mr. Chapman is talking about, but you can google just like I'm doing here now, and the main Denta Center data center Advisory Council, it reports that they are currently refining its initial draft recommendation ahead of submitting the final report, as we know is going to be due at the end of January. To Ralph's point, to Mr. Chapman's point, the key focus areas of the draft recommendations, ratepayer protection, including acting Department of Energy Resources Commissioner, emphasized the power and infrastructure costs associated with large, small data centers, borne entirely by developers rather than main residents and businesses. Another bold item is the grid capacity and market spikes. The public utilities Commissioner and public advocates have raised concerns over heavy data center demand could shrink the grid headroom and drive up local supply market prices, a lot of what you noted and brought forward to us tonight. Clean energy requirements, council members remain divided on whether to mandate today data centers procure a specific percentage or a hundred percent of their energy from renewable sources, or to align with mark mains carbon neutral goals, or strict mandates in their essentially a de facto development band. Environmental and permitting standards discussions cover clarifying local permitting processes and strengthening rules around noise infrastructure, water consumption, cooling fluids, you get the idea. It's, it's Campbell soup, everything that you've been chatting about tonight, it's going to be, hopefully it's going to be in there. Again, we may be able to find it here, this draft copy that we're, we're talking about. I don't, we sort of know the name of a company who might have committed, chatted with the town back in June and so forth. If the name of that company is correct, they are an eight billion beers and boy billion dollar corporation they were bought by a company that is a 41 billion dollar corporation they're roughly a 50 billion dollar operation that might show interest in Bucksport we are a 16 million dollar municipality to the point of those that have spoken tonight if they decide that Bucksport looks pretty damn good to them they're going to come after us like a runaway gorilla and it's going to be important that planning board town council citizens we're going to need some pretty significant lawyer representation when that gorilla breaks loose if it breaks loose so I'm in I'm in favor of the moratorium tonight I think there's a lot of work to be done there's a lot of technical issues strategic technical issues and just reading this overview of the draft I'm really looking forward to that to see what the state wants to do so thank you for listening I
[47:36] Council Chair/Mayor: just also wanted to mention to a citizens point about public input and one thing the state economic development study noted that citizen input hadn't happened yet in that in the 2025 study so I kind of want to underline and highlight that if we do move a moratorium through tonight that we also consider a work group that involves some level of citizen input some level of expertise as well as know that we have expertise on stuff there's other elements as well and just to sort of keep that on that radar because even the state's report indicated that public input hadn't been a part of that discernment if
[48:21] Councilor: we have to get down the experts to put a committee or form together and stuff how are we gonna do that if they charge money that we don't necessarily have yeah I mean I guess we
[48:35] Council Chair/Mayor: don't know the answer to that we may have experts within our citizenry right
[48:39] Councilor: but if the citizen wants to not have one they're going to be biased it has would have to be somebody who has no skin in the game that makes sense somebody on the outside yeah
[48:57] Council Chair/Mayor: I mean I can't project biases of people who with expertise I don't I don't know the answer to that I do think the risk far outweighs the concern of that at the table though you know our code enforcement officer has a skill set absolutely we have we've heard from an engineer tonight we've heard from a scientist tonight I think we do have some citizens that may have some input we have some studies that are forthcoming from the state granted there for larger data centers but there's also there's a Lot of regulation happening around the state of Maine that could be something we clean. I listen to the Brunswick meeting minutes that was mentioned last time, and the reason they actually brought in the moratorium was to hear more. If you dig into the minutes, it wasn't necessarily about a public notice, it was more they wanted to dig into more regulation. So I suspect the state will build its knowledge and muscle around the profit itself, so it may not necessarily be a huge expense. It depends, I don't have the answer to that, but I certainly shouldn't stop us from taking the wise step to pause, do our best due diligence to build regulation around something that we don't have all
[50:11] Councilor: the, it's better do it sooner rather than wait. You know, sit on it for a little bit and then you know like form happen, just go after the information like right away, not wait a couple weeks and then and then go for it. I mean, that's that's a
[50:29] Council Chair/Mayor: pleasure of the council, but I think my just my point on that is that I don't think we have the information right now, and to sort of rush something out in two weeks without the information, I don't know what kind of ordinance, and because it's more than electrical engineering ordinances right, there's land use, there's there's lots of different regulatory intersections with this type of infrastructure that hasn't really been widely used in Maine, small or large. I mean even the smaller ones. So let's say 10 megawatts for example is considered medium, not small or micro, right? I mean that's a fairly decent sized data center. The one in Brunswick is not next to municipal buildings and things like that. Councilor Eastman mentioned one at the last meeting that close to buildings and that's a good story right, but there's just a lot to learn, and I think we don't have enough to read proposals without regulating. I don't think we have enough to regulate it within two weeks either though I'm
[51:33] Councilor: not saying regular no, I'm just saying forming a committee like if you know if we're all for a moratorium to form a committee like what mr. Peterson said at the last minute he goes if you're gonna look into this do it right away and not you know wait a little bit to form something that committee a workgroup
[51:51] Council Chair/Mayor: Some sort of due diligence. I'm not prescribing what it would look like, a bit more than just sort of us trying to come up with an ordinance without any sort of external expertise at the table. I think that would just be what due diligence, yeah. May not be, look, may not look like a committee, but I certainly think public should have input and the public should be at the table. I'm not
[52:11] Councilor: saying they shouldn't, I think so, I think they should read it back into
[52:15] Council Chair/Mayor: Okay, that's a great discussion. We'll see with more toward the action on the moratorium it goes, and then we can absolutely take a look at that.
[52:35] Councilor: Councilor Reagan, I'm not letting you pass. A lot of the things discussed in the room tonight are true regarding hyperscale mega facilities, and the only reason I still cannot support a moratorium is I don't like the blanket get of throwing it right across the board of everything. They need to be separated from small to large in the hyper scale what they're talking about. They, there's definitely some concerns. I would support a moratorium if it was regarding the large scale, but there's no proof that I've seen, and there's very little negative information on small data centers. No,,
[53:34] Council Chair/Mayor: couldn't we address size in regulatory work though? Would it need to be addressed in a moratorium? Wouldn't that be addressed in developing regulation and code, the size
[53:47] Councilor: of a data center? But I think the small ones, we don't need a moratorium. We can have our CEO work on it right now because I think he's fully capable of writing, an ordinance for this, but we, so am I correct that if, for example, we vote for one and then we, even if something were developed in a short span of time, it doesn't have to be 180 days, so it wouldn't, even if the length of time it took, the most basic ordinance we could still put it in place, yeah. And if the moratorium goes through, which I believe it's going to, that's fine, we can work with that. Just I'd hate to see intentional dragging of feet just to, I would agree with that, because we have a very talented and skilled CEO that could do most of this on his own, and what he doesn't know, we know in past practices he would find out the answers. That's
[54:59] Council Chair/Mayor: All I'm saying, okay, real quickly, I didn't want to have to do that, but I've got rules I have to follow, and that kind of element that can't happen. It's in the town charter. It's my responsibility to make sure it doesn't happen. Really quickly, I didn't plan on speaking this evening, but I'm going to say, I'm going to kind of reiterate what I said last time. I am going to vote for the moratorium. I'm going to vote for the moratorium because I do think that I want to take the opportunity to review all of this, for lack of a better word, slow this down. But I want to be very clear what I mean by slow this down, not drag feet, not say okay well we've put a moratorium and then we've got nope, it's let's take a look at exactly where, let's get as much data as possible, deal with the facts, put together something to get a hundred by a hundred percent agree, as much input as possible, make sure that we publicize anything we can, and I yeah, then this, I think you can pick up where I'm going with that, so I'm not gonna believe in the point you talked about for the next 10 minutes, as you all know that I'm capable that, but anyway, yes, I 'm hearing everybody on the council, I think everybody here this evening, and that's my opinion on where this is. Unless there's anything else from the council, we're going to take a moment here in a minute, in a few second. Anyone else? All right, we have a motion in a second on the table. We've given everybody a chance. The council like to proceed? Pleasure the council, I mean we have a motion in second. All those in favor, opposed, abstain. Resolved 2027-29 approving the award for the November 3rd 2026 municipal election. Most of motion, second. Questions or comments? All
[56:54] Councilor: those in favor, opposed. This needs signature, yes.
[56:59] Town Manager: General assistance ordinances, okay, resolved
[57:12] Council Chair/Mayor: 2027-30 is approving the appointment of Lindsay Dow our town clerk as election warden for the November 3rd 2026 general and municipal election. Motion to approve, second. Result 2027-31, Authorizing Rule 80-K Court Action for Land Use Violations. I know there was a lot of information provided in your packets around that and why some of the steps that the Code Enforcement Officers tried to avoid that. That. I'm not going to call them up unless you have any specific questions for me. What is the pleasure of your counsel for that? Motion to approve. Second. Motion and a second. Any questions or comments? Luke, did you have anything you wanted to say? I don't have any questions. Okay. All those in favor? Opposed. Thank you. Resolve 2027-32 is authorizing listing for sale of town-owned property located at 206 Upper Long Pond Road.
[58:38] Town Manager: Do you have anything more to add to that? This was the piece that the town put out for bid and receive no bids on. Since received analysis from two workers realty who the town uses for our real estate items and that analysis is included in your packet. Rich is here. Some this has been his. Yes. Okay. That's. Sorry, I didn't hear you. Nope, you're all good. Which one are we talking about? Upper Long Pond. Upper Long Pond. So you should have a notice from me regarding Upper Long Pond. We got no bids. As you can see from the opinion of value from Dan Burpee, it looks like it's going to fall in that price range that's in your report right there. We did have a citizen come to us asking to purchase it for that amount in your packet as well. So give that up to the pleasure of the council on what you'd like to do. Resolve. This written to list.
[59:47] Councilor: I'd prefer to list it not just take 40,000 right at this moment.
[59:59] Council Chair/Mayor: All is in favor? Opposed? All right. Resolve 2027 dash 33 approving the liquor our license renewal for carriers mainly lobster. Pleasure the council. Thank you. Motion approved. Second. Question to comments. All those in favor? Opposed? Cute. Resolve 2027-35 approving a first-time food services license for Aroma Joe's. Of course I did. Resolve 2027-34 proving the festival public entertainment license for Thrills and Spills. Motion to approve. Second. Questions or comments? No, because I was so anxious apparently. I'm back to resolve 2027-35 which is approving a first-time food services license for Aroma Joes. Motion approved. Second. Move to second. Questions or comments. All those in favor. Resolve 2027-36 approving the festival public entertainment license for the Christmas tree lighting and winter festival. Before we get rolling into that, I want to highlight that Christmas tree lighting and winter festival something that's being proposed by the Bucksport Bay business coalition that is headed by council by. Terry Doty, so if there are any questions for her from either the council or the public, I'm going to ask Councilman Doty to step off the desk and cease momentarily her role as councillor and act as the head of her business, and we'll move forward from there. So playing by the rules, what is the pleasure of the council? I
[1:01:59] Councilor: have a couple questions, concerns. We got the notice for the parking, and I know that's been resolved, but it's still in the back of my head that is an issue. My bigger concern is it's the same exact time as a festival from the nonprofit that we've already approved a festival for, [Hans Kirschholz (public commenter): parade] of lights and the fireworks, Wednesdays on Main and Seaboard, Wednesdays on Main raised the money, Seaboard donated money, we've approved it. I think this is taking away from their event. If it was a little earlier in the day, like not right coinciding with those times, might be different. Please. Yeah, hello Gary. Hello. Well, I got tasked with doing the town tree lighting, and I met with Economic Development and the Public Works Director, and we talked about doing the Winter Festival months ago, and we thought it would be good and an added addition to the Christmas Lights Parade to have this at the other end and just make it one big event. So that's why, so it was coordinated with the with the people that are doing the lights parade, so they knew about it, but didn't they voice concerns about it? didn't I thought yeah Emily yeah we got an email a few months ago well it's part it's part of the town tree lighting, so that's why I added a little something to it. But my point is the person that organized the event that's already been approved did voice reservations and asked, I thought the question was, could
[1:04:10] Council Chair/Mayor: it be moved for a time change or debt move it down where everything else
[1:04:13] Councilor: already was I thought I can't move it moving it down to the town dock was and suggested but the town tree is at the opposite end so it's at that corner at the intersection so I can't do the town tree lighting because when the tree goes up so does Santa's Village and the Santa's Village is from 430 to 8 the light parade is at 6 the fireworks are at 7 so it just gives a little something for people to go to I mean they don't have to go to Santa's Village but I do want to do the tree lining for the town did she wasn't it her this had
[1:05:05] Council Chair/Mayor: An email, I do have an evening, I have an email from her. I'm just realizing that it was too good, it was to six of us. It's a, it's a pub matter of public record, so I'll read it so that we're all talking on the same page, because anyway I'm concerned about a festival being planned that is at the same time as the holiday lights paraded on the same street. Maybe suggested it could be moved early in the day. This is, this came in on September the 4th. She states that she, I'm gonna use the word in quotation marks because I'm just reading this so I don't know anything I know rich has already reached out regarding this issue this would create a full day of holiday fun instead of competing events on the same street the road will not be closed until a good hour so if the Sun sets I do plan to speak at account at the council meeting the application is presented to address the concern Emily's not here to see that 's just the email that was given but according to the code enforcement officer
[1:06:07] Councilor: so in my thing the light parade goes down that way, so and mine's in the opposite end, so it's not like we've run, you know, cross paths anyway, so I
[1:06:28] Council Chair/Mayor: I know we received an email from today about the parking, and I know that the application had highlighted that perhaps it would be, no, wasn't sure where people are gonna park. I certainly should
[1:06:39] Councilor: share that concern too, but that goes with any big event, you know, you get them down there early if you want a good spot, and one thing I'm hopeful in the future if you're gonna do events you come get approval before you advertise them, because as we have this conversation, it puts us in a tough spot where you've already advertised that you're going to do something. Well, the size of it, I had to start doing it because I didn't know about the... No, I mean, it's not approved. So if you start advertising for an event that's not approved, it puts all of us on the spot that we have to approve it. I did not think that the town tree lighting would be a big deal or... It's competing with another event, which we're told. I didn't even know that it was an issue. I didn't even get my name on that email. I was left out. Tonight is the first time I'm even hearing her name, so that's, that's why
[1:07:26] Council Chair/Mayor: it's friend is my email to you now, make sense earlier, yes, and I didn't realize
[1:07:31] Councilor: you weren't on this email, so I'm gonna totally, and I did, I did work with Rich And Matt months ago, and when I put my applications in well in advance, I get, you know, why are you putting it so far in advance? Well, because I'm playing, so if I do it too close, then I'm doing too short and, you know. I know, but when you're sitting in that seat and your for-profit business is trying to create an event, it should be an approved event before you start pushing it. It just should, is my opinion. And that's fine. I mean, it's just, otherwise it would appear biased, and I don't think that's fair. Well, I've done plenty of community events and stuff, and I 'm juggling a bunch, you know, a couple right now and stuff, and I one I didn't think so. One more thing, and I don't mean to seem like I'm attacking you, because the town can't afford to do events, so when you do events, it's only good for the town. I get, I get that, but somebody did mention to me, and when I thought about it, they have a valid point, if Wednesday's on Main has paid for that extra service from the fire, the only day though, I mean, I was trying to contribute some extra fun. I did not think it was going to be a gigantic issue, and I feel that if Emily had a problem with what I was doing, she should have included me on the email or contacting me directly. Well, this wasn't Emily who came to me. This, well, no, I'm just saying in the beginning, because she's the one that sent a letter that did not have my name on it. This was not concerned that they've paid that money. Is that fair for you to have an event and not share that expense? I share expenses with the town all the time on every event that I do so I'm doing this for the town for the tree lighting so why would I mean I wouldn't think I would be charged to do a town tree lighting. Rich, did you, I was told you wanted to say
[1:09:40] Town Manager: so Terry came and met with Matt and I in this room a long time ago, so I think the first thing we need to do is come up with what is a reasonable amount of time that someone's, because we talked about this when I had no idea how the event was going to happen, because it was not budgeted for. It was going to happen in my thoughts, or it was going to be just like the year of COVID and just have a stationary with no fireworks, with nothing, because I cleared out the budget. So I figured if it was going to go in that route, why not have a tree lighting? You can go, to the end, have the tree lighting. Now I did suggest and I did ask on multiple occasions about doing it in the gazebo and having Santa's Village down at the town dock area because that's also where s'mores lounge happens, ornament making happens and whatnot. It didn't work because the tree has to be at a certain spot, whatever. But just so that we're clear, we did speak months ago. I don't know why the application is long after the fact because in that meantime it worked hard to get the sponsorship from Seaboard, the sponsorship for Wednesdays on Main. So now it does make it difficult because they are donating and I had to make sure that I was clear when I spoke with Seaboard and with Paula that the money for police, fire and public works, who are all union employees and all need to be paid by the union contract in that form, that was going solely for that. So that's what I said. Now Terry's off at the other end where there is nothing and barricades would suffice and if it's dual events at that point, I mean if we spoke about it again, I did ask for the other side but I understand she wants to have the tree in the spot that it's always been. So you just want to make sure that's there. She cheated, I like, I don't know why it took months for that for this to come to this committee but we did meet right in here and I think it was in July or yeah August because it
[1:11:43] Councilor: said 60 days or so to submit your application. So I did. I'm
[1:11:52] Council Chair/Mayor: gonna state for in the interest of full transparency how this process works. When you have a counselor who is obviously in the position that counselor Doty is in, except when she's standing there and I call her Terry, we, if you go to, and I'll be as brief about this as possible, when you have an arrangement like this, the town charter specifically highlights what a conflict of interest is and then it's the mayor that, the mayor that gets to decide whether or not the conflict of interest and it's pretty obvious that a conflict of interest does exist here. But the conflict of interest isn't in the traditional sense of the word because at that point that I determine that, it gives anyone with a particular conflict of interest, in this case Councillor Doty, a set of rules of which to abide by in which she can basically run her business as well as be on the town council and etc. One thing that I want to make clear, because I mentioned a moment ago that I emailed her in full transparency, before Councillor Doty was even sworn in, she and I had this conversation, and I told her how this was going to go, or it may have been the week after she was sworn in, but I also told her, whenever you and I communicate about this, I'm going to communicate about this with you via email. Because then it protects Councilor Doty, it protects the Council, and if there's any question about she and I having a conversation about it, if somebody were to say, I want to see those conversations, they're just going to get them, right, full transparency. This is the first time she and I have had to have in this entire over the course of this almost entire year I've had to have this conversation. I just want to highlight for the folks here the process that we've been using on this, and State one more thing that I just own, but I want to state it again. There was an email on September the 4th from Emily Fitzgerald. That's a map, an email to the council as a matter of public record, unless it's dealing with something that is really right, and I didn't realize that it was only addressed to six councillors until I just looked at it this evening. I see it, and I think I even in a way referred to it in my email earlier to Councillor Doty, which may have been confusing, and now I realize why. I just want everybody in the room to be on the exact same page, and so there's not what the hell's going on here on that front. And I'll own any part of it where there was any confusion to
[1:14:24] Councilor: me this doesn't have it hasn't I'm trying to separate out it's not a conflict of interest it's not that it's what business is trying to do something it's just that a business is trying to do something so it is there still like you said Seaboard is are they doing the photos last year they did photos they're not doing photos no Seaboard is
[1:14:52] Town Manager: paying for the fireworks okay Wednesdays I mean is paying for town
[1:14:56] Councilor: salaries and so there's no like the actual things that are taking place none of it is the same except the idea that there was a year that they did
[1:15:10] Town Manager: photos there? Camden did photos. So what happens is we create the day and then groups come and ask if they can, and it's a community event, so when they ask I say yes, where would you like to do it. Great Pond Mountain took over the S'mores Lounge when Main Street Bus Board ended. Deer Report opens and gives out cookies and cocoa. A group last year did free burgers and hot dogs in front of Bayside Beauty. So it really is an all-encompassing community event where everyone comes together and does all this on the side. And Wednesdays on Main's part of this has always been the puppeteers, the Frogtown Mountain puppeteers, and Wednesdays on Main's doing that as well, at four o'clock on that day. So a lot of different groups, non-profits, banks, for-profits, I mean, they all are involved in the event.
[1:16:03] Councilor: And so, if the, say like, if they're doing a non-profit hat wants a space at the waterfront then they don't pay anything to do that but if but then if other people are paying to be at the other end I mean is that how that works that's go down there again it's just it's convoluted in my mind because it because the structures are so different because it's a business versus the town. Because I am a for-profit, it was written into, I guess, where the policy or whatever and stuff that I am to pay. If I do a community event and I have vendors, like for the vendor, I give the town back 50% of all my vendor fees to use town property. So that's what I do. non-profits I that's a whole different thing but I do pay money to the town to use the land there's
[1:17:09] Council Chair/Mayor: no there's no this is a free event correct this all my
[1:17:12] Councilor: vendor was free and I still paid so yeah but free to go right but not but not free that like the vendors are paying to be there right to help which offset right to buy the to pay for Santa's village question my
[1:17:33] Council Chair/Mayor: question sort of just related to sort of the messiness of the two combinations a hundred plus people expected to attend I think it might be really hard to discern which event needs public safety and those types of things when we have an event that's already going to have a significant number so just be curious well I did how we would discern that flow from an event that's happening and sponsored by businesses and a non-profit it's like the ice cream store does a cookie stand but it's in their store and it's not in the public space. The difference between this for-profit, it's in a public space, the and it's really unfortunate. To your point, like this is a wonderful event, but I find it a little clunky because a hundred plus people, public safety certainly is it going to be during their work asking which event were you at when we had to provide the service. Well how do we discern that. Well I think the
[1:18:40] Councilor: reason why public safety is there because public safety has to block off
[1:18:43] Council Chair/Mayor: the roads to the parade route. No I understand that, but there's one sort of the nonprofit structures are they having to pay for the public safety is
[1:18:54] Town Manager: what I understood is that so on main contributed towards the cost of public
[1:19:01] Council Chair/Mayor: safety to shut down the roadways right. And so I'm just a bit oh I see maybe I'm misunderstanding. No I don't yeah so my that's my concern like how do we know definitively which event caused the public safety charge or the trash. I mean the trash is a little more easy to discern so i just it's just hard to sort of that line is so
[1:19:20] Councilor: difficult because there's been years that i would say has brought in two to twenty five hundred people that night
[1:19:30] Council Chair/Mayor: it's not the same as like the alamo doing something or the ice cream store doing something because they're doing it within the their own business. They're not doing it on public property. This is on public property and so i just want to be sure that it's an equitable situation related to who's paying the bill for the service that the town is providing and I just want to be sure that it's it's fair. There the public safety is
[1:19:57] Councilor: gonna be at that end handling that. I'm gonna be at this and I don't think and that I'm gonna need public safety for a tree lighting but
[1:20:10] Council Chair/Mayor: there won't there be
[1:20:11] Councilor: public safety at both ends of the road with that many people. They're all gonna to intermingle the people seems to be a little off considering it's on the same
[1:20:22] Council Chair/Mayor: night as those festival and that's the part that like I mean we're not going to be having a line at sort of the walkway and saying that's a hundred people we have to stop. That's all I'm saying like how do we know now the hundred plus
[1:20:33] Councilor: could be actually more festival and it could be a lot less and not because there are stuff there is other things going on so I just threw that number out
[1:20:40] Council Chair/Mayor: there yeah and I think that's just my point yeah it's a great event just the ambiguity of the number right it's right I
[1:20:52] Councilor: mean do you think that I would Need, I mean, when we spoke and stuff, there wasn't really concerned for public safety needed for the tree lighting, so and you know I would say that a
[1:21:08] Deputy Chief Denning (Police): significant amount of our staff is going to be related to traffic for the parade, but if when the fireworks release and you have people there, we're certainly gonna have to staff that section for people just like we do at
[1:21:23] Councilor: the other end, so it's possible. I wish that was brought up though when the application, or could it be just like regular patrolling? Well,
[1:21:40] Deputy Chief Denning (Police): no, because the fireworks, we assign staff to each crosswalk and the traffic light, which will be where you are, and if people are dumping out of your section to use the crosswalk to get across the road, we'll, I mean, that would be staffed regardless of whether you're there or not, yeah, so it's hard to tell where staff is going to be
[1:22:00] Councilor: required, yeah. Well, if there is somebody down there, the same thing, I'll pay for it, if you, if somebody, if there needs to be an officer down there, I will pay TO HAVE SOMEBODY MAKE SURE THAT THE PEDESTRIANS ARE OKAY. I DON'T CARE. IT'S FINE.
[1:22:22] Town Manager: I'VE GOT TWO MORE THINGS TO MAKE THIS EVEN MORE COMPLICATED. SO THE FIRST ONE IS FOR THE FOR-PROFITS. ACTUALLY, WHEN A FOR-PROFIT CALLS THE OFFICE, I ADVISE THE LADIES UPSTAIRS, OR AT LEAST SEND IT TO ME, IF NOT, THAT THEY ACTUALLY NEED TO BE ON PRIVATE PROPERTY. I DON'T. FOR THIS EVENT, I'VE NEVER LET FOR-PROFITS BE ON. NOW, FOR THIS, WITH TERI, WHICH SHE'S BEEN DOING THE EVENTS IN THE TOWN, AND THERE'S NO BUDGET FOR THE TOWN TO DO IT, like I said, the plan itself wasn't set. Now the new wrinkle in all this, the town dock project, we had nine people, five companies show up, and if this project begins and gets approved, which will be at your next council meeting, the works going to start November 15th, and the town dock area is going to have to be a staging area, and that parking lots going to need to be shut down, so I might even need to rethink the whole thing, like they won't, we won't be able to do, we might have to move s'mores lounge, maybe if the group still wants to do it, or if someone else takes it over from them after working with them, then it might need to be closer to the Historical Society, because we're gonna need the whole section blocked off with heavy equipment there, or the, that's a new rate parking lot across the street, or the parking lot, yeah, I mean, yes, so that's a new wrinkle to throw into all of our festivities. This one just came up.
[1:23:45] Councilor: Wednesday, if that was the kid, I mean, we don't know yet, but if that was the case, could we shut down the section of Main Street for the fireworks for that 15
[1:23:55] Deputy Chief Denning (Police): minutes? I'm usually never in favor of it. Okay, I mean, could it be done? We've done
[1:24:03] Councilor: done it before. You know more than I do. I'm just asking a question. I'm not gonna
[1:24:09] Deputy Chief Denning (Police): ask that official. That's official, it's on record. Yeah, I mean, I could be done. I'm never in favor. We again, we did it for one event and it was, it was difficult. I
[1:24:23] Council Chair/Mayor: think we're in the weeds here a little bit. Yeah, okay, but I mean, it's a good discussion. I just wonder if there is anything specifically planned for your event that takes place right
[1:24:45] Councilor: at 4 o'clock, only speaking on behalf of the Frogtown Puppeteers that pack the Alamo Theater with kids, is there something that's going to draw that attention to Santa's Village at 4 o'clock? Well, this Santa's Village is going to go 430 to 8, so if there's a gap at Santa's Village because they're at the Alamo, then so be it 's you've answered the question for me in a good way, and that is kids will go to fill the Alamo at 4 o'clock. If there's not enough room for all those kids, don't go talk to Santa. Yeah, right, exactly. We just don't, just something that is, have to make a decision, do I want to talk to Santa? That's why it goes till 430 to 8, so great. Yeah.
[1:25:35] Council Chair/Mayor: I know any other question? I have a question on the
[1:25:42] Councilor: actual proposed on the actual paperwork for the specific questions they get asked on, so trash removal and bathrooms, the bathrooms, are they have to be the must be closed in December, right? Let me take that back. The CSO building does get
[1:26:01] Town Manager: closed to the public, but it would be reopened for that event. That one's heated. The problem in the winter time, we don't have staff down here, so it tends to have issues, so it's been locked as of November 1st, but it could be open for
[1:26:15] Councilor: that event, so they'll be just one bathroom and it'll be down here. No, it will be down there, the one down. Oh, I got you, it's down there, and okay, yeah.
[1:26:29] Town Manager: These bathrooms down here, it's not heated, right, so they'll be locked up November 1st.
[1:26:44] Councilor: No. No, I don't put my, no, sorry. Yeah, I just want me if somebody does have an issue with anything that I'm doing, please contact me. I mean, pretty much everybody inside get ahold of me with No, with no disrespect to Emily, but you know I've heard both you and Rich say that you got together months and months and months ago, and this was the take. Did Emily come in and talk to Rich to try and understand what was going on at the, at the same time? I understand, I appreciate the discussion that has gone on here tonight. I think something fell through the crack, but we're having more discussion on this than we did the data center. This is about a tree lighting, it is about another activity that you can go from the Alamo across the street to Sanders Village, have a little more fun that evening, weather permitting. The public safety director over here says yes, we've got the staff, we've got it covered. Otherwise I assume there will be routine patrols going on during the evening and so forth. I'd like to chalk this up as lessons learned, move on with this season, especially with the fact that we've got, we've had and continue to have budget restriction, and we found a way to celebrate a holiday and get on with it.
[1:28:28] Council Chair/Mayor: That's Councilor Reps. At least we've done our due diligence. I agree, I don't have a motion yet. I'll
[1:28:39] Councilor: make the motion that you did now, move forward with the ordinance as described. The
[1:28:51] Council Chair/Mayor: result yet the result is described is there a second I'll second it so we can move forward on this I'll second it has been moved and seconded any further questions or comments okay sorry I don't want to
[1:29:15] Councilor: drag this out, but I'm looking at this thing, it has all these decisions and their conditional approvals, but is there any way to just make any adjustment to the application and then approve it? What sort of, Matt Justin, I have a
[1:29:29] Council Chair/Mayor: suggestion to consultarians would could we consider waiving the fee for that seaboard is going to cover for public safety across the board so that 's what it is honey okay I meant Wednesday's me I mean I'm getting I'm
[1:29:50] Town Manager: getting some nose, so it's, it's not budgeted for, and I think you're budgeting how much for that? Oh, okay, I didn't understand that. I should have
[1:30:01] Council Chair/Mayor: perhaps asked that question before I said that. No motion, a second, all those in favor, opposed, abstain, yep, all those in favor, opposed, okay, upstate, thank you everyone, I appreciate it, thank you. Town managers report, thank
[1:30:40] Katrina Bissheimer (public commenter): you dog.
[1:30:42] Town Manager: Licenses will be available beginning October 15th. Renewals may be completed either in person or at the town office or online. New registrations must be completed at the town office. Closure work at the landfill being done by Sergeants it continues to progress. Recent work includes continued erosion control maintenance included topsoiling, seeding, and mulching of the north slope. Sub-base gravel placement has begun along the access road on the north side slope to support drainage improvements. Absentee ballots for the November 3rd general and municipal election are now available at the town office. Voters may vote in person at the office, pick up a ballot to take home, or call the office to request a ballot be mailed to them. Final day to request an absentee ballot is Thursday October 29. All voted absentee ballots must be returned to the town clerk no later than 8 p.m. On election night the Greenfield Penobscot Estuary Remediation Trust will host a community meeting and drop-in session on Wednesday October 21st from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Alamo. The session will provide an update on ongoing efforts to address mercury contamination in Penobscot River estuary sediments. This week marks the start of the transfer station's new schedule. The transfer station is now open Saturday through Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is closed Wednesday through Friday. And finally, tomorrow marks Ann Holmes' 20-year anniversary working for the Town of Bucksport. Ann plays a very important role in the Town's day-to-day financial and administrative functions, much of which happens behind the scenes but is essential to keeping town operations running smoothly and it's a great asset to our team and we are very fortunate to have a number of employees who have dedicated 10 20 and even 30 years of service to the town excuse me
[1:32:44] Council Chair/Mayor: Discussion of items not on the agenda for council and public Mr. Chapman
[1:32:51] Ralph Chapman (public commenter): Suggestion and a question the suggestion Mr. Mayor is that you announced the results of votes after you take them. My question is what was the vote on the moratorium its implementation. Those of us in the audience try to quickly look at the hand raisings that might be a question for the town clerk but I noticed that the minutes had it incorrect for last at the last meeting help all of us I was sitting next to some members of the press at one time when there was confusion on what the vote was so could you tell us what the vote was this Evening on the moratorium
[1:33:43] Town Manager: Implementation, I have five to two, but I look at Lindsay for, yeah, thank you.
[1:33:52] Council Chair/Mayor: Anyone else? I'm not a resident of Bushmore, so I just want to be sure I had that dispensation right. Absolutely, step forward. Yes, but for those who do not know me, my name is Chris the back I reporter for the River Observer. I just want to take the chance to invite everybody here, everybody watching this, and everybody who will watch this between now and then. We're having a sort of public meet-and-greet over at the Crumpet on Wednesday, October 28th, from 4 to 5 30. My name is on the flyer, so I guess I should be there, and I'll have some of my colleagues there too, including my boss Nat Barrows and some other people. So if you want to get a chance to pitch some ideas, tell us what we're doing wrong, or you could, we're doing good, anything in between, just want to make sure that everyone knows that you're all invited and we'd love to see there. So thank you very much, mr. Mayor. Absolutely, we
[1:34:46] Town Manager: had a bus for Parks and Recreation Board meeting this past Wednesday. Really quickly, the YMCA provided an update on the Falls sports numbers are down across the board. We had 157 kids participate last year, 110 which were bucks, for this year 127 kids are participating between soccer, football, and cheering. 102 of those are buck sport. The biggest decline was youth football from 41 participants to 18, and the biggest driver of that is because fifth and sixth graders were needed to form a middle school team, and due to the physical toll of football on the body, it was not recommended to allow the kids to do both. So that left three fifth graders, two OF THE THREE FOUND FOOTBALL IN OTHER COMMUNITIES. CHEERING WAS DOWN FROM 31 TO 23. SOCCER ACTUALLY WENT UP FROM 85 TO 86. REPARATIONAL BASKETBALL REGISTRATION WILL BEGIN NOVEMBER 1ST. TRAVEL BASKETBALL REGISTRATION CLOSES AT THE END OF OCTOBER. CURRENTLY THERE'S ONE CONFIRMED FIFTH, SIXTH GRADE PROGRAM WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF ADDITIONAL PROGRAMS, TWO ADDITIONAL programs. Last year there was only one fifth sixth grade program. I want to thank the volunteers who coached the youth sports this fall for us. U6 soccer, Calum Deachin and Monica Goodine. U8 soccer, Manuel Sabalos, Cam Lawson, and Chelsea Brown. U10 soccer, Ryan Jarvis, Eric Murphy, Victoria Watkins, and John Boynton. U12 soccer, Sarah Lanford, Mike Garcelon, John Boynton, Jeff Grenier, and high School student athletes chairman Lauren Lugden and football, which is second through fourth grade, Larry Chambers. There were 25 non-residents who registered to participate in sports here in town. That breakdown was 10 from Orleans, six from Verona, four from Penobscot, three for Stockton Springs, and two for Blue Pill. That is the fun stuff. We took up a recommendation regarding the future of the Bucksport ice rink, and a unanimous decision was made to bring to the council to have that the committee would like to have the boards ripped off at the rink because of safety concerns. The rink is not being used, it's not being maintained, and right now while football or soccer going on there are other kids who are unattended to that are going in that area. We've tried the yellow caution tape and it's not going to work. The town has no money in reserves to take care of this, so it's our recommendation to make sure the public is safe and have that closed. We can begin work on that on Monday and we'll take the lumber out in pieces so that we're not overloading the transfer station with the tonnage all at one time. It's a
[1:37:42] Ralph Chapman (public commenter): holiday. Yeah, we'll start that on
[1:37:45] Town Manager: Tuesday. The update on the town well, update on the town pool, Mike Zielinski came, showed us how to shut it down, he did shut it down. We are going to winterize it. We did not come up with a plan for the future of the pool. There's no money budgeted for this year. In the spring we're going to try an ear test. If we do find it, again, we don't have any money to deal with this until, so it would have to be something that's brought up in the next budget session. So we're potentially looking at the pool not being open until at least July 1st. The tennis courts and basketball courts are in deteriorating condition. The tennis courts, we have to weed whack it in order to keep the grass from continuing to grow through. That did fail a test boarding report that was done a couple years ago. The basketball courts where the stand is and the hoop that's in concrete, the court itself is asphalt, at the seams on both ends are completely separated and we have a crack running down the middle that's about to join the same condition as the tennis courts. So the committee's got a lot of work. We're going to be meeting in January, but we're going to start to look up to shoring up some of these things that are becoming a hazard. Next step over the RSU had the light panel that had fallen off of the pole that supplies lights to the tennis court, concession stand for the softball field, and the scoreboard. They had that read attached CMP came down, and that's been taken care of. And I know the town manager myself are gonna have a meeting with the YMCA. Because there is an interim person, but that person's going there till December.
[1:39:40] Council Chair/Mayor: Committee meetings before our next. [Councilor: Item.] This is the mouthful. The next item requires the council to move it to a defensive session pursuant to one MRS 4056 a to discuss the employment appointment, assignment, duties, promotion, demotion, compensation, evaluation, disciplining, resignation, or dismissal of an individual.
[1:40:35] Christopher Johnson (public commenter): Nailed it. Motion to go into executive session. Second.