Rockport approves community park for old school parcel, new fire station
Working the polls at the Rockport Town Office June 13, 2023, Megan Brackett, Rockport Financial Director, and Andrew Lowe, Rockport volunteer. (Photo by Lynda Clancy)
Rockport resident and Select Board member Denise Kennedy talks with a voter about a petition to get more attention paid to community broadband internet. (Photo by Lynda Clancy)
Working the polls at the Rockport Town Office June 13, 2023, Megan Brackett, Rockport Financial Director, and Andrew Lowe, Rockport volunteer. (Photo by Lynda Clancy)
Rockport resident and Select Board member Denise Kennedy talks with a voter about a petition to get more attention paid to community broadband internet. (Photo by Lynda Clancy)ROCKPORT — Across the board, voters in Rockport approved all warrant articles on their annual town meeting ballot. From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., June 13, 701 voters entered the Richardson Room at the Rockport Town Office with the majority of them voting in favor of a $9 million municipal budget, a number of land use ordinance amendments, as well as Articles 3 and 4, concerning the former RES parcel on West Street and the construction of a new West Rockport Fire Station.
Rockport voters also approved:
a $19 million School Administrative District 28 (Camden-Rockport K-8) budget ( Yes: 557, No, 119)
and a $13.6 million Five Town CSD budget (Camden Hills Regional High School (Yes: 559; No: 120.
The town elected Kim Graffam and Michael Thompson to the Select Board. They ran unopposed. Likewise, Sarah Bradley-Prindiville was elected to the SAD 28 and Five Town CSD school boards, running unopposed; Lee Goss to the Library Committee, running unopposed; and Geoff Parker to the Budget Committee, running unopposed.
The results follow (click here for the full municipal ballot with warrant articles).
Article 3: Shall the Town Authorize the Select to enter into an agreement with the Lesher Foundation that addresses the footer use of the former Rockport Elementary School site and includes the following...
Yes: 606
No: 93
Article 4: Shall the town approve a capital project consisting of the construction of a new fire station in West Rockport.... appropriate the sum of $3.758, plus any additional premium to the costs of the project...In the event the town approves Article 3, then authorizes the Select Board to apply the grant of $1 million from the Lesher Foundation to the costs of the project....
Yes: 539
No: 114
Article 5: Shall the town simplify the 906 and 907 zone districts
Yes: 559
No: 73
Article 6: Shall the town change a parcel’s zone from the 904 to the 902 district
Yes: 548
No: 72
Article 7: Shall the town amend the Solar Farm Ordinance and be known as Section 815 Large Solar Energy Systems
Yes: 557
No: 85
Article 8: Shall the town adopt amendments to the land use ordinance pertaining to Maine LD 2003. (The remainder of proposed amendments will be on the November 2023 ballot)
Yes: 527
No: 77
Article 9: Shall the town adopt raise and appropriate $8.9 million for the 2023-2024 budget
Yes: 575
No: 97
Article 10: Will the town appropriate $3.26 million in revenue to reduce property tax assessment
Yes: 619
No: 50
Articles 11 through 17 concerned municipal business, such as setting interest rates on delinquent property taxes (8 percent) and selling real estate acquired by the town for nonpayment of taxes or wastewater charges, all passed by similar large margins.
