ROCKPORT — Success. The process (thanks largely to the Rockport Town Charter) used to find Rockport’s new town manager worked methodically and well. The Select Board announced last week that Richard Bates, of Camden, was selected, offered the position and he accepted the position as Rockport’s new Town Manager with a three-year contract. Bates actually began his career in municipal government in 1977 in New Hampshire and has, among other things, previously served as a town manager. Welcome to Rockport, Richard! And, special thanks and appreciation are extended to Roger Moody who served as Rockport’s interim town manager from the time the Robert Peabody resigned until Richard was selected.

Roger came in in the middle of the turmoil created by various legal issues involving the town and Peabody, and just in time for 2013-2014 budget process. His calm, fair, highly competent manner and abilities not only kept the town ticking, it helped heal many wounds/divisions that had existed among many for quite a while. Thanks, Roger.

And thanks so much to all who volunteered and to those who served on the Town Manager Search Committee and to the Select Board for the hard work as groups and as individuals and who spent so many hours, for so long, on this process.



Complete roster

Following the 2013 Town Meeting, Rockport’s three elected committees have a complete roster!

Stephanie Kumble keeps an eye on Rockport municipal news in her regular column here.

Select Board: Charlton Ames, Bill Chapman/Chair; Ken McKinley, Tracy Lee Murphy, Geoff Parker.

Library Committee: Betsy Elwin, Stephanie Kumble, Kathleen Meil/Chair, Cate Monroe, Barrie Pribyl.

Budget Committee:  David Jackson, Stephanie Kumble, Thomas Murphy, Peter Johnson, Sharon Pohlman, Jan Rosenbaum, Helen Shaw, Sharon Stone, John Viehman.

Numerous terms expire for Planning Board (three) and Zoning Board (three) on June 30 of this year. In addition, Planning Board Chair Kerry Leichtman is resigning. Selectmen will address upcoming vacancies and potential replacements at this evening's Select Board meeting. If either of these boards might be of interest to you, check with the town office for information.

And just a reminder! All this information and so much more can be found in the 2013 Annual town Report available at the Town Office. This gem will tell you just about anything/everything you need to know about your municipal government.  

Emergency Medical Services

The transition from Camden First Aid and North East Mobile Health Services seems to be on track despite a hyper-speed timeframe created by the whole process of selecting North East as the new EMS provider.

Numerous questions remain in regard to the new service including staffing, with North East hiring as many of CFA staff as possible. Another question revolves around the fate of CFA’s Camden John Street. building, valued at $800,000 with mortgage held by Camden National. Bank (not on Camden tax rolls because CFA was a nonprofit. North East is). Equipment, including ambulances is another part of mix.  

Community Paramedicine, a pilot project in Maine will be offered in the area. This is defined as: “The practice by an emergency medical services provider primarily in an out-of-hospital setting of providing episodic patient evaluation” and will hopefully decrease emergency room responses.

As changes occur, residents of all the towns so ably and well served by Camden First Aid for so many years, need to stop and thank all of those at Camden First Aid for the high class medical emergency service professionalism always shown. Particular thanks should be expressed to Chief Julia Libby and those serving on the Board of Directors the past two years. They fought so hard in every way they could think of to overcome the huge deficit they inherited and save the CFS. In the end, despite herculean efforts, it wasn’t to be.

Open for business!
Solar Maine, an alternative energy company is open for business! Located at 1126 Commercial Street in Rockport, you can learn more about this great new addition to Rockport’s business scene by stopping in or visiting shadysolar.com or call 975-9204. The company offers numerous services and products combined with zero energy houses. In addition to serving as a retail outlet, Solar Maine will offer educational workshops for the general public and is also able to walk customers through the paperwork to obtain various government rebates for new or updated energy efficient products/systems.  

Random Town Meeting thoughts
Shame on us (or do we blame the system?). Although typical for an off-year, both the school budget meeting and both aspects of Town Meeting saw a turnout of less than 1% of Rockport registered voters.

The Schools Budget Meeting saw that same low turnout percentage (along with small percentages of Camden voters for SAD 28 and Hope, Appleton, Lincolnville, Camden for CSD), showing up for the school budget process meetings that voted on/approved the $11.4 million school budgets.

And, at town meeting, less than 1% of registered voters selected the town’s governing body and voted on/approved the $4.55 million budget. The really sad part about this number of people voting is that you can bet when it comes to complaining, the percentage will be a lot higher.

That said, thanks so much to those of you who did vote (and I’ll confess, because I was out of town, I missed the school budget vote. I did vote by absentee ballot for Tuesday’s ballot vote, but because I did that and couldn’t work the polls this year (and because I was so wrapped up in the Bruins play-off games!), I totally forgot to go to Wednesday’s Town Meeting session. My bad.

Also, thanks to those of you who ran for office and for everyone at the Town Office and other town employees who worked so hard on different aspects of Town Meeting.

Municipal Meetings, June 24 - 21

All meetings are at the Town Office unless otherwise specified.

The Cemetery Committee will meet Tuesday, June 25 at 10 a.m.

The MidCoast Solid Waste Board of Directors will meet Wednesday, June 26, at 7 p.m. and the Zoning Board of Appeals will also meet at 7 p.m. at the Opera House, televised on Ch. 22.

Town Office and the Library will be closed on Thursday, June 27 from noon to 1:30 PM, for the Annual Town Employee Appreciation B-B-Q Luncheon
 
The MidCoast Economic Development District (MC-EDD) meeting will be held Friday, June 28 at 9 a.m. at the Damariscotta Town Office

The Capital Improvement Committee will meet next Tuesday, July 2, at 4 p.m. and there will also be a Select Board Annual Goal Setting Workshop at 7 p.m. at the Opera House,  televised on Ch. 22

The C-R Pathways Committee will meet Wednesday, July 3, at 7 p.m. at the Washington Street Conference Room, Camden.

Town Offices and the Library will be closed on Thursday, July 4, in observance of Independence Day