Election 2007 News
Voters to decide 91 questions at the polls on May 19
By Jennifer L. Saunders
YORK - From candidate races for key town boards to the school and municipal operating budgets, local voters will decide a total of 91 ballot questions at this year's Budget Referendum on May 19.
Looking to the May vote, local officials recently highlighted just a few of the key budget requests on the ballot this year for voter review.
For Police Chief Douglas Bracy, Town Manager Rob Yandow, the Board of Selectmen and others, one of the key projects on the ballot actually comes in the form of multiple ballot items: the request to begin the town's drainage remediation plan.
"We desperately need to address these issues," Yandow said. "We asked for what we felt we needed, no more, no less. I think it's a modest budget, and I think the contents of that budget are the tools that town government needs."
After the devastation of last year's Mother's Day storm and the millions in damage from this year's Patriot's Day storm, town officials are urging residents to recognize those requests are part of a big-picture plan to address townwide needs.
Articles 25 to 32 deal with drainage, Bracy said.
"The drainage plan that we had done gives us a roadmap for the whole town," he explained. "In two floods within the last year, we've seen that if we do the repairs right, it saves our infrastructure and our businesses and residences quite a lot."
Bracy said he hopes each neighborhood brought forward will be supported as part of the whole.
Yandow agreed.
"All of the drainage issues are critically important in York, and we need to start designing these repairs so that we can actually construct them," he said.
Both Bracy and Yandow spoke of Article 9, a request for a new boat for Harbor Master John Bridges, as a public safety need.
Bracy said it is important to note that the harbor master's prior boat sunk twice and was beyond rehabilitating for another season of service tending moorings and assisting the rescue boat, donated by local resident Chris Connors, in rescue missions.
Both Yandow and Bracy stressed that the boat is completely different from the rescue boat, with different requirements and uses.
"It provides great assistance to John Bridges and his crew, but that boat is not designed to do the work of the harbor master," Bracy explained. "It was not made to tow boats and tend moorings or work docks."
Yandow said the new boat will also allow the harbor master to expand his coverage area in Cape Neddick and the York River.
Also on the ballot, Yandow said, "We're enhancing our public health program and expanding the program so that it's not just mosquitoes; it's mosquito-borne and tick-borne diseases."
He noted that York's plan is becoming something of a model program for neighboring communities and is reportedly catching the attention of the Maine Center for Disease Control.
"They all have some interest in the things that we're doing," he said, adding he believes the expansion to address Lyme disease and the ongoing focus on prevention is very important. "You can't take any chances with public health," he said.
Bracy noted the request for Article 20, for improvements to the Witchtrot Recycling Facility, is also important because it represents the only dry storage the York Police Department has for its Emergency Management Trailer, sign boards and other equipment.
For Article 24, which requests funding for sidewalks on Woodbridge Road, Bracy said he understands that residents in many areas of town would like to have sidewalks, and while that is a long-term goal, this proposal really is one of safety.
"We have about 30 kids that get dropped off at Axholme Road and have to walk to Eldredge and Darcy," he said, adding many senior citizens also walk along Woodbridge from Sentry Hill.
Meanwhile, Selectmen Chairman Dave Marshall and Vice Chairman Dwight Bardwell praised Yandow for the cooperation throughout the budgeting process and for the work of the board.
"I think we have a really good budgeting process going on right now," Bardwell said. "These are needs. Let's fix it. Let's do it. Let's work the system so people feel comfortable at the other end."
Selectman Michael Estes pointed out that the voters will also be able to authorize the funds in this election to once again have Town Hall open to the public five days each week.
"I think we have the opportunity right now for a town of York renaissance," said Selectman Len Dorrian, describing the start of a renaissance under Yandow's management over the past two years.
Dorrian also noted that York is "getting older. We're going to have to reorient some of what we do to that growing population."
Yandow noted there is one error on the ballot that residents should be aware of.
Article 34, which requests $507,534 for maintenance of the town's buildings and grounds, has an error in last year's amount as listed in the ballot.
"The increase, as proposed, is some $32,000, not the $100-some thousand dollars" printed on the ballot, Yandow said. The correct number for last year is $474,835 but the ballot item says 407,835. A correction is being planned for voters to receive with their ballots.
Also, residents will once again see a request to support the Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) District in York Beach that was approved back in November on the ballot. This has no taxpayer impact, Yandow said, and is exactly what voters approved in November, but due to a posting error for the public hearing, it must be presented to the voters once again.
For a look at the full ballot, visit http://www.yorkmaine.org/.
