Falmouth council backs CMP review pause, letter to utility

[0:01] Chair (Councilor Huck): All right. Good evening, everyone. Great to have you all here. So we are going to welcome to tonight's town council meeting. We are going to start with a roll call. So Julie, if you'll [0:12] Councilor Vance: do a roll call for us, please. Thank you. Councilor Diaz. Here. Councilor Tracy. Here. [0:18] Councilor Mahoney: Councilor Mahoney. Here. Councilor Sharp. Here. Councilor Morton. Here. Councilor Hogg. Here. [0:23] Chair (Councilor Huck): Councilor Vance. Here. Thank you. That's everyone. Thank you. We'll now do the Pledge of Allegiance. [0:28] Councilor Mahoney: Okay. [0:51] Chair (Councilor Huck): So we are going to start off with a public comment period. And I know we have a number of residents here who are here to speak about the developing CMP project. What I would like to ask is anyone maybe first who is not speaking to that specific issue have an opportunity to speak first, and then we'll go into the CMP after. So if anyone would like to speak, again, this is an opportunity for members of the public to address the council on matters which are not scheduled for public comment this evening, and in this case, also specifically not, the CMP, just to start. [1:24] Ash Oberholzer: So, welcome. Good evening, Chair, members of the council, and town officials. My name is Ash Oberholzer. I live at 30 Johnson Road here in Falmouth. I'm here tonight to raise concerns about speeding and overall traffic safety on Johnson Road, specifically between Route 1 and Route 88. Johnson Road is a residential roadway with a 25 mile per hour speed limit and serves as an important route to Route 88 and Town Landing. The road experiences significant pedestrian, bicycle, neighborhood, and recreational traffic including families and children traveling to and from the waterfront. Last week I shared a petition signed by more than 50 Falmouth residents asking the town to take action to improve safety and address the ongoing speeding concerns on Johnson Road. The response to this effort demonstrates that this is not an isolated concern. In fact, we now have 90 signatures from residents and community stakeholders who want to see improvements. It matters to many people who live in, walk, bike, and travel through this area. The town collected speed data on Johnson Road and installed speed feedback signs several years ago, which I certainly applaud. As the town takes another look at the issue, I'd like to highlight three things from my previous review of the data. First, the upper violator threshold appears to be set at 35 miles per hour on the data set. That is 10 miles per hour or 40 percent above the posted 25 mile per hour speed limit. I think that is important context when interpreting the data on a residential road. Second, I would encourage the town to look closely at the actual number of vehicles exceeding 35 miles per hour, not simply the percentage. Johnson Road carries significant traffic volume, so even a relatively small percentage can translate into hundreds of vehicles each day traveling above that 35 mile per hour threshold. Third, seasonality matters. Summer brings increased traffic and more visitors traveling to and from town landing in Route 88. A traffic study conducted outside of the summer months may not capture the full extent of the issue that the residents are certainly feeling. This concern is more about numbers on than on a traffic study. Johnson Road is a residential street. People live there. They walk their dogs, they ride their bikes, family and children use the road to access town landing parks, trails, and local establishments. When vehicles routinely travel above the posted speed limit, it creates an environment that simply does not feel as safe as it should. Enforcement is also part of the concern. In 2025 there were only three recorded traffic enforcement details on Johnson Road resulting in 18 traffic stops. Despite the speeding concerns along this corridor, we would like to see more routine and visible enforcement as part of the town's response. Most importantly, Johnson Road is scheduled to be paved in 2027 and that gives the town a unique opportunity. Rather than repaving the road as it exists today and trying to address these concerns afterwards we're asking the town to consider traffic calming and safety improvements now while the project is being planned. I'm not here tonight claiming to know exactly what the engineering solution should be or what traffic calming measures should be installed. The reason I'm here is to raise awareness while the project is being planned. So tonight on behalf of 90 community stakeholders who signed this petition, I'm asking the town council to make traffic safety a part of the Johnson Road paving project From the beginning, coordinate that work with the 2027 repaving project and give residents an opportunity to participate before its plans are finalized. I appreciate the council and town staff taking time to review the petition and take these concerns seriously. We look forward to continuing the conversation, working collaboratively towards practical solutions that make Johnson Road safer for everyone who lives, walks, bikes and travel along it. In closing, I received a few comments I'd like to share from residents about this issue. We find it dangerous to exit our driveway since we live along the curvature on Lower Johnson Road and cannot see fast approaching vehicles which are clearly above 25 miles per hour. I am 15. Me and my sister frequently biked a town-leaning market and there has been multiple times where cars did not slow down when passing us and it has really scared us. If this petition helps that, I will gladly share with everyone I know. It's frustrating seeing cars go past my house at high rates of speed. I worry about the kids in the neighborhood. Thank you for the attention to this issue. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. [6:03] Chair (Councilor Huck): And is there anyone else who is present who would like to step to the podium and just introduce yourself, your address, something again? This, we're starting off non-cmp. Thank you. Hi, this is Peter. [6:13] McCormick: McCormick. I live on Woodwood Lane which is off Harriet Street which is off Johnson Road. I moved there about 17 years ago and back then it was a pleasure to walk with my young children up to town landing market, maybe to get down to the landing itself, enjoy the beach. But times have really changed over the years. I frequently walk on Johnson Road now with my dog and I can't tell you how scared I am at the speed with which traffic goes up and down Johnson Road. I am, I'm fearful of even walking my dog. In the sidewalk now, it is that bad. In addition to the speeding traffic, I frequently see 18 wheelers, heavy equipment, construction equipment transported up and down Johnson Road. In my mind it has no business being on that narrow road. One thing that'll certainly make your hearts stand still as if you're walking up or down Johnson Road and you watch children trying to cause cross from Shady Lane over to Arbor side. Yes, this is, there's a crosswalk there, but again it's on both sides, it's coming around. A blind curve, it is really hard for, it's really dangerous for many people. I don't have as eloquently prepared remarks as this gentleman does, but I have for sure noticed a terrible increase in the speed of the traffic, and I second his urging of integrating traffic calming measures into this project on the front end rather than the rear on the after the project has been done. Portland, Main, off Ocean Avenue, there's some neighborhoods there that were beset with like Johnson Road, a cut through street and they have incorporated some aggressive traffic calming measures there which have really helped. The intersection of Johnson Road and Route One is incredibly dangerous. When I walk out of Harriet Street and go down, I'm walking along just the dirt side of the road and I'm taking my life in my hands when I try and cross Route One. It's, it's the traffic and the speed of it's just terrible. I really hope that the council incorporates some traffic calming measures into this project for the safety of all residents that live in that area. In addition, we've got Route One north and now that I believe the zoning has been changed there, which is allowing more businesses, that's going to increase traffic. We have new housing being built, the public safety building in that area, again another 40 or 50 residents units, and Johnson Road is the premier cut-through road, and I know we're here to just talk about Route 88 down to Route 1, but the other end from Middle Road down to Route One is just as dangerous cars speed. They fix the bridge for better for worse. I have to be incredibly cautious when I'm leaving Harriet Street and make sure that there's no cars speeding up over the hill, which has surprised me many times. So thank you for considering the safety of the neighborhood and its residences when you do the Johnson Road repaving project. [9:56] Chair (Councilor Huck): Thank you. Thank you. Would anyone else like to come to the podium and speak? [10:04] Rachel: I'll just add real quick. I'm Rachel, and I live across Johnson on Stormy Brook. We've lived there for about five years, and just since we've lived there, we've personally witnessed at least five accidents at Johnson and Middle. We have four young children and we do not walk on Johnson because it's super dangerous and it's a blind corner there and we regularly see broken glass and mirrors and things on the ground there. So I just want to add that we would love for something to be addressed at that section as well. Thanks. [10:50] Stephanie Anderson: Good evening. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Stephanie Anderson. I'm not here to talk about Johnson Road or CMP. I live in the town of Cape Elizabeth, and I am on my town council, but I'm not here in that capacity. I'm here because I'm running for district attorney, and I want to make the case to you tonight that the race for district attorney may be the most consequential race on this year's ballot. I was your DA for 28 years. Probably some of you know me, hopefully in the best sense. And now after an eight-year hiatus, I retired happily. I'm coming back. I am unenrolled. I'm I'm not with any particular party. You know, I've talked to a lot of people, and a lot of people really don't know what the DA does. And, you know, my mother always thought that the DA got bad guys. And the DA does do that, but the DA is so much more. The district attorney is the chief administrator of justice in the county. And as such, it affects the vitality and the character of every community in Cumberland County. Who serves as your DA matters as to whether or not your mothers feel comfortable allowing their children to walk to school or ride their bikes or go to the market or go into Portland for a Seadogs game. It matters to them. It matters to your small business owners, and I know you have those. It matters. It affects whether or not they're going to hire a new employee or they have to reduce their hours or maybe even close their doors. And it matters to your employees. It matters to all your employees because economic security and public safety are absolutely intertwined and you cannot have one without the other. If you have police officers, and I know you do, it affects their morale, because police officers deserve to know that when they do their job properly, the district attorney will do hers. When the justice system isn't working, the costs show up in your communities, in police and emergency services, businesses that don't open, jobs that aren't created, and ultimately in a loss of public trust. I wasn't looking to come back. I retired happily, but the reason why I'm coming back is because people in every intersection point in the criminal justice system have asked me to do it. And I'm talking about not just police officers and not just other prosecutors, but defense attorneys, defendants, victims, and victim advocates. So that's why I'm coming back, because I really care. I put 28 years into the criminal justice system, and I left a legacy I was proud of, and now I want to come back and restore that legacy. I know what a well-run DA's office looks like. I've done it. I did it. It can be compassionate and fair while still holding people accountable. It can treat victims with dignity, work with law enforcement, use resources wisely, and make public safety a priority. Accountability and compassion are not opposites. We need both. This is why I've come out of retirement. This is why this race matters, and that's why I'm running. So I'm asking you as town councillors and the audience here, you got to be, I'm shocked at the size of this audience, but them and everyone that might be listening to this to pay attention to this race. It matters to everything that you do. Thank you very much for allowing me to speak. Thank you. Okay. [14:51] Chair (Councilor Huck): Yeah, we don't do any applause for public comment, just to let you know. Thank you. [15:02] John Winslow: John Winslow, 253 Gray Road. Before you start the clock, I find it very inappropriate that this podium for public comment is being used for a soapbox to promote a campaign. I don't believe that this is what this podium for public comment stands for. It stands for residents of the town of Falmouth to come up and speak on items that are not on the agenda. I find that totally out of line, and I will never vote for you. [15:40] Jamie Batista: Let's get to public comments. [15:41] John Winslow: All right. Now you can start the clock. John Winslow, 253 Gary Road. Property tax relief. I got some info here to think about while developing the new town and school budgets. Credit card debt now over 1.26 trillion dollars and will surpass covid times in the near future. 30-year mortgage now actually was like over 7.5 percent when I checked and I left tonight. Heating oil, $5.50 plus a gallon. Cost of living. Here's the one that I was really an eye-opener. Cost of living in Maine is 8% to 15% higher than the national average. The reason why I'm shedding light on this is from Councilor Hack's response to me in an email dated the 29th of August. My read on his email is quite simple. The cost of the public works renovation is well over what the residents of Falmouth voted on, taking in consideration the interest on the approved bond. A spending freeze is in order on all non-essential expenditures, new hires, including schools, given the current economic climate. We are heading, and we are in it right now, uncharted waters. You know, my wife runs her own company in the financial industry. I'm up half an hour before the market opens and half an hour before the market closes. I'm right involved into what's going on. Property tax relief begins in this room. There are going to be a lot of people in this town, whether you realize it or not, I realize it, I'll be giving my volunteer what I do and write checks and all that. I'm going to be at the Wayside Food Pantry. I'm going to be at the Fowler Food Pantry and their community service, their dinner, and giving them checks in my capacity. The next item, I've been checking around the surrounding towns on when they performed their last revaluation. All were done in the past year in the past 365 days in Falmouth this town over 166 single-family homes have been sold and closed on this is solid data to have an independent review performed by government solutions to compare assess values to actual sales since they manage the town's property records the surrounding towns that I have looked at also have a lower mill rate than Falmouth every year what I've listened to in the budget presentation we have the lowest mill rate we aren't even close To surrounding towns okay so I don't want to hear that again let's not wait 14 years like Falmouth did before and be in the same boat as Brunswick and Lewiston along with many other towns, with a drastic increase in property values. Portland now mandates one is performed every five years. Families should adopt that policy, because values change that rapidly. And what it does, it levels the playing field, and it's at a much less cost to do it every five years than doing the town-wide, door-to-door inspection, revaluation, and all that. There's a lot of states that do it every year, but not Falmouth. What really caught my eye on this email was the bond rates are higher than what was projected when the referendum passed. Is that an open checkbook to the taxpayers? Taxpayers so if the bond rate interest is going from 3.75 to I think today it was 4.6 [20:08] Chair (Councilor Huck): All right we're at we're at time thank you anyone else who would like to speak oh everyone gets [20:18] Rachel: Just one up, just one opportunity. Sorry, I didn't realize it was, I thought I was trying to keep it on topic with the Johnson Road, which is not why I was here tonight. Oh, okay. Yeah, it's just we try [20:29] Chair (Councilor Huck): to give everyone one opportunity to speak. Yeah, can I just say something real quick then it can be off the record? Well, yeah, we just try to keep it equitable to all people. I didn't prepare something. Yeah, okay. Yeah, if someone else would like to speak on your behalf, we could figure that out. Okay, does anyone else have any think? Yes, come on up, use yourself. Thank you [20:52] Bob Klein: Bob Klein, Seaside Way. Thank you for hearing from everyone tonight, I appreciate it. My focus, as no surprise, is on the pesticide ordinance. Some of you have suggested I find other interests. But I want to suggest that there's an ongoing responsibility of the town, council specifically, to monitor the application of an ordinance which adds a third level of regulation to an area that's already been regulated. I think we all agree that a law such as this, regulatory, should put people on notice as to what's permitted and what is not allowed. And as we recognize, and I think I was in on the debate and even made some observations at the time, there's no provision under our ordinance that allows for any exceptions. So it came as a surprise to me within the last month or so that I find that exceptions to the pesticide ordinance are being allowed. And then as I drill down, and by the way, Amanda has been very helpful, highly organized, diligent, and forthcoming with information that I've relied on and presented to you tonight in the handout, I find that not only are exceptions allowed, but one person is making the decision on exceptions. And that person is not a town councillor, not a code enforcement officer. He's a consultant. And his name is Jesse O'Brien. So those were surprising. I have illustrated this with three different exemplar requests that were submitted. And I've given you all the backup on that so you can read it. And I'm not going to repeat what's in writing. Let me summarize. The first one is storm drains. The ordinance says that you cannot apply a pesticide or a fertilizer within 20 feet of a storm drain. But there's an exception, apparently, which is if you cover it or you ask if I can cover it, and I don't know how that works with municipal because that's the only storm drains that are recognized under the statute. I can cover it and be accepted from the application of whatever the wisdom was behind that regulation that said you can't put things down that may leach into groundwater through a storm drain. Second one is grub control, as you know, was a hotly debated topic, and Acelepryn was allowed to be applied as a prophylactic, meaning a preventive for grubs before they emerge or attack a lawn. On. Great. Grub control sort of has an off-label use, and that request was made, which is, can I use it for treating emerald ash borer? And the answer to that one was, yes, you can, because emerald ash borer is a protected, is actually an insect which is an invasive and allowed to be addressed. The third one, by contrast, is, geez, it's a shame to lose our Dutch elm. And this particular applicator apparently had two different inquiries, this I think was in the June timeframe, saying, can you treat my Dutch elm with a prophylactic similar to some of the prophylactics we've talked about, which are systemic, injected, applied to the tree only, lasts for two years, give very good protection? And this is what your consultant wrote in response to that. The answer was no. And the answer was no because Dutch elm is not listed, Dutch elm disease is not listed it as an invasive, but the consultant wrote, some trees, and the American elm is one of them, can be very emotional to some people. Some communities in Maine will name and honor specimen American elms and provide closed treatment to keep these certain trees healthy. Perhaps this being a unique situation, the Conservation Commission or others should be made aware of it and further discuss it. So what I've suggested, and I suggested this to the Ordinance Committee at the September 9th meeting was that we have six months now, as to the end of this month, under our belt, a full season of watching how the ordinance has been applied. And I'm not advocating anything specific, but I can suggest to you that we've probably identified at least four areas in which some refinement may be in order. First one, as we've talked about this before, hemlock woody adelgid next to a water course. There's no provision for it, and we're condemning those trees to death if they can't be treated. Second, manufacturer's instructions are specified to be followed and observed when applying a fertilizer product in the town of Falmouth, and yet there's no product consistent with the only two applications per season. Third, unlike other municipalities that have exception procedures in the ordinance, which is where it has to be. I mean, you can't expect me to know that there's an exception provision if you didn't include it for me to read it. Exception procedure should be addressed in some form or fashion. And forth, there should be some consideration of prophylactic treatment to preserve Dutch elm, preserve elm against Dutch elm disease. So thank you for sort of taking that up. I think this is not a hot-button issue, but I think it's one which, you know, given the tincture of time as can be applied and with your leadership. Thank you very much. Thank you. Good. [26:07] Aaron Stark: Evening. No? You're good. Aaron Stark, Chandler Drive in Falmouth. Here with my sister, Rachel, who spoke briefly before. Rachel and her husband live at 16 Chandler. They have four young children. They're both health care professionals. And we're all very concerned about the proposal or plan to upgrade the power lines that run past the Falmouth schools. And then. [26:37] Chair (Councilor Huck): And pass their neighborhood. Is this about the CMP project? Is that with the power line? Yeah, I think we're just going to thank you for, is that actually on the agenda? Well, no, it's not on the agenda, but we're just kind of getting through everyone's comments that are not about that project first, so that we give an opportunity to kind of focus on that. So if you'll just maybe just, thank you, I have an opportunity. Yeah, you'll have an opportunity. Yes, yeah, don't worry. Yeah, you're, no, don't worry, you're. In good shape. I just want to make sure, is there anyone here first who would like to speak but not about the CMP project? Yeah, okay, then not here. I would like to then ask if there is anyone who's attending remotely who would like to speak about something other than the CMP project. If you would, if you just raise your hand and give it one moment. Not seen any hands raised, so let's go back, let's go back to where we were, and we will now open the door anyone who would like to speak about the CMP. [27:48] Jamie Batista: Project thank you thank you my name is Jamie Batista I live at 26 Stonecrest Drive in Falmouth I and many of my fellow residents here are appearing on behalf of the Alliance for Responsible Infrastructure regarding the matter of CMP's proposed transmission line upgrades currently before the Public Utilities Commission. Time is running short for us to meaningfully impact the outcomes of this case. We're here to help the council understand what CMP's proposal means for Falmouth and spur action on behalf of our community. To introduce ARI, we are a group of volunteer landowners, parents, and neighbors from Falmouth and surrounding towns. Tonight we're here to talk about Falmouth, the town that stands to lose the most from this project. ARI is racing to create awareness of CMP's proposal among impacted landowners and community members. In one of CMP's many missteps, it has failed in its responsibility to inform the public of the proposed overhaul. At our last count on our poll, less than 10 percent of respondents were made aware of this project through CMP. This sample skews mostly towards impacted landowners. The rest were made aware through our campaign and the subsequent word of mouth that it has created. For the sake of clarity on what CMP is proposing, it plans to move and replace the existing 34.5 kV line with industrial metal poles and add a second 115 kV high-voltage line on 80 to 110 steel monopoles that will reach above the tallest trees in our neighborhoods. This requires clear-cutting along the full right-of-way, 130 to 150 feet. It also requires the removing of overhanging trees throughout our town. This means five years of construction, deforestation, and aggressive use of herbicides to manage growth in many places next to homes where children play and through our school campus. The impact on Falmouth will be sprawling and permanently scar its landscape. At least 340 Falmouth homes and many acres of communal spaces will be directly and adversely impacted. acted. For each of those homes, this means fundamental change in the utility of their land and the look and feel of their neighborhoods. There are real implications of this project for residents along where the line cuts in from the 295 corridor as it crosses into Falmouth and runs east along Johnson, Middle, and Longwoods Roads, through the Woods Road community and Forest Hiking Area, past the Woodlands and its residential community, through the school campus, before turning south, then east through McCran, McLaughlin, Riverpoint, Presumptscott, and other land trust-preserved areas. Then through Stapleford Falls, where I live, and out past Pleasant Hill Woods and communities along Ledgewood, Charlotte, and Country Lane. CMP claims it helps improve reliability and power flow for 200,000 ratepayers in the greater Portland area. This is deeply misleading. Leading. It will have little to no impact on Falmouth's reliability or power supply or that of other neighboring towns. It benefits Portland almost exclusively. Furthermore, our technical experts review of CMP's methodology points to significant over forecasting of demand. In fact, we formally asked that the commission settle the forecast question before anything else moves forward in this case, and earlier today the Office of the Public Advocate filed in support of that request, showing this issue deserves greater scrutiny. Proving a lower threshold of need opens the door to better and less destructive solutions for our region. We're confident the record will bear this out on October 23rd. CMP claims it will help improve reliability and power flow, sorry that's That's a typo. I'm going to skate right on. To be clear, we are not against electrification, and we are not against CMP investing to support the continued development of Portland. But it should do so in a sustainable and responsible way that is consistent with the ethos of Maine and that of our community. The natural wonder of this place is a central part of that identity. Put simply, we gain almost nothing from this project and it risks compromising part of what makes our community special and worth living in. Thank you for your consideration. My colleague Aaron will continue the journey. Thank you all. [32:46] Aaron Becker: Right, with that introduction, hello council, my name is Aaron Becker, I live at 10 Charlotte Drive in Falmouth, and I too am speaking here on behalf of the Alliance for Responsible Infrastructure. So next, we will talk about the asymmetrical cost that our community will bear by CMP's proposed transmission line upgrades. Beyond the environmental impact, we are working to document the true impact beyond CMP's proposal. CMP is falsely claiming it anticipates no diminishment in property values. This is categorically false. There is ample evidence locally, regionally, and nationally that proximity to the types of lines proposed by CMP lead to property value destruction. To say otherwise is truly disingenuous of CMP. Perhaps the best corollary comes from the New Hampshire Northern Pass case where comparable construction risked property value destruction not just for the abutters of the area but for anyone visually impaired by the corridor. Destruction in value reached 34% for the most acutely affected landowners and full sourcing of where we got this information is available on stop the cmp line.com or at the council's request to us we have identified 340 homes in falmouth that match this criteria and they are within 500 feet of the line and will almost certainly be visually impaired by the new high voltage infrastructure to give you a sense of scale based on the current an average property value in Falmouth. Just one percent of value destruction equals three to four million across the whole town. These losses get very big, very, fast. In less than three weeks, we've received dozens of messages from impacted landowners describing how this project risks the utility, privacy, aesthetics, and value of their property. Furthermore, after reviewing easements provided by members of our community, at least two properties along Stapleford Drive, which I'll use as a representative example, would sit right at the edge of the new lines clearance zone. We're asking the town to push CMP to confirm on the record whether construction stays with the existing easement or requires adding or acquiring additional rights through eminent domain. In addition to impacts on private property, this proposal puts the value and utility of our public spaces at risk. The proposed line runs directly through the Merrill property, which is the site Falmouth has identified for its future middle school, threatening to constrain the very plans that the town has for that land. We brought this to Superintendent Nolan, who shares our concern that this would indeed be a bad outcome for the town. Tonight we're formally asking that the town take a more assertive role in protecting the rights of individual landowners, our public spaces, and our environment by formally opposing CMP's proposal as it currently stands. The Town has signalled an openness to this position, but we need to accelerate our response. The deadline for submission of written testimony in the Public Utility Commission docket number 2025-00276 is October 23rd, which is very soon. We ask the Council to consider the following actions. Adoption of a local setback ordinance of 300 feet above ground, 50 feet underground for high-voltage transmission lines. Next, ask that CMP consider alternative transmission technologies or routing through alternative corridors to reduce impacts on Falmouth and our neighboring towns. And finally, share the town assessor's impact assessment findings and use them to inform testimony before the 23rd of October. Our final ask is that you allow for public participation in these steps. The next council meeting occurs after the October 23rd deadline. Whether through a special council meeting or closer engagement with us, we hope the town will partner with Alliance for Responsible Infrastructure directly on this matter. So to conclude, we asked the council to consider what is at stake here. The proposal as it exists now diminishes our private property, our public spaces, and our conserved lands while providing us no material benefit. Benefit, this is an unacceptable outcome that we hope you will fight with us on. Thank you for your attention and we really look forward to your responses. Thank you all. [37:17] Anya Peterson: Right, my turn. I'm Anya Peterson. I'm here on behalf of my family. My husband Joseph is home with our kids who are in first and third grade at Falmouth Elementary. Our address is 10 Stapleford. If you know the Stapleford Falls neighborhood, you might know that as soon as you turn off Alan, there's a long stretch of forest along Stapleford. That's our land. That would be clear cut. That whole stretch along Stapleford would be clear cut, treated with herbicide to prevent tree regrowth, have towers added above the tree line, and have this new high voltage, which is more than the neighborhood has ever seen, power line running through it for this transmission corridor into Portland. Heartland. I first became involved in this case back in December, so I actually saw an email from the town about the CMP open house, and I did attend it. I received it the night before. I went to the open house. Very few people were there. I had to piece together the story by talking to multiple people from CMP. The tone from CMP was very much, this is happening. We are just here to make you more comfortable with it. I was looking back at photos, like a photo of the poster, for example, and it says new high-volt, new 115KV infrastructure. It doesn't say proposed new infrastructure, right? And then C&P did bring an affiliated realtor who told me, look, I can't tell you anything official, but typically infrastructure build-outs are already priced into real estate via the existing right-of-way, which I think we can agree is pretty ludicrous in this case where you're talking about this scale of build-out. And so I was pretty shocked there. So since then, I've been intervening in the case. We've been talking to the town council. My husband and I have been talking to interveners from other communities, as well as our own engineering network locally. And like other stakeholders, like the Office of the Public Advocate, we host an event in August that really kind of kicked off a lot of this momentum around ARI, and we're seeing a lot of traction, a lot of grassroots effort as awareness spreads. But I would say there's a few themes throughout this engagement. One is lack of awareness, followed by disbelief, like can it really happen at this scale, and why would I not already know that, which is quite a reasonable question to ask. And the other is disempowerment right so this sense that this cmp is too big that you know this process is already rolling forward what can i personally do i would gently extend that to the original stance by the town in this too where i'm hearing like the town's role is to facilitate information getting to the community but this is not an active cmp construction project this is a massive infrastructure build-out plan that is before the PUC, who needs to weigh the pre-concept engineering and Costs against the impact to communities and rate payers, right? The whole base of main electric rate payers pays for this upgrade. So I do believe, like, we have a lot of momentum. There's a lot of leverage in this case, and the opportunity to be organized and advocate for our communities is very important right now. I do believe we can make a difference in the outcomes of this case based on how we advocate for ourselves, and I hope that we can because my family loves Falmouth. We love the school system. We love our neighbors. We love of the local businesses. We have been making all our plans with this vision that we are growing old in this home. Our kids should have the opportunity to inherit it later if that's where they want to live. That is the vision that we've been working towards, and is not compatible with just with acres of clear cutting right just in our neighborhood and treatment with herbicides sides where kids are running around like exploring the forest with our kids waiting for the school bus directly under the high voltage lines coming and going across lines. The bus is running, you know, through all this new infrastructure that does carry risk. So yeah, I think that's pretty much what I have to say. I appreciate all the engagement over the months from the town and for my community. I have 30 extra seconds, so I'm giving a big ending speech. But no, I appreciate all the ongoing engagement. I hope that we can really work this out. The momentum feels like it's turning in this case. And yeah, thank you for this time. Thank you. One [42:12] Public commenter (Three Payer Circle resident): more. Thank you. More than one. Many. Many. All right. I'll [42:21] Peter Passetti: try not to take all five minutes. Hi, I'm Peter Passetti, and I live at 32 Stapleford Drive. I've been a resident here for about 30 years. This is the first time I've had occasion to come before this group. My personal experience with this is that I live right in the corner of where the power lines are going to come and then turn towards Portland. And as a result, I have about an acre and three-quarters of land, but a fully third of that is under easement. So this runs across the majority of or almost the majority of my land. The easement currently runs within 25 feet of my garage, so obviously I'd be pretty concerned if something happens here. At this point there is a buffer and the trees are there, but they're within the easement, and trying to recreate that outside the easement would be virtually impossible. Additionally, as mentioned before, the road was designed and runs in a way in which cutting the easement and buffer would expose the wires that already exist. I'd like to go back a little bit in history and say, you know, how did this all come to be? Basically, back in 1954, easements were granted along the corridor where these wires run. At the time, it was a very rural community, and language was there to support low-voltage wires. Not very specifically, but it certainly was in the spirit of what was going on. Now they are proposing a very high-voltage wire over the land, which actually was just given an easement. It wasn't like they bought the land, so it's still technically my land, and whoever did this was paid a dollar, just to give you an idea of how much value they put on that. The endpoint here is East Deering, and it was a developing neighborhood at the time, and they had enough foresight that 70 years later, that area has now been fully developed, and this service has fully served that area. These transmission lines are actually not to serve the steering area, they're to serve other parts of Portland. So they're using a right-of-way they acquired for this purpose to increase the voltage through it. As you've heard, this is probably way over what they need, at least for that station and maybe even for the whole project. But I guess the point that struck me was in 1965 is when I believe we had the first zoning in the town. So after a while, people realized you needed to control who was doing what on neighbor's properties. And I don't know, you know, I'm starting to look into it, but I'm not a zoning expert. So trying to understand how does that compare to what we're talking about here? So I guess in my history of zoning, as I understand it, people said, look, we can't have all sorts of different uses next to each other. We need to organize and have the neighborhoods organized towards, you know, one use that protects the neighbors, makes, you know, a nice environment for everyone. So I'm not really sure that, I mean, in our neighborhood, I believe all the land is zoned as residential, including my property. property. So I'm not sure why a business like C&P now has a right to just come in and do whatever they want to do, including building towers that I'm sure if I came to you and said I want to build a 110-foot tower that you probably would not be appreciative of that at least, and I'd probably have a hard time doing it. Not only from the perspective I could compensate, you know, we've talked some values here, but really we're not looking for compensation for value loss. We're looking to not disturb our neighborhood i've enjoyed the 30 years i've spent here and i really don't intend to move and i don't intend to be forced to move because somebody comes in and says i want to build a major structure next to you know for all i know they have to have a red light on top of them to prevent planes crashing and stuff but i you know i just don't think it's right so i guess my request to the to the council is to think about this from the perspective of we have a lot of laws and other things in place to try to protect neighborhoods, keep people in the same spirit and the same idea of what they have today. And this seems to me to be a major violation, and I'm frankly not quite sure why anybody, whether it be CMP or our zoning commission, isn't saying, what are you doing here? You're basically violating the kind of rules that we've set up to try to preserve this. So that's what I would ask is, you know, I don't really know how to do that. Or, you know, we certainly are working with some attorneys and some others to try to figure out how to bring this to you. But that's time. That was what I'd like to do. [47:34] Fletcher: Hi. My name is Fletcher. I live at 14 Chandler Drive. I just wanted to bring up something. I didn't learn about this being a potential issue until earlier today. I'm an oncologist. I know there's ongoing study into whether or not high-voltage lines are linked to cancers, herbicides, pesticides linked to cancer, as well as high-voltage lines linked to Alzheimer's. And so I would ask that you look into this before you put lines that run by schools with children. If one kid gets cancer and there's any link that it's to this, that would be a tragedy. [48:13] Councilor Mahoney: Hi, my name is Gwen Ellen O'Donnell. I live at Three Pair Circle in Falmouth. I see a lot of my wonderful neighbors here. I learned about CMP's project kind of by accident about a week ago Sunday. I just happened to sit next to somebody at church who had talked to one of our neighbors, who had happened to talk to one of our neighbors who learned about it, and she told me about it, and then I learned about the Alliance for Responsible Infrastructure. So anybody that tells you that CMP has done a thorough job of informing the Falmouth community is lying to you, completely lying to you. My property abuts the line. I am going to be directly impacted by this. We have about three acres of land and at least half of it will be destroyed. Not to mention, as my neighbor has described, the entire neighborhood along Longstaple Ford will be destroyed. And personally, for my family, we chose this neighborhood because of the wooded nature of it, because it's beautiful. It's quintessential Maine, right? It's why we all live in Maine, for the natural beauty. And this project will destroy that beauty. I have three kids. They grew up on our property, basically picking the wild blueberries, wild raspberries. We built an orchard along our property that will all be destroyed. We also love the natural wildlife that we see all the time. We see turkeys, we've got turkeys roosting in the trees. We see deer all the time. Occasionally I saw a coyote once. I'm not so friendly, you know, favorable of them, but we've got a lot of biodiversity which we absolutely love that will be destroyed by this project, and that will be a real shame. We bought, I've lived, we've lived in our home for 16 years. We moved here because the natural beauty. We made a big investment in our house because, similar to one of my neighbors who spoke, we were hoping this could be our house would be passed down to our kids. I can tell you that if this project goes through, we also share concerns about health and the impact that will have on the environment. We will leave Falmouth, and that will be a real personal tragedy for our family because, like someone said, we also love the school district. We love being a part of the community, but we will leave because the environmental and health risks are just too great. So I'm not too proud to beg the town council to please take an active role in protecting our property and our private spaces, our public spaces. Is this is going to have a huge impact on the overall community? I don't think, I think that a lot of people like me don't even realize that it's, it's underway, that it's happening. Yes, there is momentum, but I think that there are still a lot of people who don't know that it's happening, and I'm guessing this room would be overflowing if everybody who needs to know about it did know about it. So again, I'm asking the town council to please take an active role in protecting our private and our public property in Falmouth. Thank you so much. Thank you. [51:38] Aaron Stark: I know you guys missed me. I'm back. My name is Aaron Stark, 16 Chandler Drive. I think people covered obviously a lot of the community's concerns. Obviously, it's your job to listen to your community, to your neighbors, and to protect their well-being. And I think it's clear, obviously, the concerns with this project are human health, the health of our children, environmental health, the health of our environment, the ecosystems, and the neighborhoods in which we live here, and then the third thing obviously is property values, and that's obviously very important for a community that's, you know, collecting tax dollars, funding roads and schools, all of those things are going to be impacted. When this company comes to you and is trying to sell this project, because that is what they are doing. They're not, if it's a public utility, they provide a public utility, but they're not public servants. It's not a nonprofit. This is a for-profit corporation that stands to profit hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars from this project. Remember, when someone is trying to sell you something, what are they going to do? They're going to overstate the value to you or overstate your need for it and understate the cost to you. So remember that. Whatever they're telling you the demand is going to be, it's probably not going to be as high as they're saying. And when they admit the costs to you, those costs are going to be greater than what they're admitting to. Whatever they tell you the impact is going to be on your children's health, it's going to be greater than that. Whatever they tell you the impact on the environment is going to be, it's going to be greater than that. And whatever they tell you the impact, however with that much they minimize the impact on property values, it's going to be greater than that. So remember those things when you're listening to the gentlemen or ladies that come in nice suits and have their big stacks of documents and are going to tell you about the studies and their projections and how much you need this and how much you're going to benefit from it is they're the ones that are going to benefit from it no matter what. And you are the ones that are going to bear the cost no matter what. And if you stay in Falmouth, it's going to be your children that are going to bear the costs of that no matter what. So just please keep those things in mind when you are making the decisions on behalf of all of us to protect this community. So thank you. Great. Thank you. [54:20] Roger Brothers: My name is Roger Brothers. [54:21] John Winslow: I live at 16 Stapleford Drive. [54:23] Roger Brothers: Thanks for hearing us today. I really appreciate it. Obviously, there's a lot of people that this touches, and we all feel really strongly about it, and we don't know how to advocate for ourselves and make our voices heard. I live right underneath the power lines. I drive underneath them. It's over my driveway twice a day. When we get home from school, that's where we play soccer. That's where we hang out. I have a 3-year-old. I have a 5-month-old. Like Anya said, we moved here because this is where we want to live forever. We love the trees. That's why we come to Maine. We don't allow billboards on our highways, but we're going to clear-cut our residential neighborhoods. It's shocking. It's a shame. It's a shame that I didn't hear about this from CMP. I haven't gotten a single e-mail or a single letter. I only heard about it from my neighbors. And now it feels too late to do anything about it. Don't let the next shame be that you don't use your voice to make us lose our voice. I think it's really getting to the point where it could be too late. And we need our representatives to advocate for us and to protect us, so please help us. [55:33] Britt: Hi, my name's Britt. I live on 14 Chandler Drive in Falmouth. I'll echo a lot of what has already been said here tonight. I found out about this project yesterday from a concerned neighbor. Came here today to speak out against it. Like most people here, my husband and I moved to Falmouth after a lot of careful consideration about where we wanted to be. We're expecting a baby in January. We wanted to move to Falmouth for the schools, for the community, for the nature. We found a cul-de-sac, quiet neighborhood, didn't have to worry about traffic and all of the things and to learn this project is going in with the potential significant health risks. In addition to, you know, I would say that's our number one concern. And then the property value impact is obviously very concerning as well. We also intended to, you know, raise our kids here and spend many years here. So as a future mom, I'm deeply concerned. I know my neighbor, Rachel, as she mentioned, she has four kids. They're right next door to us. Those kids are always outside enjoying the beauty that our neighborhood, that Maine has to offer. I know both of them, being in health care as well, are deeply concerned about the potential risks, the links to leukemia, Alzheimer's. I was very last minute doing some research last night before this meeting. In other European countries, they don't allow high voltage power lines to be put up near schools because of the potential link to leukemia. So I appreciate the council hearing everyone here today and really considering the impact that this could have on our community. [57:28] Mark Shackay: I'm Mark Shackay. My wife, Tara, and I have raised our family over the last 24 years. At 306 Falmouth Road, we're directly across from the McRain Preserve. When we originally bought our house, we were concerned about the traffic on Falmouth Road and also that when you sit on our deck, you see the power lines directly in our visual field. It seems inherently—I also only heard about the scope of this project through ARI over the last two weeks. I, as far as I know, never received anything from CMP indicating both the scope and the potential impact on our property lines. So I mean, very concerned about what a 15 to 30 cent drop in our property values just when we're thinking about downsizing and moving to, you know, out of our home for just a size is really worrisome. So we have a lot of hope in what you can help us with, and I'm less eloquent than the rest of the people here, but I just want to express my concern with the potential impact on our quality of life and our property values from this project. Thank you, Hank. [58:41] Sarazin (husband): Sarazin, one Chandler Drive. I stood in front of you guys before and sort of spoke from this same position of passion. I've lived in this town for over 30 years, raised my family here, also had some roots up in the Oakland area. Means a real special place to me for everything that everybody says. People move here for reasons, trees, lakes, rivers, water. I took a quick snapshot today. I went to the state's population data. There's a 20 to 30 study that I found. In 1985, there was 1,250,000 people in the state of Maine. Today, as we just about leave 2025, there's 1,374,000. You divide that gap by 41 years, it's 3,000 people a day. However, from the ages of 0 to 19, those same numbers are down almost 10%. From 20 to 39, they're down 3%. And from 40 to 64, they're down 7%. And from 65 up, they're up 36%. You guys know this, the state keeps showing up way down on every list every time there's a list out there. Education taxes are high, education is poor. Look at those numbers. What are we doing? I've left a message for Amy, I've left a message for Theresa. This state has to pay attention and you guys need to help us, your elected officials, to everybody said I'm the same thing. I got a text message from Rachel yesterday and I have an easement. If this happens, some of your kids have played under the power lines in my yard. Right there. If this happens, I lose all my trees. I will have a telephone pole next to my driveway that's 150 feet high. Don't think my property values won't go down the tube. They'll be decimated. But it's the bigger picture of what we're not doing and what our government isn't doing. It's not looking at the playing feel the right way. We're losing. We're losing in the state of Maine. Young kids aren't staying here. My two daughters work in different states. Why? Better jobs. Where are all your kids? Not Maine. They got jobs somewhere else. And it starts right here with this. Think of the monetary impact it will have on this town if this goes through. Maybe billions of dollars in land value gone, taxes gone, and it won't come back. And then as I said once, and Sean, you laughed at me, I moved into Falmouth, not North Portland. Stop it, please stop it. Thanks, thank you. [1:01:40] Aaron Stark: Is [1:01:44] Chair (Councilor Huck): there anyone else who would like to speak who's present here at the meeting? Here we go, just introduce yourself. Thank you. [1:01:58] Ann Sarazin: Ann Sarazin, 1 Chandler Drive. That's my husband. I, too, got a text from Rachel, our neighbor, yesterday and knew nothing about what we're talking about here. And it makes me go back to think about the only other time I've been here, which was with Bob Klein and company, to talk about the pesticides and the fact that you do not want us using pesticides on our yards, but we are going to let CMP come in and do a clear cut and use pesticides wherever they decide they want to. [1:02:28] Sarazin (husband): Who are you here for? [1:02:30] Ann Sarazin: We spent how many hours? Bob, you can probably attest to this. How many hours were spent debating a pesticide ordinance to whether we can treat trees on our property and grass in our yard? [Sarazin (husband): No, we can't.] As residents of Falmouth, you all decided we cannot treat our land with pesticides. pesticides. When did you guys find out about this CMP ordinance coming, that this was going to happen? I'm a butter and I found out three days ago. My guess is the town council and Nathan, you guys knew about this long before three days ago. It's now coming out and you're going to let CMP do whatever they want all over Falmouth, but no, do not use pesticides in your yard and do not save your trees. Who are you here for? Are you here for us or CMP or who? Thank you, thank you. [1:03:31] Chair (Councilor Huck): And is there anyone else here who would like to speak? Yes, hey. [1:03:38] Adam Fuchs: I'm Adam Fuchs, I live on Eight Mayflower and I'll just keep it short because like plenty of people have said what I was is going to say. Just, you know, in support of the town doing anything they can on our behalf to help communicate the seriousness of this project and also be allies in whatever we can do to keep Falmouth the same green space that it is. Yeah, so that's all I've got to [1:04:08] Councilor Vance: to say for the night. All right, thank you and [1:04:13] Chair (Councilor Huck): okay, here we go. Hi. [1:04:18] Whitney Russell: I'm Whitney Russell at 49 Stapleford Drive here with a lot of my neighbors, and thanks for giving me a few minutes to speak. You've probably, you've definitely already heard all these concerns, but I prepared something, and so I've decided to take the time to share it. I'm here tonight to ask the town council to take an active role in protecting our residents, neighborhoods, land, and the future of our town as Central Maine Power moves forward with its proposed transmission upgrade. I want to be clear that I am not opposed to necessary electrical infrastructure improvements. I support making prudent investments to maintain a reliable electrical system. My concern is whether this particular project and proposed route are the most responsible and least disruptive way to accomplish that goal. As I understand it, this project is not intended to increase electricity delivery to our town. Falmouth would essentially serve as a corridor for transmitting additional power toward the greater Portland area, while our residents and neighborhoods would bear many of the impacts. The proposal would bring high-voltage infrastructure through established residential neighborhoods and directly adjacent to school grounds. It could significantly change the character of these neighborhoods, require additional right-of-way clearing, and eliminate wooded areas on private and public property. I am particularly concerned about the proximity to the school. Children could potentially spend as many as 12 to 13 years of their education in close proximity to high-voltage transmission infrastructure. I believe the safety implications of that proximity deserve an independent, rigorous technical review. The proposed location may also affect the town's future ability to consider building a new middle school. I am also concerned about public awareness. Many residents, myself included, appear to have learned about this proposal through word of mouth rather than direct outreach from the utility. I understand CMP has stated that it has exceeded the minimum public outreach requirements. But meeting a minimum requirement is not necessarily the same as meaningfully informing the people who will be most directly affected. The PUC technical hearings are underway now, so I am asking the Council to become actively involved while there is still an opportunity to influence the outcome. Specifically, I'd ask the Council to first challenge the need for the project as currently proposed, and seek an independent third-party technical review. Second, I would demand that alternative routes and solutions be fully considered, Particularly options that would accomplish the necessary electrical improvements while minimizing impacts on our neighborhoods, our school property, to private landowners, and to our natural areas. Third, explore whether the town can establish a 300-foot setback between high-voltage power transmission lines and occupied dwellings with appropriate legal review. you. And finally, I ask the Council to help inform our residents and make sure they have a meaningful opportunity to understand and participate in this process. This is not about opposing necessary improvements to Maine's electrical system. It is about asking whether there is a better, more prudent, and less disruptive way to accomplish them. I respectfully ask the Council to stand up for the residents and land of Falmouth and become actively involved in this process. Thank you. Thank you. [1:08:12] Chair (Councilor Huck): And is there anyone else who is present here who would like to speak? [1:08:29] Eric Sonicson: I did not intend to speak tonight. I'm Eric Sonicson from Astor Lane, and I am personally affected by this, as is everybody else, and I would like to echo exactly what was said, and that's why I stood up. I think we need as much help as the town council can give us to avoid this stain that is coming. And I hope that the town council has power, capability, and the interest to advocate for the community in this particular regard. guard. This is important. It's important for the future of the town. And at my age, I'm not going to see a lot of it. But I really hope that Falmouth gets to stay the kind of beautiful place that it is and that our elected officials will be able and have the power to make an effect on how this power is going to be transmitted and whether it will be along the convenient route, which was established a long time ago when it really wasn't very important to anybody, and instead move to a different route or even radically an underground system rather than 100 foot poles thank you [1:10:09] Chair (Councilor Huck): thank you and anyone else here who is attending in person who would like to speak at this time [Rachel: yeah well] Yeah, it's usually just it's a one setting just It's just kind of the way it operates. Am I able to speak? Yeah, that's usually, it's done per person. [1:10:41] Rachel: So the answer is no. Yeah, right. [1:10:43] Chair (Councilor Huck): Yeah, but thank you, though. I really appreciate it. I would like to extend an invitation, though, at this time to see if anyone who is attending remotely who would like to speak, if you would raise your hand. All right. James. James, if you just unmute yourself. And James, yeah, unfortunately, we're not getting any, yeah, James, yeah, unfortunately, we're just not getting any audio here. So we're going to, oh, [1:11:52] Bob Klein: Yeah, here we go. [1:11:54] Chair (Councilor Huck): Yep, you're all on. [1:11:56] James Reed: Yep, thank you. New technology tonight. I would like to thank the council for the opportunity to speak this evening. My name is James Reed, and I'm a resident at 33 Allen Avenue Extension. And I'd like to introduce myself and what Falmouth means to me and my family. I'm 12th generation of a Falmouth resident. My families have been in Falmouth in five different family branches, the Skillens, the Reeds, the Hunters, the Jacksons, and the Blanchards. Stapleford was actually my great-grandparents' farm back at the turn of the century. My family has participated in part of this community, again, for 12 generations. I'm concerned greatly about what's happening with this planned project. I own three properties, 23 Allen Avenue Extension, 26 Allen Avenue Extension, and 33 Allen Avenue Extension, with 17 acres impacted and over 2,000 feet of impacted border to the central main power transmission line, not power line, transmission line, both on the north side I own property and on the south side. I have a home that's at 26 Allen Avenue, most likely will need to be taken through eminent domain because of its close proximity. It's my mother's home, and she would like to return to it. She is in a nursing home, and her hopes is to come back when I retire and let her live there. When I retire, hopefully I can do that, but the house may not be there. My property, 33 Allen Avenue, my house faces the power lines. In my front yard, the power lines are currently hidden by trees. That will no longer be the case. On the south side is my grandfather's old house that I own. And again, that property will now be exposed to the view of the power lines. These proposed upgrades to the transmission line, very briefly, very few residents or property owners back in 1954 actually received any compensation. When you say there's an easement, they received actually nothing. Most farmers did not have the might or the ability to fight CMP, and through the threat of eminent domain, which CMP had that power, they could take this, seize this right. Only the wealthy people had the ability to fight CMP and gain financial payment for their loss of use of their property. So to think that all these families have given up their rights for compensation is absurd. And my family, there's no exception to that. I sat on the porch of my home now with my great-grandparents and discussed these exact power lines. They were power lines presented by CMP, not transmission lines, low-voltage power lines, and again, without compensation. So here we are, fast forward, and now looking to change the true characteristics of Falmouth and impacting countless residents through loss of property, risk of health. And yet we need help from our leadership and the family council. So I'm going to echo what's been said here, that there's so much you can do to help support and echo the words spoken this evening. So, on behalf of the Alliance for Responsible Infrastructure and the interveners and the property owners, please help us fight this grotesque change in our communities. My wife and I moved back to Maine so we could enjoy our property here. My grandfather sat in the field with me and begged me to preserve this property that he has been passed down through generations, although not given, purchased, so I don't want you to think it was handed to me. And I told my grandfather, who raised me, I will absolutely cherish this land. I mow it. I care for it. And now you're taking, and CMP is taking this away. So think about all these people that spoke tonight. Think about the impact, 110-foot transmission lines along with an 85-foot transmission line. These are not power lines as presented in 1954 to the residents when their easements were granted and not compensated. So, again, I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. And just remember, many of us have been tied to this community. We've been born here. We've lived here. In my house alone, we've had five family members pass in that house that I live in today. And the next, my grandfather's house, to multiple generations. James, that's, that's time. Thank you so. [1:17:05] Chair (Councilor Huck): Much appreciate it. Now move on, Michael Blake. Who'd like to, was a hand raised? If you'd like to speak at this time, if you just don't mean yourself, thank you. Can you hear me okay? Yeah, we sure can. [1:17:19] Public commenter (Three Payer Circle resident): Thank you, I appreciate that. I appreciate your time. I'm sorry I couldn't be there. I'm just coming back from work. I live at Three Payer Circle. That small offshoot of Stapleford is directly impacted and abuts the current easement. We live, there's three houses there. We had three children. Our neighbors have four children and our other neighbor had two children. That's nine children just there. It's a beautiful neighborhood. We moved up here 16 years ago specifically to live in Falmouth, love the school systems. That neighborhood is a gem of everywhere we looked. We certainly were aware of the power lines next to us, but have made an effort to upgrade it, if you will. We've put in orchards, which I understand was at my risk. I am very concerned about the investment that we've made in our house. It's a significant investment, and I'm worried about the negative impact that this power structure, power lines will have on the resale value. I'm worried that the hideous power lines will also affect the middle school the way it's currently being proposed. We have two kids in the middle school right now. It's certainly going to change the entire character of the neighborhood in a negative way. You just have to drive down Stapleford and imagine that the whole left corridor is gone. It'll be quite hideous to be, to be honest, you know, this is something where, you know, we anticipated this to be the family house for generations, and this is something we would, you know, we would consider moving out of the neighborhood and possibly even Falmouth, even though we love it and love the town. I strongly obviously support the, you know, and would love your guys, the town council's help in stopping this or at least, you know, rethinking what the best plan forward is for everyone. But certainly I have strong feelings of concern and the detrimental nature of the proposition of the proposal. That's really, again, I appreciate your time and any assistance you can give our group, which has come together fabulously well, I think, and united as a neighborhood could be. Thank you. Thank you. And is there anyone else [1:20:19] Chair (Councilor Huck): who's remotely, who'd like to speak? Just check, taking a moment here. Not seen any hands raised. I think I did see a hand raised here's in person. You'd like to speak who hasn't had a chance to? Yes, hi. [1:20:45] Bill Muller: I'm Bill Muller. I'm at 4 Stormy Brook Drive, lived there almost 29 years. Would be severely impacted by this project. I do recall receiving a packet from CMP either early this year or late last year, months ago, and tried by going on a website they listed and also by calling, really couldn't get any information about this project whatsoever. So ever. Ultimately, they referred me to a state, of Maine.gov type website, really didn't have any specifics or information that I could see. So the next thing I know, I saw a flyer at my house, which had some information which alarmed me. And then within the last 24 hours, I got a text from a neighbor about this meeting. My property would be severely impacted. We have a lawn and a deck that are relatively under the power line. I don't know if they take that or what they do, but it would be significantly negative to me and my property, its value, et cetera. I echo all the other concerns that we have about the project. But I did get a mailing in the last week from CMP that says, you know, they're determined to be transparent and provide public information, et cetera, et cetera. I would debate that they've done that at all so far. They clearly have not. And so, again, the ask is that town council represent the citizens of Falmouth in general and specifically all of us who are so severely impacted by this to say hey you guys haven't done the right thing you haven't done the right job and informing people of the nature of this project and specifically how it would impact you as [1:22:53] Chair (Councilor Huck): a property owner thank you thank you and do we have any other comments here and he can go ahead and, I guess, go, anyone in person or remote? Okay. With that, oh, there is? Okay, great. Christopher, if you've got your hand raised, if you would just go ahead and meet yourself. [1:23:25] Chris Stadler: Hi. Can everyone hear me? Yeah, we sure can. Okay. Yeah, Chris Stadler here. I live at 16 Chandler Drive, just off of Stormy Brook. Look, yeah, the power lines pass, you know, adjacent to our house and our neighbors. Just wanted to—I'm chiming in here. I missed much of the meeting up to recently, but just wanted to say I'm a physician in the community. I have four children, and we're pretty concerned about the potential, like, health implications for, like, a high-voltage power line nearby. And, as well as, you know, the certain like potential for loss of property value, I think it's probably echoing what a lot of people have already said, but, just wanted to, you know, put my two cents in and say that he's just another concerned, person in the, neighborhood that's going to be directly affected by, you know, this potential project. So you know probably similar to what a lot of other people have said but yeah oh [1:24:42] Chair (Councilor Huck): Great thank you Thank You Christopher so just want to make sure we have everyone chance to jump in okay looks like that is it so again this is a public comment period but I would like to offer an opportunity the council has had an opportunity to hear from several residents here this evening, and I know many of us have had a chance to kind of look into this project and connect with folks that are very much tied to what's going on with this project as well before this meeting, and we'd like to Extend an invitation for anyone in the council who would like to speak at this time. Yes, Councilor Morton. [1:25:28] Britt: Thank you, Councilor Huck. I first want to start by thanking everyone for being here this evening, both in person and virtually, and for all who are maybe tuning in to this after the matter. I have some formal remarks because there's so much to say that I want to make sure I stay focused, to be frank. I think the energy in the room right now is appropriate, the weight of it, the severity of it. And I think in short I want to express that I feel a responsibility to make sure that as a counselor that I'm standing up for you and that I will do everything I can to make sure that our town is doing everything it can to protect your interests so I'm going to read some sentiments that I've shared with the town and others just so that you do have kind of an idea of where I am and to know that this is something that I do want to take seriously and feel the weight of responsibility to make sure That I am advocating on your behalf. I believe that the town needs to take a clear position on the proposal as submitted and play an active role in the PUC review. I share the serious concerns raised by residents about the proposed ROUTES PROXIMITY TO HOMES, ITS POTENTIAL ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS, INCLUDING SIGNIFICANT TREE LOSS AND CHANGES TO PROPERTY VALUES AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC LAND. The proposed route's impact on the school campus, including what it could mean for the use of school property now and in the future, deserves close scrutiny. I'm incredibly troubled by multiple reports that many property owners and key stakeholders heard little or absolutely nothing directly from CMP about a proposal with such significant implications. The town must advocate for residents and protect Falmouth's interests in both private and public property. In my view, that means publicly opposing the proposal as submitted and pressing CMP to justify the need and scale of the project, explain its choice of route and design, and demonstrate how it assessed local impacts and possible alternatives. Any alternative route should be subject to the same due diligence. While I absolutely appreciate the staff efforts to obtain data and advocate for a review of impacts to date, we must assess the proposal's potential safety implications and the impacts on existing school grounds and outdoor spaces on the health of our children and our residents. I do want to understand the town's rationale for advocating on impacts but not yet conveying that we are taking a clear position of opposition on the proposal itself. I do not support remaining neutral on the proposal as submitted and believe the council should set a clear direction. I want to understand what council direction does staff need to present a clear town position as such, and would like to propose that the council consider a resolution opposing the proposal as submitted and calling on CMP to substantiate the project's need and scale, explain its route and design choices, and address the impacts on Falmouth residents and town property, a focused assessment of local impacts including effects on the school campus and the Assessor's findings with a determination of whether additional independent valuation expertise is needed to support the town's intervener testimony and a possible transmission line setback ordinance. I'd like to understand if we can take a prompt action on that, if that's something that the town could adopt, and whether it could apply to this proposal. Again, I just want to most importantly thank all of the residents in this room for your time, your expertise, how well you articulated your grave concerns and the serious impacts of both your history with your land and property but also your future and what you foresee here being in falmouth and is absolutely our responsibility as your counselors to represent you can hear that i am impacted by this the fact that this is i think for all of us coming out of nowhere and how quickly it can happen and the scale of which it could happen. I will not sit here and just say, well, we'll see what happens, or it's, you know, David and Goliath. We, at the very least, need to make sure we're taking action. So I do want to just express my appreciation for your time and to know that I will stand with you and fight as much as we can and to make sure that we are pressing, encouraging, and supporting the town to make sure that they are also going on public record representing that. And I will do even as an individual and as a town councillor make sure that I am also representing you on public record for my opposition as it currently stands. So, thank you. [1:30:47] Chair (Councilor Huck): Anyone else on the council? Yes, councillor Diaz. [1:30:51] Councilor Huck: So I echo everything that everyone said. I have a really heavy heart when I hear about this because I feel like to some extent I didn't do my job. I'm not speaking on behalf of council, but I feel like where was I since in December when people started hearing about this? So I apologize if I've been missing in action. Again, I don't speak on behalf of the council, I speak on my behalf, and I apologize. I completely agree with Lisa's point, it's not a not done deal. I really hope we do something, and so instead of filling the room with my apologies, I would like for us to think about what can we do tonight, not wait until tomorrow or we have more time to think about it. I know the town has thought about it enough, and so is there the possibility of some formal, since we have seven of us here, to just have a vote on actions to be taken, I would say in opposition of this. Can that be done, and if it can be done, can it be done tonight? Thank [1:32:03] Councilor Vance: you councillor Diaz. Anyone [1:32:06] Ash Oberholzer: else to? Yes councillor Vance. Yes, so thank you councillor. So the two of us attended a meeting that the Donnie Peterson held, and so I've been doing some research on this. Well I have to echo the thing that's been a bit surprising to me is how truly thin the information is and how difficult it is to access this. You know the only materials posted for Falmouth is a single slide on the CMP site, which is quite shocking. There's most promise of outreach and I think we know that there hasn't been any Since the December meeting, so that's that's quite surprising to me that it's so poorly handled in that regard. I also spent some time on the MPUC site attempting to look through that interface and understand some of the things that have been submitted, and as someone said, it is fairly inscrutable. I was the chief technology officer for a company, so I think I vaguely know what I'm doing. I even called the PUC and spoke to someone there and tried to get them to explain how to access that data and never received a callback from them. So I share people's frustration that it's been exceedingly difficult, both on the public utilities side and the state of Maine government, as well as on CMP's side, to actually do research on this particular project so you know certainly continuing to do that on my side and look at this have been working with you know Adam and yourself counselor Hawke on some of these things in the background but it's quite surprising to me how poorly this outreach has been handled it truly seems just very poorly done. Another thing that was spoken about at that meeting, which I thought was quite interesting, which didn't come up tonight, which I was kind of surprised about, which is that CMP is remunerated based on infrastructure investment. And so they have an incentive to build irrespective of actual sort of demonstrated need. And it would be really interesting to understand how that has impacted their pattern of investment and how they're paid back by ratepayers based on that. I found that quite surprising when I learned about it at the event, so I just wanted added some of that detail of the things that I found while I've been doing this in general definitely support the work that Adam has been doing on behalf of the town as we look to set up our understanding of what this process is the timeline that's around it and the town's involvement and I think we should continue to work on all those pieces moving forward. I can't speak to Councilor Diaz's suggestion about whether it's appropriate for us to pass something tonight. I don't know if Nathan, you know, you'll ask him to comment on that, Councilor Hawk. But timeline is definitely the thing that has been really unclear as well. Adam provided a very useful document to me earlier today that I hope everyone's had a chance to see or will see at some point that was really helpful in starting to understand what some of the dates look like as they stack up over the next several months so thank you Thank You [1:35:19] Chair (Councilor Huck): Councillor Vance, anyone else like to speak? Yes, Councillor Mahoney, good evening. [1:35:24] Councilor Mahoney: Thank you everybody for being here, and I'm gonna first start with a disclosure. I work for an organization called Conservation Law Foundation, and we are engaged in the PUC process at the moment for this particular project, as we are with a number of transmission projects. So we are like the town and intervener, and I am no technology expert, but I do have access to that, and we get all the filings. You know, I think there's an immediate, I think the first thing is the context of this is that this line is going to require a number of different approvals. It's going to need a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the PUC. It's also going to need environmental permits from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection under what's called the Site Location of Development Act and under the Natural Resources Protection Act. So one is for based on the footprint of a project, and so this footprint is going to be very large, and then the Natural Resources Protection Act is when you have to cross wetlands or the Prosomskit River. So they're going to have that permitting process, and they're also going to have federal permitting process because may surprise some people, but the federal EPA does still do some permitting of projects, and the PUC process is, and then the town planning board is going to have a minor role to play in this, but there will be a role at some point, but it's limited. The town's role in permitting this project is fairly circumscribed compared to the other agencies and the other levels of government in terms of immediate action today. Well, the AR I has really done an amazing job in a short period of time. They filed a motion to, like I want to get the name right, establish a threshold merits phase in the case, which would essentially put a pause on and require CMP to demonstrate the need for the project. This is a half a billion dollar project that has flown under the radar of many, people. And so, and you're correct, Councilor Vance and others,, CMP is a monopoly, and they are guaranteed a rate of return on their capital investment. So that is a principal source of the money. One of the things that has happened is that there have been a number of other simultaneous PUC, we call them dockets, but PUC matters where CMP has been looking to get a new rate to charge customers, and then there's something called an integrated grid plan. And both of those PUC dockets, the CMP projection of need has been called into question. So the push now is to establish a phase here where before we start talking about routes and heights and what equipment, it's what's the need. need. There is a growing need on electrification. We all use a lot more energy, a lot more electricity than we did 20 years ago. We have electric vehicles. We have a lot more electric gadgets at home. Electricity is one of the things that we're moving towards as far as our climate goals because we're trying to generate electricity with clean energy. But that doesn't necessarily they mean that a $550 million project is necessary to meet the growing needs in the greater Portland region. So I would be, the deadline was today to file comments in support of the motion to establish a threshold merits phase, but you can always move to file something out of time with the PUC. So that's an immediate action that we could take and it's a relatively straightforward letter filing. If that's granted, then the schedule as it's set now would change. We have intervened. You don't necessarily intervene at the PUC. You don't necessarily intervene as an opponent at the beginning because the process is all about fact-finding. And one of the reasons why people have been kind of caught by surprise is C&P really hasn't put their case on until the beginning of the year. And the case that they made is different than what was originally proposed when there were some non-wires alternatives that were possible. It wouldn't have, I don't think, solved all the concerns raised by people here today or online. line but I would agree that it would be we are already the town has already intervened so we can file something the town could file something tomorrow I don't know what the what the Roberts rules are in terms of whether we can do that taking action tonight or not I think well I we've heard from four of us [1:41:04] Chair (Councilor Huck): so yeah I think we'll I think we'd like to kind of hear how well through each of the counselors and then I think we'll just kind of bring it back to the town here for a moment [1:41:14] Councilor Vance: thank you yeah counselor Tracy we like to jump in sure thank you thank you for you know and I [1:41:21] Councilor Mahoney: Always appreciate hearing from everybody in the community, you know, it's been a an informative hour and a half of understanding, you know, obviously we all live in this community. I don't live in that neighborhood, but I certainly have spent some time on the Portland trails through behind in that Stapleford neighborhood and, you know, lots of friends over there. So, yeah, you know, I mean, the difference, and I think it was an important point that a number of people made, power lines versus transmission lines, and, you know, would love to continue the conversation or perhaps continue the information gathering from Adam Kazi on our staff to understand if we are getting the latest technology, is there some less invasive technology upgrades is there some lower profile power lines or you know something less than what is being proposed right now so I advocate for our staff to continue the conversation and continue to advocate for doing something less than proposed, and I'm not quite as well-versed in it as Sean, but I do think that we have a role in being a part of the conversation. [1:42:54] Chair (Councilor Huck): Great. Thank you, Councilor Tracy. Anything you'd like to [1:42:57] Councilor Sharp: add, Councilor Sharp? Yeah, thank you. Thanks to everyone for coming out. I will disclose my, Our property is subject to 100-foot right-of-way, CMP, so we abut this project as well. I guess my interest maybe would be in moving to the kind of practicalities of it. So, like, what actions could we, in fact, take? And maybe that will help us understand kind of how to proceed from here. Great. That maybe is a question, Nathan, for you, but I know we're going to get to that. Yeah, well, Councilor Hock, you haven't weighed in yet either. [1:43:29] Chair (Councilor Huck): No,, no, this is good. Yeah, well, I don't want to reiterate too much of what's already been said, but I think we and I first met over at Cafe Luna talking about this some months ago and had a chance to, with Councilor Vance, go to a neighborhood gathering, even go to the block party about a week ago with local residents to have a chance to hear people's concerns about this. And I can certainly understand and appreciate that. I think we all have a kind of a bound relationship to this community that's really built around the natural wonder and splendor, and there's something special about this place. And I think anytime we feel like that's being infringed upon, I think it is in our, it's kind of a natural reaction that we want to jump in and try to figure out a way to mitigate that as much as possible. And I do want us to highlight, too, is that, again, we, the town of Falmouth, are not the decision-makers on this. It is the Public Utilities Commission. We know that there's a decision coming up. October 23rd is not far away. And it seems, from my perspective, that communication has always been a game of catch-up, that we're still trying to get as much information as we can. Doesn't seem like we have as much as we need to understand the full totality of what's going on here, and that's something that we really want to be able to wrap our arms around, because it has been a game of almost a losing game of catch-up. I think there's there's two kind of decision forks here. I think is something that counselor Mahoney touched on is that we have the certificate of convenience and necessity coming up to really kind of bear out if this is a project that really is necessary and Then the second part of this is what version of this project is going to have the least amount of impact on our on our neighbors and on our community. And I think there's aspects of that might be in terms of location, that might be the use of technology, but I think these are all things that we need to ferret out and able to who understand to make this as doable as possible. But it also, and this gets to what Councilor Sharp mentioned, is the town's role on this project. And I'd like to kind of bring this back to Nathan, our town manager, who has more experience with these kinds of projects, not only in this community, but also working with other communities across the state. If you could offer your perspective here on kind of the role the town can play as we move this forward, kind of hearing a chance to what's kind of the temperature and interest on the part of the council. And I know that Adam Causey, our long-range planning director, has also done a lot of research work on this, and I'd love to get his insight on this as well. [1:46:31] Nathan (Town Manager): But we'll start with Nathan. I actually don't have a lot of experience with this. I've had experience with natural gas line before, but you know it wasn't controversial like this. It was just a bigger gas line in the same location. So in this particular case, Adam filed as the intervener status for the town so that we could preserve our rights to maintain that throughout absent you know direction or council action. You know, as staff, we really can't take a position of opposition or in favor of a particular project, as you can imagine. So instead, we started formulating our role as just a collector of information. And where we got a little bit, I want to get a little bit pushy, is we need to know the delta. How tall are these things really? Where is the limit of clearing? And that information, as I think we've heard, has been thin. And so we've been pushing for that. One of the other things that we're trying to do is advocate for, and this will be in our testimony submitted before October 23rd, that when we bought the Merrill property, it wasn't it wasn't guaranteed that we would have perfect access under the existing power lines to connect, which is why we have another access point off from the main road, not preferred. You want the campus to be you know connected there. We'd like to use this as an opportunity if something does happen to you know try to leverage our ability to ensure access there to get from both sides of the of the power line. So at this point, you know, we've been talking about you know you know asking about minimal impact, those sort of things, but it's it's been a soft sort of role that staff has been taking. If the council wants to take a stronger role and role of actual opposition, then I think, you know, an order or resolution would be helpful, would be necessary. The question of logistics, could you do something tonight? Your council rules require you to have any order, resolution, or order subject to your vote filed with the Office of the Clerk by noon on the Thursday before the meeting. However, there's a section in the rules that say by unanimous vote, you can suspend the rules. So you could, if you had an unanimous vote tonight, start working on something. I'm not sure. I might look at Adam and I might look at Sean, and I'm sure there's plenty more experts in the audience. Do we have until October 14th? That's the next council meeting. We don't. We have to file something if it's going to be in opposition tomorrow. [1:49:20] Councilor Mahoney: Chris. Yes. Councilor Mahoney. I was trying to pull up the schedule right now, but I don't have it right now. Now October 23rd is the last date to file objections, to file motions, pre-file testimony in the case. So that's filing testimony. The actual motions and we're not opposing the actual project of motion opposing the PUC granting a CPC and won't be until later. But providing testimony would be, is different. There's also, as I said, there was a motion for this effort to add a new phase in that was filed a month ago, six weeks ago, a month ago. The Office of the Public Advocate, which is the representative of rate payers in the system, filed today supporting that, basically for the same reasons as stated in the motion. My organization also filed something today supporting that. C&P opposed it. It so we could have mega resolution today and see if we could file seek leave to file out of time a motion supporting that and yeah so we could do that it doesn't have to be overly technical it could it could be in the form of we agree or we support the motion that's enough it could also be an opportunity for the town to make clear that we have heard from many of the impacted residents that they have not received information about this and that also It also bodes well for delaying this so that Impacted communities can be, have an ability to participate. So those would be two things, specific short term. Whether the town wants to present testimony then would be a separate piece and there's a couple weeks for that and obviously you heard a number of things that the town could support could potentially develop testimony on number of residences impacted I don't know if you'd be given that what's been given that the town is shorthanded on them in a number of areas right now like trying to do some financial impact in that short order of time could be difficult with any sort of specificity it could Be testimony about failure to properly notify or to effectively notify residents so those are a number of things we could do sorry we could also just say town of Falmouth opposes that I think I think we'd probably want to my own sense would be I'd probably want to hold off on that because we've heard from a lot of people tonight about this is something that's going to come up let's we could we don't have to we don't have to get to that point today clearly saying we think you should go to this Other phase makes it very clear that the town is not on board with the project as is. Great. Thank [1:53:13] Chair (Councilor Huck): you, Councillor Mahoney. I think Councillor Vance, did you ever hand [1:53:15] Ash Oberholzer: raised? Yeah, I just wanted to ask what force such a, like a, any sort of motion that we passed today would actually have, you know. Does it, does it enable and unlock the staff to do something different than what we're already asking to do in terms of information finding? And then second, to the extent that any, you know, Counselor Mahoney or anyone else knows, like if we register something with the POC, what does that unlock since we've already submitted to intervene a request and things like that? It's not clear to me what we gain by submitting an additional piece to the POC right now. [1:53:52] Whitney Russell: Gets [1:53:55] Councilor Mahoney: them out. Yeah, I should have said beforehand, I am NOT advising the town on its legal. I do think, look, this is, this is the Greater Portland Trent. It's, It's called the Greater Portland Transmission Upgrade. It's Yarmouth, Cumberland, Falmouth, Westbrook, and Portland. It's five communities. And if you hadn't had a visual of it as yet, it goes from the Yarmouth substation right at the intersection of Route 9 and I can never remember if that's East or West Main Street, but that intersection there. And it comes along. long. For Yarmouth, it's not going through green fields, and the current line is actually down by the railroad line. So it doesn't have as much of an impact there. It has some impact as it comes along Route 9 in Cumberland, but it is Falmouth, and it could be Westbrook as well that has a real impact because it goes out towards Pride's Corner, which is relatively rural. So one of five impacted communities is significant to PUC staff. In my experience has been significant to PUC. It's kind of a statement. Yeah. [1:55:16] Chair (Councilor Huck): Also it was one, since we do have Adam Causey in the room with us who has really been our town point person on this project, I was wondering if it would be all right, Adam, if you had a chance to maybe come to the podium and offer perspectives that you've been able to ascertain. You've kind of been digging more deeply into this than probably anyone here with the town. Love to have your insights as we kind of wage our way through some of these decisions. [1:55:43] Adam Causey: Thank you, Adam Causey, Long Range Planning. Attempting to dig deep. I have no experience in electrical transmission, so probably none of you do either, very few of you. So I can appreciate the residents that were like me in the technical committee meetings last week, eye-wateringly long technical committee meetings, and hearing a bunch of stuff that was sometimes over my head. But I'm very process-oriented, so I appreciate Council Member Mahoney going through the PUC steps or fleshing that out, so I don't have to, and I echo Council Member Vance's comments on their website, which I just saw your letter or the CLF's letter will not load on a mobile site. So use your computers and not your phones or your iPads if you're on it. But it's not the easiest thing to get documents from. I will say, you know, from my perspective, you know, it's the PUC process. And I don't know if this is the case from CEP. I've been, you know, disappointed in the lack of information coming directly from them. PUC seems very rigid in their process. process. You know, you have to file things. You have to be, there's very specific things they do in their meetings. I emailed them because I couldn't get into a meeting, but I watched it on the computer. And then later they sent, they uploaded a letter saying Adam couldn't get into the meeting. He watched it. So it's just very formal. It's very different from some things, but regardless, you know, I was disappointed in the information that we did get from CEP, cmp when we did our data request. You know, we asked for any and all plans for what are you thinking, what's, what's this thing going to look like, rather than just a, you know, an outline of the current easement that went through on an aerial map. That's what I think was described on their web, on their web page. What we got back was two fairly, I don't know, not specific kind of side views, right, of a corridor. And so nothing really specific. So they did give us those two documents and then referred to just their plan to, you know, to add the new infrastructure in. So I'm assuming that they, you know, again, because of the steps involved, that maybe they're not there yet, because I imagine they would give that over if we asked for it and was in a PUC meeting. I don't know. But earlier, someone had asked about meetings. I think they said the 23rd is the intervener testimony. There has been a motion filed to, or at least by the OPA, to extend that to the 30th. I don't think the PUC has acted on that. I've been refreshing my phone. I haven't seen that. Happy to file a motion with regard to the,, merit threshold issue too. I mean, I could upload that too. I just need that direction. So, but we have time, I guess, before the intervener testimony and in that time, I've been collecting data on the impacts to town assets, as well as talking with Superintendent Nolan, we had a good conversation. You know, town owns that land. So I think they're comfortable with the town you know running their master plan issues by the PC in our testimony although I did say if the school wants to file as an intervener they can do that too they can but I think they're happy to coordinate with us so the impacts to you know roads and rights aways sewer stormwater water infrastructure, the environment, anything and everything that we kind of have to manage and look out for, those are the impacts that I'm collecting right now to be part Of that testimony, the interviewer testimony, and I'll keep an eye on the schedule and if it changes. I don't know when I don't know if there's a deadline for the PUC to look at the mayor's threshold issue I don't know if they've got a time limit on that or not but since I saw the public advocates today I imagine they will review that and get that done in short order so I'll be keeping an eye on the website as well but happy to upload what any motions you would like for me to great Thank You Adam appreciate that I guess I'll share also that we you know we've been talking about other Things that we can do future because there are future steps involved so being engaged in the environmental review and in the planning review I did talk to code enforcement about what does this thing look like when it comes so we're prepared for the next steps or getting prepared for the next steps because we don't think this is, you know, this isn't over and on to October 30th. There's a long way to go. [2:00:47] Chair (Councilor Huck): Yes, Councilor Morton. Thank you, Adam. [2:00:49] Britt: I wanted to thank you for your efforts in representing the town. With that being said, I think hearing these efforts, we need as a town to do a much better job of informing residents of actions that have happened to date. And I am still not comfortable just essentially conducting an inventory of potential impacts, but I would like to encourage the council to see what actions we can take to publicly convey our concerns with the lack of details and specificity that we have received from CMP to date, the lack of communication that's been received, and an understanding. So whether that means that we are not yet filing an official opposition in our testimony, I'll defer to attorneys and lawyers on when that is the best. But I think we absolutely have a responsibility to be raising a flag that there are grave concerns that the town and its residents have on the impact and what has not yet been, in my opinion, thoroughly assessed, conveyed or communicated. On multiple levels. So what that means from a legal standpoint, I am not an attorney, which is likely evident. So for me, how that happens, but to have a very clear plan of how we're going to approach this, I think needs to be solidified to hear, well, a meeting has happened with, you know, the superintendent, and if they want to, they could do something too. I think as a town, we need to be more unified and organized in how we are taking a stand in representing our residents and not just waiting to hear from CMP until it's too late. Because my understanding is once the need is established formally, it is much more challenging through all of the rest of the steps to broker specifics because that need has been established. And it sounds like we have not yet really received specifics around that need or specifics of what the design could mean because CMP is essentially saying, well, we'll get to that point once we know that the need has been accepted by PUC. So it feels very kind of chicken and egg or the shell game that's happening here. And I'm concerned about that. Councilor Mahoney. [2:03:18] Councilor Mahoney: So I guess a couple of things in response to your great points, Councillor. The first is that, yeah, if they were to get a CPCN, certainly they'd have momentum, but it doesn't mean they get the project. So just as an example, for the Northern Pass project, they had the equivalent of the CPCN in New Hampshire, but they weren't able to clear the hurdle of the environmental permitting. They were coming through the White Mountains and that just wasn't gonna happen at that. So the governor's council there, or not the governor's council, I forget what their planning board is. Jamie, you may know. Yeah, for the pass, right, but the state denied their permit. Yeah, so and with the most recent CMP transmission line from Hydro Quebec, they got the CPCN, but they just barely got their permits from the DEP, and if the DEP hadn't issued the permits, the project wouldn't have gone forward. So it doesn't, it doesn't, it's not automatic, I guess that's what I would say. Understood, no, understood, I'm not suggesting that. But it also means that the CPCN doesn't spend as much time on the environmental impacts as in the DEP piece. But I totally agree. I don't think we should wait. What I was going to suggest is, you know, we could continue to make a filing in the PUC matter, but we could also send a letter to CMP, to the president of CMP, and say, you know, we've heard from our residents and they're pissed because they have not gotten the information that we need on this and there hasn't been the outreach and until we feel that they're you know then we can we take that position however you want I know my understanding of CMP is offered to hold public meetings in conversations with people and that 's fine but i think we've got to convey It would be my position that we need to convey the level of urgency and seriousness and opposition that has been built and exacerbated by CMP's failure to actually be transparent and proactive about it. It makes it just that much worse. Yeah. [2:06:03] Chair (Councilor Huck): I want to get back to that point. Thank you, Sean. On, Councilor Mahoney, about yeah, how can we do kind of those two things, right? The file and then also the statement directly to CMP kind of relaying the town's concern for the lack of urgency for just getting information out there, because it just seems like all of us are kind of in a state of fog about where this thing is really going and it just seems like the timeline just gets a little bit shorter. So is Nathan, is there anything I mean, because I know you've had some connection points that we can kind of help move that something like that, letter along. [2:06:42] Nathan (Town Manager): My connection is not the president, so I think we would just go directly to the president. I don't need any additional context to get there. I'm sure we're going to come back around to this. OK, what are we doing next? And so I've heard letter to CMP, I've heard possibly do something tonight that authorizes staff to do some filings tomorrow, and that could be as simple as, forget about a wordy resolution, just pass an order that authorizes staff to make the simple statement and then deepen or broaden both the town's concerns. Is it clearly opposition? Is it, is it not? That, you know, you can do that in a resolution on October 14th and have it ready in time for the testimony deadline on October 23rd. So to me that's That's three things that could be done, and one tonight. And I don't know that you need an order. You could wrap it up into tonight. You could like authorize the chair to work with staff to draft a letter to be sent to the CMP president and just have faith in that process instead of approving the letter ahead of time. If you wanted to do that, I would, and you were going to take action tonight and you waived your rules in order to be able to take action tonight. Those are the two things that I think Might make sense tonight, but the overall opposition, you know, trying to capture all of those things that you've heard and that you've stated tonight, it might make sense to really put some thought into that, into a well-done resolution on the on the 14th. [2:08:28] Councilor Mahoney: Yes, so just so, if we were just to do an order, do we actually have to have a motion to suspend [2:08:34] Nathan (Town Manager): The rules? Yeah, I just read the rules. This order, resolution, ordinance. Yeah, you do. Okay, so I don't [2:08:42] Chair (Councilor Huck): Know if there's more. Okay, yeah, let's see if we have any other comment first. Yeah, yes, counselor [2:08:46] Councilor Sharp: Sharp, a little, a little slow on the uptake as usual, so bear with me. So I'm just trying to, I'm just trying to hammer out exactly what it is that we're contemplating here and make sure that we are all tracking. So a letter to the president of CMP stating that, hey, we've heard from residents. There's a lot of concern. There's a lack of information. Are we asking for anything or just sort of stating our displeasure? Number one. Number two would be a resolution resolving what exactly? Not entirely clear to me, although I think I share in the sentiments of at least most of us up here. So I guess I'd love to just see, and it's a little hard to make the sausage up here with all of us, but I'd love to get a little more clarity around exactly what it is we're proposing to do, and then I'd love to see us hammer it out. [2:09:38] Chair (Councilor Huck): Thank you, Counselor Sharp. Counselor Diaz. [2:09:41] Councilor Huck: Just a suggestion, a procedural suggestion. If we have three things on the table, let's just go one at a time. We discuss what it is, we'd vote on it, and then we move to the next one. So we have a general outline of what it looks like. We have three things, let's just go down the list and that way we know exactly what it is that we're approving or not, and then we move to the second one, third and however many, and that way we can be efficient and just bang this out. [2:10:11] Chair (Councilor Huck): Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay going step-by-step process. Councilor Mahoney, were you about ready to say something? [2:10:19] Councilor Mahoney: Yeah, I'm skin that skin in a different way. I was gonna say, I don't think we need to do the resolution tonight. I would agree like that. We'd want to have a little bit more time to do that. It seems to me that the two specific actions would be in order that direct staff to make a filing tomorrow in support of the motion to have a separate phase. necessity which would slow the process down if it's successful, and then the second one would be I don't know if it's an order, an agreement that chair will work with staff to draft a letter to Central Main Power that summarizes what we've heard tonight from our residents, and I would put the resolution for the for the October 14th meeting that could be used for when we file testimony on the 23rd or 30th one [2:11:25] Councilor Huck: point and then a clarification since we have a resident expert on communications here because the vice chair also be a part of writing the letter with the chair and Nathan and the staff, perfect, and so it would be vice chair and the staff writing the letter to Central Maine's president, and then procedurally if that resolution is approved would we have, would that give us enough time to actually do what we need to do before the deadline, okay, yes [2:12:06] Chair (Councilor Huck): Nathan, yeah, I could [2:12:07] Nathan (Town Manager): actually see the resolution would be, could be long and it could almost be cut and paste submitting the testimony, so I think we would be ready, we would have time, yeah [2:12:19] Chair (Councilor Huck): Okay, so yeah, it sounds like we have two items then. We have the resolution, which would be again with staff and the file, and then also the letter, which come from vice chair Councillor Morton, myself, and then certainly with a lot of help from the staff as well as we put that together. So the first item then, kind of going down Councillor Diaz's suggestion here on starting with, I would ask for a motion for a order for resolution. Yes, Councillor Mahoney. [2:12:55] Councilor Mahoney: I think the first is a motion to suspend the rules. [2:12:59] Chair (Councilor Huck): Oh yeah, sorry, yes, you have to suspend the rules first. So I would, yeah. [2:13:02] Councilor Mahoney: Territory here. So I would move to suspend the rules for purposes of in order yep okay you have a second on the suspension of rules [2:13:12] Nathan (Town Manager): Okay for the record it's section 11 of your rules, section 11, thank you so [2:13:23] Chair (Councilor Huck): Yeah just to bring it back to go make it official so ask for an order to suspend the rule section 11 so moved so moved and have a second counselor Morton all right, now I'd like to ask for a motion for the rules. [2:13:42] Councilor Mahoney: We move, so we have to vote on that, don't we? [2:13:45] Chair (Councilor Huck): Oh, for the actual first, yes. Yeah. Okay, so yes, here we go with the official vote for the suspension of the rule, Section 11. And that is unanimous. Now we're moving on for the actual vote of the resolution in order to order the file. Do I have a motion on that? [2:14:06] Britt: That oh we have a discussion point yes question so the motion was to it was specifically around establishing need or to provide a more thorough analysis around need correct could we also include additional information on the route and design and essentially what practical evaluation went into the proposed route that is being established is there or does it I know it need is the most important so if we leave it there that's fine I'm just curious is this also the opportunity to ask for more Information and maybe Adam you have justification around that already but I have not been privy to it well I think [2:14:52] Adam Causey: This filing is to support the motion from a RI on the extra steps right that's what this would resolve to do and then specific to need is my question [2:15:01] Britt: Yeah we would not want to expand it beyond that is my question we could put it in [2:15:07] Councilor Mahoney: There, but it wouldn't have any bearing on what the PVC is going to do. They're just going to make this decision on the motion to establish a threshold merits phase, so they're not going to make any order to CMP to provide that. So, but I think the letter to CMP needs to make that statement that you said, so not only do we want a merits phase, but we need more information that we can share with our residents going forward. So no, that's [2:15:44] Chair (Councilor Huck): helpful, thank you. So let's go back to any, I want to make sure we have any last comment before I put a motion and for the resolution, any other last comments? No, this is just the resolution for the, to order the order, just in order. Yeah, sorry, we going through a lot of different terms here. Motion for [2:16:12] Councilor Mahoney: an order, so I would move for an order that would authorize the chair and the vice chair to work with staff to draft and send a letter to Central Maine Power that conveys the information that we've heard here from residents today, that conveys the sense of disappointment, anger, frustration that's palpable, to convey the request for more information about the routes, how the routes were chosen, what the alternatives are, and that letter be sent once the chair, vice chair and staff have agreed on the content of it. Did you get all that, Julie? Sorry. Long-winded, yeah, hey,, wait a second. [2:17:19] Chair (Councilor Huck): Good, in the best of ways. Yes, that was, all right, so there was a motion in there. And we have a second. All those in favor of the order? And that is unanimous. All right, now moving forward with the, [2:17:44] Ash Oberholzer: we still have a motion, because we still have, [2:17:49] Chair (Councilor Huck): we have the letter but we also wanted to do the order for the file as well, so do I have any discussion on that item before we jump in? Just do we need to do [2:18:00] Nathan (Town Manager): another motion to suspend? I was gonna do a friendly sort of suggested point of order that your initial waiving of the rules was to cover both of these items and let the record reflect that, okay, [2:18:17] McCormick: so [2:18:21] Chair (Councilor Huck): the yes, so the initial order, the suspension of the rules was both for the order and for and for the resolution in the second order, yes, okay. So without, under that, under that umbrella of, yeah, that's right, kind of come of the right words here for this one. Do I have a [2:18:48] Councilor Mahoney: do I have a motion? All right, yes, so I would move that town staff file a motion, file support for the motion to establish a threshold merits phase in the Public Utilities Commission docket two zero two five zero two seven six. Wow [2:19:18] Chair (Councilor Huck): Thank you, Councillor Mahoney. And do I have a second? And Councillor Morton. All right, all of those in favor, unanimous. All right, do we have any other last [2:19:33] Councilor Huck: comments regarding this item? Councillor Diaz. I know just a curveball, but since we do have a lot of residents that are informed and interested in participating and not seeing this through, Nathan, the question is for you. Has the town ever worked with a group of residents collaboratively, sharing notes, and just in some way so that we can advance this forward? It seems to me a little not as efficient if we're doing our thing and they're doing their thing. [2:20:09] Nathan (Town Manager): Is that possible, what that would look like? I think it's starting to happen almost organically. We've been working with Jamie and Anya and others, and Adam has, so I would say the answer to your question is we can, we can continue to do that and make it even more efficient. We'd be happy to have a, you know, one point, I think one, if it's Jamie or for somebody else, and Adam's going to be our point, and we can certainly do that. So could I then move for another order to tell [2:20:39] Councilor Huck: the staff to work directly with them just so that it's clear? Would that be overkill thing? Okay, let's not overkill it, but at least the record shows the best intent [2:20:53] Nathan (Town Manager): as it is today. Thank you, and I'll give a thumbs up, and I understand that. Yeah, thank you, Counselor [2:20:59] Chair (Councilor Huck): ideas any other last comments regarding this item okay we'll go ahead and move along yep yeah this has to be at the microphone I 'm really sorry for [2:21:29] Jamie Batista: breaking protocol. I have been trying to stay buttoned up on this. There are a couple of points that I just want to make sure the council is aware of. Maybe dealing with them in sequencing that you'll be tackling them. Submitting, sending a letter to the president of CMP might as well not happen if you don't put it in the case record. So the unintelligible docket system that the PUC has from the dawn of computers, you have to file it there or send it to the PUC. Otherwise, it will not be in the case record, and it will not be seen by the PUC. We as an organization are trying not to be salacious. We are trying to present ourselves as an advocacy organization that is moving towards 501c4 status. Our goal is the same as yours, to get information out there and make informed decisions as a community. It is crystal still clear that you understand the importance of this approaching deadline, because once it passes, and we cannot wait for the 30th, we have to solve for the 23rd. Once it passes, that is the sum total of information that can be considered when making a decision on the certificate of public need. CMP's objective is to get to that point with as much ambiguity in their process, the project, and the proposed outcomes as possible. If we do not buy more time and we do not act on this, they will win. The cards are so stacked against us. Anya initiated this process with her partner, Joseph, and the other interveners three and a half weeks ago. The people in this room, in our spare time, overnight, on weekends, time that I could be spending with my children, I'm working a full-time job. I have two children that I take twice a week each to occupational therapy. They need more from me. And yet I'm spending 40 hours a week on this, and I think you can see the passion that I have for my community, my neighbors, and the people of Falmouth. I'm sorry that I cannot abide the process, and I don't say this to diminish the passion that you're showing here today. I can't tell you how much I value it, starting with you, Councilwoman Morton, showing up at our house, hearing us, walking the line with us, you, Councilman Hatch, coming to our block party, spending time with our families, you, Councilman Vance, showing up at that meeting, taking concrete action, it means the world to us. I just need you to understand that if we don't do things differently and we don't move fast, this will go forward. I will leave this community. They will leave this community. Many of these people will leave this community. Again, I don't mean to castigate anyone. I was hoping for time on the agenda so that I could come before you today and give you the information that you're asking for. We have it. We have been doing the work. We hired a technical expert who is paying out of her own pocket to represent us. We're filing for intervener funding. She is likely not to be paid out of that pot of money. We are trying to raise money to pay her for her time and her attention. But we are so late to this. The cards are stacked so against us. And we need you to help, and that is what I would have said if I didn't come here with my air I had on, if I came with my Jamie Batista, resident of Falmouth, on. I want to thank you for listening to me, and I want to thank you for hearing me. [2:25:35] Chair (Councilor Huck): Out. Thank you. Okay. Yeah, try to keep our applause to a minimum. We're gonna move on to the next item. That was item number one on the agenda. Want to take a little, want to take it just a few minutes to recharge our batteries a little bit? Okay, we'll be right back. All right, let's, we're gonna jump on in back item number two on the agenda, which is the consent agenda, and this is in order to approve the minutes of the August 10th, 2026 special town council meeting, as well as in order to approve the minutes of the August 24th, 2026 town council meeting. There is a public comment period that's been included with this item. Thank you very much. Closing the door. Not seeing anyone here to, on this, is there anyone who is attending remotely who would like to speak to the consent agenda not seeing anyone would like to then bring this back to the council is there any discussion regarding the consent agenda from the august 10th and august 24th council meetings not seeing any would then like to ask for a motion to approve this is order 27-2027 and order 28-2027 for the so moved do i have a second count okay councillor diaz all of those in favor of the consent agenda and that is unanimous moving on item number three this is a report from staff council committees and council liaisons regarding updates on assignments and projects. I'd like to ask if there are any committee reports at [2:32:31] Councilor Vance: this time. Go ahead and, Cancer Tracy, do you want, just so you want committee [2:32:38] Councilor Mahoney: reports before liaison reports? Yeah, we get little start there. All right, so we had a Shellfish Conservation Committee meeting last Thursday. Deputy Sergeant Pardue was with us, and Harbormaster David Young and Assistant Harbormaster Michelle. So it was a great group of engaged citizens that are on this committee. We reviewed the, or we had a brief conversation about the UMaine Machias with the Downeast Institute presentation they had for us last year on soft shell clam recruitment monitoring network. Network. So boxes, a series of boxes all up the coast of Maine to try to understand, it's, you know, some green crab invasive species and what's actually growing. Do we actually have soft shell crabs, but we don't actually see them because they're being eaten by others. So anyway, they have these boxes in all up and down the coast, and they are removing the boxes October 26th at 5.30 a.m. If anybody is interested in putting on some really heavy waders or muck boots, it'll be right at the bridge at Mackworth, at the beginning of the bridge. And they put them in last April. We were hoping to have more, you know, maybe some student groups and others, but I think it was April vacation, so the timing didn't work out very well. But I've been told, and I live there, so I know, the muck is pretty ferocious. So if anybody wants to go, you're welcome to go, but be prepared that the muck is really difficult to walk in. So October 26th at 5.30, they're pulling them out, and then hopefully we'll get more information about what we are seeing for softshell clams and other species that will that fall into this box grow in this box can't get eaten out of this box and they'll count them and all kinds of information so it'll be kind of interesting there was some conversation about a carina mickey motoi algae bloom that if you've been up to Cumberland. You can see it in the Broad Cove area in Cumberland. It smells pretty bad. It's brown and dead aquatic animals, dead clams. And all the way up to Brunswick, Harpswell, it's further out. But it's not harmful to humans. I appreciate that Richie Garrett, the chair for the Conservation Commission, or the Shellfish Conservation Commission, has been sending me some information, and they are, it's one of those that nobody really knows how an algae bloom forms, but they can see it, and they are continuing to monitor it. It is not, as far as I know, here in Falmouth. They have closed some of the clam flats in the area of Brunswick and Harpswell, but nothing around here. So if you hear anything about the But the algae bloom, lots of people know about it, and they're talking about it, trying to figure it out. So anyway, it was an interesting group and interesting conversation. And then we'll get on the council agenda next time to approve the licenses that we approved, that the council approved before December. Something else. We have to get it technically approved. [2:36:34] Councilor Vance: Thank you, Councilor Tracy. That was it. It's good news. [2:36:37] Chair (Councilor Huck): Anything else regarding council committees? Council? Yes, Councilor Vance. Thank you, Councilor Arc. [2:36:46] Ash Oberholzer: Sustainability Committee met. Unfortunately, I didn't have a quorum, but still had a good conversation. A lot of the committees, as well as Conservation Committee that I'm liaison on, were reviewing how Community Fest and things like that went. Went but the kind of interesting takeaways for me from San Juli what that the community guard sale was considered a real success and they're thinking about doing it again. Staff was willing and interested in doing that said some conversation about what that should look like you know how to avoid it turning into sort of residents get rid of things sort of event and stuff like that but general excitement about that. Some good feedback from for Amanda around how energy coaching signups are going on With us apparently leading the, air sets competition among local townships that they may not realize they're involved in, but, that our staff is definitely tracking. Some of us, actually talked about volunteering. Those of us who'd had a significant work done on our homes recently to, do some walkthroughs and stuff like that. So exploring that, and then had an interesting kind of conversation at the end around, the removal of bottle and can redemption at the Shaw's and whether that was legal under Main statute. So we did a little research on that and looked into it and like, you know, what are the thresholds around that? And so looked into 38 MRS 3106, which states that a dealer operating a retail space above 5,000 square feet may not refuse to accept it, but they may assign a redemption Center within 10 miles and so that's the suspicion of what's happened that Shaw's is able to do that so we had some fun conversation about that and then over on Conservation Commission again you know reviewed some things or a community fest other than things like that the success of having native plants provided to people was Noted people were really excited to get access to that we also looked at invasives mappings which are being done across the town we looked to the example from the town forester for Pine Grove which I believe is having invasives management done presently and so by the end of the year I believe the entire invasives mapping for town and open space should be done so that should be pretty exciting also discussed as you were there counselor Hawke about pesticide ordinance and other things like that With the group and what some possible ideas are for tackling and that down the road. So those are words, but in general, both those committees also going through work item assignments and things like that came out of our work plan today. So thanks. Thank [2:39:23] Chair (Councilor Huck): you, Counselor Vance. Is there anything else regarding, again, these are council committees, [2:39:28] Councilor Vance: council liaisons? Anything else? Yes, Counselor Tracy. Thank you. I will, my liaison role [2:39:37] Councilor Mahoney: with Public Works, we continue to meet regularly on Wednesdays working on site planning, almost there. We've had four meetings anyway on site planning, you know, ways to drive plow trucks in a circle and fill them with salt and get them back out on the road, you know, on a, you know, a property that isn't changing. So, you know, so anyway, it's been interesting, and we are close. I think VHB would like to get before the planning board in November. November, so and they are saying that is still the plan that they expect to be able to do that. So you know Mark at Port City says he's pretty close, pretty much done on the schematic design. I think the Public Works department has been, you know, in conversation with him about, you know, the different rooms and upgrading things, you know, changing things around just a smidge to make a little bit more space in some areas. And then we did get the conversation, we're looking for schedule and costs in our next month or two, and the conversation is that we are on schedule and obviously expect to be on budget. So you know, starting with early spring construction start next year, so everything is moving forward on the Public Works project. And speaking of Public Works, I wanted to throw in a thank you from the Tidewater neighborhood. I know we all got a bunch of emails from them a number of weeks ago, and I appreciate that Public Works and the police department walked through, made some suggestions on signs. Obviously, we passed the change in the ordinance, and the signs are up, and the Tidewater neighborhood has cleaned the area that they were there. They mowed, you know, I think they cut some grass and cleaned things up a bit. And so I did get some thank yous from some people at the Tidewater neighborhood for, the signs and that it did, it has made a difference. And last but, well, not least, not last but next, the fire station liaison role with Chief Rice and Assistant Chief Colin Shea. We had four, well, so August 6th we sent out the RFQ. Well, the RFQ was available for any and all to look at. August 19th we had 13 firms attending our site meetings at both, we went to both fire stations. And it was mandatory that if you were going to bid, you needed to be at those site meetings on August 19th. So of the 13 firms that attended, the deadline was September 11th. We had four firms submit proposals to us. So we decided to interview. RFQ said we were going to interview three, but we decided to go with all four since there was only four. So we, on September 21st interviewed all four of the firms. It was a great process. You know, we had a good crew of a good slate of questions. We sent them the slate of questions, and expected them to bring the information back to us. It was a great day. And we, selected, I am allowed to say that, right? We, selected Port City, to work with for our fire stations based on you know the process we went through and their extensive degree of experience in fire stations so it was a great process I look forward to working with chief rice and assistant chief Colin and get running on our CMR selection and everything else so good great Thank You councillor Tracy [2:43:46] Chair (Councilor Huck): Anything else just a couple quick items oh yes nathan did you want if you want last word i [2:43:53] Ash Oberholzer: Can go now or i'll yeah you go ahead you go ahead well you might be talking about what i was [2:43:59] Chair (Councilor Huck): Going to talk about well i'll go ahead and start talking and if you have something different then you can say that too so no i was just going to say that tomorrow falmouth elementary school at six o'clock. The Greater Portland Council of Governments is helping to facilitate a regional meeting with counselors, school board members, town managers, and superintendents from Freeport, Falmouth, Cumberland, Yarmouth, North Yarmouth, and we'll be looking at potential ways to collaborate and regionalize aspects of our services, staff, and infrastructure structure to hit economies of scale, and reduce cost taxes while maintaining quality of services. We're looking at creative ways to maximize tax dollars in all of our respective communities. So more information on that will be forthcoming. The second item is just that on Thursday, October 22nd, the churches and faith communities in Falmouth are hosting a Falmouth Community Supper. It is free and open to all residents in Falmouth and will be from 5 to 7 o'clock at the Falmouth Congregational Church. Dinner will include roast turkey dinner with all the fixings, including apple crisp and ice cream. Any donations received at this event will benefit the Falmouth Food Pantry. So just those two items. And, Nathan, if your item was different from one of those two, take it away. [2:45:21] Nathan (Town Manager): It's going to be an expansion of one of them. Okay. So I'm glad you did go first. So the regional meeting tomorrow night, and I know you don't keep up with all of the communications that I try to send out to you. So when they scheduled this meeting and I was involved as one of the part of the lead group, the one day I couldn't make was tomorrow. And so I will not be there tomorrow night. I was I'm listed, I think, on the agenda to do the presentation on all the things that we are currently doing together and that we have done in the past. That presentation is going to be broken into two. Two people are going to take it. Matt Sturgis, the Cumberland town manager, is going to take all areas with the exception of fire, EMS, police, and wastewater. And Chief Rice, because Maggie's not available either, so Chief Rice is going to be your token town manager at the meeting tomorrow night. And like I said, he's going to take public safety and wastewater. Water and he's doing a good job prepping it. Put a little PowerPoint together, we gave him a hand. So if that looks a little different for you tomorrow night, that's why. Yep, you know, it's it's Amy's just been out of the operations side of things, you know, for a few years now, and I did consult with her. I didn't want to, you know, buy bypass the chain, but Chief Rice is was very familiar with a lot of these things, and he'll do a fine job. Great, thank you, Nathan. [2:46:52] Chair (Councilor Huck): Anything else? Okay. And so, with that, we will then, close out item number three on the agenda and move on to item number four, which is an introduction of an ordinance to amend the general assistance ordinance appendices A through H to amend maximum levels of income and expenses for general assistance program. Chapter six, article six, section 6.6, a Dependencies A through H of the Falmouth Town Ordinance in order to set a date for the public hearing. This is to outline the overall maximums, food maximums, housing maximums, utilities, heating fuel, and personal care and household supplies, and funeral maximums, respectively. These levels are established as a matter of state law based on certain federal values that are made effective on the first day of October each year, and therefore must be adopted by the town council annually. There is a public comment that's been clued with this item. I'd like to extend invitation person anyone extend that invitation anyone who's attending remotely. Not seeing any hands raised, so there is an order. This is just a scheduled public hearing which will be on October 26th, so do I have a motion? Yes, Counselor Tracy, and do I Do I have a second? Oh, thank you, Councilor Vance. [2:48:18] Councilor Mahoney: Yes? Can I just ask a question before we vote? Just in light of what we're all expecting to be a really difficult winter on heating oil for low income, when we meet on the 26th, I'd love just to have a little more information about, or information that we could provide as part of the heating oil assistance in particular. as part of the ga and maybe we could put something on the falmouth news or the falmouth website on [2:48:52] Nathan (Town Manager): resources that other resources that people could tie into we'll certainly dig into that but i have not got any updates on the federal funding for heating fuel assistance and that's that's different than ga but ga is it's it's really it's so individual family and applicant specific what their needs are i don't think that would work what you're suggesting on heating fuel i will say in some years the town has dedicated some money for heating oil assistance and but it used to use opportunity alliance to help distribute that so let me look into what the options are before we commit to something I don't I need to get a little bit of Intel that's great that's really what I was asking yes so yeah not to change this we'll investigate and then and then get back [2:49:49] Chair (Councilor Huck): to you thank you I was kind of wondering something similar it was like what 50 cent 56 cents a mile and I know that gas prices in a similar way have gone up dramatically and how is inflation impacting some of these rates that we've been kind of tied [2:50:04] Councilor Mahoney: To yeah, yes, Counselor Trace. So I mean, heating oil and you know, obviously again, I think Dottie at the food pantry has a lot of that conversation. We certainly could ask Paige. I know Paige is actually at the Cumberland Town Council meeting tonight. She's the GA administrator for 14 or 15 communities. And so in talking with Page, you know, just for your information, you know, we looked at the August 2026 information on Falmouth. We have about 180 individuals on SNAP, you know, which is about 37,600 issued in August compared to August 2024 where we had 245 individuals, and we were issuing $48,000. So our people, I mean, and, like, life didn't change in those two years. You know, we didn't have that many people jump dramatically up. It's just the federal policies have cut out a lot of people off of the SNAP program. So, for sure, I mean, we can look at just, you know, simple data from August of two years ago to August now and see the dramatic difference of the SNAP numbers. So the food pantries certainly are, you know, doing our best to give as much food as we can. I mean, that's what I always say when, you know, when I'm at the pantry is I'll give you all the food I can give you so that you can spend your money, your limited money on you know heating oil or other things and we do try to work through the churches to for the churches to help as well paying you know they will often pay for to fill an oil tank or you know there are some wood banks around that you know will provide wood so I think you know you almost have to it really certainly has to be a system-wide conversation about how we can help, you know, these friends and how we can continue to reach out because these people that have fallen off of the SNAP cases because of new federal requirements still can come to the food pantries. But I think, you know, I think it's confusing. I think where, you know, what people are eligible for, I think confusing whether you're eligible for TANF or you're You're eligible for SNAP or you're eligible for any of the other federal programs or just the food pantries in town. So maybe we can try to, I don't know, I don't want to say market things, but, you know, somehow get more information out. So. [2:52:54] Chair (Councilor Huck): Okay. So, yes, we still have, again, approve for an order 29-2027, which is, again, just to schedule the public hearing for October 26th. So I think, again, we had a motion and a second. So all those in favor or 29 2027, that is unanimous. So that closed out item number four. That moves us to item number five on the agenda, which is in order to go to executive session pursuant to the laws of Maine to discuss real estate rights pursuant to one MRSA 4056 C. So with that we will then move on to executive session and all those we don't need a motion. Okay, all those in, do I have any discussion? All right, oh yeah, no yeah, so move, I just wanted it, yes, all right, that was fast. Okay, all those in favor or 327 don't executive session, thank you