Town of Lamoine, Maine
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	Administrative Assistant to the Board of Selectmen				Stu Marckoon
	Report for Meeting of September 17, 2020

Gosh, what an exciting day this has been, and it’s only about 2:00 PM on Thursday, September 10^th.   The project that you got rolling regarding the school has taken off like a shot. Iris Simon and Georgia Munsell have been by and collected more than $1,500 that will be matched by an anonymous donor and will result in a sizable contribution!  The osprey nesting platform on Mud Creek Road has been installed by Versant Power.  A young couple from Arkansas chose to get married here at the town hall this morning as a “destination wedding”.  I’ve submitted a building permit application to replace the ramp out the back door with a deck and ramp setup, and Mike Hodgkins hopes to get started on that next week. Phew!

You’ve got some interesting items on the agenda for your meeting.  There’s stuff going on!

General Assistance Ordinance – Your meeting will start out with the always exciting annual update public hearing for the General Assistance Ordinance.  If it’s like every other year, no one will show up to testify, you can close it and adopt the ordinance updates.    These are all just the updated figures for various items of assistance as required by law.

Minutes – September 3, 2020 – Please look over the minutes.  It was a relatively short meeting.

Warrant 8 – A school payroll and operations warrant will be the big items on here – we won’t see those until Wednesday afternoon.  The warrant is posted on the website and will be periodically updated. 

Budget Report – This too is posted on the website and will be periodically updated, and printed for meeting night.

Agency Liquor Store Request – As you saw via e-mail yesterday, we’ve received a request from Kim Murphy to allow an agency liquor store in town.  I have printed a lot of material for your packet on this.  It used to be that state law required a petition to place this before voters, but a bill this spring allows the Board of Selectmen to place this on a referendum ballot. Either way, the voters will have the final say on whether such a business would be allowed.   I copied you on the reply to Kim, but there is not time to do this for the November 2020 election (public hearings are required, absentee ballots, and the like).  My recommendation would be that if you chose to put this before the voters that it be at the annual town meeting election next March.

Recreation Committee – The Rec Committee meets next Wednesday night.  They’ve been asked by at least one parent to offer a soccer program this fall.  I spoke with Nikki Chan earlier this week about it, and said the Board of Selectmen should be the body to make any final policy decision on whether to offer such a program.  The State of Maine has some pretty strict limits on sports, and there would have to be a plan developed by the Recreation Committee to come up with a program that meets the state guidelines.  I can check with our insurance carrier if you’d like.  Their meeting is one night before this meeting, and I would doubt that the Rec Committee would be able to draw up a program that quickly that would meet the state requirements (they’re pretty amazing committee members, but not super human!).    The Rec Committee meeting will be held via Zoom and I’ll be hosting it out of the town hall.  It potentially could get contentious. 

Road Commissioner Report – A separate memo on several matters is in your packet. 

School Staff Appreciation – Lamoine is giving the Love for our staff at the school.  After your last meeting, this effort absolutely exploded, and I expect the school staff is going to feel mighty appreciated by the end of their 1^st week of resumed classes!  Kathleen can fill you in.

Lamoine 150! – This committee meets shortly after I get this report written.  Jo can fill you in on the next fun event, and the history book of Lamoine is now published (I got a bill, anyway) and will be distributed soon. 

Lamoine Quarterly – Perhaps I’ll even get this started before your meeting!  We’ve got some great material this quarter.

2021 Planners – We’ve been purchasing these for several years now.   Do you wish to continue doing so?   They’re about $4 each, and we’ve ordered 35 for volunteer board members in the past.  I have some 2020s left over from last year – I trust no one really wants to relive the year!

Mounting a TV in the meeting room – The TV/Monitor that we’ve been using in the meeting room came from my Dad’s house (I gave him my TV which was larger and newer) but this one is pretty good and has suited the needs for combination live/zoom meetings.  My idea is to mount this on the North side wall instead of having to schlep it around for each meeting.  We could move the display about the Coaling Station to the wall beside my office where the topographical map of the region is tacked to the wall (that’s starting to get a bit brittle and torn).    I believe we’re going to use a monitor more and more as technology improves, even after the pandemic is over.  Your thoughts are most welcome.

And that’s all that’s on the agenda at this point.   See you on Thursday.

Stu