CAMDEN — Citizens in Camden spun on a dime halfway through annual town meeting June 13 when they considered an otherwise routine piece of municipal business to surrender an old right-of-way to a discontinued road, and voted against it.

The article was on the list of 31 articles that Camden citizens addressed over a two-day town meeting agenda; on June 12, 1,919 Camden voters visited their polls at the Camden Fire Station to elect municipal and school board members, approve ordinance amendments, choose primary candidates, and approve a state referendum endorsing ranked choice voting. (Read: Camden voters approve list of zoning amendments, elect board members)

On June 13, approximately 100 citizens filled a portion of the seats in the Camden Opera House, tending to the remaining municipal business of annual town meeting, all in warrant articles 9 through 23. But not before lauding Chairman John French for his 21 years of service on the Select Board, and another 21 years prior to that volunteering with the Camden Fire Department.

Maine Senator Dave Miramant, D-Camden, read a Legislative proclamation dedicated to French, and gave him a plaque from the State of Maine.

The Select Board, represented by Bob Falciani, gave French a check consisting of donations raised from private citizens and businesses as a show of the town’s gratitude for his years at the helm, and told French to decide with his family how to spend the funds.

The crowning touch of it all, however, was the unveiling of an original portrait of French that had been painted by Diana Falciani in the weeks leading up to the meeting, secretly in her home studio. 

French’s grandchildren and his wife, Julie, lifted the curtain off of the painting, surprising French and earning a round of applause from the room.

The Select Board thanked French for his years of dedication to Camden government, and, as board member Alison McKellar said, “his way of being.”

At the June 5 regularly scheduled Select Board meeting, McKellar had told French that although she had disagreed with him on plenty of issues, her thinking evolved, thanks to his presence.

“We are going to miss you so much,” she said at that meeting.

She credited French with doing a good job of letting everyone speak and not taking personal offense.

At that meeting, the board had presented French with a bottle of 21-year-old Scotch, and he said he was looking forward to the younger energy now filling leadership positions.

“I’ll miss it,” he admitted. “I’ll probably be pouring the whiskey and saying what the heck. But I feel good about getting done now. I feel the town is in a good place.”

At Town Meeting, June 13, French reiterated his sentiments, and said he would miss everyone, and probably text those up on the podium while meetings are underway.

“I may watch,” he said. “I may even text.”

But French balked at announcement that the town would be renaming the Washington Street Conference Room to the John R. French Conference Room. He said would rather name it the Leonard Lookner Room, after his longtime friend and colleague, who had served as well on the board with French and who died in February 2017. 

“He’s deserves this,” he said.

“Twenty-one years have gone by really fast,” he said. “I appreciated the opportunity and would do it again in a heart beat. It’s never about me. It’s a we. We’ve always done things together as a team. We had good boards and accomplished a lot. I will ask one thing: That the room be named after Leonard Lookner. I would like to share it with Leonard. He was a dear friend and I think he needs to be recognized.”

He then turned to the town and encouraged it to work well together.

 Giving up Arey Road easement. Or not.

Camden residents sailed through the initial warrant articles, approving unanimously the borrowing of $13.9 million to make upgrades to sewer system that serves Camden and contracts with Rockport for some of its waste.

“Our treatment plant is coming to the end of its life cycle,” said Town Manager Audra Caler Bell, adding that it is 50 years old and needs infrastructure repairs. 

Caler Bell said, however, that she would be applying for a federal grant through the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture to help allay the taxpayer load. She also said the town could also get a 30-year loan at a fixed interest rate of 2.7 percent through the U.S.D.A.

Before the grant could be eligible for consideration, the town needed to approve the project, she said.

Citizens also approved repairing portions of the Seabright Dam, at the lower end of Megunticook Lake.

Brian Robinson asked whether the repair project would impeded or prevent alewives and other migratory fish from swimming back up stream.

McKellar responded that the repairs would be made underneath the existing portion of the dam, and not affect any future fish passage improvements.

The article was unanimously approved.

But the warrant article that asked the town to give up approximately 200 feet of old roadway failed on the floor.

The article read: “Shall the town vote to approve a discontinued order approved by the Select Board after public hearing on feb. 20 2018 for a portion of Arey Ave., which abuts the northwesterly bound of the Eaton Ave. public right of way, which said portion of Arey Ave. proposed to be discontinued is surrounded by privately owned property of CTCA LLC.... and no damages shall be paid, as CTCA LLC has waived any claim to damages resulting from said discontinuance and a public easement shall not be retained.”

Arey Ave., which is on the east side of Camden Harbor, does not run alongside the water, but is a cross street in a denser neighborhood. The portion of the road that CTCA LLC had asked the town to give up is surrounded by parcels owned by CTCA LLC.

Camden resident Anita Brosius-Scott questioned the Select Board about the wisdom of giving up more easements in town. She said she had studied the warrant article, and said “discontinuing a public way raises a red flag.”

It represents a quarter-acre of land, she said, and while she had no objections to the property owner she believed the article was short sighted on the part of town.

“I disagree with giving away high-value public land for free,” she said. 

Brosius-Scott asked that the process by which the town relinquishes easements on property should be reassessed.

“Our town’s land is held in trust by us and we are stewards for the future member of the community,” she said. “Town laws and zoning ordinances can change but when we give land away, it’s gone.”

She also asked what the town would be getting in return.

“I couldn’t find anything,” she said. “I am confused by process. I think we need to talk abut it as town and whether it is the best way to proceed. Many community members work hard to improve the land. Why should we give a town asset away at no cost?”

She encouraged voters to vote no and instead ask the planning board to reconsider the discontinuance of public roads.”

Town Attorney Bill Kelly responded that her comments were accurate but that the landowner owns the land beneath the road, while the right of way is only that, which is owned by the town.

Camden is being asked to give up the “public right to go over this right of way surrounded by privately owned land,” he said.

Brosius-Scott responded that approval would indicate a further erosion of public amenities.

Chairman French said that in this case, the easement provided no value to the community and “we don’t have to send a plow truck down there 200 feet.”

As Brosius-Scott stepped back to her chair and Moderator Deb Dodge was about to call for a vote, another resident moved swiftly to the podium.

It was Marti Wolfe, and she said that she and her dog walked that easement every day, noting how peaceful and green it was.

With that, Dodge called for a vote, and the majority of Camden voters attending the meeting raised their hands to oppose the article.

Other warrant articles coming under discussion concerned spending money on downtown improvements, which would be matched by a Maine Department of Transportation grant. The municipal expenditures comprised:

$215,000 match for a DOT pedestrian enhancement grant

$60,000 lease purchase of parking lots on Knowlton Street

$35,000 for engineering work at the town landing

The money is to derive from a tax increment financing (TIF) district already in place, which has been collecting tax money from that downtown district. The TIF stipulates that additional taxes from growth in district can only be spent in that district.

A resident asked what the improvements entailed.

Caler-Bell replied that the sidewalks needed repair, and the five-way intersection of Route 1, Bay View, Chestnut, the landing entrance and Washington streets needed reengineering for public safety reasons.

Additionally, money is to be spent on improving the intersection of Route 1 and Union Street, as well as the sidewalk south of the downtown.

As for the parking lot, the town is considering leasing and eventually purchasing parking lots behind the Knox Mill and on Knowlton Street from the owner of the Knox Mill, and eventually adding 170 municipal spots in downtown Camden for longterm parking.

All of that spending was included in Article 19, which proposed a 2018-2019 municipal budget of $9.010 million.

The total expenditures proposed by the Select Board exceeded that which was recommended by the Budget Committee of $8.947 million.

Of the additional spending, there was an increase in office supplies for the planning and assessing offices, as well as $1,500 more for municipal record storage, and $5,000 for digitizing and preserving town records.

There was an additional expenditure of $10,000 for sidewalk maintenance and repairing the restroom roof at the town-owned Laite Beach, on Bay View Street. An additional cushion of money was added to the Snow Bowl budget as a contingency in the event of bad weather, said Caler-Bell, as well as low voltage cables mounted as aluminum extraction along the roof of the Opera House to prevent ice dams from forming there in the gutters.

The article encompassing the entire municipal budget passed unanimously.

By meeting’s end, the town elected new members for the Budget Committee — Drew Lyman, Carl Chadwick, Robert Fillnow, Robin McIntosh, Lars Johnson, James Heard, Richard Householder, Lisa Dresser and Wyatt McConnell, as well as Mark Haskell and Ethan Yankura.

The town also appointed Deb Dodge, Jon Scholz, John French and Etienne Perret to serve on the Budget Committee Nominating Committee.

“As long as we meet really early,” said Dodge.

After town meeting concluded, the Select Board convened, just after Dodge swore in Jenna Lookner and Taylor Benzie for respective three-year terms on the board, and elected Bob Falciani as chairman and Alison McKellar as vice chairwoman. The board also reappointed Kelly as the town attorney, Randy Gagne as police chief and Chris Farley as fire chief.

Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657