Penobscot Bay Pilot has posed questions to each candidate running for the Rockport Select Board, providing the opportunity for the public to better understand their position on issues important to the town and region.

Please provide a concise (paragraph) biography of yourself 

I was born in Augusta where I started school at the old Farrington elementary school. My parents moved to the Chicago area when I was 7 for much the same reason so many of our younger citizens leave Maine: in search of better pay. After my first winter in Chicago, where we got about 4" of snow, total, I vowed I would find a way to move back to Maine! However, I was distracted by education where I earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the University of Illinois in 1971 followed by an MBA in Information Technology from DePaul University in 1979. After a very short stint in the U.S. Army, I found a job as a computer program at the Northern Trust Company in Chicago in 1972 where I remained until my retirement in 2003 as a Vice President in charge of Data Administration for the company. During that period of time, I rose from Second Lieutenant to Lieutenant Colonel in the Illinois Army National Guard and the U.S. Army Reserves serving in various capacities as Infantry Platoon Leader, Company Commander, Battalion Executive Officer. Battalion Commander as well Brigade Chemical Officer and Brigade Operations Officer.

My age 8 vow to return to Maine was fulfilled upon my retirement when we moved from hot, sweaty, icy, bone-chilling cold Chicago to our home in Rockport. Accompanying me at the time was my wife of 38 years, Helen Shaw, and our two boys, Will and Nate. My initial plans were to pursue my woodworking and house remodeling hobby, but I was soon asked to serve on the Budget Committee (to which I was elected in 2005) which lead to my running for the Select Board in 2008. While on the Budget Committee, I was nominated to serve as the local State Senate District representative to the Maine Municipal Association's Legislative Policy Committee where I am now finishing my 11th year of service. While on the Select Board, I have also served on the Mid-Coast Solid Waste (MCSW), a.k.a., the "dump" or transfer station, and the Mid-Coast Economic Development District (MC-EDD).

For the last 7 years, I have been the Chair of the Select Board and was the Vice-Chair for the year preceding. I have been the Select Board liaison to the Library Committee for five years, to the Investment Committee for nine years and several other town committees for varying lengths of time.

What are the 3 most pressing issues facing Rockport today, and how would you like to see them resolved?

Infrastructure, to include roads and high-speed broadband Internet (usually referred to as fiber optic cabling). When I joined the Select Board in 2008, we were facing a severe financial crunch. The entire economy, national, state, and local, was in a recession. The members of the Select Board which preceded me had taken the action to drastically reduce the funding for our infrastructure, primarily roads. However, our roads continued to deteriorate at the historic rate meaning that in a few years our roads were well behind in the condition we had grown accustomed to. Since I have been chair, I have pushed relentlessly to have the Select Board get out of our previous habit of dictating to Public Works which roads to work on and, instead, tell the Public Works Director how much money we would allocate to "road construction" and rely on his expertise to spend that money where it did the most good. Also, we brought the Capital Improvement Committee back into existence (it had been disbanded in 2006 or 2007) and charged it with telling the Select Board which parts of our infrastructure needed attention. Two years ago, they gave us a list and we used that list as the basis for asking the voters, at the November 2015 election, to approve two bonds, one to do major repairs on the Opera House and the other to accomplish several high-priority, high-cost projects, such as, replacing the Mill St. bridge, upgrades to Mt. Pleasant St., replacing the high sidewalk along Pascal Ave., and rebuilding School and Summer streets which needed extensive sub-surface work.

Police Department. For far too many years, we have seen unacceptably high turnover in our Police Department. We'd hire a bright, capable young man or woman, send them to the state's police academy, have them for a few years only to have them higher away by another department, sometimes for as little as $.50 per hour. Over the last few years, we have tried to make the working conditions and pay more attractive. I think we are not at a point where, with the assistance of Chief Gagne, the chief we share with Camden, we are seeing stabilization in our force. We need to keep working in that direction. Here, again, we need to utilize our professionals, the Police Chief and Town Manager, to create the working environment which reinforces the respect the Select Board and town residents have for our police force.

How will you protect the Rockport taxpayer as you shape and govern a municipal budget, and juggle various interests that request municipal funding throughout the year?
As I said during the Pen Bay Pilot forum on Wednesday, May 31, the budget is a balancing act. Many people tell us their taxes are too high, while many others ask that specific projects be done. Overall, I concentrate on ensuring we have a town that is physically safe (from a fire and police perspective), environmentally conscious, has the necessary amenities suitable for a progressive, forward-thinking, diverse community, with a sound infrastructure and a human staff that is responsive and friendly. Granted, we can't have all of all of these at the same time. We have to gradually work to the achievement of as many of these as fiscally possible.

A great deal of finding that balance is by looking into the future. Not just to the next election, but to 10 and 20 years into the future. The Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) which was rolled out as we were entering this year's budget development process is already helping us, the Select Board, to make many hard choices. I just wish we had such a plan several years ago as it would have pointed out the failing condition of our old Library Building. With the new plan, we are able to judge the condition of our buildings, seawalls, computer network, vehicles, and many more aspects of our town. We already have reacted to the contents of the CIP by replacing certain fireproof curtains in the Opera House, increasing the amount of money going into the harbor float and computer reserves, and a few other actions.

Does Rockport need a new town library, and if so, where should it be built?

Yes. If you watch the livestream of the special Select Board meeting we held where the decision was made to place the new library at the existing, 1 Limerock Street site, you will see my state that I had gone back and forth between the 1 Limerock Street site and the old Rockport Elementary School (RES) site. Both have many positive aspects and a few negative aspects. In the end, I thought that the 1 Limerock Street site was the best site. Also, I think the RES site has a great potential to provide other positive opportunities to the Town, but we need to do a full evaluation of that location before taking action, and I did recommend money be put in the budget to start that process (in my opinion, the stretch of Commercial St./U.S. Route 1 from the intersection with West St./ME Route 90 to beyond the intersection with Pascal Ave. has a huge potential for development that can yield Rockport substantial economic benefits).

Should Rockport invest in a municipally-owned fiber network so that all residents have access to high-speed internet?
Yes. High-speed Internet is localized to certain sections in the Harbor Village area along with a few others where the population density makes it feasible for commercial development. Lincolnville Communications, Inc. (LCI) has already strung fiber optic cable along those stretches in addition to the state's 3-Ring Binder cable which runs along Route 1. However, commercial entities have a certain minimum return on investment they need to be able to foresee before they will undertake the cost to string those cables (in the case of LCI, I was quoted a price of over $230 for low-end Internet and telephone service and maybe TV at some point down the road). Those returns are measured in a 3-8 year span, usually no more than 5 years. That means the people who live around Simonton Corner, off the beaten path in West Rockport, up Beech Hill Road, virtually anywhere in Rockville and not on Route 1 in Glen Cove will never see high-speed Internet other than what Spectrum (the "new" Time Warner) or Fairpoint (which was just approved for sale to another out-of-state entity) are able or willing to provide. Fairpoint, for most of us, can't provide much over 3mps download unless we are willing to shell out big bucks. Spectrum doesn't even serve all of Rockport with a few areas still unserved by any cable service.

The Technology Committee is working on options that could bring very high speed (100 mps or greater) to the entire town. That service, if provided by a municipally-owned enterprise, such as our wastewater system, could provide service for under $50 per month with less than $3 added to your property tax bill for every $100,000 per valuation. So, yes, I think all Rockport residents should have access to truly high-speed (50mps and higher) internet (the state claims 10mps is high-speed, but that is barely entry level with the expansion of what is now being offered over the Internet).

How do you see Rockport positioned in the larger regional Midcoast economy?

Rockport is, already, the community of choice for many professionals moving to the area. While on the Select Board, I have participated in numerous quarterly meetings with the management of the Pen Bay Medical Center. These meetings originally focused on how PBMC and Rockport could work closer together and have expanded to include Rockland and other communities. At almost every meeting, the discussion of housing comes up. The doctors and other highly paid professionals that are recruited typically start their search for housing in Rockport and the amenities we provide (good schools and a good library) along with what can be found in the surrounding area are major selling points. Our weakness, as is common throughout the Midcoast area, is the lack of attainable housing (sometimes called affordable or workforce housing) which makes housing for many of those who work at PBMC and our other employers difficult to find. We're fortunate to have several people at work to correct that deficiency.

Overall, Rockport is in the best position of any community in the area. We have easy access up and down the coast as well as inland toward Augusta. As I mentioned on Wednesday evening, Rockport is what is referred to as a "service center" community, meaning that most of those who work in Rockport commute in from other communities. At the same time, we have a lot of our residents who work outside our town (I'm not sure how our commercial fishermen are classified...many live here but work out in Penobscot Bay, technically outside the town boundaries, but I digress).

Is Rockport's zoning adequate enough to sustain economic vitality and quality of life?

Our zoning has developed over many, many years of hard work by our Ordinance Review Committee (ORC) as directed by the Select Board. That doesn't mean it can't be improved, but always with attention to the impact any change might have on our way of life. Last year, I received a request from someone who owns land here in Rockport but currently lives out of state. He was requesting that we spot-change the zoning to permit self-storage lockers be built on his property. After discussion with the other members of the Select Board, it was decided to send the request to the ORC and ask them to report back on what might be the up-side vs. down-side of such a change. They reported back, albeit very tersely, that it such a change would violate any number of principles and objectives that have been in place for many years (the response wasn't unanticipated, but we owed it to everyone involved to validate our initial impression and not take a knee-jerk reaction to a request by someone who either lives or owns property in town).

Yes, our land-use ordinances and zoning can still use some tweaking from time-to-time, but any change should be deliberately considered and well-thought out before being sent to the voters for ratification or rejection. Attainable housing is probably one of those areas that need to be visited: are our lot size requirements and minimum setbacks overly onerous? does having access to sewers permit much smaller lots? and, I'm sure, many other questions have to be addressed. But, it must be through a deliberative process which we already have in place.

What municipal committee would you like to be a liaison to, and why?

I'm already the liaison to the Library Committee, the Investment Committee, and the Parks Committee. I want to continue my involvement with the Library Committee and would like to continue with the Investment Committee, but if someone joins the Select Board with expertise in either parks or investments, I'd be happy taking different responsibilities. During the "negotiations" over who is the liaison to which committee, a lot of give and take transpires and involvement in other municipal entities, such as MidCoast Solid Waste, Mid-Coast Economic Development District, the Ambulance Oversight Committee, etc., are taken into consideration.

How do you envision the future of solid waste processing for the four towns; i.e., recycling, waste stream reduction?
We need to increase our recycling as well as reduce other forms of waste that could be easily diverted: yard waste (leaves, small branches, grass, etc.) and compostable materials. I have served on the MCSW Board of Directors for 9 years. We are in the early stages of redesigning the transfer station (a.k.a., the Dump) so we can haul larger loads of our solid waste (the yellow bags) which will reduce our environmental footprint. Along with that redesign comes the realization that continuing with the self-sort mechanism is really limiting the expansion potential for recycling. Both, as it turns out, goes hand-in-hand: to increase the size of the loads being transported means we need to switch to single-sort recycling (all recyclables go into one bag or container (green bags?) which would then go to a multiple recycling facility (MRF).

We have signed a 3-year contract with ecomaine (yes, with a lower-case "e") which we could extend to up to 5-years. If the MRC/FiberRite facility in Hampden proves to be economically viable, I'd like to see us rejoin after our contract with ecomaine expires. If the FiberRite process proves to be workable, it will end up reducing the solid waste that otherwise has to be disposed of. Think of the caps of bottles that are ½ metal and ½ a plastic of some sort. Right now (and at ecomaine) those would be burned. At FiberRite, the metal could be extracted for reuse. The same with the plastic wrap around many food products which can't be recycled currently but could be extracted and reused. Ditto the pizza boxes which, because they are contaminated by food products, can't be recycled with other cardboard.

We need to do a better job. Our children and grand-children are counting on us.

Camden and Rockport now share a police chief and an assessor. Are there other cost-sharing arrangements that Rockport could do, with Camden or other towns, to spread the staffing responsibilities; e.g., share a planner? Public works director?
The progress we have made so far is great. We've done this step-by-step as the need has arisen. Camden needed an assessor and we had one who could take on the extra duties. That required give and take on both sides to find a workable solution. Then, we needed a police chief and Camden indicated a willingness to find a workable solution. What both situations had in common was a need in an area that wasn't drastically different between the two towns.

Are there other areas where common ground can be found? Maybe, but the first thing that must be considered is how that department or that service works in either town. And, how do the citizens of each town consider that department or service?

Before I joined the Select Board, a study had been done about merging the two police departments. That didn't work out as the differences at the time were too great. Under Chief Gagne, the two police forces are working much closer together, frequently covering each other's town when events require it. Likewise, Camden's shift supervisors monitor and give guidance to Rockport's officers. And, our supervisors provide the same service to Camden's officers. Maybe, in a few years, we could take a closer look, but it will require delving into the personalities and expectations of the citizens and Select Board members of both towns before such a merger could be made to happen.

Before deciding to explore sharing, for example, a Planner or Public Works Director, each town needs to understand what they, the management of the town and the citizens of the town, expect from these people. Rockport expects our Public Works Director to be hands-on; to be out there on the snowy, winter night pushing the snow with the rest of the crew while, at the same time, going around to ensure the crew is well-rested, well-fed and up-to-the-job. Likewise, we expect our planner to be qualified as a code enforcement officer and a backup as a licensed plumbing inspector. If a shared individual doesn't satisfy those expectations, will it work? Or, do expectations need to be adjusted?

Likewise, what about the personnel that would be impacted? Would the people in Camden's Public Works Department react well to being supervised by Rockport's Public Works Director who is very "hands-on"?

Merging departments with another town works if the two towns are of the same mind-set. Just like merging school districts. We've seen a lot of forced school mergers fall apart because the districts had different expectations and desires. The old saying about being able to play well with others is certain true when it comes to merging towns and town services.