Thumbs down to the Sanford Town Council for their cavalier attitude toward time. Last week, the council held an executive session to deal with a union grievance at 6 p.m. At 7 p.m., when the public meeting and a public hearing on a $19 million mill conversion project was supposed to start, Town Manager Mark Green emerged and told the packed audience that the executive session would take more time. Finally, after four people in the public meeting room got up and left ”“ including one who was scheduled to speak ”“ the council emerged at 8:35 p.m. They dawdled another seven minutes before starting the public session a full 102 minutes late.
Granted, Chairman Gordon Paul tendered an apology. He said town and union lawyers for both sides were present so they had to stay to a point where they could break away. He said it wasn’t the council’s intent that the private session take so long.
Tuesday was not the first time closed-door sessions have run over schedule, however. It happened several times in 2010 and more than once this year. Most people understand if a session runs 15 or 20 minutes over; Tuesday’s marathon 102 minutes was the lengthiest.
We feel certain the council did not intend to give the impression that the taxpayer’s time wasn’t valuable, but it sure appeared that way. Perhaps executive sessions could be scheduled after the public part of the meeting or earlier in the evening to avoid this situation in the future.
Thumbs up to the Community Heritage Alliance of Rural Maine, a group of Buxton and Hollis residents whose focus is to save the Hollis High School and Hanson school buildings in those towns. Town ownership of the buildings, previously used by Regional School Unit 6, was rejected by voters in both towns, but this CHARM group is insistent on retaining the historic structures. We hope their perseverance pays off, and they are able to find private funding to renovate and reuse these buildings for the betterment of their communities, while also preserving landmarks that give the towns some of their unique identities.
Thumbs down to the discontinuance of video arraignments at York County Jail during the past few months. Arraigning inmates via video link to the courtrooms in Biddeford, Springvale and York is a smart use of technology that saves time, energy, hassle and eliminates the security risk of transporting prisoners. Unfortunately, it’s gone by the wayside in this county because of a disagreement over related paperwork. Sheriff Ouellette says it would cost him more to have someone certified to enter bail information into the state computer system than it does to have prisoners transported to the courts. However, state court clerks are doing the paperwork now anyway, and they used to do it when the video arraignments were done in the past. The video process should be reinstituted. The county cannot afford further fines for getting prisoners to court late, as happened in May when a group of prisoners weren’t brought to court until 15 minutes before closing time. It just doesn’t make sense to cart prisoners around for this purpose when technology could be used instead.
Thumbs up to all the young people who participated in the McArthur Public Library summer reading program this season, and to the librarians who are willing to get zany as a way to encourage a love of books. The librarians have gone all out in years past, from performing a rock concert to camping on the library’s roof, and this year they ended the program by dyeing their hair crazy colors for the enjoyment of the kids. More than 500 Biddeford youths participated this year, so the librarian’s efforts ”“ and antics ”“ must be working, helping those young people to maintain their reading skills during the summer break.
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