Sangerville, Maine

08/17/2026

Good morning Sangerville, I am not one to complain about the occasional rainy day in August, especially when it is needed and on a Monday. We will probably only see quarter to a half inch of rain total by tomorrow, but we will take what we can get.
I met last week with a representative from Pike paving, and they are planning next week or the week after to begin paving the Flanders Hill Rd.
We have a couple meetings this week. Tomorrow evening at 6:00 PM at the fire station, the town hall and historical society are meeting with the primary purpose of working on the grant application for the historic preservation grant. This meeting is open to the public and we encourage anyone with any interest in participating in the town hall restoration project to attend.
On Friday, I met with Maine Historic Preservation staff at their office in Hallowell to answer questions we had about the grant, and it was a very productive meeting. Our largest challenge is that this grant requires a 25% match and the match cannot be municipal funds. In other words, no tax dollars whatsoever to match the grant. This means we need to raise $125,000.00 in some combination of cash on hand, projected in-kind volunteer labor and pledges by the end of October. The Historical Society has pledged the sale of their current property which will provide a large portion of that cash but as I learned last week, the more cash on hand we actually have, the better our application will look. We have a town hall page and go-fund-me site that can provide more information on how to pledge money and or donate to this cause.
We also discussed photographing and videoing the property, for the grant application and so that more people see what we are trying to do. The suggestion has been made, and we will discuss it with the select board to have a volunteer clean-up day so the property will look better to be photographed and videoed. That is on the board agenda for Wednesday night.
The other meeting this week is our regularly scheduled select board meeting for Wednesday night at 6:00 PM at the fire station. Some items on the agenda are opening bids for culvert work on the Silvers Mills Rd. and tree removal on the French's Mills Rd, policy review, and a status update on the repair of the fire department tank truck.
The planning board met last Thursday and approved one application and denied another under our shoreland zoning ordinance. They also did some more work on the comprehensive plan and I reported to them on what I felt was useful information I learned from a Maine Municipal Association class I took late last month on planning boards and boards of appeal.
A board of appeals is a board of volunteers in a community that work under that town's board of appeals ordinance to hear appeals made when the planning board denies a permit because they feel it is in violation of an ordinance, usually shoreland zoning. This board meets very infrequently, sometimes only annually. The code enforcement officer and planning board do a very good job working with people, so it is rare that an appeal is generated.
Because of that it is one of the most difficult boards to find residents willing to serve. It is sort of like a form of jury duty. That being said, we desperately need a couple volunteers to serve on our board of appeals. If you are interested, please contact me.
On Saturday August 8th, our fire department along with almost every other department in Piscataquis County and several towns in Penobscot County responded to Monson to a major fire at the former Moosehead furniture factory. Moosehead Furniture closed permanently in 2009. The buildings have had various uses since then but have been mostly abandoned and were in significant disrepair. The owners were burning debris when the fire got out of control and started a small wildland fire that extended to the buildings. The conditions were right so that by the time the fire department was called, little could be done beyond containing the fire to the mill site. Our firefighters were on scene assisting for approximately 10 hours Saturday night and a couple more hours on Sunday.
We have had some recent citizen concerns about fire department readiness, particularly with the question of repairing versus replacing the tank truck. I think this fire illustrates the strength of mutual aid and the professionalism of our department as well as every other department in Piscataquis and Penobscot counties. It should conclusively prove to everyone that when needed their fire department will be there with all the assistance we need from our neighbors, no matter how big the fire or what the situation is.
I will be out of the office Thursday and Friday of this week. The Maine Municipal Association is holding a class on municipal accounting in Augusta. I feel it would be beneficial to me and the citizens of Sangerville for me to take this class. My basic college accounting class was in 1993 so I can use the refresher. This knowledge will allow me to be more helpful to Michelle and the budget committee and hopefully allow me to give more informative answers to you folks about specific budget questions. Please feel welcome to join us at our community meetings this week and everyone have a great week.
Brian

08/07/2026

Good morning Sangerville, I want to first thank everyone for all the positive feedback I have received from these posts. We have chosen to use Facebook as a tool to keep the citizens of Sangerville informed. That is our only purpose with Facebook.
As I have stated many times, a town is analogous to a business corporation. You, the resident taxpayers are the owners of that corporation. The stock you own in our corporation is your property, when you sell that property that stock changes hands to the new owner. Once a year we have an annual town meeting which can be described as an annual shareholders meeting. At that meeting you direct the town government how to operate and spend the financial resources of the town, (i.e. the property taxes we collect from you), for the coming year. Much like a corporation with a board of directors we have an elected select board to oversee those operations during the year. Michelle, Kelsey and I as clerk, deputy clerk and town manager administer the policy and decisions set forth by you the people at town meeting in accordance with state and federal law, town ordinances and with the oversight of the select board.
Because we know we work for you and it is your town, or actually our town, we pay taxes too and are otherwise also invested in the success of the town; we feel it is important to communicate as much information about the business of the town to you as we can to help you be better informed to make the decisions at town meeting. Which brings me back to the Facebook posts, being simply a tool to help accomplish that goal.
In addition to that tool, we try to stress the importance we place on transparency and information sharing by advertising well in advance all board and committee meetings, sharing their agendas and recording select board meetings and posting those recordings. As your elected and appointed government, we encourage all citizens to regularly attend meetings, ask questions and participate in dialogue with us. When this occurs that helps the select board and us at the office know that we are following the direction of the people.
We have decided to shut off the comments section on our page. The reason for that is that we feel some people are choosing to use this as a debate platform. Debate is good, and encouraged when done in an appropriate format, where everyone gets a chance to speak, work together and find compromise and solutions to difficult problems.
To reiterate, our page simply seeks to inform you the citizens. If you disagree with us, which is your right and in some cases your obligation, we want to discuss those concerns with you in the proper public format and we do not feel social media is that format. If you are not comfortable addressing your concerns in an open meeting, talk to me or our select board members directly. We will listen and discuss concerns brought to us in open meeting when it is appropriate to do so.
I know some people have simple and very legitimate questions in regard to information I share in these posts. I always try to answer those questions, and I am sorry we feel it necessary to take this step. With that said if you are willing to take an extra minute to address those questions to me in an email to [email protected], I will do my best to answer those questions. If you feel strongly about an issue and want to be placed on the agenda to address the select board at their next meeting contact Michelle, Kelsey or I and we will be sure you are put on the agenda.
Thank you for your understanding and support and have a great weekend.
Brian

08/06/2026

Good afternoon Sangerville, we had our first select board meeting of August last night and it was very well attended by the public. The first order of business was a report from the historical society and their efforts to raise money for a grant match for renovations to the town hall. The historical society is very generously pledging to sell the building they currently own and house their museum in to provide, non-tax match money for a historic building grant. They are also accepting pledges and doing a go fund me site. This week we were notified that the Maine historic building grant application portal has been opened and will close on October 23rd. This grant is potentially $500,000.00, with the $125,000.00 match, if we can raise that, and we get the full $500,000.00, added to the $359,000.00 that we have in capital reserve for the project that would be $979,000.00, we are applying for additional grants that could push us over $1,000,000.00 by spring of 2027. If we can achieve this, we will have funds to complete the foundation and first floor requirements to move the town office back into the building and move the historical society into the space previously occupied by the library. That would instantly save $1,700.00 per month in rent we are paying for our current space. That would be offset by utilities and insurance but would still be a savings for what will be a much more useful space. It is likely there would be enough to still do a large portion of the work needed to restore the upper floors as well. Please follow the Sangerville Town Hall page on facebook.
In other business, some citizen concerns were brought to the board's attention about adequate fire equipment. Chairman Jeff Peters explained the town government's position that we feel it is best to fix the current tank truck if possible and get another 2-3 years' service from it and then purchase a replacement for it. We have one estimate that can return the truck to safe operating condition for approximately $10,000.00. We are currently looking for additional estimates from other mechanics.
I have advertised two requests for bids today. One is to remove the four large, mostly dead trees in front of the French's Mills cemetery. In light of the horrible tragedy in Corinth earlier this summer we want to insure we are addressing our most dangerous trees. The other bid request is for repairing the concrete culverts on the Silvers Mills Rd.
We will be closing the office for an extended lunch break on Monday August 10th, from 11:45 am until 1:30 PM. This will be so that we can all attend a ZOOM meeting on the historic community building grant. The meeting begins at noon, and we are welcoming members of the public to join us for this meeting. Also, next week we will be holding a meeting of the historical society and town hall committee to discuss the grant application next Wednesday evening the 12th at 6:00 PM at the fire station. Anyone interested is welcome to attend.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Brian

07/30/2026

Planning Board will be having a workshop tonigh July 30, 2026 at 6PM at the Fire Station to work on a comprehension plan. Workshop is open to the public.

07/24/2026

Good morning Sangerville, yesterday afternoon the Sangerville Fire Department responded to Center Pond for a propane grill fire in a driveway near a residence. Their quick and professional actions kept this fire from extending to the nearby structure. The latest on the fire department tank truck situation is that we are currently working on obtaining new repair estimates from multiple mechanics and we expect this process may take a few weeks.
Some of my more riveting time in the office the last several days has been spent researching engineering studies on the topic of roads. Specifically, I have spent a lot of time researching concrete culverts. We have three on the Silvers Mills Rd. that have developed problems. I understand that Sangerville spent a lot of tax money on these culverts with the theory they would last, potentially up to 80 years. They are only a few years old. I have had some people say that we should remove these culverts and replace them with galvanized steel culverts like we use in most other applications, however, all the research I have done leads me to believe repairing these concrete culverts is far superior to replacing them, I will be putting a bid package together to do this repair work next week.
Recently we have seen some increased interest in how the school district spends local tax dollars. In Sangerville approximately six out of every ten of your tax dollars paid are then paid by us to the local school district. They also collect taxes from Guilford, Abbot, Parkman, Cambridge and Wellington. They also receive funding from the state of Maine. They are an independent government body and although made up from the towns are not subordinate in any way to town government. They are governed by a board of eighteen elected school board representatives from the six towns in the district. The town of Sangerville has four school board members elected at the annual town meeting in March. Currently, Christian Rowell, Joshua York, Jesse Soden and Danielle Gray represent Sangerville. The superintendent of SAD 4 is Kelly MacFayden. SAD 4 maintains an excellent website that includes detailed copies of their budgets.
On behalf of our school district, I will say they are working hard to do the best job educating the children of our area to the best of their ability. In addition to doing their best to educate they are doing so with variable state funding and many unfunded or partially funded state mandates, a decreasing enrollment and the knowledge that the towns in their district cannot afford successive large property tax increases. They are also working with aging buildings and staffing shortages.
It is clear the future will probably require some significant long-term changes, and they are struggling to figure out what those changes will be. I am a big advocate of townspeople being informed and involved in town business. I feel the same holds true for the school system. I encourage people to learn and get involved. Their website in addition to budget information has contact information for all school board members and administrative staff as well as a schedule of school board meetings which as our meetings are, open to the public. So, if you have questions, ideas or just want to learn more about how they spend tax dollars, please, go to a meeting or talk to a school board member.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Brian

07/17/2026

Good afternoon Sangerville, the prompt Facebook uses are "what's on your mind". Property taxes seem to be the most common answer to that question in our world lately. Many citizens have expressed concern about the increase in property taxes over the last few years and this year in particular.
The message to you the citizens is that we hear you. I appreciate that the vast majority of citizens that have talked to me personally about the taxes have been polite, civil and direct. Honestly, I agree with you, as a taxpayer in Sangerville my family is affected by these tax increases as well. I am hearing as well as we are all feeling the other part of the equation is the rising cost of everything else at a rapid rate over the past few months.
We feel with twenty-five percent of our citizens living below the federal poverty line that we do need to act. The last thing the select board, or those of us who work for the town want to do is force anyone to give up their property due to unaffordable taxes.
This was discussed somewhat at length at the select board meeting this past Wednesday.
Our plan to address the fire truck situation is to repair the old tank truck, it may not be the best long-term option, and it is a risk putting money into a truck of that age, but it appears it will be the best current option for our budget. If we can repair it and get a few more years of service, that gives us time to build up our capital reserve account for the fire department so that when we need to buy a new truck in a few years, we are in a better position.
Last summer and late summer and fall of the year before we got a lot of our critical road work done. By critical I mean drainage or ditching. We also replaced several culverts. This reduced a lot of our mudholes that made spring roads impassable and eliminated the safety factor of bad culverts. We also did long overdue paving on the Line Rd. and Maple St.
This year we are still faced with a lot of necessary road work that we need and will do but at this time we have very little urgent work that needs to be done.
Our plan is to move a little slower and more cautiously with road spending the remainder of the year. We will be partially paving the Flanders Hill Rd. next month. By partially, I mean we will be paving the gravel section and putting a shim coat of pavement on the East end of the road and maybe partially on the west end, but we will need to finish the paving next year.
Our most urgent road needs this year and next year is the Silvers Mills Rd. We have three concrete culverts on the road which are relatively new but have developed problems. My research has shown that repairing these culverts if possible is better than replacing them. A local contractor has put me in touch with an engineer that I am hoping can advise us on the best way to do this. We also will be doing some ditching on the road between the Anderson Rd. and the Brockway Mills Rd. Depending on budget considerations we may mill and rebuild that same section of the road later this year. We also have some small projects to do on a few other roads before fall.
We will be holding all spending to what we need to do for the foreseeable future. The more we can carry forward at the end of this year means the less we will need next year.
We will do our part but we, as the town government, have no control over the school budget which is where 60% of your tax dollars are spent. To be fair to them, this year they gave us a budget that increased less than the rate of inflation. But I urge citizens to go to their meetings, learn where and how they are required to spend money and be part of the solution to their problems. SAD #4 has a great website with information on everything they are doing posted up to date.
On a more upbeat note, the Two Knights Festival and parade this year was awesome. We had great weather, a great crowd and Drew, Gary and the special events and beautification committee put on a phenomenal festival. We don't have the final figures yet, but we believe they will net around $4,000.00.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Brian

07/09/2026

Good morning Sangerville, I accepted the resignation of Matt Blockler as Fire Chief on Monday. This was a decision Matt made entirely on his own for personal reasons. Being fire chief is a tremendous amount of responsibility 24 hours a day, seven days a week without a break and a huge time commitment for very little pay. Matt is a very good firefighter and EMT and is planning to continue in those roles for the fire department.
I want to thank Matt for all his hard work and the great job he did leading the department and for the Town of Sangerville. He was successful in writing several grants for equipment, was very dedicated to maintaining the training of his crew and was instrumental in the fire department becoming a licensed EMS first responder service. His leadership will be missed.
Also, on Monday, I appointed Orman Gray, who was previously the assistant chief to interim chief. This was after meeting with Deputy Chief Travis Labree and other senior members of the fire department. I would like to publicly thank Orman for stepping up and taking on this responsibility for us.
In consultation with Orman and some of his senior people we decided that the fire department would modify their plans for the tank truck situation. As much as we all respect Matt's original plan and see the long-term value of it for the Town of Sangerville, we do not feel we can ask that taxpayers to make that degree of commitment at this time. For now, purchasing a new fire truck is off the table. Our plan is to get some new estimates on repairing the current truck. If we learn that we can bring that truck into safe operating condition, so that it will accept a commercial vehicle inspection sticker, for a reasonable price, we will make the repairs and return it to service. If we cannot, we will look into purchasing a used truck that will meet our needs.
Given the change in leadership and the change in truck plans at the fire department we have cancelled the public hearing for July 14th and postponed the open house until later this fall. We will discuss this further at the select board meeting on July 15th.
I hope everyone has had the chance to look at the town hall decorated for Independence Day and the Two Knights festival, we have bunting and banners on the hall itself but most importantly, a few volunteers with the majority of the project done by Drew Stone and Gary Peters have rebuilt the sign in front of the town hall and done a great job.
Our goal is to make this look less like an abandoned building and more like the renovation project that it is. Our town hall/historical committee team met again this week to continue planning fund raising and our public awareness campaign for our renovation project of the town hall. As a reminder, our goal is to raise all additional money to complete this project with no additional local tax dollars.
Finally, I want to remind everyone of our Two Knights Festival this weekend. Saturday July 11th at 9:00 am there will be a parade from the Village Cemetery, up Main St. to the Veterans Memorial Park. From 10:00 am until 4:00 PM there will be a festival at the park with bounce houses and activities for kids, music from the bandstand, food, vendors and a car show. Our Sangerville community special event and beautification committee has worked very hard on this project. Thanks, in particular to Drew and Gary. Also, thank you to all the businesses that have provided their support. I will plan to publish a list on a future post but for now I will just say please shop local whenever possible.
Have a great weekend everyone and hopefully we will see you at the festival Saturday.
Brian

07/02/2026

Good afternoon Sangerville, last night we had our first scheduled select board meeting for July. The big area of discussion was our firetruck situation. As I believe everyone is aware our tank truck which is close to thirty years old and has 400,000 miles on it failed commercial vehicle inspection and has been taken out of service. Our fire chief has done a lot of research on the purchase of new and used firetrucks and has presented a plan to purchase a new combination pumper-tanker that will replace the now out of service tanker and our reserve pumper. The advantage to this plan is that it gives us a new fire truck that will be the primary fire truck for the next twenty years and is perfectly designed to fit the needs of our community.
If we follow that plan, we will need to borrow money from our bank in a lease/purchase agreement that we can within a year, if the interest rate is better switch to the Maine bond bank. The total cost of the new truck is approximately $580,000.00. When financed we will be paying in the ballpark of $70,000.00 a year for ten years.
There are two other options to address the issue. One is to repair the current tank truck at a cost of $60,000.00+ with no guarantees how much extra life that will buy us. The other option is to try to buy a truck on the used firetruck market. This market moves very fast and used fire trucks that are 10-15 years old are still selling for $200,000.00 to $300,000.00.
On Tuesday July 14, we will be having a public hearing combined with an open house at Sangerville Fire. The open house will be from 5:00 PM until 8:00 PM with a public hearing at 6:00 PM. All three options will be presented to the public and they will be able to ask questions. This is a great opportunity to learn about not just this current situation but about the fire department in general and meet some of the members.
Sometime following the public hearing, we will likely hold a special town meeting to have the voters directly decide on one of the three options.
A valuable part of the discussion that I need to share is that the select board and I are very committed to do our best to hold the taxes to less than the rate of inflation next year. If we are forced to increase valuations by the state again next year, we will try to reduce the mil rate to hold total property taxes as close as possible next year to what they are this year.
The other topics of discussion were the upcoming Two Knights Festival on July 11th, and the public beach area at Veterans Memorial Park.
This will be the biggest festival yet with a parade at 9:00 am parade from the village cemetery down main st. to the Veterans Memorial Park, and then there will be a community festival at the park from 10:00 am until 4:00 PM. As part of the festival Friends of Sangerville Fire will be doing food, Two Knights Brewing will have a tent set up, there will be a car show, vendors, music from the bandstand and bounce houses and touch a truck for kids. Our committee has worked very hard to put this together, please drop by and support them and celebrate with our community.
Some residents have asked that we put some attention toward the town beach. Lance Johnson the code enforcement officer and I looked things over this morning because first and foremost, in whatever we do, we need to observe our own shoreland zoning ordinance. We determined that we could clear a lot of brush around the beach area. I will be talking with the Parks and Recreation Committee about this in the near future. Hopefully, with very little money and some volunteer work we can improve our beach area significantly by the end of summer.
The office will be closed tomorrow to celebrate Independence Day, I would like to wish everyone a safe and enjoyable weekend and happy birthday USA, 250 years.
Brian

06/30/2026

06/26/2026

Good afternoon Sangerville, our special town meeting last night was attended by 72 registered voters from Sangerville and approximately a dozen guests from other towns. The moratorium on new commercial cannabis licenses in Sangerville for 180 days was the sole article up for debate. It was moved, seconded and there was a brief, civil and positive discussion centering on the purpose of the moratorium, which is to stop escalation of these businesses in Sangerville until an ordinance to regulate them can be passed by the voters. A vote was taken and the article passed unanimously. This means that the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy will not be issuing new licenses or expansion of existing licenses to grow cannabis in Sangerville between now and December 25th.
If that proves to not be enough time to develop and pass an ordinance the select board has the option to extend the moratorium for another 180 days with a simple majority vote of the board.
Last month the select board appointed an ad hoc committee to develop an ordinance. The committee will have their first meeting Tuesday June 30, at 6:00 PM at the fire station. These proceedings are open to the public, minutes will be kept and made available to the public.
I would like to say it was true pleasure to watch democracy in action with the moratorium process. I have never seen 72 people show up to a special town meeting. It is a testament to the people of Sangerville that our local government works the way it was designed.
Next week work will begin on the Flanders Hill Rd. to prepare it for paving. This work will consist of culvert replacement, some ditching, and the removal of a large boulder. I met with the contractor today and he feels he can complete the work without closing the road. That being said, if you can avoid traveling on the East end of the Flanders Hill Rd. early next week, please do so. Most of the work will be done on the section of the road by the Cleaves Farm. After this work is completed, we will be doing some ditching, culvert and gravel work on the Thomas Rd.
There will be a regularly scheduled select board meeting Wednesday night at 6:00 PM at the fire station. The town office will be closed on Friday to celebrate Independence Day.
The select board, Michelle and I will be meeting this afternoon with our assessor's agent to set the mil rate for 2026. Tax bills will go out next week. To be eligible to receive the 2% discount for early payment, we must receive payment in full by close of business, 5:00 PM, Friday July 31st. Please remember the surcharge for paying with a card will erase any advantage of the early payment, not something we have any control over.
Another reminder for the annual Two Knights Festival. It will be two weeks from tomorrow, Saturday July 11th from 10:00 am until 4:00 PM at Veterans Memorial Park. I have spent a lot of time with the organizers of this event this past week and they have put a tremendous amount of work into organizing this festival. It will be a great day of family activity.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Brian