1-man panel disbanded, but he was never told

ORONO — Meet Stuart Dexter, the Traffic Safety Committee.

Well, at least he was until the Traffic Safety ordinance recently was rescinded by the Town Council, and the one-member committee was disbanded.

The thing is, though, that Dexter has been a little peeved lately because he was never officially notified that the committee was no more, and that the Appointments Committee declined to fill open spots on what was supposed to be a four-member board.

But his resentment was tempered Wednesday when he read that the Appointments Committee also had been slow to fill associate seats on the Planning Board.

“It’s not the Traffic Safety Committee they’re picking on, they’re just not doing their jobs,” he said. “I was starting to get a complex.”

About a decade ago, the committee was formed to advise the Town Council on traffic issues, but was set off with a complicated charge, Dexter said. Recently, two members resigned, leaving only Dexter and three open spots.

The show, however, went on, and Dexter held three meetings as the only member, with the minutes being forwarded to the Town Council. Still, one citizen did attend two of those meetings, he said.

At least there wasn’t any dissent.

It wasn’t that the committee wasn’t doing anything, according to Dexter, it’s just that its recommendations weren’t all that popular. And although the Appointments Committee on Monday offered Dexter a spot on an ad hoc task force being formed to review traffic problems between the town and the University of Maine, he is having none of it.

“It will be a long time until I serve on a committee in Orono,” he said.