Maxfield residents are urging their neighbors to attend the town’s deorganizing vote on Monday.
Josh McNally and Valerie Harper, two of Maxfield’s 89 residents, said they hope residents will attend the vote to hear from state and county officials about what dissolving their local government entails and discuss whether it’s best for the town.
Maxfield is one of two municipalities in Maine who will vote this coming week on whether to join the Unorganized Territory in the coming years. Highland Plantation, a community of around 50 people in Somerset County, is voting on Saturday. A lack of businesses, young residents and engagement in the town’s Select Board pushed Harper to circulate a petition in October, which gathered 50 signatures, to start the deorganizing process.
The vote is the second step of 12 steps to deorganize — the process in which a municipality ceases to be self governed and becomes part of Maine’s Unorganized Territory. The process can take between one and a half and two years to complete.
The meeting will be held at the Howland Community Center at 6 p.m. on Monday.
McNally, the Central Maine Highlands Fire and EMS District chief, supports dissolving because it makes the “most sense right now.”
“The cost of everything right now, little towns can’t do it,” he said.
Higher prices for services have made the property taxes rise to around $23 per $1,000 in property value.
The town is at a “turning point” that could push residents to dissolve the town, McNally said, but he hopes residents will come with ideas and be open for discussion even if they don’t want to disband.
Residents should come together to talk about alternatives they have thought about, McNally said. He doubts that the town could bring in more population or business to help the tax base but he wants to hear what other residents think.
“We may not pick the right thing, but we have to go forward,” he said.
The most important factors of Monday’s meeting will be if residents attend and if they’re open to discuss their thoughts on the town, Harper said.
“My hope is just to have a really good discussion and then we are going to have a vote,” she said.
Before the vote, residents will hear from state and county officials on the deorganizing process and what it means to be in the unorganized territory. Roughly 20 residents attended the last meeting when officials explained the process.
With more than half the town’s population signing the petition, Harper is hopeful that people will attend the meeting.
“I just want [residents] to come to the meeting, no matter how they feel,” she said.
Harper did not say that she supports dissolving the town but did say she would be “personally concerned” if residents vote no because another vote to disband couldn’t be held for another three years, under state law.
If residents approve moving forward, a five-person committee will be formed at the meeting. Residents will nominate and vote for three committee members from among the attendees. The other two seats of the committee will be filled by a select board member nominated by the other select board members and a school board member nominated by the other school board members.
Harper said she “might be one of the people” on the committee if the vote is approved.
