By Wayne E. Rivet

Staff Writer

When the Mountain Road washed out twice in a four-month span, a permanent solution — not a quick fix — to the problem became a priority.

Fortunately, the town landed a grant that will assist covering the cost of engineering the road upgrade, saving Bridgton taxpayers some money.

While Selectman Paul Tworog agreed it is a “worthwhile project,” it raised questions in his mind regarding how the town develops a list of priorities and how projects are ranked in terms of importance.

“I’m trying to understand how the list is derived and what is the priorities,” he asked.

Town Manager Bob Peabody pointed out that staff always keeps their eyes open for opportunities to help solve problems, including applying for grants. The Select Board reviews the grant and ultimately decides whether to pursue/accept them.

“So, the opportunity is there for the board to decide whether this is a priority or not by their vote. It’s, in my opinion, one of the functions of staff is to bring those opportunities to the board as they come up because they’re not always known months in advance,” Peabody said.

To clarify the role the Select Board has in establishing priorities, a goal-setting workshop was held under the direction of Kristina Egan of the Greater Portland Council of Governments.

Before dipping into priorities, Egan noted the importance of goal setting.

“Goals should be a reasonable list that the group can accomplish, point the town in the direction the residents desire, and keep the town moving forward while retaining what makes Bridgton special.”

While department heads previously chimed in on future infrastructure upgrades, Peabody wanted the workshop’s focus to be on Select Board members ideas regarding what path Bridgton should take in regards to priorities and how to get there.

Egan pointed out that part of the goal-setting process is to identify long-term goals, including upcoming significant projects and town services, and clarifying who sets goals and how priorities are decided.

By identifying short-term goals, the Select Board can guide the town manager as he develops the annual budget where they would like to see tax dollars spent.

Before goals could be set, Egan asked the Select Board to list recent accomplishments. The list included the wastewater project, downtown streetscape, paving in the “inner corridor,” and developing an open space plan.

Ongoing projects include wastewater expansion to three new areas, master planning in how to best utilize the Ham Complex, reconstruction of Mountain Road, culvert replacement on Wildwood Road, Church Street sidewalk construction and rewriting the Comprehensive Plan.

The next workshop step was to create a list of potential goals, and then vote on which items each member felt should be a top priority. Each member had 5 votes to cast.

Leading the list were:

• New public safety building (6 votes)

• Keep the tax rate reasonable (5)

• More affordable housing to serve residents and anticipate growth (3)

• Improved or new transfer station (2)

• Implement open space and protect natural resources, including water (2)

• Attract professional businesses with high wager earners, possibly through a business park (2)

Receiving one vote were: build a recreation center, provide for people that need social services, arts facility, new staff (human resources officer, someone to enforce code enforcement, harbormaster; department heads suggested a grant writer, planner, public information officer).

Some suggested short-term goals were revaluation (6 votes), grant writing (5), replenish reserve funds (5), tech/software upgrades (3), and public restroom in the municipal complex.

Ultimately, Select Board members settled on three long-term priorities:

1. Tax Rate. To maintain a stable, reasonable tax rate while providing necessary town services to Bridgton residents.

“I’m looking at what we need to provide the level of services we provide and do the projects that we’re going to do. You don’t want to get into the situation where all of a sudden you’re not keeping up on your roads and they go from being a $20,000 fix to a complete rebuild of $400,000,” said Peabody in regards on how he approaches budget building.

Selectman Tworog feels the only way the municipality gets a handle on the tax rate is to get a handle on spending. He noted that while the tax rate has remained “flat,” the town has seen a big bump in additional property value and has used that increased revenue to fund new staff positions and other projects.

“I do not look at a budget according to what the school budget is or what the county budget is. I look at the budget as what the needs of our taxpayers are and what possible services we can provide them within those needs,” Selectman Bob McHatton said.

Officials noted that in past years, SAD 61 has been viewed as a “villain” in regards to tax assessments to Bridgton, but in recent years, has been “quite reasonable” in its requests.

2. Public Safety. To develop and build a new, centrally-located public safety building to house police, fire Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and dispatch services.

The idea is to put public safety under one roof, while reallocating space for municipal office needs. EMS Director Todd Perreault would like to see the complex “close to town” — “centrally located.”

“It gives us the ability to go in different directions because our town is one of the largest ones in the county,” Perreault said. “It also affords us to have our volunteers come from different directions to a central hub.”

3. Affordable Housing. To be a supportive partner in creating more housing choices affordable to lower and middle income people.

The “short-term” priority list (which each Select Board member could cast 3 votes) includes:

1. To take the next steps in advancing the previous mentioned long-term priorities.

2. To replenish Bridgton’s 13 reserve funds. During the Covid pandemic, one way Peabody kept the tax rate flat as the economy came to a halt was to bypass budgeting money for reserve accounts. Now, it is time to start tucking money away for future projects and purchases.

3. To prepare for a revaluation (target year should be set).

4. To hire a staff person to focus on attracting new funding for the town’s priorities.

At their December meeting, Tworog noted that the lists “are really a draft that we will use as general guidance as we go through both the budget and selective projects over both the short and long term.”