Lowell Town Meeting

Road commissioners will be appointed in future

by Jennifer Blay

LOWELL — Lowell town meeting started with the Lowell School District Meeting.  Jenna Delva was elected to finish out the remaining one year of a three year term without opposition.  Jason Blay and Jeremy Cochran were nominated for a school district three year term and Mr. Blay was reelected  with 68 votes to Mr. Cochran’s 31 votes.  Shannon Sinclair ran uncontested for reelection to her union school director position.

The budget of $2,387,126 was passed after discussion and questions posed by Lisa Cochran and Mr. Cochran.  Questions about specific line items were answered by school board chair Shauna Richardson and principal Rhoda McLure.

The meeting then moved to the town portion where in article three the Lowell Select Board proposed appointing a road commissioner rather than electing one.  Initially, Reggie Pion attempted to pass over the article.  However, the town came out to talk about the issue and decided to do so by a vote of 61 to 52.

Select board members spoke about their reasoning.  Lise McAllister asked if select board members had anyone in mind for the position and they said they did not.  David DiZazzo asked whether this would be a permanent change going forward.  It would be unless town residents vote to again make it an elected position.

There were many people on both sides of this decision and were all very passionate when speaking.  The conversation demonstrated the level of passion and care that the Lowell Town residents have for their town.  Dottie Spoerl said even though many feel they will no longer have a say in the roads if the select board oversees it and it doesn’t come to Town Meeting for election, that it is not true. Every townsperson has the right to attend the select board meetings held every two weeks.

She has done this herself since former Road Commissioner Calvin Allen died because she worried about the condition the roads would be in going into winter.  She said the select board listens at the meetings and wants to work with the townspeople.

Many said the roads have been well maintained this winter with the community members who came forward to help out, specifically Chad Falconer, Michael Dingy, and Mark Higley as road crew to carry the town through the winter so as not to leave the town in a bind.  The meeting continued with concerns raised and lots of discussion.  When this article was called to question it was voted on and passed by a vote of 60 to 56.

Article four was to elect the officers.  All officers ran uncontested and kept their seats except for select board candidates.  Three were nominated for a seat on the select board:

Jennifer Blay, was just completing her first three year term, Shawn Warner serves on the fire department as well as running his own contracting business, and Gordon Spencer who came with a long list of exceptional qualities and has been a contributing member of the town serving as auditor and zoning board chair for many years.

Loren Warner asked Ms. Blay a direct question about the cost of fuel for the town and what she did to try to reduce it.  He said he considered the $24,000 bill for the year an outrageous burden to him.  The cost was due to a locked-in rate of  $3 a gallon.

Ms. Blay said calls were made early in the season to lock in the best price.

Voting took place after this short discussion and Ms. Blay was re-elected with 64 votes.  Shawn Warner received 11 and Gordon Spencer received 15 votes.  The rest of the meeting went on without discussion and all articles were passed.