There were a lot of oddities at the Monday, January 28 Boothbay Harbor Board of Selectmen's meeting. The room was set up for a full house, but the 20 or so attendees were mostly seated in the very back of the room. Channel 7 was unexpectedly absent, and a uniformed police officer stood by the door. A moment into the meeting, selectman Bruce Engert requested an executive session to discuss personnel matters pursuant to Maine Statute Title 405, Chapter 6A and "to discuss procedures and protocol of the Board of Selectmen." The board then recessed for about 15 minutes. One more oddity; for the remainder of the evening, every audience member who spoke was asked to state his or her place of residence.

Skip Kreahling reported that Rebuilding Together is now planning for its sixth rebuilding day on Saturday, May 10. For the past six years, Rebuilding Together has organized about 150 volunteers each year to repair and renovate 20-24 homes of local residents, primarily elderly.

Kreahling said that Rebuilding Together is now in the process of identifying work for this year and asks that community members come forward to recommend specific worthy projects. Anyone who has a suggestion should contact Sarah Giles at 633-6300.

Daren Graves started the public forum with a recommendation for the board; he stated, "My suggestion is . . . we use the town manager to field all these complaints instead of the selectmen going around nitpicking with all the department heads … you guys should be going to him … Everybody here knows that that's what's been going on the last couple or three months and it needs to stop." Selectman Robert Splaine asked Graves to cite some examples. Graves responded that he would rather not discuss it in the public forum.

Thomas Thompson then asked if he could read a prepared statement regarding police officer Jody Lewis. Selectman Louis Burnham and Town Manager Tom Woodin both responded that if this were a personnel issue, the selectmen's meeting was not an appropriate forum. Thompson then asked to make a public statement and Burnham responded, "I'd rather not hear it. Case closed."

Jim Powers asked about the status of the blasting ordinance that was rejected by voters last year and is being revised. "I spoke with him (Code Enforcement Officer Dabney Lewis) several times over the last few months . . . I'd like to light a fire under somebody and I'd like for this to be on the warrant this year." Woodin responded that Lewis had sent a draft ordinance to local contractors for review and that Powers should talk to Lewis again. Selectman Tom Carbone suggested that a blasting ordinance update be on the next selectmen's meeting agenda, if Lewis does not resolve Powers concerns. "I want Jim to be satisfied," he said.

Department of Public Works Director Jody Lewis then asked to respond to the issues raised by Derek Abbott at the last board meeting. Woodin started by stating that Abbott was ill advised to attempt to extricate a fully loaded dump truck with his personal vehicle but that the town had replaced Abbott's damaged trailer hitch within a week. The incident "didn't even get on my radar screen," said Woodin.

Lewis then responded to Abbott's complaint that another DPW employee, not Lewis, had responded to an icy road situation. Lewis stated that DPW protocol is for him to be called first to any situation; if he fails to respond to two calls, then another DPW employee is contacted. On the night in question, Lewis said that the communication center contacted the police officer on duty and that a DPW employee happened to be there with the police officer. Since the employee had salt in his vehicle, he responded instead of calling Lewis. Lewis concluded, "I have never not responded to a call."

Selectman Engert stated that he has been attending budget committee meetings and is concerned with both the process and with the current budget, which is potentially $600,000 more than last year's. "I make a motion that the town manager try diligently to keep the increase to no more than three percent over the previous budget," Engert moved. Splaine seconded the motion.

Woodin responded that the budget committee had not yet finished reviewing the budget. Once the budget committee completes its review, they will recommend a budget and this recommendation will be brought to the board of selectmen. "At that point you can certainly make any suggestions, recommendations, and changes that you want. I think it's a little premature to start cutting things before you even present it," stated Woodin.

Carbone echoed Woodin's comments and stated, "We cannot make any decisions until we go through the budgets." Splaine suggested that the budget committee "doesn't seem to be making any real progress" and moved that a workshop with the selectmen, town manager, and budget committee chair be held. Woodin pointed out that the budget process is actually ahead of schedule and that the budget committee process seems to be "very well received" by taxpayers.

Engert reaffirmed, "This budget that you are using as a guideline . . . is a better than nine percent increase over last year's. All I'm trying to convey is that it would be nice . . . if you adopted a philosophy that I'm going to try to make this as low as I can."

After further discussion, Engert and Splaine withdrew their motions.

The next board of selectmen's meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 11. Budget committee meetings are held every Wednesday from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.