When looking forward to the new year, town officials in Cape Elizabeth and Scarborough are all hoping to address some lingering issues and look at new initiatives, but there is also concern on all levels about how the state budget shortfall and proposed tax reforms will affect local municipal budget planning.

Scarborough Town Manager Ron Owens said the council’s Finance Committee is looking at a 3 to 4 percent increase in the tax rate. “I think this will be a somewhat difficult budget year.

There will be some ramifications that we won’t like, but I don’t think it will be as drastic as it could be in the next couple of years,” Owens said.

Cape Town Manager Mike McGovern said in an interview that the most significant challenge facing the town in 2003 will be adopting a municipal and school budget. “We are looking at a revaluation, declining school enrollment, less revenue sharing and a council that doesn’t want to see a tax increase,” he said.

“It’s going to be a tough year. The public mood seems to be that we have been spending a lot of money and it’s time to slow down and take stock,” McGovern added. McGovern said the town has accomplished a lot in the last decade, including the construction of a new police station and a new fire station. When asked whether charging an entrance fee to Fort Williams Park would be on the table, McGovern said that everything that could increase the town’s revenue would be discussed.

As Scarborough Downs gears up for a new year of racing, owner Sharon Terry said she has no intention of selling out to commercial developers, as may happen with the Rockingham Park track in Salem, N.H.

Terry said the track she inherited from her husband, the late Joseph Ricci, turned a “small profit” in the past year, bolstering her commitment to continue a 52-year racing history well into the future.

“As long as we can keep doing that, then we have no intention of closing the track,” Terry said. “That’s the way Joe wanted it.”

Well before the 9/11 attacks and subsequent anthrax mailings, Dr. Anthony Tomassoni had already started thinking about how Maine could better prepare against biological and chemical terrorism.

As director of the Poison Control Center in Portland since 1992, the Cape Elizabeth resident had begun talking with public safety chiefs and hospital directors to assess the state’s readiness. He had also compiled lists of common antidotes to chemical and biological agents, and where they could and could not be found in a hurry.

“Many of us have been talking about these sorts of events for a long, long time,” said Tomassoni, who is now also serving as medical director for the relatively new state office of public health emergency preparedness. “Now we have the opportunity to do it right.”

So, with the help of a recently awarded $150,000 federal grant, 2003 is shaping up to be a busy year for the toxicologist and his colleagues.

Joshua Dallaire, 20, of Cape Elizabeth will be the artist on display at the Thomas Memorial Library during the month of January. Dallaire’s medium is colored pencil or graphite. His works include architectural renderings, still life and some landscapes.

Dallaire graduated from Cape Elizabeth High School in 2001 and took a year off before becoming a full time student at the Maine College of Art (MCA) this September.

Although at a young age Dallaire had shown artistic talent and had great interest in pursuing the arts, that dream fell away during his first three years of high school spent at Cheverus. The dream was rekindled, however, when he spent his senior year at Cape High School.

Scarborough town councilors are facing a tough decision – do they want to spend as much as $1.1 million more to put utilities such as electric and communication wires underground along Haigis Parkway or save that money and put the wires on overhead poles.

The Cape Elizabeth Town Council approved a whole set of new appointees for the various town boards and commissions last month. All appointed are citizen volunteers.

They are: Alan Marcuse, Arts Commission; Susan Low, Arts Commission; David B. Scheffler, Board of Assessment Review; Robert Chatfield , Community Services Advisory Commission; Catherine Fairbanks , Community Services Advisory Commission ; Colleen Graves, Community Services Advisory Commission; Julie Franklin, Conservation Commission; Jonah Rosenfield, Conservation Commission; Tina Harnden, Fort Williams ; Advisory Commission; John Snowden, Fort Williams Advisory Commission; Robert Packer, Personnel Appeals Board; Peter Hatem , Planning Board; Peter Ingraham , Recycling Committee; Sarah Choi, Recycling Committee; Deena Mayo Bruns, Thomas Memorial Library Trustees; Carol Ann Olsen, Thomas Memorial Library Trustees; Marie Wyzykowski, Thomas Memorial Library Trustees; Ed Nadeau, Thomas Memorial Library Trustees; Joseph Guglielmetti, Zoning Board of Appeals; Gib Mendelson, Zoning Board of Appeals; and Jessie Timberlake, Riverside Memorial Cemetery Trustees.

Those reappointed included: Charles McCarthy, Fort Williams Advisory Commission; John Ciraldo, Planning Board; and Darren McLellan, Recycling Committee.

Despite the efforts of state Education Commissioner Duke Albanese to ease the budget crunch on local school districts, Cape Elizabeth Superintendent Tom Forcella expects this year’s financial planning to be “as tight if not tighter” than last year.

In a Dec. 18 report to the state Board of Education, Albanese proposed a 2.7 percent increase in state education spending for 2003-2004, and also proposed some changes to the school funding formula for possible discussion by the Legislature.

The Maine Community Foundation recently awarded just over $650,000 in scholarships to Maine students attending schools in the state and across the country.

Local recipients were:

From Cape Elizabeth, Thomas Alberi, Matthew Barton, Nell Bridger, Chelsea Burr, Melissa Kierstead, Robert Needleman, David Reid, Alexandra Rickoff, Constantine Scontras, Margaret Shanahan and Erin Sheets.

From Scarborough, Stephanie Hughes, Jennifer Mills, Penelope Taylor and Brian Welch. From South Portland, Melissa Dupont, Brendan Ferriter, Jeffrey Ghiloni, Heather Libby, Joseph Picoraro, Daniel Griffin and Daniel Mastersib

Costa Rican exchange students and their hosts from Scarborough Middle School and high school pose for a group shot after taking a cross country ski trip in this photo from the issue of Jan. 2, 2003.   
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