In towns across Maine, having a full ballot of candidates to vote for, getting your road plowed and having street signs in good repair are expected. But in smaller communities, those things can be hard to come by.
But when such things that most towns take for granted start to break down — whether its road signs in disrepair, overgrown cemeteries, or a lack of enthusiasm to run for local office — some small communities consider deorganizing as a solution.
Deorganizing is the process to formally eliminate a town government and join Maine’s unorganized territory through 12 steps that can take up to two years to complete. When a town dissolves itself, the remaining services citizens receive are split between the county and the state.
Two Maine municipalities are taking votes within the next week to continue the deorganizing process — Maxfield in Penobscot County and Highland Plantation in Somerset County.
Many small towns across the state with low populations suffer from limited resident participation, both in filling positions and voting in local elections, which can make local government stagnant and ineffective. Thin budgets and escalating costs hurt local services while declining populations cannot raise enough money to keep them operating. These factors are often precursors for a town that considers disbanding.
There is no set checklist of issues a town is facing that make them dissolve because every community is looking for different solutions that fit them, said Harold Jones, state fiscal administrator for the Unorganized Territory.
“I don’t think there’s one thing that you can point at and go, you know, if you have this issue, then you’re going to deorganize. I think it has a lot to do with the residents themselves of that municipality,” Jones said.
Despite no clear list, a lack of candidates because of small populations or entrenched officials is the one reason seen in almost every community that looks into dissolving more than any other, Jones said.
Town officials are needed in these communities to oversee the few services and amenities residents receive, but if residents aren’t satisfied with how their money is being spent, they may want to dissolve.
In Maxfield, a town outside Howland with a population of 89 people, a road was closed because it couldn’t be maintained. Katahdin View Road has a stretch with road closed signs stopping traffic because the road has been washed out.
Road repairs cost $180,000 to $200,000 per mile, a cost small communities can’t always afford because of their small tax base and already bare-bones budget, Penobscot County Unorganized Territory Director, George Buswell said.
“You add up the priority things that you have to do, and you don’t have enough money to repair the roads without raising taxes considerably, and that’s something small towns aren’t willing to do,” Buswell said.
Whether or not Maxfield votes to continue pursuing deorganization, the local roads need to be maintained, possibly with help from the Maine Department of Transportation, Jones said.
“Their roads are in disrepair, and so just having a decent road that you can drive home on after a hard day’s work is probably beneficial in its own right,” Jones said.
Even communities that don’t want to dissolve still struggle with how to keep their town functioning without raising taxes, including Webster Plantation whose citizens narrowly voted not to dissolve last year.
“Residents voted not to [deorganize] but they’re taking paved roads and just putting dirt on them to cover the potholes,” Buswell said.
Road maintenance is one of the largest lines on a town’s budget and a priority, which jeopardizes other costs that are viewed as less important.
Town entrance signs, road signs and cemetery maintenance are some of the things that suffer as a result. It’s not just because the town can’t afford the upkeep, Buswell said, but also because there’s no one to do the work.
“Not only is it that they can’t afford it or that they don’t want to spend the money to put the flags out or maintain the cemeteries or put up street signs, they don’t have anybody to do it. You have nobody volunteering to do that,” Buswell said.
In Maxfield, the two ends of a street sign on Bunker Hill Road are snapped off so it reads “ker H”. Another seemingly homemade sign nailed to the telephone pole at the end of the street is the only indication of what road it is.
The green town entrance sign on Maxfield Road is also in disrepair, leaning at a 45-degree angle.
Decisions to not maintain signs and cemeteries are the result of the same issue surrounding road maintenance – how to keep taxes down and keep everything running on the same budget.
“[Towns] have to prioritize some services, and they don’t want to raise the taxes on their people. So they’ve only got just so much money to spend,” Buswell said.