MILBRIDGE, Maine — A contentious debate over the fate of a circa-1900 former schoolhouse in the Washington County community of Milbridge has prompted a lawsuit to be filed by those who wanted to see the old building preserved.
By a margin of 14 votes — 110 yes, 96 no — the green light was given at a special town meeting on Feb. 13 to plans to replace the building that now houses the town office, police department and ambulance service, as well as the town’s library, which is shoehorned into an addition built 50 years ago.
The $578,000 project is dependent on approval of a $258,000 community development block grant. Town Manager Lewis Pinkham recently submitted that grant request for review by the state’s Office of Economic Development. If approved, the town will put up an additional $320,000, with $160,000 coming from a 15-year loan, $65,000 from the library’s endowment, $60,000 from surplus funds and $35,000 from a building reserve fund.
The suit filed by Milbridge resident Nicholas Giusti in superior court in Machias against “the inhabitants of the Town of Milbridge” claims the town meeting was flawed by “procedural irregularities.” Giusti claims there was no advance public notice of the meeting and that no public hearing on the proposed construction project preceded the special town meeting.
In his complaint, Giusti also claims debate on the proposal was ended prematurely, before Giusti and others had an opportunity to fully express their opinions on the project. Giusti also claims ballot clerks should have been appointed or elected to oversee the counting of the secret vote ballots.
The complaint alleges the procedural irregularities should render void the election of the meeting’s moderator and passage of the article approving the new construction.
The legal action requests a trial and also asks that the court order the project not go forward pending judicial consideration of Giusti’s complaint.
The complaint is now under review by the town’s legal counsel, Thomas Russell of Bangor.
Russell said Wednesday he’s in the process of drafting a response to Giusti’s complaint and expects to file that response as soon as Friday, March 16.
“I don’t think [the complaint] has any merit,” Russell said in a telephone interview. “The vote was taken. Some of the procedural issues were unfortunate, but not fatal. People had their say about it.”
Town Manager Lewis Pinkham said Wednesday he agrees that there is no merit to Giusti’s complaint.
“I don’t think there are any grounds there now,” Pinkham said.
Typical reaction of a sore loser. Town meetings used to be loud, sometimes with spirited and sometimes with mean debates and sometimes were real entertainment when emotions got high. There was also no lack of politicing and manveuvering to get your point of view on the winning side but when they were over, noone went to court and cried foul! It a sad thing when these small towns are held hostage by people from the losing side going to court and crying that their rights have been violated! Town meetings have been held every year for hundreds of years, there have been contentous issues for the same amount of years. Stop crying about lack of notice about an annual event, stop b****ing about someone moving the question and DON”T make it sould like whoever counted the ballets was a crook and miscounted them! Whether or not the town picked formal ballet clerks or not I’m sure that the person (probably the town clerk) that did count them was able to accurately count to 206 and separate the yes from no votes without a lot of serious brain freeze. 210 people at town meeting in a town with a population of 1,353 is not bad. One other thing to consider when crying about lack of notice is that many of those that didn’t attend either was fairly happy with town government and the management or they just didn’t give a damn! Either way I’m fairly sure that they won’t be thrilled to spend more taxpayer’s money to defend the town against your claims that just got expensive. Town government may not be perfect and to the letter of the law all of the time, but it the ONLY form of DIRECT representation in government that is left. It should be preserved, not taken to court because something was done a day late or wasn’t handled as you wanted it to! Get over yourself and deal with it as a person and don’t hide behind a judge and a courtroom! Neighbors don’t always agree and sometimes fight. Keep it at that level and settle it!
APPLAUSE to you PORTBOY, exactly how I feel ! I was at that town meeting , I dont know what rock the accuser has been under but I know there was a meeting before that evening , and if he says there was no advanced notice then how did he know to show up !!! I for 1 am a Milbridge citizen looking forward to the growth of our little town , and I dont like the fact that my tax money is going to a lawyer to represent the town in case that is brought on by someone that didnt get there own way ! If you look at the whole big picture the accuser is a tax paying citizen in the town , so,,,,,,,isnt the accuser sueing himself ????
Guisti and his ” friends” group need to go back from where they came. The real locals don’t like the drama they cause. I was also at the meeting. Yes, there were notices that the meeting was going to be held prior to the date. This has been discussed and re-discussed. The people voted, we want a new building. Let it go!