Lisbon council advances marijuana zoning change, delays veterans shelter vote

[0:07] Town Council Chair: All right. The council has exited executive session at 6.49. We have one thing in between now and the public hearing, which takes place at 7, so I think we can do that one thing. The next item on the agenda is good news and recognition, and first I'll turn the microphone, I guess, over to the town manager. [0:31] Town Manager (Sarah): Good evening. So for this item, I'm pleased to announce my appointment of Lee J. Feldman to the town's new assistant town manager position, effective October 19th. Lee J. brings extensive experience in planning, community development, and economic development. I believe his skill set will town's ability to deliver high-quality services and execute long-term community goals. Lee J.'s experiences and leadership style make him an excellent addition to our organization. His background in planning and community development aligns perfectly with the direction Lisbon is moving. Yes, we are. Together, we are committed to building a high-performing organization that prioritizes customer service, fosters transparency, and delivers results for our residents. And I'd like to allow Lee Jay to come up and introduce himself to the council. And welcome. [1:24] Speaker C (unidentified): Welcome. Buckle up. [1:28] Lee J. Feldman: I'm buckled up. Don't you worry. Mr. Chair, Council, I am Lee J. Feldman. Sarah, thank you very much for the introduction. I think she, I don't want to say overstates it, but certainly I bring a lot to the table for you in the way of ideas and issues. I've been doing this for a very long time. Just a little background on myself. I was born in Lewiston, raised in Auburn, graduate of Everett Little High School, University of Maine at Farmington graduate in geography and land use planning. Then went right into the workforce, and I worked at Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments doing two stints there. I was a transportation person under what is now ATRAC, Androscoggin Transportation Resource Commission. And at that time it was Lewiston-Auburn Comprehensive Transportation Study, LACS. Since that time, I have worked for the city of Auburn for 16 years, 12 as the principal planner doing development review, and 4 as the department director overseeing code enforcement and accounting staff at that time. I've also put in 12 years more recently with Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission down in York County where basically I was a hired hand on behalf of the towns to come out and support them with all the planning initiatives. Driving around the countryside, anywhere from Parsons Field and Newfield to Kittery, I assisted SACO numerous times. I assisted Biddeford a few times. So I've got a gamut of ideas and thoughts that I can bring to the table depending on the issues that we have and how we may be able to treat it and help folks. Most recently, I've done two and a half years down in Kennebunk, which is a great community, a very tough community to work in the sense that folks down there are very keyed in to issues and understand what's going on a great deal. So you really need to be on your game in order to work with those folks and be able to make things happen. And hopefully I will be able to do the same for you folks here. I am a resident of Lisbon. I live in Fox Run on Champaign Lane. I've been there since 2018. So I'm really committed to this area. My partner is a program manager with Bath-Brunswick Respite Care and we own a horse that we keep up in Wells. See, I'm thinking Southern Manigan. Up in Wales at Chelsea Kennedy's Performant Floor Center. So I'm here. I'll be starting as Saracen on the 19th and I'll be hitting the ground running. I've already been getting emails and other issues sent my way and tuned into the conversation, so I'm pretty excited about it. I'll be close to home for change rather than driving a lot of miles and being out until midnight and 2 o'clock in the morning and coming home in the cold weather, so I'm pretty excited about this. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome aboard. Thank you. [4:59] Town Council Chair: We're excited as well. And just, can I ask a clarifying question? If I wanted to, instead of just calling you Lee J. Feldman, would I call you Lee or Lee J.? What do you prefer? Either way. Lee J. works. Okay. I just want to make sure. If I'm shouting it from the other end of a hallway, are you going to turn around and look at me? [5:16] Speaker E (unidentified): I've been called many things. Good. [5:19] Town Council Chair: Well, we're really excited that you're here. We're thrilled about the expertise that you bring to the community. And as we look forward to kind of opening this new chapter for Lisbon, and we're glad that you're here and you're a part of it. Great. All right. Okay. While we're still hearing good news and recognition, kind of looking around on this side, does anybody on the council side have any good news and recognition that they'd like to share? Okay. Anybody in the community, is there any good news or recognition that you'd like to share? [5:55] Town Councilor: Okay. Please come on up. I just forgot. I want to just promote real quick. Abishan is having a car show this Saturday down at Warumbo from 10 to 2. So bring out your antique vehicles. It's five bucks to register a car and come on out and see all the other ones. [6:10] Town Council Chair: And I think, is that, which organization has that been? [6:12] Town Councilor: I think it's the American Legion? It's the American Legion and the Friends of Wurundjeri. Awesome. [6:18] Town Council Chair: Any other good news and recognition? So the next item on our agenda here is a public hearing, which technically I'm going to be on the right side of the law, cannot happen for another five minutes. So unless there's any objection from the council, I'd like to just come back to that. And we can do audience participation if everybody's good with that. So I'll ask the clerk to read the usual statement for item number six, because I don't remember it verbatim. This time, those in the audience who wish to speak may approach the lectern. Speakers are allotted up to three minutes to speak. Additionally, this section of the agenda is scheduled to last for 15 minutes. The council may waive either of these limits at its discretion. Please use the microphone and state your name for the record. This portion of the agenda is solely to address items that are in today's agenda. Okay, if anybody has anything that they'd like to bring to the council's attention that's on the agenda, the podium is open. If you have something that's not on the agenda, that's the next item after this. So anything that's on the agenda, the podium is open. We'd love to hear from you. Good [7:25] Planning Board member: evening, my name is, I'm here in my role as a member of the planning board here to speak on the Legion post 158 matters that are coming before you shortly. Just as a brief, I'm sure you weren't well aware, but explanation, this is our first stab at contract track zoning. We were approached by the Legion with the need to house unhoused veterans temporarily over the next few months. A design that's being used, I believe, at the top of something elsewhere. And this is a bit rushed because we took the time it takes to get things through the process. So this is a test, if you will, to see how it works. If it works well, we may revisit it in future years and get it going earlier so no emergency sessions or any emergency rules have to be passed the next time. And it's a way to temporarily answer zoning and question and help out a non-profit within the town with a request they had that we weren't sure how to do with it first. If you have any questions, please. [8:25] Town Council Chair: I think I'll mention it too when we get there, just based on some kind of 11th hour conversation with both legal and Lee Jay and his expertise. I think what we'll end up doing is there's a public hearing requirement even for the emergency ordinance. So what we'll probably do, and I'll bring this up when we get there, is we're probably going to set the public hearing for two weeks from today, and then all these things that are on here, we'll do them in two weeks so that way we're on the right side of the public hearing ordinance. New speaker I look forward to it. New speaker I will reiterate that when we get there as well just to make sure everybody understands. So any other participation for items on the agenda? I [9:12] Don Fellows: almost got run over by Norm. I saw that. I'm Don Fellows from the Brisbane side of things. And I just wanted to reiterate something I said earlier in private to Chris. That was I see Article 26181, which is in Chapter 70, Section 7531. And although the item doesn't identify what modification would occur, I see the table of land uses red line that would prohibit marijuana sales, half-mission facilities and so forth, anything to do with marijuana. And I want to make two points. One, according to Section 70-501 of our zoning ordinance, the purpose of diversified development is to allow for diversification of relationships of various uses, building structures, and open spaces, and building groups in a compact manner to avoid disadvantages of strict development. development. This zone was redesigned by the planning board several years ago to be a kind of unique zone that captured a variety of development ideas. Frameworks fit that. I think this should not be lightly considered without due consideration by the body that provides this ordinance. Secondly, Section 70-7 lays out the process for amending zoning amendment. The initiation of an amendment to this chapter may be initiated by the planning board itself with a majority vote by the town officers requesting that the planning board consider an item for petition. Further, the adoption of an amendment may happen by a majority of town officers if it is recommended by the planning board. If it is not recommended by the a plan board after they've seen it, a two-thirds vote would be required. So, not getting into the merits of marijuana or no marijuana, I think this, and although I'm not an attorney, I think this appears to be potentially put the town in legal jeopardy. If you read it tonight, I have a hearing and a second reading on the 20th, it will not become in effect until November 9th, which is after the auction time. They have a noble purpose, but the auction results in a marijuana organization ownership having an ordinance become effective after purchase seems like grounds for a legal dispute to be made. Send it back to the planning board for proper consideration, please. I think the planning board deserves that, and I think by our own ordinance, you're required to do that. Thank you. Any [12:00] Town Council Chair: other, anything else to address on today's agenda? The podium is open. [12:11] Cheryl Heiderman: I'm the abutting neighbor of [12:13] Town Council Chair: Springworks. Would you mind just sharing your name for the record? [12:15] Cheryl Heiderman: Sorry, guys. Cheryl Heiderman. I'm the abutting neighbor of Springworks. Well, ex-Springworks. They were great. I mean, the light was really a lot of light pollution for us there as neighbors. The last thing I want is marijuana to be grown right next to our property. Number one, a grow operation that could be in the size of 168 acres will bring property values down. Number two, I don't want to smell it. I'm not sure if anybody else, I know, so I did do some research. There are quite a few reasons not to allow that. So if we can, am I going to, this is not a hill I'm going to die on. I'm not going to make a review of us about it. I just want you to know how I stand as a neighbor. And I wish we could go anywhere, even though there was quite a bit of light pollution. And everybody thought they were growing pot, but they weren't. You know, every time I talk to someone, oh, yeah, they're growing marijuana. No, they're growing lettuce. Lettuce doesn't smell, so I didn't have a problem with that. It's beautiful land. I mean, it just really is. It's great land. And so I just want you to know that's how I feel as a neighbor, and I think other neighbors will feel the same way. Thank you, guys. [13:47] Speaker K (unidentified): Thank you, Eric, Natavia, Lisbon. I just want to echo what she said. I don't live much further down than she does, and I can guarantee you that the smell is going to go all the way down there. I was on the planning board a year ago when this whole thing came into place, And, of course, I fought against it and lost it and didn't win the battle. And I said this place will turn into a hospital in Maine, and we're just about there. Everybody's making jokes about it that Lisbon is the park capital and we'll have a moxie festival, we'll have a park festival. And it wasn't becoming a joke because of it. I don't want to see that go in. Now, I'm thinking about the credit unions put all this money into their place. People are coming into the bank, going in there, and they're going to be smelling that, smelling like a skunk. If I'm not mistaken, I believe we have a smell ordinance, an odor ordinance. I don't believe there's any way that, to my knowledge, that they've ever come up with a way to filter marijuana so that you don't smell it. So, yeah, Mr. Fellows mentioned that all this other stuff could be a legal thing. Well, they could put that into place, but they'd be violating that code by the order. I don't know what it's called, but there's something in place that's never been enforced, but it is there. I don't want to see it. And there's a lot of other people that don't want to see it. I expected this room to be full. We've got a lot of complaints about this whole thing going on. And I guarantee that on the auction, there'll be a line of part dealers there ready to buy the place. And it's going to hurt our property value. Lisbon has always been known for the Moxie Festival. Now it's going to be known as the capital of the state. I just hate to see it happen. So our property taxes are going up. Our property values are going down. This is just going to make it worse. [15:55] Town Council Chair: New speaker, thank you. New speaker, any other comment on tonight's agenda? New [16:07] Albert (Lisbon Falls resident): Speaker, good evening, Normal. Albert, Lisbon Falls. So as like all the other people have shown up here tonight, this is on the radar and so I wanted to come in and talk about it because I think the thing that jumped off the page at me was this community has stated we can't afford it. We can't live beyond our means. We can't do these things. We need to get more businesses. We need to get more tax revenue. We need to create all of these things. First potential opportunity for someone to come here and buy a business that's no longer viable and is out there, the message that we send to any prospective buyer is that we will support you unless you do something that we don't deem appropriate. And so the last time I checked, if you think about the southern states and the amount of tobacco that they grow down there, I think tobacco probably has a pretty potent and powerful aroma to it. I don't think anybody cries too hard when they smell the tobacco fields beside their home, because they know that tobacco revenue generated from those businesses help keep their property taxes low and keep their schools funded and do those things. Same thing with breweries and hops and beer. These are things that are known issues for people. Without any sort of deep dive into your phone, you can find out what the ill effects are of tobacco, ill effects are of alcohol. So I think the problem that I have, on top of what Mr. Fellows had already stated procedurally, which I won't get into again, because he stated it far more eloquently than I could. But I find it just disturbing that the first thing that we do as a community, and specifically as a council, is to kind of put an eye on this in a way that says we need to shut this out immediately and shut it down immediately. I think we should do some due diligence here. Yes, a large-scale marijuana organization could come in here, make a bid on that property. The last time I checked, capitalism allows them to do that. It allows them to show up at this auction. If they have the most money in their pocket, then they can put that money down to claim that property for their business. So which America do you want to live in? The one that dictates to you how you get to run your business, the way you get to run your business, or the one that allows people to come in here with an idea, and they want to spend money in our community, they want to buy a business that's failed, and they want to go ahead and employ people. Yeah, there's some challenges. I can hear and I can appreciate all of the folks who are against this issue all day long. If I'm an abutting neighbor, I'm worried about that smell. You're right, I am. 100%. And if there's some stigma associated with marijuana, we're not the only community in the state of Maine since marijuana became legal that's had to deal with that stigma. There are far more communities that we've driven through that have far more pot shops than we do. So it's not that I'm here to advocate for marijuana. One, I'm here to advocate for us being a sensible and smart community that measures twice and then cuts once. Let's not be reactive. That's gotten us in a lot of trouble in the past. Let's be proactive in our approach and how we deal with people. Thank you. [19:15] Town Council Chair: Any other? I [19:20] Speaker E (unidentified): think I'm speaking on terms of 179 and 181. I've fallen in love with people associated with this. my take is 150 million acres it's actually potential development in this community. Honestly I'd like to think that the value there is potential housing. You're maybe [19:43] Town Council Chair: looking at a very different buyer than [19:45] Speaker E (unidentified): it's there. I'm not sure how I feel on the emerged status of an ordinance change. I would just caution to be able to make sure you're not doing something restriction to be able to LIMIT DEVELOPMENT ON 168 ACRES TO BE ABLE TO BE THE BENEFIT OF ALL OF THIS. I READ THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR'S MEMO ON THE LAND USE. I THINK HE SAID IT BEST, IT'S AN OPPORTUNITY TO BE ABLE TO LOOK AT IT. LET'S NOT LOOK AT THIS AS A REACTIONARY TO BE ABLE TO PUT RESTRICTIONS ON THIS PROPERTY. LET'S LOOK AT WHAT WAS ACTUALLY THERE, BECAUSE WE DID IT AT ONE POINT IN TIME, THE PERSON THAT HAD THE PROPERTY, LET'S NOT TRY TO LIMIT WHAT WE'RE DOING IN THE FUTURE, AND FOLLOW UP WHERE BOTH OF THOSE FELLOWS SHOULD HAVE PROBABLY HIGHLIGHTED, TOO, IF YOU WEREN'T ALREADY DISTRACTED ON THE OTHER TOPIC. I'M HERE TO ACTUALLY SUPPORT THE THREE ITEMS I'd like to authorize you to sign the motion for this change to the agreement for the superintendent position. I'm all in for the discussion of the ordinance for mandatory hookup for sewer. I believe it's something that you guys heard several times when I was sitting in your seat. It's one basket of goods having one ordinance that actually is a combined piece of water in the town. It's the best way to approach future development or parcels in this community. [21:34] Town Councilor: Thank you, Pete. Thank you, Alan. Okay. [21:44] Dave Perrin: My name is Dave Perrin. I'm a budding neighbor to Springworks as well. I have a lot of concerns as far as the pot grow business going there. there. Some of them are the same concerns that Cheryl and I mentioned. When I bought the land, Ronnie and Anto were my neighbors. I find it hard to believe that future development would stop coming in and around. I can't fathom that a Burger King would set up right next to that or it wasn't long ago that you had dollar general that was not dollar general well these places want to come in 196 will get developed but you put that there and you stop that the smell i'm in refrigeration hvac you can't contain that smell there's no way there's not enough fans in the world for that So, like I said, a lot of people, they'll be for it, but if they're not right next to it, really doesn't affect them as much as it Would a budding neighbor? [23:17] Speaker O (unidentified): Shining in on what has already been said about the concern for odor and that property. If that were to be allotted or sold into and developed into a marijuana grow, rope. We all know there's a horrible smell. That size of a property growing that volume of marijuana, the smell alone would be astronomical. We have to consider the two major businesses that bought that property. One, the post office. Two, the longtime business of the credit union. The odor from a property that size and growing that much, the smell would be pervasive in a good distance on all sides of that property, which would encompass this building as well. It's not a good idea, property to be developed into a grow situation. And honestly, so much of the pot in this town already, I think one time there was a conversation about possible moratorium on that. I don't know where that ended up, but I think it is something to be considered. There are other businesses that could be brought. And, you know, to create more in this town than just another pot development, another pot shop, another grow operation. Generation. Enough is enough. And honestly, I have been hit with it more than once that Lisbon is now being considered. I know Lewiston has them on almost every street corner, but Lewiston is also a lot bigger than we are. So what we have in concentration for pot sales and whatnot is for a town this size, it's really out of proportion. And if we were to allow a huge piece of property that size to turn into a grow operation, I just don't think it's a good fit or a good look for the town that we want to be. [26:22] Town Council Chair: Okay. Let's do the last one, and then we'll switch over to new items. [26:26] Speaker P (unidentified): Well, let's do the kitchen halls. A few years ago, a gentleman built a one-row, which is about one street. I can't tell you how many people ended up calling the police because nobody knew what that smell was. And when they finish harvesting, and they have to get rid of all the soil, all the plants, they burn it whenever. They don't get fire permits. This didn't happen. And it stunk. I mean, in the summertime, you couldn't leave your windows open. In the wintertime, you couldn't open your windows for some fresh air because you didn't get fresh air. So it's a big property. I've worked in agriculture. Has anybody started looking at other lettuce companies that may want to take this on because that serviced a lot of states, actually. So I think there needs to be a lot of work done to figure out what else can go in there. But I guess if it goes to auction, we don't have any, we have nothing. So, but it's things. [27:53] Town Council Chair: MR. Let's switch over to the next item just real quick, which is audience participation response for new items. So if anybody has an item on the agenda, something to bring to the council that's not on the agenda, the podium is open. MS. [28:11] Jeanann Curtis: Hi. I'm Jeanann Curtis, and I'm an engineer. Thank you for allowing me to speak today. I would like to ask the council's permission to move forward with my gold idea, my project. My project idea is to have storyboards between Elsie's and the boat launch parking lot. These storyboards would have a maximum two-by-two, as I have not decided how much information would be on each story. My idea for each storyboard is to include Lisbon-specific history. For example, the history about the Rambo Mill. I would include QR codes on the storyboards linking to additional information. I would also like to include a leave-no-trace shadow box at both ends to help educate and keep the path clean. [29:09] Town Council Chair: Thank you, Juni Ann, for that wonderful idea. I got a little bit of a tip that this was going to come, so I was really excited to hear it. And just to say, this is your Girl Scout Gold Award, is that correct, Junian? So this is like the highest achievement in Girl Scouts that you can get, and this is what you want to do is to invest your time in our community. And that's really meaningful. So unless there are any objections from the council, I'd ask that the manager work with Junian and potentially the Parks and Rec director to walk you along to get this project working on the walking path. So thank you for investing in Lisbon. We appreciate it. Okay. Any other topics that to come before council that is not on the agenda? We can leave it on a really awesome note with that one. Okay. Switching back now that it's past seven o'clock, let's go back to the public hearing section, which is item number five. And I'll ask the clerk to read this one. A vigilance license, a local liquor license, and a special entertainment with alcohol license for Frank's Restaurant and Pub. [30:20] Town Council Chair: Okay. We'll go ahead and open the public hearing. Just to educate, we advertise these as happening at a specific time. So we just want to make sure that people have a fair shot to come out and share if they have any thoughts on this one. So anybody would like to speak on this? Saving no movement, we'll close the public hearing. Moving down to number eight, consent agenda, please. Consent agendas are considered routine and will be considered by adoption by for adoption by one motion with no separate discussion unless a counselor requests an item be removed. Any counselor wishing to remove an item may do so now. Seeing the order 2026-175 is to approve the following municipal accounts payable of $85,544.63, municipal payroll of $502,872.17 cents, and school payroll of $1,418,471.03, and a vigilar's license for Frank's Restaurant and Pub. I entertain a motion to pass the consent agenda. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Councilor Craig. All those in favor? Aye. Order passes 7-0. Okay. So going into council orders, resolutions, and ordinances, I'm going to read 2026-176 a little differently than it's written on the paper here. So just to provide some context in education, this is how the council heard a property tax abatement and executive session per state law. That's very much confidential. However, the results that we decide is public, only to say what our official decision is, not who it is or where they live or whatever. So I just wanted to make sure that you guys knew what we're actually talking about here. Here. So 2026-176, I'll entertain a motion to deny a property tax abatement per MRS 36 subsection 841-2 for case number PA 2026-001. So moved. Second. Seconded by Councillor Craig. Any other conversation? Roll. Councillor Turgeon would like to call the roll. I'll ask the clerk to call the roll. And just I'll clarify for a procedure that a yes vote is to deny. I'll just bring up a roll call really quick. Thank [Town Councilor (Charlie): you. And] Councilor Kamary? Yes. Councilor Craig? Yes. Councilor Bickford? Yes. Councilor Crafts? Yes. Councilor Garnett? Yes. Councilor Laraschella? Yes. Councilor Turgeon? Yes. Okay. That's 7-0 votes in the affirmative to deny. I thank you next item is so let's see make sure I'm getting my things right okay next item is 2026-177 which is to approve amendments to chapter 14 of the Lisbon code of ordinances for general assistance this is a first reading and setting of a public hearing on October 20th 2026 and just before I entertain the motion just this is something that we do every year to stay in compliance with state law for general assistance so entertain a motion to approve the first reading seconded by councillor Craig. Any questions or comments on this one? Okay, the clerk will call the roll. Yes. Answer Craig? Yes. Answer Dickford? Yes. Answer Crafts? Yes. Answer Garnett? Yes. Councilor LaRochelle? Yes. Councilor Turgeon? Yes. Order passes 7-0. Okay. And so for the next three items, 178, 179, and 180, are all related to the same topic, which we've talked about for a couple of meetings, which is to help partner with the American Legion. The American Legion would like to set up some temporary shelters for homeless veterans with the winter months coming up. There was some 11th hour information that we gathered from legal and some other folks, so, and Lee Jay. So I think we want to make sure that we're on the right side of the law with this. We want to make sure that we're doing it right. And specifically what that comes down to is state law says that whenever we're doing a change like this, we need to have a public hearing before anything is finally adopted. So adopting this emergency ordinance is a final adoption that needs a public hearing first within 13 days. So what I'll do is follow me here. First, I'll entertain a motion to set a public hearing for October 20th, 2026 for the purposes of immediately adopting a contract zoning ordinance on a temporary basis through the emergency ordinance process per section 2.08b of the Lisbon Town Charter. So moved. I'm going to give the motion to Councilor Craig. Do I have a second? Second. Freaky Friday. And then motion on the floor. Any questions about setting the public hearing first? Try to untangle the ball of yarn here. Okay. All those in favor of setting the public hearing? Okay. So we're going to do a public hearing two weeks from today on the emergency ordinance. And so what I'd like to do next is essentially because we need to do that first before we can do anything else, the next three items, 178, 179, and 180, we can't really do anything about that tonight. So what I'd like to do, just for the sake of me being a rule follower, is I'm going to entertain motions for each of them. And unless anybody would like to actually make a motion and not do anything about it, if no motions are made, we can just move on with our evening. So first one, 26-178, which is to immediately adopt the contract zoning ordinance on a temporary basis. I'll entertain a motion. Okay, hearing no movement, the order dies. Next is 2026-179, set a public hearing on October 20th for the full order to authorize the American Legion Post 158 to place temporary shelters for unhoused veterans. Entertain a motion. Hearing none, the motion dies. And then the final one is 2026-180, which is to set a public hearing on October 20th for the full ordinance, not the emergency one, but the real one, to create a contract zoning ordinance. And we don't want to do that either, so entertain a motion. Okay, hearing none, the order dies. So just to recap, because that was a little confusing from a parliamentary procedure standpoint, we're going to have a public hearing two weeks from tonight on an emergency ordinance to allow the American Legion to do this, so that way abutters can come forward if they have any concerns about it, or if people are in favor of helping, you know, unhoused veterans, those sorts of things, that way we can adopt the emergency ordinance with a public hearing. And then after we do that, we need to come back to the table and write the formalized, non-emergency version of the ordinance that will be kind of in perpetuity in our code of ordinances. Hopefully that's not as clear as mud, but I can understand if it feels that way. Any clarification needed on this? Thank you for your patience in navigating this. It was a little difficult. Goal. So the next item on the agenda is 2026-181, which is to amend Chapter 70, Section 70-531, Table of Land Uses and the Lisbon Code of Ordinances. This is a first reading with a setting of a public hearing on October 20th, 2026. So I'll entertain a motion for the first reading. And this is, again, this is to remove the marijuana uses in the specific zone. [38:19] Town Councilor: Do we need to actually make a motion for discussion, or is that? [38:21] Town Council Chair: This, yeah, we need a motion to proceed with the first reading. Yeah, I'll make a motion. So just to know that we have the motion on the floor, just to kind of address a couple things. First and foremost, I think the reason why that this is kind of coming up, it feels rushed. It is, in a way it is, but the way that I kind of look at this is if the community comes together and says we don't want this to be a use in this particular neighborhood, that's the right of the community to feel that way and to share their thoughts with us. I would like that conversation to happen before the auction takes place so that way if the property is purchased there isn't a rug pull and all of a sudden we say sorry you bought it for this purpose and now you don't have that purpose anymore, you know. I don't want that. I would like to avoid that if possible. I want to make sure that we're, we're being transparent about the conversation that we're having, and that sort of thing. Yes, it was pointed out to me that the proper and usual way to amend this type of ordinance is to have the planning board go through it first, make a recommendation to us, and then we vote on it. Given the time-sensitive nature with the auction, that's a little bit harder to deal with. However, Mr. Fellows is correct that if we wanted to go forward without the planning recommendation, we would need five votes instead of four in order to adopt it per our ordinance. However, I still think it would be valuable for the planning board to review it. I know they're meeting in two nights from tonight. I've already mentioned it to a couple of them. I think it's still valuable for the planning board to review this and give us their feedback because that's kind of what we appoint them to do is to give us historical context and things like that for these types of things that we're discussing. So that would also be my expectation as well. But as it's presented in front of us right now, the amendment to the land use table takes, I think it's eight, ten. Ten specific uses for marijuana, whether that's retail, cultivation,. Ross, do you want to come up and bail me out? [40:43] Town Councilor: As a matter of fact, I just want to hand those out. So just a little background. As you know, this came to you via Sarah and my office. I was on the phone with the auctioneer about a week ago, and they were asking about the table of land uses and what's authorized. Is it current? And she said something that rung with me, and she said because there's no contingency bits. When you buy it, you buy it. There's no coming back. Somebody purchases it that's permanent so we want to make sure they had all the right information at that point. I thought it might be wise to come to the council with a list of what's currently allowed in that district and all the yellow ones on your sheets as we've prevented in the in the email we provided originally. Those are ones that are currently provided as allowable. I went through the town planner to make sure this is something that you guys could do. They said yes we move forward with the suggestion to you to review all of the possible uses. And that's how we landed here. I was directed to provide that red line with no marijuana in it for your review. And if there's any other items on that list that you feel should not be included, I do have the diversified development up here for you. It's the lime green section. As you can see, it does not actually run along 196. There's a cannabis store and some other stores in there. As a matter of fact, I think Ms. Haggerty's house is in blue. She's in the village. So those storefronts and properties along 196 are not in this zone. The zone is primarily the two large lots that belong to Springworks, the credit union lot, the town sewer, I'm sorry, town water lots across the street here, and the Gartley School lot, along with one more lot down on the other side of the railroad tracks that belongs to a resident. But it's not a large parcel. And basically, you know, in speaking with Lee Jay and some others, this was an opportunity for the town to review this, and the urgency was just that, to make sure that we update the auctioneer prior to the auction with what's happening. And I understand, Mr. Fellows, I'm not trying to counter that, but our intention was, even if there was a 21-day hold, to let the auctioneer know after your decision on the 20th what the new table will be so they can share that information at the auction and somebody doesn't buy it and wind up in a hole where they can't do something that they want. So we were just trying to tidy things up, give that information back to the auctioneer or with whatever decision you folks go to. [43:03] Town Council Chair: So that's where, that's how we got here. Okay? Thank you. I guess I'll open it up as any counselor have any discussion questions. [43:12] Speaker C (unidentified): Opinions? Yeah, I just got a comment. One of my business locations, there's a grow beside it, 's a retail, my customers show up, and I can tell you I go down there sometimes, times, and I'm like, I mean, it is bad. I don't know when the stuff is ripe. I don't know anything about it, but it's really bad. It really stinks terrible, and many times I'm like, you know, what do I need to do about this? You know, this should be, we have this, you know, ordinance to do with the smell, and I never move forward on it, but when you get down there, when I do show up down in and smell it, 's just not good. And so I can't imagine living beside a grove when that type of smell comes. So I think from what I saw, the survey you put out on Facebook, overwhelmingly people like, don't do it, from what I read and from what I've heard again tonight. So I think that it's fair for the auctioneers and them people to understand this, that we want to move forward with that. If we do, if the council decides to do that, we get an approach to do it, I'm in favor of moving forward. [44:28] Town Councilor: I have a comment on that myself, and I think that the land should be best and highest use, and I don't believe that 's what that is on there, and there must be some other places like maybe Belanger's Farm, Skillens Greenhouses, people like that have got those that's all set up for that kind of a grow as well. I don't want to have a giant cannabis row house in the middle of our town and that's [Planning Board member: all, yeah.] I guess something I'm not for it either because I was growing up in a business, family-owned, that the towns lived with it. And in the summertime, it was atrocious. And Dale can go along with that. We raised 75,000 chickens. And you want to hear something that stinks. And I'm not kidding. It was bad. So I understand where these people are coming from. I really do. [45:55] Town Councilor (Charlie): Charlie? I'll just say I'm struggling because I'm hearing the outpouring of opposition. But I don't believe it's always government's role to, I'll put it this way. I think you should, you know, regulate the harms, not the preference. And so if the demand in capitalism, if the demand is for a grow-up, then who is the government to get in the way of that? So that's just where I'm at. [46:33] Town Council Chair: I think the, I had that same thought too. And the kind of counter argument in my head was, you know, kind of going back to the government of the people, right? Where government of the people and the people are saying, we don't want this in the community. Well, not everybody. It's never going to be everybody. So I think the government of the people is saying this is not something that they want in their community. So that's the other half that's kind of ringing in one ear when I say, well, you know, I'm with you. I'm with you. [47:08] Town Councilor: We just need to make sure our constituents who have got us up to the four of them, we're doing bidding for them. So, I, like Councillor Turgeon, am really conflicted on this. It's one of those areas where I'm seeing people talk about, you know, I agree, I wouldn't want to neighbor a massive grow operation either. At the same time, some of the uses that are permissible outside of that could also create smells, right? If we had manufacturing facilities that were making something that had, you know, odiferous odoriferous emissions type of thing. So I think that if we're looking at this holistically, the grow operation or the marijuana businesses are conditional use there. And so it is the planning board's responsibility to look at what are the conditions of that use. Would they violate the conditions, whether it's an odor ordinance, light pollution, whatever it is, which we've seen. Sometimes those things don't get enforced all that much, hence SpringWorks and their light pollution. The only reason that I'm tending towards going with this is because there are so many other zones where grow operations are allowed. We're not, and we don't have the 2,000-foot rule like we do with retail operations to limit the distance between them. There's plenty of other property in town where it's permissible. And I don't know that we need to have this use as part of, you know, a diversified development area where you could potentially have more residential be built there. there. You are abutting and intermingled with residential. It seems to fit more with, well, where we have a new grow going up right on the Topsom line, right, where Lisbon Cannabis is putting their grow in. There's no houses there for people, for the odor to bother, right? So I would probably be in favor of removing the use from this zone. Sure. And the same thing. I mean, it's one of those things where, I MEAN, WE LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE GOVERNMENT DOES CONTROL A LOT, BUT UNFORTUNATELY IF SOMEONE OWNS A PIECE OF PROPERTY, THEY SHARE PRETTY MUCH RIGHTS TO DO QUITE A BIT, AND I KIND OF BELIEVE IN THAT. BUT ALSO, WE 'VE ACTUALLY ALREADY SEEN SOME STRUGGLES, THE IDEA WITH THE FACILITY THAT'S THERE THAT DIDN'T MEET ALL THE CRITERIAS WITH THE TOWN, AND WE WERE KNOWN AS THE TOWN THAT GLOWS AT NIGHT DRIVING THROUGH FROM LAWSON. I mean, we definitely lit up the sky. You mean. So if you're looking at certain type of pollutions, the light pollution was definitely something that once it starts, how do you stop it, right? You know, it's one of those things where it's hard to tell them to turn the switch off because that was their, you know, they invested millions of dollars to make that work. Two things I'd be, I'm in favor of moving forward to public hearing because it's always worth listening what the public wants to hear to say. And I'm very encouraged, actually, if the planning board actually would want to take a look at this to see. One of my bigger fears is the idea that we take no action and then someone comes in and makes a very big financial decision and then it goes to planning board and it's just not allowed because they can't meet the criteria of the planning board. I mean that to me sounds like a very big financial fight not just for the company but for the town. I mean at that point in time when you actually have big money trying to actually make a point it takes big money to actually counter it and the idea when it comes to smells and light pollution and, you know, that could be just a dragged out. Again, if there's a way to actually prevent it from getting to that point, I think that's due diligence also. So I'd be curious to move it forward, you know, through the years of sitting through planning board, you know, in the audience. The DD has always been kind of unique, right? You know, it's actually been modified over the years to allow certain things to happen. But yet when most people come forward and say, so what, why do you have the zone? Most people can't answer that question. It's just, you know, another zone that actually has different things. But one of the things we are seeing now with the way a lot of states work, and there's a lot of our zoning really doesn't play much anymore, right? Because every time the state wants to change something, to just change the ability for us really to control that type of stuff. So again, but the idea of it being a grow, I mean, it is a legal business, so I mean, it's really hard to stop a legal business. But if we have a way to actually try to prevent us from actually getting into, you know, a not good scenario with a new property owner, I would, if there's a way to prevent it early, I think this is a good way of doing it. So, I've got a public hearing moving forward with it, and at least, if nothing else, I would just hope that any potential buyers will be watching what's happening and actually get a good feel for the community, because I don't think a person wants to get involved into a community to do something against the will of the people that they'll be neighbors with. But, again, that's my piece. [52:17] Town Council Chair: Any other thoughts, questions? [52:19] Town Councilor: TO FOLLOW UP, I WOULD REALLY RECOMMEND THAT AS WE MOVE FORWARD WITH THIS, IF THIS IS THE WILL OF THE COUNCIL, THAT WE MAKE SURE THAT ROSS COMMUNICATES TO THE AUCTION HOUSE THAT THIS IS WHAT'S HAPPENING AND YOU NEED TO COMMUNICATE THAT TO POTENTIAL BUYERS SO THEY KNOW IF SOMEONE IS LOOKING TO GO IN. I ACTUALLY WILL SHARE THE LINK TO THE VIDEO AS WELL FOR THE TWO, IF YOU HAVE THE PUBLIC HEARING, I'D LET THEM SEE THAT LIVE SO THEY CAN WATCH IT FROM REMOTELY. NEW SPEAKER OKAY. [52:46] Town Council Chair: ANY OTHER DISCUSSION ON THIS ONE? NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. NEW SPEAKER OKAY. So this is going to be another roll call vote. And just as a reminder, a yes vote is to amend the table to remove the marijuana uses from this particular zone. The clerk will call the roll. Councillor Cameri? Yes. Councillor Craig? Yes. Councillor Pickford? Yes. Councillor Crafts? Yes. Councillor Garnett? Yes. Councillor Larichaud? Yes. Councillor Turgeon? Yes. Order passes 7-0. Okay. Okay. So we'll have a public hearing for this on October 20th and a second reading. And then in order for these changes to take effect we need to read it again and vote for it again after a public hearing. So we will do that on October 20th. All right. Next item is 2026-182, which is to authorize the town manager to execute a one-year contract for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning HVAC services with Siemens Industry in the account, excuse me, in the amount of $24,200. I'll entertain a motion to authorize. Motion. Do I have a second by Councillor Craig? Sarah, do you want to give us any on this one? I would love to. [53:55] Town Manager (Sarah): So historically, we've been using Thayer as our HVAC vendor, and we did notice over the past couple of years that we've been having increasing problems with their service and timeliness and billing issues primarily. So we requested a meeting with them to discover that over those past couple years, they had been doing some restructuring, and we felt that pinch a lot in, you know, they would come out and do a service, and then they would leave, and the next day we would have another repair. So I brought that to their attention. I said, this isn't acceptable. They did try to correct it, but that prompted us to want to look out for, you know, other vendors who might be better suited for our needs. Needs. So I tasked the fire chief with getting three estimates to bring before you, and he's done a really good job at identifying two alternatives. I know he's here tonight to speak about what he's found, so I will invite him up, but that's the opening. Good [55:02] Town staff (facilities/HVAC): evening. So we invited two other vendors to come and bid on services here in town. That was Siemens Industries and Mechanical Services. Through the bid process, Siemens Industries was very attentive to our needs. They came and did two site walkthroughs. They also offered to provide us a energy audit through the process, which we are preparing to review an energy audit with them on the 13th of this month, and then bring that to Council a little later after we have a review with them. But the services that they offer, they offer a full team that is going to be attentive to our needs, and they have a response time maximum time limit of four hours after hours, two hours within normal business hours. They also have The contract for the school department so it seems like it's a and like I said again they were very attentive to our needs. The other option was mechanical services. They asked for a list of our equipment. We provided a list of their of the equipment on 8 14 I believe. After two repeat return phone unreturned conversations or phone calls we finally received a quote back with zero visit to any of the facilities here, only based upon our list that we give them. So the inattentiveness to our needs for a quote and the lack of interest in actually coming to the facilities to view the equipment and their actual current condition gave us concern. That's why we're making a list of Siemens. [57:06] Town Council Chair: Okay. Any questions on the council side? NEW SPEAKER ONE. NEW SPEAKER ONE. NEW SPEAKER TWO. NEW SPEAKER ONE. [57:09] Town Councilor: NEW SPEAKER TWO. RIO TO THE COMPANY WE HAVE NOW, DO YOU KNOW WHO THE COMPANY THAT WAS THAT WAS ACTUALLY DOING OUR SERVICES? [57:16] Town staff (facilities/HVAC): NEW SPEAKER THERE WAS PATRIOT MECHANICAL. AND PRIOR TO THAT, SIEMENS WAS IN THERE AS WELL. [57:23] Town Councilor: NEW SPEAKER SIEMENS I THINK ACTUALLY HAD IT, I MEAN. [57:25] Town staff (facilities/HVAC): NEW SPEAKER ORIGINAL CONTRACT, I BELIEVE, TO INSTALL THE EFFORTS THAT IS INSTALLED IN [57:30] Brian McGee, Chief of Police: THIS BUILDING. NEW SPEAKER SIEMENS. [57:32] Town Councilor: NEW SPEAKER SIEMENS. NEW SPEAKER AND I THINK ONE POINT IN TIME They actually had established a performance package for us along with the school, and we kind of had the same time. Yeah, I mean, I think they actually served us well. I think this kind of sounds like almost the same routine that actually happened back then. That's why we had swapped a little bit. But they definitely served the school pretty well. Now, did they make any recommendations about doing any modifications to any of the controls or anything at that point in time? I mean, I guess with the one year, I mean, just some of the stuff that goes back, I remember it's been quite a while, was the idea of proprietary controls here and actually there so they can actually monitor and control. [58:17] Town Manager (Sarah): I don't believe they have introduced anything like that, have they, where we wouldn't be able to work with another vendor after? No. [58:23] Town staff (facilities/HVAC): As a matter of fact, all the controls, heads, the actual computer works at the units themselves are actually still all Siemens. While the controls in the room that you may see were stripped out from Siemens controls, the actual computer itself and the machine that talks to the unit is all Siemens controls still. [58:52] Town Councilor: I guess that was my question, would they actually need to actually, would there be an outfront investment for us to make that, so we actually were controlling that, I guess, but, okay. [59:01] Town staff (facilities/HVAC): New speaker I'm not sure we decided through the energy audit that we want to go back to automated controls where we have controls through apps for, you know, we can see, we will be able to see some of the temperatures and things like that, if we go with them, but as far as controls and automated controls, we don't have that at this time. [59:29] Town Councilor: New speaker it's just interesting because I know last time that was one of the major factors, the idea of the controls I had and the idea of them controlling us controlling the idea of being rightoried, so someone had to be changed out, which I'm not saying they're not worthwhile, just wondering if there was an outfront cost for them for us to get back basically online with them so they could do the remote monitoring and energy efficiency, but I guess that will come when they actually do the audit. But right now for this is basically a contract for them to actually pretty much [1:00:01] Town Manager (Sarah): just to be on call to actually do repairs. To service the existing equipment, which this is the only company that has actually taken a deep dive in our inventory. They're willing to help us build our capital asset planning you know right they want to make sure I'm speaking accurately because it's your project but that's what I've seen in the report included in this [1:00:23] Town staff (facilities/HVAC): too is if we become a customer of theirs like the needs for a new system at the transfer station we will get the preferred customer pricing or installation of whatever heating units need to be installed in the transfer station and that's a yeah we would also do it also enjoy these a 20% discount on blank [1:00:59] Town Councilor: what it's in the package this I mean again this is basically just puts mom retainer but any costs as far as emergency repairs or parts or anything like that is over and beyond, right, in the sense where it's basically putting a company on retainer for being a 24-7 call. [1:01:19] Town staff (facilities/HVAC): And then for those things, they actually offered to reduce the truck charge for those calls where other companies, for example, mechanical services, if we went with them, while their hourly rate is like $140 an hour, by the time you add on all their fees, mileage, they start charging you hourly to and from your appointment, they charge you 80 cents a mile, they charge you 16 additional charge, and so by the time they even showed up, we'd be at like $200 and something dollars into a one hour our 30-mile round-trip service. [1:02:05] Town Councilor: One last question, I guess, and then I'll move on. Is this actually within our budget that we had as far as for the upkeep of our services? [1:02:17] Town Manager (Sarah): Yeah, I mean, we blew over the budget last year. I'm going to be completely transparent, and part of that might have been, as an example, and I don't mean to call Thayer out like this, but I mean I'm going to be factual. They failed to go to the fire department in two years in a row to do preventative maintenance, and then they had to be called out for repairs. So we're just, while I appreciate that they're trying to get themselves together and reorganized, I think we just need something a little bit more. We have to look at wallets and the taxpayer funds. Like, you know, it just needs to be more reliable, and I think that's where I ended up and asked Craig to look. [1:02:52] Town Councilor: I thank you for all the hard work. [1:02:54] Town staff (facilities/HVAC): For example, last year's charges, our preventative maintenance contract was $23,380. We spent $46,603 above that. Any [1:03:13] Town Councilor (Charlie): other questions from council? Charlie? Just to clarify, this is $3,370 higher than mechanical services? That is correct. Any [1:03:25] Town Councilor: other questions? That was mine. He beat me to it. So, not a question, but just a comment or some thoughts on that, because I know we've been in this position before, like with the legal contract last time, that, you know, is it our responsibility to go with the lowest bid from a financial perspective? But I do think that in looking at the research, the fact that they didn't actually come out and look at the site, they're just going based off of an inventory, I think that the Siemens quote is just probably more accurate to what we actually have, considering the fact that they've seen everything. EVERYTHING. AND THAT WE'D PROBABLY END UP OVERSPENT IF WE ENDED UP GOING WITH SOMEBODY THAT DID A LOW BID JUST BASED ON A SPREADSHEET. For mechanical services like this, I just don't think you can do that because you don't know what shape the air handlers and everything else is in unless you get eyes on. [1:04:14] Town Manager (Sarah): I have to be completely transparent when I tell you I can't say that we're not going to overspend this. Right. [1:04:19] Town Councilor: No, I know. That's unperceived. But it's still just one of those things. I think this is probably closer. [1:04:25] Town Manager (Sarah): We're going to try to be more accurate better with better preventative maintenance and better route, you know planning and [1:04:34] Town Councilor (Charlie): Did we ask for credits on the missed calls We did [1:04:39] Town Manager (Sarah): We did and they would honor them in some fashion. I'll let Craig speak to that [1:04:43] Town staff (facilities/HVAC): He oh the credits on the missed calls is why you see they're only at 20,000 148. So they credited this bid. Basically, they are not charging us for either one of the fire stations for this contract. The Siemens contract also has an option for a performance extension for years two and three that lades out and we know the cost and we are there for that. [1:05:10] Town Councilor: One last thing. Just as you know, I always do this. I'm sorry. But just to be fair with the overrun, I mean, when this building was put up, this was a low-bid building. And we have had estimates in the past, whenever we've been up here, to actually fix HVAC and hundreds of thousands of dollars, which would never meet our budget. So, I mean, we have just been kicking a problem down the road and paying yearly for it. And if we've been paying $40,000 a year to just keep things up for the last several years, we've already bought that improvement that we probably should have paid for years ago. Again, it's just one of those things that we always look at. I mean, it's hard to actually find money to fix a problem because it seems like a large amount. But when you add up the recurring costs year after year, we pay for it anyways. [1:05:57] Town staff (facilities/HVAC): There's certainly a list of items on our list of equipment that has been identified as past life a long time ago. [1:06:10] Town Councilor (Charlie): Is there a hard deadline that would prevent us from going out for more bids? [1:06:16] Town Manager (Sarah): I mean, we're not covered by a contract right now, and winter's coming. Other than that, a risk, I'd like to lock in before, you know, just yesterday, you know, the heat's starting to kick on. Just yesterday, we had the fire department here twice because staff smelled things that would cause concern. It's probably just the HVAC picking up, or we can't ignore it either. Okay. So, just... Good to vote? All right. All those in favor? [1:06:54] Town Council Chair: Next item is 2026-183, waive the competitive bidding requirement for the police department lobby security and access improvements project due to a lack of received bids per section 86-34G of the Lisbon Code of Ordinances. Entertain a motion to waive. I have a second. Second. Seconded by Councillor LaRochelle. Sarah and or Ryan, whoever wants to. I'll open it. [1:07:19] Town Manager (Sarah): This was based on the bid 2026-002 that the chief has put out to upgrade the lobby and put security enhancements in there based on the dispatching closure and changes that we're going through upcoming. Because he didn't receive any, he's requesting to do something a little different. [1:07:40] Brian McGee, Chief of Police: I'll let you explain. Yes. Brian McGee, chief of police. I just wanted to be completely transparent. parent we and be able to come in front of you tonight that's why i put the memo with the packet together with the bids that i put out both times i the first time before we even went on to bid or after i went on to bid i should say that i also reached out to numerous contractors all up and down the state advising them of the bid where to go on the website had some people come out look at contractors look at the lobby and I didn't receive any good back the first time it's a bit a second time again reach out to contractors the contractors were great some people didn't return my phone calls and I get it I think I think the problem right now is so many contractors are so busy and they're booking like a year out and I spoke to some local contractors EXTREMELY TRANSPARENT. THEY'RE JUST BOOKING A LONG WAY OUT RIGHT NOW IN ORDER TO TAKE THE WHOLE JOB ON. SOME OF THE CONTRACTORS EXPLAINED THAT IT WOULD ACTUALLY BE EASIER IF THEY WERE ABLE TO DO A PART OF IT, NOT THE WHOLE PART OF IT. SO IN LOOKING AT OUR ORDINANCE AND REDOING DIFFERENT THINGS, I WANTED TO BE TRANSPARENT. THERE IS A WAY not to basically waive the bid process and essentially the council allow me to kind of the general i guess you could say the general contractor where i'll oversee it i'll keep track of the expenses hopefully also saving the town money on top of that but i can hire out a contracting company that does you know one certain particular set of skills i'll hire out a different company who does different skills a security company to take care of the access taxes controls and by me doing That you're not paying for like a general contractor on the overall bid price. I do have contractors I've been reaching out to, contractors, a couple of them, that can do certain parts of the project. That line is coming up January 1st for a full closure. I plan on coming in under what originally we thought we were going to end up spending for this project because as this goes forward I'm finding other ways that we can still do the lobby security improvements but actually save some money as well on learning some different ways that we can, we can do the security upgrades. So essentially what I'm asking for is permission to be able to leave the bidding process as we've gone on to bid two different times. I will still follow the guidelines of the town, you know, and getting this project done, obviously. And one of the, actually one of the issues I ran into as well is it's not like issues of general, certain types of general contractors that their insurance wouldn't cover it where it falls under a public safety building or commercial. So there's certain avenues that I'm finding out myself as well. So that's why I'm in front of you tonight just to be completely transparent. That's why you're packet. I gave all the bids that went out. That's what we're at the moment. I think one thing to [1:10:56] Town Manager (Sarah): add as well is we want to be aware that we're asking to break down a bid. And the bid might have been too all-encompassing to begin with. Like, nobody could do all of those things. They couldn't. They could. [1:11:08] Brian McGee, Chief of Police: Just it'd be a year plus. Right. Not our time frame. There's one contractor that actually can't do it until August. And I thought it was meant next year. It's it's the following year, which is a good thing. I'm glad the builders are busy, you know, and some of our local builders are busy. That's a good thing. [1:11:25] Town Manager (Sarah): We're essentially asking to break it apart and do them in chunks, following our procurement policy, understanding that no part will go over 25,000. If it requires three quotes, we're going to do three quotes. We're just going to take individual chunks and move along with the project to get it done based on the urgency. [1:11:42] Town Council Chair: Okay. Any questions for the Chief? [1:11:45] Town Councilor: Yeah. Is there a ceiling, though, of what we're going to spend? I mean, you said you thought you knew what it would be and you're going to be under it. [1:11:53] Brian McGee, Chief of Police: Yeah. Correct. And it's part of the capital improvement plan for this project was a ceiling of $57,000. My goal is to be well under that, you know, still being fiscally responsible. [1:12:09] Town Councilor (Charlie): Thank you, Chief. You don't think Do you think overseeing the sequencing of all those different trades will interfere with your regular duties? [1:12:19] Brian McGee, Chief of Police: My regular duties are first and primary. These are all the secondary. But this is something that has to be done for the town. I don't like the idea of just locked doors to the lobby. The common center is closing and it's going to the, you know, legalized to the sheriff's office. We understand that. I put out videos on that. It won't be a face in the lobby. But what we are working towards is we still need a lobby. We still need a place for victims to be able to come and meet with police officers. We can't just have locked doors. We've had victims come into the police department that they needed help, and we need to continue to provide that service to our residents. They expect that. I've heard from numerous residents. I'll continue to reassure them that we're there to provide a service for them. We definitely need the lobby. It's very important to me that we continue having a lot being providing that safe location for them You know working around Council's goals as well. So we're gonna get there and I'll make sure then Fill the community and I don't plan to so we'll keep doing what we're doing Yeah Well, if you guys remember a couple years ago, I got quotes for – this isn't me. This isn't just me. This is other departments in this town as well that continues to go above and beyond for residents. But we had a quote for $127,000 for security cameras. There's no way. Like, we all know this is before all the budget issues came up. But we were able to secure – the salary assisted me. I was able to set up a business account through a security company and buy all the cameras. I think it was just right around $6,800, and what it's going to cost is $127,000. If you walk around the whole entire building, we have a high-definition security system that is top-notch. The only difference is, if you walk around this building, you're going to see there's old cameras next to new cameras, because I don't have the credentials to be able to remove those old cameras. but I could put the new ones up because it's cat-fied cabling. But follow the rules by code. But we're able to save some money. And that's before we're fortunate the people that we have in this town that help out, right? Absolutely. [1:14:46] Town Council Chair: All right. All those in favor? All right. The next item is 2026-184, which is to authorize the transfer of $4,765.79 from the contingency fund to the public works fuel account to pay fuel tax and interest assessed by Maine Revenue Services related to fuel sold to Lisbon Emergency Services between July 2024 and May 2026. I'll entertain a motion to authorize. Motion. [1:15:17] Town Manager (Sarah): Seconded by Councilor Beckford. So while well intended and a collaborative effort to work with our partners at Lisbon Emergency a couple of years ago, we did enter into an agreement with them through the main power options fuel bid to allow them to utilize our fuel. And when we did so, we, you know, in good faith, didn't know that we shouldn't have been doing that and became a distributor. And when we brought this to the attention of Lisbon an emergency in this budget cycle that, you know, this was a Jim catch. Jim caught this with his expertise and said, hey, I don't think we can be doing this. And we immediately reached out to rectify and let them know, and then it escalated really quickly to the Maine Revenue Service, which is fine, because we need to clear it up anyway. So basically what this is, the fuel tax and interest owed to the Maine Revenue new service on fuel that we, in good faith, supply to Lisbon Emergency that we shouldn't have under a tax exemption. It is fuel that Lisbon Emergency used, but we allowed the action, I guess I'll say, from 24 to 26, and so we're trying to correct this very quickly. [1:16:41] Town Council Chair: Thank you for catching that. Glad that we're making it right. Any questions from council? Go [1:16:52] Town Councilor: ahead, Frank. Nonprofit, tax exempt. So they're not tax exempt when it comes to fuel. [1:16:58] Town Manager (Sarah): They can't be under the MPO. And we put a lot of effort into, we thought we might be right. [1:17:07] Town Councilor: Yeah, because I wouldn't have to talk about it again. Just want to throw it out there, you would think a nonprofit and tax exempt would be tax exempt. [1:17:14] Town Council Chair: Not in this situation. Anything else? All those in favor? All right. Next is 2026-185, which is to authorize the Lisbon Water Department to execute a 100% forgivable loan in the amount of $200,000 through the Maine Municipal Bond Bank's revolving loan fund. I'll entertain a motion to authorize. Motion. I'm going to have my Councilor Bickford. All right. Sarah, do you want to? Sure. [1:17:44] Town Manager (Sarah): Yep. I received a request from the Water Department. I don't know if there's anybody here who can speak to it. There's Don. We have Shelly, too. And Shelly, the whole crew. Okay, basically they're asking this is part of a grant. I believe that they were awarded or a bunch of grants that they were awarded. This is one section and they're gonna need to borrow two hundred thousand dollars through our treasurer. It's a shared treasurer in order for them to proceed with the project and this is a 100 percent forgivable loan. Shelly I can't see you. Do you want to come up and speak? [1:18:27] Shelly Reynolds, Interim GM for Water Department: SHELLY REYNOLDS, INTERIM GM FOR THE WATER DEPARTMENT. AS PROBABLY A LOT OF OUR CITIZENS KNOW, WE HAVE SOME PFAS, SO THIS PROJECT IS BASED ON WHAT WE'RE GOING TO NEED TO DO TO MEET REQUIREMENTS IN 2029. THIS $200,000 IS PAYING FOR THE PLANNING AND THE STUDY. WE'VE CONTRACTED A COUPLE OF YEARS TO DO THAT FOR US. THE OVERALL TOTAL VALUE OF FUNDS IS A LITTLE OVER $8 MILLION. ALMOST ALL OF IT IS FORGIVEN EXCEPT FOR $1.5 MILLION BOND THAT WE WILL GO AFFORD IN HOPEFULLY THE SPRING OF 2028. SO THERE WILL BE NO INDEBTEDNESS. IT WILL NOT AFFECT THE TOWN'S DEBT CAMP. SO IT'S FORGIVEN. [1:19:23] Town Council Chair: There's no necessary questions for Sarah or Shelley. All those in favor. All right, next is 2026 S 186, which is to authorize the town manager to enter into a shared services agreement with the Lisbon Water Department for the purpose of sharing operational management between the Water Department and the Sewer Department. I'll entertain a motion to authorize? One second. Seconded by Councillor Bickford. [1:19:58] Town Manager (Sarah): It's been a long time coming. I want to preface this conversation with there are a couple of agreements that the town and the water department have been working on. You've heard probably the MOU or the merger as the buzzwords. This is not it. This is not that conversation. This is a conversation that is more the spirit of our shared services committee. The water department has a need and quite frankly Shelly wants to retire and they have a staffing shortage and so we have been doing a lot of work to meet and figure out how we can assist our partners at the water department not permanently and maintaining our own governance structure but we want to we want to meet the moment and be able to assist them. So we feel this agreement as drafted will help us to achieve that. And the bonus, I guess the perks to this would be that the water department is willing to split the cost of our would-be water and sewer superintendent salary and benefits. So we are truly, this is a true shared services moment that we'd be willing to try out, I believe we say for a year, for a year. And if it's successful, we'll come back and extend it if we need to or make other plans or we'll see what happens with the other efforts that we're putting in. [1:21:22] Town Council Chair: And maybe I think to summarize that a little maybe in a different way, we have a position in the sewer department and a position in the water department. We can, in essence, combine those two positions into one person, and the savings that we get from combining those two positions into one role is seen by both taxpayers and ratepayers. Absolutely. It really is. And it's the [1:21:50] Town Manager (Sarah): administrative piece. So there are operators already, as you know, Woodard and Curran are over at the Water Department conducting the operations portion already. We would ask that our current sewer superintendent to also be the sewer that's hard to say, superintendent to the water department as well, sharing that umbrella of the administration. And I think it's a good idea and worth trying. [1:22:17] Town Council Chair: And Steve hasn't run out of the building yet. [1:22:20] Town Manager (Sarah): And I ask him all the time if he's still on board and he said yes. [1:22:24] Town Council Chair: Okay, any questions from council on this one? I would just like to say I think that this is this is a home run example of why we started the shared services committee in the first place to really build those bridges and build that spirit of cooperation to figure out where we can save money in some in some unique ways that are not just what's within the scope of just my budget that I can fix you know we're looking big so I appreciate the hard work that you put in and Shelly's hard work and you know Shelly's put a lot of time I'll brag on Shelly for a minute because she's worked at the water department for a very long time. time and she's put a lot of work in to that organization and she's attempted to retire a lot but they continue to put the bat signal up in the air and she keeps coming back and I drive past and I see her car I said I thought she retired again I know but she's back at the water department and so I just wanted to say thank you to Shelly this is hopefully if an opportunity for her to fully retire and she's got a big smile on her face hopefully not going to win so Greg I want to [1:23:25] Town Councilor: Thank Steve Avioli, too, for standing up and saying you'll take that on. Good luck. [1:23:33] Town Council Chair: Did you have something else to add? No, I'm very happy with what's going on. All right. Excellent. All right. Anything else on this one? All right. All those in favor? The next item is a discussion regarding an ordinance proposal from the Lisbon Water Department. So this is provided to us. It's also in the packet. it I think I had kind of made we'll call it maybe an executive decision not to make this a first reading because I didn't want to just say hey here's this ordinance vote for it when we haven't really had the chance to digest it yet so I wanted to make sure that we have a chance to digest it I don't know if who the best person would be to I'm honestly going to kick it over [1:24:17] Town Manager (Sarah): to Don or Shelly Don would be the best person happy to facilitate it being here but I am not the expert. [1:24:30] Don Fellows: First of all, let me just say how much I appreciate the shared services agreement as well. All of us, mostly Shelly, put a lot of work in on it. And I'd like to thank the town manager for working as hard as she did too. As far as a water department ordinance goes, we realize that in recent times we've had some confusing situations develop when developers come to the town council or to the planning board or to the water department. And in doing that, we also realized that we don't have or didn't have firm policies for connection to the water. Most of the time, we relied heavily on the experience of the superintendent. When Bill Alexander was here, he had a whole detailed plan that he had laid out for the water department to follow for anybody that wanted to build or hook up to the water. Well, he went away. We have an interim town manager who is not a water operator. And then since then, we have turned over operations to Woodard and Curran by contract. Asked or asked we're incurring to come up with a complete set of policies so that when anybody approaches to connect to water they have a complete set of policies put in place and they have done that and we're very happy to have that. The thing that needed to follow that was we felt that there needed to be an ordinance similar to the sewer department ordinance that connected the town to that requirement because as you know we're a separate entity and to some degree and not to other degrees but So that the idea was that we need a small ordinance to connect the two and that's what this does. It lays out clear guidelines on what developers have to do and how to apply and among other things it's intended to help protect the groundwater. It's intended to help existing rent payers. It's intended to at some point hopefully increase fire flow and to protect public safety. Own town counts our town planner has reviewed this saying it doesn't need to go with planning board because she understands It to be this kind of an ordinance it really doesn't need planning board input. And it's not required. So that's what it is. I'm here and can answer any questions that you might have. I don't know if I have all the right answers, but I have answers. And so if anybody has anything, that's it. [1:27:19] Town Council Chair: Any thoughts on the topic in the council side? Any concerns? Any objections? [1:27:25] Town Councilor: I talked with Don in depth about it already. I'm happy. Happy okay just one question so Don I agree with it the question is the water department structure is at this point much different than the town when it comes to planning the boarding stop does this kind of link the two or I mean is it is this more on for the town side direction or more for the water side direction I mean I guess one of those things where most ordinances actually have to be policed right and it's not being so to speak police actually yeah it's [1:28:00] Don Fellows: It's actually policed in two ways. It's laid out, too, in the ordinance. It's done by the water department or by the water, and it's also done by the codes enforcement officer for the town. It addresses things like, if you're within 200 feet of a main, it's requiring connection, except if there are exceptions. And that's the same way the sewer department does it. [1:28:28] Town Councilor: Yeah. Yeah. No, good. Thank you. Okay. [1:28:32] Town Council Chair: Any other comments, questions, concerns, objections? [1:28:37] Don Fellows: Okay. I do have one more comment. It's not exactly related to this, but in looking at the aquifers, because people have asked, where are the aquifers? To what degree are they protecting and that sort of thing? We're sitting in the middle of one of them right here. And that's on Bower Street aquifer, or Bower Well Aquifer. And I wanted to look and see, okay, I knew that the town developed a zoning system for protecting that aquifer. It has three zones. And you're in Zone 1, Zone 2, or Zone 3. And it's a lot more prohibitive in Zone 1 than it is in Zone 3. But I went to look at our GIS mapping, and it's gone. On. It used to be in there when we had Google Earth. It was all there laid out with the zoning and everything else. Now we're using GIS and there's no such delineation. We have all the writing that goes with it. We don't have maps. And I just want to say that needs to be addressed and fixed. [1:29:42] Town Council Chair: All right. While hearing no kind of major pushback, I'll go ahead and get this scheduled for first hearing at our next meeting. And we'll do the first reading, set a public hearing probably for some time in November and hope from there. Thanks, Tom. Okay. Next item is 2026-187, which is to authorize the council chair to enter into an agreement with Toby Tyner Jr. for human resources consulting for a sum not to exceed $4,000. I'll entertain a motion. I'll make a motion. Seconded by Councillor Garnett. And just a quick summary on this one. This is an agreement that with – so Toby Tyner is a human – an HR consultant that we've used in the past. The council has used him in the past for assistance with making sure that we're – it sounds bad, but to make sure that we're holding the town manager accountable. That's our job. And so it can – he provides that expertise in making sure that we're moving in the right direction, we're doing the right things. And so the This is kind of an opportunity for the council to utilize Toby's skills to make sure that we're continuing to move in the right direction from a leadership perspective. And so certainly this being on the agenda has no, you know, kind of, it shouldn't say anything about performance. I think those kind of conversations we have in executive session, they're confidential. But, you know, this is an opportunity for us to just get some help because I don't think any of the seven of us are HR professionals by any means. So, any questions from council? Okay. All those in favor? All right. And lastly, 2026-188, which is to approve a local liquor license and special entertainment with alcohol license for Frank's Restaurant and Pub. Before I entertain a motion, I don't know if Councillor Garnett wanted to step down. Entertain a motion to approve? Second. Let's see. Councillor Bickford, seconded by Councillor LaRochelle. Any questions on this one? all those in favor okay 601 abstention and great can come on back so moving on to other business council committee reports school committee councillor [1:32:08] Town Councilor: Rochelle went to the last meeting, which is more of a workshop. The bulk of it was them talking, the superintendent with the school board, about the reason they had to actually cancel school for a Monday because they actually had a sewer issue that actually got resolved, and they talked the way through it, how that actually problem came about, how they corrected it. And the school board was talking about some goals and stuff coming here, and I was kind of intrigued to hear that, you know, some of the discussion about the idea of trying to get the students more involved in the community. I think there was some good discussions, and hopefully it keeps moving forward to broaden the thought process of the students and get them more involved in the community and make partially make that part of a requirement for graduation. It's just a thought process, but the idea of, you know, thinking that is really important. The survey that was done last year that happens, I guess, every year, every couple years actually, one of the things that was really kind of scary about it was the idea that a lot of students in the school do not feel that they were actually connected to the community, which actually is really kind of sad. So I think anything the school board can do, I hopefully the council can support to try to get the students more involved in the community, and I'm sure there's a lot more going on in that, but those are the highlights what I took away from the MEETING JUST TO TELL ONE QUICK THING ON TO THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE THING. JUST BECAUSE I KNOW THAT THEY'RE LOOKING, THEY'RE LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO PUT LETTERS IN OF INTEREST. IF ANYBODY IS INTERESTED IN THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE POSITION, THEY STILL HAVE OPENINGS AND THEY ARE SOLICITING LETTERS OF INTEREST just like crazy. SO ANYBODY'S INTERESTED OUT THERE, YOU CAN SEND A LETTER IN. WE HAD AN INTERESTED PERSON STOP BY. OH GOOD, THANK YOU FOR THAT. AND THE DEADLINE SOON, SO PLEASE IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, IT IS I THINK THEIR NEXT MEETING IS THAT'D BE THE DEADLINE, SO NEXT WEEK, SO PLEASE ACTUALLY COME FORWARD. OKAY, AND THAT WAS JUST GOING TO ALSO TAIL INTO THE PLANNING BOARD. ALSO STILL HAS AN OPENING, AND SO ANYBODY THAT'S INTERESTED IN SERVING ON THE PLANNING BOARD, THEY'RE LOOKING FOR APPLICANTS AS WELL. AND THEN WE, THE PLANNING BOARD WILL MEET ON THURSDAY THIS WEEK SO LISBON DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE, COUNCILOR ROCHELLE, I WAS NOT ABLE TO MAKE IT THE LAST MEETING, BUT I KNOW ROSS WAS THERE, SO I'LL LET HIM KNOW. WE ARE STILL WORKING ON THE MASSIVE SPREADSHEET OF TOWN ON LAND, SO WE MEET NEXT WEDNESDAY, A WEEK FROM TOMORROW, AND WE'LL [1:34:39] Town Council Chair: CONTINUE THAT PROJECT. CONSERVATION COMMISSION, MR. GARNETT. [1:34:44] Town Councilor: WE STILL HAVE OPENINGS FOR THE CONSERVATION COMMITTEE. WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A MEETING NEXT THURSDAY, NEXT TUESDAY ON THE 13TH. THE FIRST SECTION AT BEAVER PARK, THE FORESTER WAS THERE TODAY. THE TREES ARE ALL MARKED FOR CUTTING AND THAT'S ALL DONE, AND NOW HE'LL BE SETTING OUT FOR BIDS FOR THE WINTER HARVEST. SERVICE. [1:35:09] Town Council Chair: HOW ABOUT PARKS AND REC? PARKS AND REC, ALL [1:35:12] Town Councilor: IS WELL. THAT'S ALL I CAN SAY ON THAT ONE THERE. THEY'VE GOT BEFORE AND AFTER SCHOOL FIRING ON ALL CYLINDERS. [1:35:21] Speaker C (unidentified): ALL RIGHT. COUNTY BUDGET? I LISTENED IN TO THE MEETING THE OTHER NIGHT, AND WHAT I GATHERED OUT OF IT, BECAUSE I'M NOT THERE, I MEAN, IT'S A WHOLE DIFFERENT BUDGET PROCESS THAN, YOU KNOW, COUNTY. BUT ANYWAYS, THE ONLY HIGHLIGHT I CAN SAY THAT'S A TYPICAL HIGHLIGHT IS INCREASES, LIKE ON INSURANCE AND DIFFERENT THINGS THAT I'M SURE WILL BE PASSED DOWN TO US SOMETIME. [1:35:47] Town Council Chair: BUT ANYWAYS. LIBRARY GOVERNING BOARD, I DON'T KNOW. WE'RE STILL IN THE TRANSITION. [1:35:56] Town Councilor (Charlie): I WAS JUST GOING TO SAY THAT THE NEXT MEETING IS WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14TH, BUT IT WILL BE COUNCILOR CRAIG ATTENDING, AND THEY'RE WORKING HARD ON THEIR POLICIES. SO I'LL HAND IT OFF TO HIM. [1:36:06] Town Councilor: I'LL BE THERE THAT WAS EXCELLENT [1:36:12] Town Council Chair: Water Commission, I believe the next meeting is a week from today, the 13th. I'm getting some nods in the back. So I'm sorry, got that one, right? So I'll have some updates after that occurs. Finance Committee. [1:36:25] Town Councilor (Charlie): Yeah, one more vacancy, but there is an appointment on the agenda. So that would give the Finance Committee a full gamut of personnel. They are continuing to work on developing some framework so that they can make really good recommendations to council. That being said, I would remind this body that they can do all the work in the world and really important work, but if we don't actually listen to what they're saying, it would be for not. So I'm excited and I'm encouraged by the work they're all doing. They're very talented bunch. I think our town is very FORTUNATE TO HAVE THOSE VOLUNTEERS ON THAT COMMITTEE. NEW SPEAKERS? [1:37:06] Town Councilor: YES. SO WE DID MEET AT THE END OF SEPTEMBER. I THINK WE HAD SOME REALLY FRUITFUL CONVERSATIONS. SOME OF THE HVAC STUFF THAT WE TALKED ABOUT CAME OUT OF THAT. AND WE'LL HAVE ANOTHER MEETING OR WE WENT OVER THE SURVEY RESULTS TOO. THANK YOU FOR EVERYBODY IN THE COMMUNITY THAT HAS RESPONDED TO THE SURVEY THAT WAS INCLUDED WITH YOUR TAX BILLS. Some of the insights have been really helpful and I think are going to drive some of our conversations moving forward. I'm sure we'll put together some sort of public-facing report maybe for this next meeting that will go over what some of the results were. The next meeting is going to be on the 27th immediately following the candidate's name. [1:37:50] Town Council Chair: Town Manager's Report. [1:37:55] Town Manager (Sarah): So my first is just a reminder that the PD lobby is now closed overnights, 7pm to 7am. I just want to make sure we reiterate that we promised often and So I'll be doing that again. When you're coming into this building to do meetings, to attend meetings, you'll want to come through the front entrance so anyone who is becoming in the PD Lobby doors before please Circle around. We're gonna make sure in the first few weeks that we have staff connected to every meeting as best we can, we'll make that happen but we've just got to figure out the rhythm and make sure that the doors are open and then they get closed after. I did want to allow our finance director Beth to give a brief update on our progress with Barry Dunn because we find it rather exciting, at least we're geeky and find it exciting, and we think the community would love to hear too. So I'd love to have Beth step up if you're prepared to do that. [1:38:57] Town Finance Director/Staff: So I think, as I've mentioned before, I do two bi-weekly meetings with Barry Dunn to kind of just keep up to date with where they're at and how things are going. So we're actually, this is brand new. We had our meeting this morning, which is why I shared it with Sarah, and she was very excited to share it with you. They have made substantial progress in helping us get some of the necessary reconciliation work done that is in turn going to help us get the audit done. So the two big things that they've been working on over the past, I want to say, I want to say a month or six weeks or so, [1:39:39] Shelly Reynolds, Interim GM for Water Department: they started with cash. [1:39:41] Town Finance Director/Staff: And so I knew their cash reconciliation was getting close. They are, I guess, as cash is as reconciled as it will be. So basically what that means is at the end of FY25, we do still have a $60,000 variance in cash. However, sorry, $57,000 variance. However, that variance is the same as what it was at the end of fiscal 24, meaning all of the activity for 25 is now appropriately captured in the ledger. The good news with that variance is that the bank balance is higher than the community's balance, meaning we have more cash in the bank than what is in the ledger. To me, what that says, I know historically we've had issues with ensuring that all electronic receipts coming in were recorded. So, likely what that means is at some point prior to June 30, 2024, there are roughly $57,000 worth of receipts that were never appropriately recorded in the budget. Given that cash has never been accurately reconciled for several years, it could be an accumulation going back an unknown amount of time, but we are at least 25 completely reconciled, and I expect that once we start the reconciliation work on FY26, and in turn start doing our monthly reconciliations for 27, we'll continue to be completely reconciled. That was very promising news that the variants at least stayed the same so that we at least have our 25 ledgers are as accurate as can be. They also have done a substantial amount of work around the tax receivables. The biggest issue here was that during FY25. In New York. So typically what you would do in Munis is each year you would create a new tax receivable account for the current year. That never happened in 25. So all of the 25 activity was being reported. It was just being hit to a different year's tax account. So if you were to run a Munis report and look at the balances as of FY25, you would have some receivable accounts with very large negative balances and some receivable accounts with very large positive balances because those amounts aren't being recorded to the correct bucket. So they went through, they created a really nice spreadsheet that allowed them to reconcile the accounts, which they will in turn provide to us, which will allow us to reconcile the accounts going forward. Similar to cash, the receivable account also had a variance of around $60,000 between what's recorded in Munis and the collector's detail, which is also in Munis but a different module. They're going to continue their work on the tax receivable account to try to narrow down what that $60,000 is. I'm kind of hoping that will also narrow down with the cash variances because I kind of think they might offset each other. So that, both of those are very promising and those are obviously two of the larger, probably the largest accounts on our balance sheet. So having those reconciled really gives us a substantial amount of our balance sheet, percentage-wise, and kind of having comfort knowing that those amounts are correct. we also you approved us entering to an up to fifty thousand dollar contract with them we've only used as of right now approximately fifteen thousand dollars good job which is very i guess exciting news for me that we still have a lot of potential things we can have them help us with or but we have talked to them their next steps are, they're going to work on putting together some schedules for us that look at the special revenue funds and the capital project funds. [1:44:19] Shelly Reynolds, Interim GM for Water Department: Because, I'm not sure how [1:44:24] Town Finance Director/Staff: familiar you guys are with our ledgers work, but we have almost all of our special revenue funds just kind of dumped into one fund, [1:44:32] Cheryl Heiderman: the 2000 fund, which [1:44:35] Town Finance Director/Staff: Which is not necessarily the ideal way to do it, but that's how it was set up. And until we kind of have a reprieve and get some breathing room, the work to kind of break that out would be time consuming. Kind of the same thing with the capital projects. We've been doing a good job of, we create individual accounts within the $4,000 fund for capital project. But there's not necessarily, we haven't been consistent in the past as far as using any type of coding system to allow you to know that this revenue goes with this expense. So, they're going to do some work around that to create schedules to help us get those accounts reconciled, which founders will be working for. And which, again, will give us comfort kind of around another substantial part of our ledger. [1:45:28] Speaker P (unidentified): And, so I think that was it. [1:45:38] Town Finance Director/Staff: And again, with those kind of reconciliations that they're doing, they're going to create a schedule, which they then provide to us, which then kind of gives us the tools to use that schedule and build upon it year after year to ensure that we're tracking these different projects and activities correctly and more EASILY ABLE TO IDENTIFY SPECIFIC BALANCES RELATED TO SPECIFIC ACTIVITIES OR FUNDS OR WHATNOT. AND THEN WE ALSO, ALL OF THIS INFORMATION IS OBVIOUSLY SHARED WITH THE AUDITORS EVERY TIME I MEET WITH THEM, AND WE HAVE TENTATIVELY SCHEDULED OUR FIELD WORK TO START FOR THE AUDIT FOR THE FIRST WEEK OF NOVEMBER. So that's also promising that we will at least, you know, now that we kind of have some of our bigger accounts reconciled, we can get moving on the audit and kind of hopefully, you know, once we get through 25, hopefully get 26 scheduled shortly after and not be as far behind as we currently are. [1:46:42] Speaker P (unidentified): I don't know if anyone has questions or... [1:46:45] Town Councilor (Charlie): I don't have a question, but I say it too often. I'm so glad you're here. [1:46:49] Town Councilor: Good job, Beth. Good job. Good news. Yeah. [1:46:54] Town Council Chair: Thanks, Beth. Is this on the time manager report side? [1:46:58] Town Manager (Sarah): Yes, sir, I do. Just a couple more things. I just wanted to give a quick update on the Borough Road Bridge project. I've updated you in email, but I figure I would update the community. Sometimes I know they're looking for that information. I was able to get an updated cost estimate from the engineers, and that project's going to come to $1,950,000. That includes a $200,000 contingency built in. So that's the number we're looking at. We've completed the right-of-way process this October. In November, DOT is going to review the plan, specs, the estimate, and other documents as required. In December of 2026, they're going to make any potential revisions that will be at the MDOT level. In January of 2027, we are hoping to advertise the bid alongside with MDOT. And we're hoping for the project to be completed, cautiously optimistic, hoping the project will be completed in the calendar year, 2027. So I will keep the council posted on that timeline. I'll keep the community posted on that timeline, but that's where we are right now. I created, I remorphed, I reimagined a position that was just called blankly like the administrative assistant in code. It didn't even have like a formal name. It was just like in codes. So I wanted to add a special emphasis of customer service to it, knowing that this is going to be a major part of our restructure in the code ECD and planning department. So I named it the Municipal Services Coordinator position, the administrative assistant with customer service. I'm happy to report we've hired Joel. Joel serves or served as a collections clerk out front. You've probably seen him when you came in to pay your bills or taxes or had a friendly exchange with him. He was the perfect person for this position. So we advertised internally thinking that he might have interest, wink,, and he did. And he applied, and he got the job, and we're really excited he started today. So really exciting part of that new team. And now that he and Lee Jay, you met tonight, the assistant town manager, now that we have the two of them, the last piece is the code enforcement officer, and we have a conditional offer out to a code enforcement officer. So once I hear back from him with a little bit more assurance that he's on board, I will make that announcement at the appropriate time. But I think we've got our whole entire crew together. So, very, excited to report that. I'll be at the EBA Bank Convention tomorrow and Thursday, just a reminder. And we are not open on Monday for the holiday. [1:49:55] Shelly Reynolds, Interim GM for Water Department: That's what I have. Okay. [1:49:58] Town Council Chair: Next is ECE report. [1:50:02] Town Councilor: Good evening. Ross Cunningham, Economic Community Development. Traditionally, this is where I do my business update, and I wanted to bring you something different tonight. One of the things I learned in leadership of the military was bring good people on your team and get the heck out of their way and we've done that with Emily, our community development specialist over here. She was challenged to take what was a bare bones how to do business in Lisbon book that was made 25 years ago and update it and bring it forward to today. And lo and behold, it's not a book at all. So I wanted to share with you and Councilor Turgeon, I'm going to use you as my guinea pig, if that's okay with you, Sheriff. We're going to run this little online process for folks. This is not live yet. I wanted to sit down with Lee Jay and go through it as well after he's on board and get his input on this. But we're going to hit the start button, and the first thing it does is tell us a bit about the Smart Start Sessions, which we've launched here in town that allows people to get together with different department heads regarding their project prior to filing forms and permits and things. But once you've read that, you can click on the smart start button there and go to the website. But I will just tell you now as we avoid all that, all the links are accurate. Go to the right pages. I just wanted to share that with you. So the first step is to answer the following questions. So, Councilor Turgeon, do you already have a business in Lisbon or are you starting a new business, sir? [1:51:28] Town Councilor (Charlie): I am starting a new business. [1:51:29] Town Councilor: You'll be starting a new business. Wonderful. Okay. Do you have a business plan? Absolutely. You do? Prepared. That's wonderful. Have you registered your business? No. No? All right. Well, then what it's going to do is it's going to tell you that there are some options that you need to follow. There's a link to go to the state of Maine registration page. There's a link to obtain an EIN for a federal employer identification number, sales and use tax. There's some information on registering a DBA here in town. And when you've completed all that, it says continue, and you go on to step three. So, Councilor Turgeon, tell us where you want to have your business. Do you already have property? Are you leasing property? Do you need a spot? Do you want to operate from your home, or do you want to help find property to build on? Take Springworks. Exactly. I need help. I need help. All right. So we're going to get a location to lease or buy or build? Yep. The city. All right. Good. So what they're going to do is they're going to connect you with my department. I work with landowners all over town and property places, and we'll talk about that a bit. We'll explain the zoning districts. We'll discuss what opportunities could be redeveloped and also connect them with local real estate professionals and developers and business owners who have empty space. So after you've done that, you're going to go back, and we're going to say, all right, let's say we found you a spot. So you're now leasing commercial space. Congratulations. You've got some commercial space. Before you sign a lease, you want to check with folks. And this is if somebody skipped that other step and went straight to leasing commercial space. We want to make sure that they're verifying the zoning, that they're confirming their business is a permitted use in there. All these things that are really important to go through. I think one of the reasons we're really pushing this is that we've had multiple businesses open in town without ever talking to us at all. And we find ourselves in, A, catch-up game, or, B, hey, you can't do that there, and you never checked. And now you own the building, and now everybody's up a creek. And we don't want to see that continue to happen, so we're trying to put something forward. So once you've figured out that you've got a good location and the zoning is okay and you're all set there, the question is, Councilman Churchill, are you changing the building? Absolutely. Absolutely, sure. Man made of money, going to make some buildings. Good. So this says, hey, look, if you're going to do some changes, you may need one of the following permits. Takes you to the town permit page, requires that you connect with the code officer and get all that permitting done. Does your business require our local license, Mr. Turgeon? Yes. It does. Good. Well, we're going to connect you right to the clerk's office and they will talk you through the business licenses and the processes there. Once you've figured that out, we're going to move on. And you think maybe it has a state requirement license? Well, then you're going to go to the state main business page and do the same thing there. And once you've completed this, you're given a checklist to sort of say, hey, have you done all of these? And actually just going through it now, I'm realizing that we need to maybe talk about a signed permit, which is not listed in our, so little things are still popping up as we go through this. But I just wanted to share it with you. It's kind of like a choose your own ending book, right? It was the old books where you could wind up on Mars or whatever. You chose a different ending. But this is really basic. It's going to be very, easy to implement right on our website, steer people to it, market it out there. So when somebody comes to Lisbon and wants to get a business going here in town, they've got a place to start with all the links they need, all the connections they need. And personally, I think it's so much more impressive than a book. So I want to just thank Emily for putting her work together on this. I'm really pleased with it. Any questions for me? [1:54:56] Town Manager (Sarah): I'm excited. Thank you. [1:54:59] Town Councilor: Again, we've got a couple more tweets, but I hope to have it up by November 1st, live. Okay. I [1:55:12] Town Council Chair: think the last thing before we go to appointments is an elections update? I can't follow that, but absentee voting is now available and will remain available until Thursday, October 29. That's the last Thursday in October. It's available during our normal open days, 745 a.m. until 430 p.m., Monday through Thursday. We are going to have extended hours for voting in person and registering on Tuesday, October 27. and that'll be from 4.30 to 6 right after we close. We're just going to stay open. That same night we're going to have a Meet the Candidates night. That's October 27 as well. Meet the Candidates night is going to be at 7 p.m. You can get an introduction to reintroduction to our current counselor, Fern Leonard Rochelle, as well as Stephen Bickford. He also is going to be on the ballot. We don't have any Water Commission candidates, so we're scheduled to process absentee ballots before Election Day on Friday, October 30th. The option to view those by the public will be open at 10 a.m., and the processing itself will begin at 11 a.m. Any questions for the clerk? All right. Next is appointments. So we've got three appointments here. First is 2026-189, which is to appoint Kelsey Vosburgh to the Zoning Board of Appeals for a three-year term. I'll entertain a motion to appoint. point? So moved. Second. Seconded by Councillor Craig. Any questions? I think Kelsey's come before us a couple times, wanted to serve her community, so thank you to her. All those in favour? All right. Next, 26-190 to appoint Melissa Leask to the Zoning Board of Appeals for a three-year term. I'll entertain a motion. So moved. Seconded by Councillor Craig. And Missy's here. Hi, Missy. Thank you again for volunteering for another thing. We're very glad that you're here. That works. Any questions for Missy? I think we all kind of know her. All those in favor? All right. Thank you. Thank you, Missy. And the last is 2026-191, which is to appoint Kevin Ridley to the Finance Committee for a three-year term. Entertain a motion? Second. Second by Councillor Craig. And I believe Kevin was on the Finance Committee before a while ago, so welcome back and thank you for coming back and serving the town. We appreciate it. All those in favor? favor. Excellent. Okay. Next is Council Communications. We'll start on this side. Councillor Garnett, do you have anything you want to share? No. You really built that one up. Councillor Bickford, do you have anything you would like to share? Yeah, I was on the committee [1:57:59] Town Councilor: that looked over the new code enforcement officer, and if he takes the position, this town has not seen one as good. And with the two that we have, I really think it's going to be fantastic. [1:58:23] Town Council Chair: I praise. All right. [1:58:25] Town Councilor: Nothing from me. Councillor Craig, anything? The only one thing that I'd like to just point out and kind of give some kudos on is I know that there were some concerns going into the changes to the communications center and that we had to make some changes early and so far things seem like they've been going really smoothly there we've had a couple of challenges early on with some of our business partners but those things that ironed out and I just want to you know give both the fire chief and the police chief you know props on how they've handled those situations and communicated that to us so thank you [1:58:56] Town Council Chair: Councilor Crafts? Councilor LaRochelle? Councilor Turgeon? All right. Any other business to come before the council this evening? All right. Seeing none, I'll motion to adjourn. Interested is Councilor Turgeon, seconded by Councilor Barnett. All those in favor? We are adjourned at 8.47. Good night. [1:59:30] Town Councilor (Charlie): One on three is not here for it. [1:59:36] Speaker C (unidentified): I assume this is what. [1:59:37] Albert (Lisbon Falls resident): What's to do?