2026-11-05 - Select Board

Call this meeting to order of the

Thompson Select Board. It is November

5th,

Russell meeting room.

First, call of action is time of pledge

of allegiance.

>> Pledge allegiance to the flag of the

United States of America and to the

Republic for which it stands, one nation

under God, indivisible, with liberty and

justice for all.

>> Or another one.

>> Oh, so

This thing right

I don't read it, I don't say it right,

so

[name]

He's here. Joanna

Here. Welcome.

Roland Tufts.

>> Here.

>> David Kenny.

>> Here.

>> Ryan Holmes.

>> I am also here.

>> All members present.

Now time

Congratulations to clerk Amanda

Campbell, deputy clerk William Proulx

and their team on a smooth election.

Believe it or not, 76% of Topsham's

voters voted in the election.

And slightly more than half actually

voted before election day. So thank you

to all our election workers who assisted

both before and on election day.

On Monday, November 9th at 6:00 p.m.,

MSAD 75 is hosting a budget session at

Mount Ararat High School that they've

asked us to help spread the word about.

They're looking for public input as they

begin their annual budget process.

You may have noticed uh contractors for

Central Maine Power that were working on

the lines that started at the Topsham

Fair Mall, eventually went across the

river and then in Brunswick down to Keen

Street, what they call Section 31. Uh

the new lines are now energized, so

there should be more reliable

electricity in the area. And now they're

about to start taking down the old

lines, and they hope by the end of the

year the project will be finished.

Non-emergency facilities will be closed

on Wednesday, November 11th for Veterans

Day. And then the last uh thing is just

a question for the board.

The past couple years we've gotten in

the habit of having a town attorney come

in to do the Freedom of Information Act

training. Um, new select board members,

or not just new, but any select board

member at the beginning of their term is

required to take the training. Um, last

year, rather than just have the people

that needed it say watch your video or

we brought the town attorney in and we

also invited members of the planning

board or other people that were

interested in it and some staff members

too. Uh, so would you like us to do that

again this year? Set up a time and

invite others to attend or

>> I think it would be a good idea to do

that.

>> Can can we

also make it a a a

bigger thing and invite committee

members and other people for like an

annual since the attorney is going to be

here and going to pay for the time, just

include everybody that's involved or do

you think this would be better served

for just a select board?

>> No, I think like last year we had

probably 12 people attend.

>> Yeah, I think the more the more people

we have that are serving our town the

better.

>> And then the next question is do you

want it on a special night or would you

want to come like an hour early for the

select board meeting or would you like

>> I don't have any objection either.

>> Whenever the attorney's cheapest, yeah.

>> [laughter]

>> I'll I'll check with their schedule.

>> Okay.

>> She charges less for the first hour then

we'll do it that way.

>> Limit it to 1 hour.

>> All right, that's all I've got. Thanks.

>> Yeah, among other places.

>> All right, next up, board and committee

reports and updates. We have an update

from the community center committee.

Uh,

[name]

and [name]. Please.

>> Hi Hello everybody. I am [name] and I'm here with [name].

>> How you doing?

>> I'm here today to just present an update

on our current charge that went into

place in October of last year. We're

currently in the midst of our phase

three charge, and we just wanted to come

in since it's been a year and provide a

little update.

>> Okay. So, we always like to remind

people of what our mission is of the

Community Center Committee,

and that is to understand the desires

and needs of the Topsham community to

identify accessible, affordable,

sustainable, recreational solutions that

will serve the multi-generational

community and foster social connections

among Topsham citizens.

>> We also thought it would be beneficial

to give a really brief update as to

where we are to date.

When we first started, phase one was

really focused on surveying the

community and finding out what Topsham

residents wanted. We did a couple of

surveys, we did some focus groups, and

we found that more than 70 of those

surveyed desired some form of a

community center.

Phase two, we really focused on

determining a recommended location and

early design and some more detailed cost

estimates.

And then phase three, we're focusing on

identifying fiscally responsible options

that balance the the residents' vision

for a community center with the

community's fiscal needs.

>> So, we also would like to just give you

a a brief review and for those who may

not know what our charge actually is.

And that entails the town to coordinate

efforts to finalize an agreement with

Topsham Fair for access,

the committee to manage fundraising

association associated activities,

the committee to retain and work with a

capital campaign manager,

to develop and release a request for

proposal to further the building design,

and the committee continues to engage

with community members to get their

feedback regarding this potential

project.

So, the first charge is the town will

coordinate efforts to finalize an access

agreement with the Topsham Fair.

Uh the Topsham town manager met with the

Topsham Fair board to negotiate and

finalize an agreement ensuring access

through the fairgrounds if the town

chooses to develop the site.

In the May 2026 town meeting uh

authorized the select board to enter

into an agreement with the Sagadahoc

Agricultural and

Horticultural Society. The documents

have been executed and recorded.

>> The second focus of our charge is

fundraising activities

which the committee has been exploring.

Some of those uh include meeting with

campaign uh capital campaign

consultants. [laughter]

Thank you.

So, we met with a couple different uh

consultants

um in 2025.

Uh also in 2025, we held a special

meeting

to discuss potentially forming a

fundraising group.

Moving on to 2026, we some committee

members attended

Project Evidence AI presentation at

Bowdoin College to see if we could

explore using AI in a capital campaign

planning um process.

And we have also begun identifying

potential grant writers for future

submission opportunities

as well as creating a comprehensive list

of Topsham businesses for future

engagement with this potential project.

>> One

[clears throat] Call out on that too is

we also met with Project Evident

directly via a Zoom to discuss with them

um their, you know, what kinds of

options they have with their fundraising

efforts.

>> Using AI.

>> Using AI.

From those presentation and those

meetings, the committee recognized an

opportunity to use existing data that

we'd already collected, feedback and AI

to develop a pre-campaign planning

materials.

So the purpose of pre-campaign planning

materials that we learned from meeting

with the capital campaign consultants is

to establish a

structured framework, define objectives,

and assess organizational readiness

before fundraising and marketing

initiatives can begin.

So during this year, during the summer

months, the committee chose to use some

of our our monthly sessions and create a

draft of these pre-campaign planning

documents.

Includes a draft for case for support,

some campaign leadership structure, some

gift range charts, and some donor naming

opportunities.

>> [clears throat]

>> The third focus is capital campaign

manager, the committee to retain and

work with a capital campaign manager.

Based on the draft of the pre-planning

document, potential next steps include

conducting a feasibility study and

engaging a campaign manager or

potentially both.

Uh the committee is presenting this

information to the select board for

review along with consideration of

releasing an RFP for the next design

phase.

>> The fourth focus was to develop

request for proposal

for to further the building design and

that RFP will be presented to the select

board at a future date.

>> And lastly, focus five is to engage with

community members.

The committee contends to engage with

community members for feedback regarding

this potential project.

Some of the things the committee members

have done um the past several months is

attending the May town meeting. We've

updated committee information online on

the fact sheet, which is attached to

this

agenda, and continuing conversations

with town residents.

And that is our update. So this time we

just want to open it up to see if

anybody has any questions for us.

>> I have a question. It's it's more this

is it's a much bigger scope.

One of the things that we always contend

with is

how do we engage our community and and

really promote a larger amount of

participation? Have you guys been

How have you guys been able to reach out

to our community? What's How many

people do you have on the email list or

what are the things that you guys are

doing to provide that outreach so that

we can get as much feedback as we

possibly can?

>> So if I can start out, when we did our

second survey, one of the questions on

there was if community members would be

interested in potentially helping with

fundraising

and I I Forgive me. I don't know the

number off the top of the head my head,

but we do have

oh gosh, it's probably

maybe a hundred

that actually

that actually said yes. And when we had

that preliminary meeting, we used that

to reach out to people.

As you know, with scheduling meetings

and volunteers, you know, that's always

a schedule because

people are working, people have kids,

sports, activities, etc.

So we didn't have as big of a turnout as

we hoped for that meeting back then,

but we still have all that information

on file.

And the other thing that I could say

personally is pretty much everybody I

know

knows that I'm on this committee. So

whenever I have the opportunity to talk

about it, I talk about it. And I do have

people that do approach me for updates

as to where it stands.

I think one of the things that's

challenging is because this is such a

process,

it's kind of

difficult in some aspects to say, okay,

we're going to have a group of people

meeting to just to discuss it, you know?

Um, so we're always open to to more ways

of how we can continue to reach out.

>> And the reason I asked that is

from our side of the board, we usually

hear the complaints after the fact or we

hear of people that don't want it or do

want it. Um, and this is something I've

talked to you guys about in committee

meetings is trying to engage with just

absolutely everybody because

I don't think there's anybody that would

disagree that having a community center

here would be fantastic.

And it would be 100% yes if it wasn't

going to be an increase in our taxes,

right?

That's the big big big challenge. Um,

with

with the potential increases of that,

that's where the tough conversations are

coming in. And those are So that's kind

of what I'm trying to gauge is how far

along can we go on that to make sure

that we're engaging with as many people

as we possibly can, not necessarily just

people that are in favor of it

so that we can find ways to do it. And

if there are ways that people can help

on the other side, then

that's kind of part of the

>> And I think I would add on, I think

that's one of the biggest dilemmas that

we have right now is how much do we

engage with the community if we don't

know where we stand, if if we don't know

if the RFP's are going to be released or

or if fundraising's going to start. So

we [clears throat]

really focused recently on making sure

that if we get to a point where this

could be pursued, we have as much

documentation ready to go. As [name] said,

we've kept all of those email lists from

any of the surveys we've done, we've

kept the lists from all the focus

groups. So any community members that

have engaged with us saying they want to

do it, even if it was 4 years ago, we

will certainly reach out when the time

comes and be ready to um have that

information.

>> What are you getting from feedback?

Just out of curiosity while you're out.

>> Most people in my experience just kind

of want to know where we're at, what

we're doing, has it been finalized, do

we know where the building's going to

be? And those are things that we just

kind of indicate are still under

consideration.

>> Right.

And I I think for me personally, when I

when I talk about it to people that

question and um you know want to know

the status

and how much it's going to cost and all

of that good stuff um

one of the first things I say is I look

you know I get it too. I'm a taxpayer. I

grew up in this town.

You know I get my tax bill just like

everybody else.

However, for the greater good of the

community and if you look at what we

would gain long term and not just

necessarily how it will affect us today

because anything you do in this day and

age there's a cost associated to it. Our

goal is to minimize that cost as much as

possible. We're

highly aware of that.

>> Yeah.

>> Um and I will say our committee is

pretty much um real top some people

if you will. Um so between all of us we

know a ton of people. So I think also

when we get down to where we can narrow

it down some more and we really need the

volunteers to step up

that we can have that one-on-one

approach with people in the community

because I find that's much more

effective than just putting out a broad

you know oh we need volunteers. I think

if you have that one-on-one conversation

say look you know how can how can you

help me even if it's a little bit you

know. Um but that one-on-one experience

and those conversations I think really

get to the heart of it.

>> And one of the things we spent a lot of

time talking about when we were doing

the pre-campaign planning was what how

many people if this was to happen would

be need and there was one person

dedicated just for that community

connection, getting the word out,

finding you know what's the best way to

do that because it's going to be a key

piece

of any fundraising effort is how do we

engage with the community.

>> And also because we haven't gotten to a

stage where we feel

um that we have all the answers yet

necessary. We have not done social

media. So like we don't have a Facebook

account or our TikTok or anything like

that to put that word out there yet

because we want to make sure that, you

know,

we have we have the right answers.

>> I would also like to add something to

what you guys were talking about too.

This has been a very long process. We

all I think are on the same page with

that. Um it's been a costly process.

And I want to commend all of you guys

for sticking this process through

because

the decision that we're going through

right now is virtually going to reinvent

Topsail.

And it's not going to necessarily affect

the people in this room or the people

that live here currently, but it

definitely will affect the next

generation. And that takes time. I mean

that that's why a lot of things do take

time. We have to have careful

deliberation and consideration for the

things we do. And this is these are the

things that you guys are paying

attention to. So thank you for doing

those. We appreciate that for sure.

The for you guys your charge

ends in April

roughly sometime.

Um how how do you guys think you will be

getting into that? Um what are some of

the next steps that you guys are moving

towards?

>> I think it comes down to the RFP.

>> Okay.

>> And probably at your next meeting.

>> Okay.

So no decisions tonight yet. Anyway just

an update for you guys.

Thank you all. Stop talking. I

appreciate that.

>> I can just jump on one thing that you

said when you talking about costly

process.

Um

when they were meeting with consultants,

one of them suggested that their fee was

a heavy hitter fundraiser, but the fee

was 10,000 a month.

Um and rather than coming to the board

and saying oh let's try to do this, they

actually asked a lot of questions,

learned things, and they've done a lot

of this themselves that we would have

been paying someone for. So they have

definitely been trying to find ways to

do that as well.

>> That's a good addition. Thank you for

that.

>> Any other questions we can answer? Yeah.

>> So

>> had you've obviously talked to a lot of

people in the last few months of

you know, as you've gone through this,

has anyone kind of like come out of left

field with a suggestion that you hadn't

thought of yet?

I'm just thinking in terms of what the

scope of this might be ultimately.

>> Um, not to me.

>> I don't think that there's anything

looking at you guys, [clears throat] I

don't think that there's anything that

really

>> Well, I I didn't add two things. One is

we've started to just brainstorm names

of people who would be contacted in the

future if we were going to do

fundraising. So, that's sort of one sort

of

piece of it. The other is we have know

the information about the school's

meaning work.

So, that is something that we've talked

about as a committee knowing that that

may have an impact in the big picture.

So, I think we we're trying not to put

the cart before the horse we looked like

what you're saying, right? So, we we

know that there's a lot of things on the

table for Topsom and and how do we act

accordingly and plan accordingly and I

think we're all in it for the long haul.

So, you know, we're we're putting it

laying out the pieces and knowing that

it's going to happen if it's meant to

happen and we can make it happen. So,

>> And the last thing you guys want to deal

with is just like some some scope creep

because someone has a a cool idea that

everyone had

>> no, I haven't I haven't cool ideas.

>> [laughter]

>> Somebody want to give us a building

something like that that would be great.

>> I think the only thing that really

shocked any of us was the price tag on

the campaign manager.

>> The yeah, capital campaign consultants

are a pretty lucrative business,

but they have

>> don't say that.

>> [laughter]

>> I mean,

you know, the the one that we met with

in particular, she had a ton of she had

like close to 40 years experience. She

was a wonderful lady.

Um, access to God only knows what, you

know, online. Um, very intelligent. Um,

but when she gave us that estimate, you

know, I think our floors kind I think

our jaws kind of hit the floor a bit.

>> Yeah.

>> Um,

and as much as we would like to go down

that road, you know, we're we're trying

to

educate ourselves

as to how to conduct it and get the

right people to volunteer and again,

save save any money that we can.

>> And I think we collectively realized

that we weren't at that point yet, but

um she also gave us a lot of

information that we

used.

>> But even though at that fee, she's still

got multiple other engagements going on

too, so you're not going to get like

one-on-one support anytime you call me

and pick up the phone.

>> And she was very clear that she was

basically a coach. So it's not that she

has a contact that should say I'll go

make that she's out teach you guys how

to make the thing, but you're going to

come up with the names and then so it's

these guys said well then

>> very well

>> We could do a lot of that ourselves.

>> Yeah.

>> of things that would be happy to

>> Yes, exactly.

>> There's a lot of people that are retired

from various careers that would say geez

you know I'd sit down with you and

>> Exactly.

>> Maybe.

>> Absolutely. And And sometimes it's you

know just knowing someone, having that

connection.

Or maybe someone who I don't know knows

Bezos or someone who has [laughter]

has some money to give away.

[gasps] But you know we are trying to

approach it from all aspects, grants,

fundraising, um whatever we can whatever

we can do to minimize the cost.

>> And from uh we did have one young man

suggest a water park, so

>> [laughter]

>> You know there's one out there all the

time, right?

>> We didn't go very far without them.

>> Very diplomatic of you to say next.

>> And there were questions for us?

>> This would be very helpful. It's I'm

always asking for these updates and I'm

like you know

you need time to work, so

I'm trying to be patient, but

you you feeling pretty good energy

though from the community on this?

>> Definitely.

>> Yeah.

>> I think they see the the good of the

long-term investment of it

and

the one thing that we have consistently

heard is I have to leave town. My kid

wants to swim. I have to leave town. I

want to go on a walking track that's

inside. I have to leave town. And how do

you build community if your community

members are leaving town? You do

activities, right?

And, you know, let's face it. Maine in

general has an older population. So if

we can serve that younger generation on

up to retirement and beyond, then that's

really building community and making

those connections.

>> Yeah, that's the interesting part is

like what is attracting people to

certain towns?

You know, what are we lacking

in that in that population? So

>> Absolutely.

Yeah.

>> Anything else?

>> And I just want to say too, thank you to

the board members who have been

attending our meetings too. That's very

helpful for us as a committee as well. I

know you guys are super busy like

everybody else, so taking the time to

attend and and ask those questions that

are we appreciate that.

>> Well, we appreciate all of the time you

put in with the meetings too.

We appreciate it.

>> Well, I will say just ending here real

quick, um Mark and Pam have been

tremendous in guiding us and helping us

with this process. And um I don't know

where we'd be without them.

So

we appreciate that as well.

>> Thank you guys.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Public comment. You have any? All right.

>> [name].

I think all of you know me. Um first of

all, congratulations to [name] for the

successful to win and re-election for

Ryan. Be so I for one having served on

this board appreciate all of you. And I

know you all work in the best interest

of the town of Topsham.

And that's what we should be doing.

I am

as it stands right now

against the center.

I the board is wonderful. There's

wonderful people on it. The committee, I

think they're for very, very hard and

they're intelligent and all that. I have

taught to many people as you know that's

who I am. I talk a lot. And um there's

an awful lot of people are fearful.

And it's more about the taxes

and uh things like that. Now if this

committee can come up with totally no

tax burden to the town of Topsham.

And they might be able to do that and

fund raise and charge fees to use this

um and get grants

then I would be behind it and support

it.

But our taxes are too high, not just in

Topsham, all over, all over the United

States and stuff. But Topsham's getting

a little out of whack and uh we need to

rein that in. And I know a lot of people

are feeling that and they're saying it.

We are looking at at the school wants a

bond for a billion dollars and more uh

and then this and that. Where's the

money going to come from? And we've got

to pay that. And I just if

people went door to door like I have

done and see how people are living

it's not all beautiful. And we have I've

been blessed with a good income, my

husband have, you all have and people on

this committee. But there are people

that you don't see.

And there's a quite a few of them in

Topsham that you do not see and how they

live and they're getting by and they're

struggling every single day.

And it's not just the elderly, it's not

just the middle income, it's all in the

poor. And we have all of them here.

And as we approach

our finance meetings and our budget I

hope we're careful of that. And I

personally don't want to see any more

studies

on money spent for studies. We have

spent study money, study money, study

money. And three years ago, the school

spent $100,000

on a study to see what they were doing

right.

Uh excuse me,

but that's that's the taxpayers' money.

And all those things add up. All those

studies and all these little things that

you could cut back without hurting

services. So I will be back and thank

you for listening to me.

>> Thank you.

>> Thank you.

Anyone else?

Anybody online?

Thank you.

Next up, correspondence.

Anyone have anything?

>> Nothing.

>> Okay.

Uh there are no adjustments to the

agenda.

Next up is consent calendar.

Approval of the minutes of the regular

select board meeting held on October

15th, 2026.

>> So moved.

>> All in favor of accepting?

All in favor?

Motion carries.

No public hearing tonight. No unfinished

business tonight. Old business tonight.

On to new business. 26 105 consideration

of any appropriate action on a resident

request for a sex offender residency

restriction ordinance.

>> Um injury

like to come forward. [clears throat]

Should like you to consider proposing

for town meeting a ordinance that

restricts where sex offenders can live.

Uh you're allowed to do that in rather

limited circumstances under state law.

It's basically 750 ft for a certain type

of sex offender, basically the one that

preys on children, um within certain

areas.

>> Okay. Do you mean

I'll handle it after if that's okay, or

do you want it now?

>> I now do the reaction.

>> So I just this is just a coffee.

Uh I just have an example. Um this is

Lewiston's um

coffee that I will talk about first.

>> Um

[clears throat] and then I can get a

copy after one I read a handout as well.

All right, so good evening uh Sharon

Select Board. Uh my name is [name]

and I'm a resident of Thompson residing

at [address].

I'm here tonight to formally bring an

issue of significant concern

to the Select Board's attention and to

respectfully request action on this

matter.

Uh my concern is that the town of

Thompson currently does not have a local

ordinance addressing residency

restrictions for registered sex

offenders near schools, recreational

parks, and facilities where children

regularly gather.

Thompson currently has 14

registered sex offenders. Two are under

two of them are

from for the ages of 14 and under and 12

are for ages 12 and under.

Two are registered for 10 years, four 25

years, and eight are lifetime and there

was currently just two this year alone.

I am requesting that the town of

Thompson take steps towards establishing

an ordinance consistent with main state

law that would provide additional

protections by establishing appropriate

residency distance

restrictions around these locations.

This is an important community safety

issue. Our schools, parks, playgrounds,

and recreational facilities are places

where large numbers of children gather

every day.

I believe additional protective measures

are necessary and wanted to help

safeguard these locations and provide

families with a greater peace of mind.

This is about being proactive rather

than reactive. Uh we should not wait for

something to happen before taking a

serious look at the protections

available to our community.

I understand that moving

an ordinance forward will require a town

meeting, which

I believe doesn't take place until May.

Um I however I do ask if possible for

the Select Board to consider whether

there is a way to potentially expedite

this process.

My reason is particularly urgent because

in addition to current

um

you obviously have a new apartment

complex, right? That's um being built

and I don't know when the application

process starts for residents to move in

to that um housing.

So as I understand it, um that this this

complex is going to be located

within the 750 ft proposal. So from

their property marker to Manor High

School's property marker is going to be

within that 700 and

50 ft, I believe. Um,

I believe the timing

this timing makes it especially

important that the town addresses this

issue sooner than later.

Um, so my request is that the select

board can adopt the title 30-MA

Miss municipality and counties ordinance

regarding residency restrictions for sex

offenders section 3014 to pursue the

adoption of the 750 ft residency

restriction to the extent permitted

under main law.

Ideally, the ordinance would address

future residency placements.

I am obviously not asking the town to

act outside the law. I'm just asking

that we take the time to understand what

authority the town has and what

protections can legally be established

and what steps we can take to enforce as

quickly possible.

I respectfully ask if we can explore

whether an ordinance can be expedited or

placed before voters at the earliest

possible opportunity

to consider the proposed 750 ft

restriction around schools, parks,

playgrounds, and rec facilities.

Make this matter a priority before

additional housing applications and

residency decisions move forward.

Um, I also ask and it's not the town's

responsibility. Um, it's a conversation

um with our local police department to

maybe establish a not to talk that our

main does.

And it just allows them to just go to

neighbors nearby that might have a

daycare or a center um or

um just a home with children just to let

them be aware that there is somebody not

to cause issues, but just to just kind

of give an update and let them know,

especially with bus stops being

established and what not.

Our Our safety should be priority and

protecting the places where they learn,

play, and gather should be taken

seriously. As residents, we have a

responsibility to speak up when we see

an opportunity to strengthen the safety

of our community, and I am asking the

select board to take this concern

seriously and take meaningful steps

towards protecting the children and

families of Topsham.

I have provided the Lewiston's ordinance

as an example. I also found on their

website, I couldn't print it, they have

a mapping with circles showing areas

where sex offenders cannot be allowed to

be, and I asked Topsham to consider

that. I just couldn't print it because

it's

but it's it's really a nice visual that

encompasses the mapping of the vicinity

of that 750 radius.

So thank you for your time and

consideration.

>> Code secretary actually has the GIS

skills that she could prove some of

that, but that

>> Wonderful. So I can give you this is

just my like speech that you give that's

certainly the way to bed.

>> Sure, might as well have it. Absolutely.

>> Thank you.

>> So I guess

So are you any questions on this?

>> No, just to let you know the Chief

is also here in case you have any

questions for him.

>> So make sure we go in right effective

order here.

So how does this differ from state law?

>> So I had I so that I recently learned

this, I had just assumed that

we had a law, right? Like I assumed the

state of Maine said there's a 750

foot radius

that they can't live or, you know

yeah, live.

And I guess

there is no law. So if there was

sometime ago, it's not there anymore.

So now there is a Maine state law that

says that each town

can create their own

law or I guess ordinance based off the

law.

It would be really easy if the state of

Maine would just implement it

completely and not have to have towns

having to do this and having me to come

here. It should just be like this is the

safety and it's you know

so that's kind of why.

>> Can I ask my first initial question is

like why do we need to do this because

the state law should cover it right?

>> Right but it's

not a law.

So it's not a law. It's a law for us to

create use their language.

>> Oh completely rolled back.

Is what you're saying?

>> So there's nothing in place right now.

>> like a guideline or a a recommendation

but it's nothing that's

we could either adopt that or or not.

>> They're saying that you can't the

maximum is a 750 ft. So Topsham can

choose to put one in place based off

that law

or you don't have to.

>> So who has control over approvals

currently

of where a registered sex offender can

live?

>> There's

there is no rules. They can live

anywhere right now

without having this ordinance.

>> Then it used to be that there was

>> Yeah

>> That's the question is like how well did

that community that change anyway?

>> And maybe I'll refer to the chief at

that point. I don't know when it got

rolled back and

>> Yeah I'm not sure I'm not sure when it

was actually rolled back.

>> It was um

>> Wait for a while.

>> Yes there it was the

anyways yes. It was some individuals in

the the state house that rolled this

back and I guess it just wasn't clear. I

didn't know either.

Um I am I would like to see this

for me to put something forward to the

state so that towns don't have to do

this because child cares are not

included in that.

That's concerning. Um

and then also also like trying to

you know notify people again.

I'm not bringing this to the attention

because I'm like oh my gosh like we need

to go and

mark people that's not where I'm going

with this. It's just

we should something in place um

to protect they're

there's a lot of them together.

>> So that generates another question for

me too because we we talk about

ordinance versus law. If we have an

ordinance that makes a statement, how do

you enforce that with

the backbone of the law?

Or is there an enforcement mechanism for

it?

>> Well uh

one of the issues would be

I'm sorry. One of the issues would be

that

we already have 14 registered sex

offenders now. So even if the town

puts this ordinance in,

I don't know what kind of power it has

to move people that are already

in residences. So that's out there. But

what happens is when we get notified

when somebody

is either moved to the area by a

probation officer, somebody's about to

let's say be released from uh

incarceration

or in one quick case uh within the last

year, somebody that already was a

resident was convicted of something and

became a registered sex offender. So

so the issue will really be or part of

the issue will be if you make this,

we'll still have 14 people in a in their

residences and

my guess would be they'd be

grandfathered

>> They are grandfathered

>> Yeah.

Yep.

>> Which doesn't change anything, but then

if if somebody new let's say comes in or

maybe somebody lives

in a a house right next door to the

school that

let's say next week commits a uh a crime

and he has to register with a

do we have any way to enforce the law to

say you can't live in your house anymore

because you're too close? I mean

>> has to judge.

>> Well looking at the sample one that

injury supplied from Lewiston,

you could give them a basically a ticket

for a town ordinance violation and it

would have a penalty of and this about

to the judge decision uh but it says a

minimum amount of 500 per day.

So,

what we

the DA's office, I guess, probably

wouldn't prosecute it for us. I know

when I was in Brunswick, they wouldn't

prosecute town ordinance violations.

But if the town wanted to retain the

town attorney,

then there is a method to get a penalty.

So,

there would be a way to enforce it. It

just may take some time and we might not

there isn't something in here that says

you get your attorney's fees back, but

in my experience, most of this you know

there's always [name], but

I from [name], most of the sex

offenders,

cuz I used to have to be in charge of

registering in Brunswick for quite a few

years,

they don't have a lot of money. So, it

would probably cost us money to enforce

it, but I also found that

I could frequently discourage them from

moving to town because someone might

call or something and I'd say, have you

told your landlord about your

registration? And oh no, that's what you

better cuz I'm going to and then

usually. So, if this was on the books, I

feel pretty good we could enforce it

relatively cheaply by just talking to

people.

>> And since we're talking real quick, I I

will just notify everybody

by our department policy, whenever we

are notified about a new sex offender

either moving or that's been registered

now, we review and conduct a risk

assessment for every new sex offender.

We look at all the material and we try

to determine to the best of our ability

the risk to the public and whether a

notification should be done in the

neighborhood or not. So, there have been

cases where we have done some since I've

been here in the last six years and

there have been other cases where

we haven't. The state's kind of

back and forth, they're very concerned

on the balance between individual's

risks

individual rights of the offender

and the public's

right to know. So, in fact,

several years ago, I think it was early

2000s, they rolled back. They used to

actually tell you the address

>> Yeah.

>> of the sex offender,

but you may recall somebody came in from

Canada and sought out and

killed two two registered sex offenders

because they had their address.

That's I believe when that started.

>> So if somebody currently resides within

that 750 ft

there's there's nothing.

>> Nothing that I know of, but

>> yeah.

>> Yeah. I mean that's not to say

>> Because when you talk about schools and

and you know

a a bus stop is an extension of the

school. I mean if a child misbehaves at

the bus stop, they are in trouble at

school.

>> Right.

>> So it

it it could be

That can get pretty

pretty sticky on

>> They don't have any decisions that have

to be made tonight, do they? We just

this is

>> Here's some options. You could certainly

table it

um if you wanted. You could decide we

don't do anything.

You could decide that you'd like staff

to give you kind of a proposed ordinance

for Topsham to come back and then you

could order a public hearing on that,

take comment, then make a decision at

that point if you wanted to put it on

the town meeting warrant.

Um so there's quite a few things you can

do wrong.

>> I just um

I just want to like I don't know if I

was clear about this. I think

we obviously none of us knew, so this

isn't I don't I just want to say this.

It's not the fault of our town. It's not

our police like they do what they can

do. So they can't enforce people who

already live in their their residence.

Now if they move away and then decide to

come back and this is established, then

that would be different. So everybody

now is just kind of there's nothing we

can do.

So that's why I'm asking moving forward

if we can get this ordinance in place

with new buildings being built

with new people that might choose to

live in Topsham, we can prevent anything

moving

forward

um is really

why I'm bringing this. I I didn't I

don't want anybody removed from their

home. There's nothing

that we can do for that. There's the law

states you can't.

So I just want to make sure that that

was

clear and why I feel that this is

I would like to if possible get this in

place sooner rather than than later.

>> Okay.

Thank you.

What are your comments or thoughts?

>> Um

I agree with the manager on on your

on the

you know direct staff to come up with

some type of a thing and then have a

have a public hearing on it and and let

the people

speak and voice their

>> Mhm.

>> concerns, opinions and and then act

accordingly.

Ultimately

maybe it could be a town meeting and it

would be voted on.

That would be my thought.

>> I don't see any way of making it happen

further earlier than the town meeting.

>> No.

You'd have to have a special town

meeting for it.

Still would have to be a town meeting.

It's nothing that we could just enact.

As much as I'd like to.

>> I support this so

make your statement just made as a

motion.

>> Well

I wasn't I wasn't unaware before tonight

that there was no

state law with this because I was under

the I was under the interpretation that

there was law that could be enforceable

but without it.

There's there isn't so you know with

that new information I I would like more

information. I mean I I feel like I'm

not

well educated enough to make any

decision but I do think that it's worth

hearing from the public.

>> Oh absolutely.

>> And get more feedback on what some of

the thoughts might be.

>> But I do agree that we need something in

place

going going forward we need

having nothing is

risky.

>> I agree.

Do you want to make a motion?

>> You you worded it very well so I'll try

to keep it.

>> So that way you have an agreement that's

>> Okay. I would like to make a motion

then. I'll make a motion.

Um,

I would like to make a motion that um,

to have a proposed ordinance prepared

um,

for town meeting and instruct staff to

prepare one for us

and

have a public hearing on the proposed

ordinance and after the hearing make a

final decision on whether or not to put

it on the May warrant.

>> Excellent.

I'd like to just take it a little

further basically instruct town staff

to

work with the public a little bit or

whoever might be interested parties this

week have a clear understanding of what

the risks are before we just I I just

want to make sure we're casting the net

wide enough so we're getting the right

input.

>> I would accept that amendment.

>> Basically

when they

come back with a recommendation.

>> So

there are three parts to this then staff

to work on an ordinance with

anybody that might be interested maybe

the resident can volunteer or someone else

do that one of the other

um, and then have a public hearing on it

on whether or not we should be putting

that to May town meeting.

>> Is there a second?

>> I'll second that point.

>> All right, moved and seconded. All in

favor of the motion.

Motion carries.

Thank you for bringing this to our

attention. Appreciate it.

>> Thank you.

>> 26 106 consideration and any appropriate

action on the appointment of [name] to the Finance Committee.

>> We had a

a great interview with [name]

this evening and um,

we all feel that he would be a great

addition to the Finance Committee.

There's a a couple seats available so I

would like to make a motion

that we appoint [name] to the

Finance Committee.

>> Second that.

>> Moved and seconded. All in favor.

Motion carries. Thank you.

So

>> 26107

consideration of any appropriate action

on a request to discontinue Old Lisbon

Road main route 196 recycle truck.

>> Let me see if I can share my screen like

we were intending to do.

All right.

Uh so this section of Lisbon Road um is

kind of

nice as far as trying to discontinue a

road because there aren't many property

owners on it.

Um there used to be a residence actually

[name] just has a picture of it or it was

in this vicinity um but it got purchased

by some entities related to [developer].

So right now the own and [developer] owns

the piece of land that's between the

road and the actual route 196.

So the only pieces

in this vicinity that use the road and

aren't owned by [developer] or Related

Energy ent- entity

are a house up in this area that's owned

by the [neighbor]

uh and then the cemetery and I'll come

back to the cemetery in a second.

So [developer] has been in talk with the

[neighbor] to see if they'd be interested

um in supporting this because if they

support it it makes it easier for us to

give up the easement and it means the

town um wouldn't have to pay damages to

give up the road or anything.

Um the agreement that they've reached is

that so that the [neighbor] residents could

have an a driveway straight onto route

196 [developer] would give them basically

the land that's in this triangle

including both pieces of the of

the road from the center line on both

sides.

Um and then there's also an agreement

that [developer] would put a in

um in this vicinity and then plan it

with evergreens so that there would be a

sound and visual buffer buffer from what

[developer] wants to do with the business

park down in here.

Um they've

either come to an agreement or they're

close to an agreement that they're all

happy with.

Um the advantage for

[neighbor] properties is going to be

considerably bigger and it would be able

to have a

driveway under route 196 at a better

angle cuz as you may have noted right

now it's a

what 60° angle

at both ends so it's

well it isn't so bad where you come out

of Recycle Drive but um so it can be

hazardous getting on.

Um complicating factor on this part is

after the [neighbor] came to an apparent

agreement with [developer] they'd listed

their property for sale.

Um the [neighbor] still want to go through

with the agreement um and they'd like a

binding document so that whoever buys

their property would be subject to this

agreement that that's been made. Um it

would be in our interest and [developer]

interest also to have a binding document

so that's one of the reasons that

[developer] attorneys have wanted to speed

this up a little bit.

>> Is there another house right next to

that?

>> [developer] bought it.

>> Yeah right there was.

>> Yeah.

Um so then the other complicating factor

is there's something called the White

Cemetery down here and we went out and

visited it and to see when the last

grave was because if the last if there

isn't a functioning cemetery association

and the last grave is what

50 years old at least it ends up

becoming the town's responsibility so

we'd have more ability to deal with it.

Um however the last person was buried in

there in 2024 uh so

uh and it actually looked like someone

was mowing it.

Um

but it does not have a functioning board

and so the board needs to be

reconstituted to try to get the legal

authority to cut a deal in essence for

the cemetery.

Um [developer] wanted us to do that. I

declined just because we've got enough

to without trying to put together a

cemetery board. [snorts] Uh but I did do

some research and I found uh that

Maine's unclaimed property had an

account in the name of the Whites

Cemetery Association turned over to

them.

Uh and then

I got the address off of the Norway

Savings Bank that provided the state,

put that through our assessing records

and found

what place in Topsham um was there was

getting the statements. Then used a

different database to get some phone

numbers and I called up and got a woman

who said that

she

was not on the cemetery board, but when

her aunt was dying, her aunt asked her

to take over responsibility for the

account. So basically the account at

Norway Savings that used to be the

cemetery account got signed over to this

woman.

Um she said she'd thought about putting

money in it periodically so it wouldn't

go dormant, but she forgot about it. And

so now the account's dormant. I asked

her if her aunt was on the board. She

said she didn't think her aunt had been.

Um but she does sounds like have some

relatives buried in the cemetery.

Uh and she said that she'd be interested

in considering being a member of a

reconstituted board and might have some

people she knows. So we've passed that

along to the town attorney. We've passed

it along to the other attorney. So

[developer] attorneys work and I'm trying

to get that to come.

Uh I'm going to go to a different

drawing here if I can.

Whoops. Yeah, this is the one I want.

So this is a sketch is what we'd like to

accomplish in the end.

Um is

this shows where the new driveway would

be for the plorts. It shows the berm and

the uh plantings that would be done to

um shield that property.

I want to just point out that although

there's buildings and driveways here,

this is not gone to the planning board

yet because they're waiting to go to the

planning board till they figure out if

we can address the road. But this is

where at this point they would like to

put the road.

Um so what used to be old Lisbon Road

would be like be nothing from here. It

would just be wooded or or um lawn or

whatever might come up.

Uh, [developer] new driveway would come

out at a 90° angle so it'd be much safer

with

um 196.

And then they would give an easement to

the Cemetery Association so for the sole

purpose of visiting the cemetery.

>> Is it possible for you to get that up

there so we can see it

>> Yeah, it is actually. It's the same

thing.

>> The cursor is not showing.

>> Yeah, it's not showing. It looks like it

intermittently [clears throat] it does,

but

Yeah, so I guess it's not possible

>> Let stand up point it.

>> [laughter]

>> And that's weird.

I don't know why that happens. So let me

do it like that.

So this is the cemetery down Oh, oh, we

didn't switch pictures.

All right.

Let me see if I

Let me see if I need to share a

different screen.

>> Well, it's strange it's not showing up.

>> Should I run with the ATM to help you?

>> [laughter]

>> So just separate slide there you go.

>> So moved now? Oh, it moved now too.

Good. All right. Well, thank you for

stopping me pointing out that you had no

clue what I was talking about.

Uh,

so

So this is the berm and the trees that

would insulate the [neighbor] property. This

is the new driveway proposed for the

[neighbor] property that would go straight

onto 196.

Uh, this is the new driveway that would

serve serve the business park.

Uh, this part of the road would

completely disappear

and this is where the cemetery is. So

the

[developer] would give the cemetery the

right to cross down their new driveway

and a little bit of what's left of the

old road to get to the cemetery.

They would also give the town the right

to get there for the sole purpose of

accessing the cemetery in case we needed

to do maintenance at some point or or by

law we actually have to put um flags on

veterans' graves each year, which the

Legion helps us out with and the Cub

Scouts and they actually do it, but we

need a right to get there. So so this

would give us that right too.

Um

so

so the two complicating pieces are the

fact the [neighbor] want to sell and the fact

the cemetery needs to be reconstituted.

Uh and the other complicating piece is

MDOT doesn't want to evaluate whether

they would

grant this road access permit unless

they have some type of an agreement. Uh

it's we talked about this will have to

go to town meeting, so you don't have

the authority to do a binding agreement

to say we're going to discontinue the

road, which [developer] knows. Um but the

agreement attached to your

uh agenda packet is a draft of what we

believe or [developer] believes would

satisfy MDOT is basically that you're

you if you were to execute it, the

select board saying we're interested in

doing this and we're willing to present

it to the town meeting and but

ultimately it's still a town meeting

decision.

Um I'm not asking you for authority to

sign that tonight. Uh all I'm asked you

wanted to do tonight is let you know

this was going on um so that you'd have

a chance to [clears throat] A ask any

questions if you have any, B tell me if

you don't want us to be involved in

this, um and and otherwise see it's just

to get you familiar cuz probably in the

near future you'll be coming in with

fully negotiated agreement to think

about.

>> Does DOT have to approve that before a

town meeting or would they react to

the town's decision on

>> DOT would have no role in the

discontinuance. So we could say we want

to discontinue this road at town meeting

and DOT could actually say sorry you

don't get your new driveway permit, um

which wouldn't be good for [developer]. so

well.

Uh but

But do you So they're hoping to get

DOT's answer I think before they really

start on this project much. I don't even

know if they're going to take it to the

planning board until they have DOT's

answer.

Uh so I'm kind of leaving the timing of

that part to them because it really

doesn't hurt us.

>> Yeah.

>> Um just curious how how long DOT would

take to react or something you know if

they would have a decision by May.

>> Yeah.

>> Or I think

>> My guess is they probably would.

In fact [developer] might even ask us to

qualify the discontinuance in saying

that if DOT doesn't give this then they

don't want the road discontinued because

then they wouldn't be able to land lock

their property.

>> This is a road we maintain right now?

>> We do maintain the old Lisbon road

section here currently.

>> Is there a motion that you will look for

tonight?

>> No.

>> Okay.

>> It is just a

>> Just a informational

>> I don't even I guess the only if you for

some reason you didn't want us to be

involved in this you know if you're like

now we don't want to discontinue roads

um then I would look for direction to

tell me that but assuming I see the

advantage of this is Mac would have a

little bit less road to plow. Um this

road I wouldn't say it's in great shape

right now so it'd probably be on a

paving list in a few years so if we

don't own it we don't have to pave it.

Um and if [developer] can do their business

park in here

then we'll probably have some more jobs

in town and more tax revenue so I don't

see how it hurts

the town and it seems like

[developer] has been a good neighbor to us.

They gave us an extremely favorable

contract at the transfer station. Um

they don't even charge us to haul off

our demolition debris which is nice so

we don't pay any trucking fees for that.

Um so I think it's as an economic

development move I think it's like being

a good partner to see if we could make

this work for them and then we have the

side benefit of it may save us some

expenses.

>> And that road only affects those two

properties.

>> Now correct.

>> And so in those two properties are in

agreement.

>> Yep.

>> So

>> I think

>> I would say proceed with what you're

doing.

>> The sign lines at [developer] right now are

bad. That's going to improve the sign

line at [developer] make it safer.

I think it's a a plus plus movement.

>> Yeah.

>> I think we support it.

>> And continue on.

>> You agree?

>> Yes.

>> The portion agreement then.

>> Okay. So the update is done. We will

continue. We're good.

>> So full Thank you.

>> All right. 26 108 consideration of any

appropriate action to authorize the town

manager to execute the

offtaker estoppel certificate

in connection with the sale of the Dirt

Solar project by [company] to

[company]

>> That's probably self-explanatory, right?

[laughter]

Uh

Five or six years ago, the town got

involved in a off-premises

power purchase agreement with the solar

farm.

And so we actually

buy power from this solar farm and get

credits that we pay our CMP bill with.

They are now looking to sell the solar

farm and they need to be able to prove

to the purchasing entity that there's no

disputes over

that we have with the current operation.

And so I guess it's

it's I guess an entity that it was

related to revision that's now selling

it to someone completely different.

Our attorney since I wrote this memo has

looked at it. He has no issues with it.

So I seek your authority to sign it

basically saying that we're

have no issues which we don't with the

company that's been giving us the power.

>> I would like to make a motion to

authorize the town manager to execute

the offtaker estoppel certificate in

connection with the sale of the Dirt

Solar project by [company] to

[company]

>> A motion second.

>> Second.

>> Second.

>> We'll consent to all in favor.

Carries.

And the last two items shouldn't take

one.

26 109 consideration any appropriate

action on the election of chair for the

select board. So motion.

>> I'd like to make a motion to that we

nominate Roland Tufts as chair.

>> The motion that moved and seconded.

Any comment?

>> No comment from Roland.

>> They got quiet all night.

[laughter]

[clears throat] Okay

all in favor?

Opposed?

All right, second item 26 110 20

consideration any appropriate action

on the election of a vice chair for the

select board.

Make a motion that we

vote for

[clears throat] Ryan Holmes for the

position of vice chair.

Who's second?

>> Second that.

>> Moved and seconded all in favor.

Motion carries.

We have one final

>> This is your shining moment Joanna.

>> [clears throat]

>> I move that we adjourn this meeting.

>> Yeah, second.

Very good.