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VASSALBORO

Homeowners may soon be eligible for energy improvement loans

Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) ordinance on Nov. 2 local ballot.

VASSALBORO -- Selectmen were able to grant only one of three requests presented at Thursday's meeting.

Augusta Rep. Patsy Crockett left the meeting pleased with their vote to put a Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) ordinance on a Nov. 2 local ballot.

The energy ordinance, if approved by voters, will make Vassalboro homeowners and landlords eligible for low-interest loans to help cover up-front costs of energy improvements. State officials used $30 million in federal stimulus money to create a revolving loan fund.

Crockett sponsored the legislation establishing the program. Legislators did not want to make it a state mandate, she said, so they included the requirement that each municipality adopt it.

The ordinance calls for the agency called Efficiency Maine to administer the program, so there will not be extra work for town office staff.

Selectmen scheduled a public hearing on the ordinance for 7 p.m. Sept. 16, as the first item at their next regular meeting.

Ben Gidney was disappointed that selectmen postponed action on his request to eliminate parking on the south side of Bog Road at the East Vasalboro four corners.

Gidney and his wife, Denise, intend to put in a building and open a business called Evolution Golf on their lot on the southwest corner of the intersection of Bog Road and Route 32 in East Vassalboro. Ben Gidney told selectmen their entrance will be on Bog Road. As a safety issue, he said, he wants parking banned on the south side of the road, so drivers can see the stop sign and Route 32 traffic.

Many of the people who habitually park along the edge of the Gidney property are going to the Country Store across Bog Road, on the northwest corner of the intersection.

Proprietor David Souza said the state right-of-way extends 33 feet from the center of the road, well onto the Gidneys' property. He proposed encouraging parking farther off the road to minimize interference with visibility.

Selectmen listened to Gidney and Souza for nearly a half hour. Satisfied that they understood the men's positions, but unsure of an appropriate solution, they postponed action.

Board Chairman Lauchlin Titus suggested seeking input from the town's Roadside Pedestrian and Bike Committee. Committee members are studying areas -- including the Bog Road -- where residents want sidewalks, bikeways or both.

Lastly, Greg O'Hallaran did not get the modification of his consent decree he needs to get a building permit for a lot in his Stone Road subdivision.

O'Halloran's case goes back several years, to his purchase of land that included an old barn. After he subdivided the land, he had the barn torn down and found that it had asbestos. He has been working with town and state officials to get the hazardous material removed and safely disposed of ever since, at considerable expense.

The initial consent decree was signed April 15, 2009, and gave O'Halloran until July 1 to complete the clean-up. O'Halloran met neither that deadline nor the Dec. 1 deadline of a revised agreement.

The consent agreements said O'Halloran can sell no more subdivision lots, and the code enforcement officer will issue no building permits in his subdivision, until clean-up is complete.

O'Halloran argued that in terms of town ordinances, he has finished the clean-up; all the barn debris is gone. What remains, he said, is some soil awaiting state inspection to see whether it is contaminated.

Town Manager Mary Sabans had a written recommendation from Code Enforcement Officer Daniel Feeney that selectmen not allow a building permit until state environmental officials are satisfied.

Selectmen accepted Feeney's recommendation. If state officials act before their Sept. 16 meeting, they are likely to consider the issue again then.