Town meeting to start Palermo’s 300th year

PALERMO – The start of Palermo’s third century in existence will get under way at this year’s town meeting.

Selectman H. Dean Potter quipped that “taxes will go up” when asked if he had any predictions for the next century.

As an indication that his prognostication might prove accurate, Potter added that the 2005 budget would require a $1 increase to the mill rate if all of the spending items win voter approval at Saturday’s town meeting.

Settled in 1769 and initially known as Sheepscot Great Pond Settlement, the town was incorporated as Palermo in 1804. Local historian Millard Howard said the settlers initially wanted to call the place Lisbon, but the Androscoggin County town of Lisbon beat them to it.

Though the founders decided to name the town after another European capitol, Palermo, in what is now Italy, it didn’t hurt that one of the early incorporators, Enoch Huntoon, had Palermo as a middle name, said Howard.

Other than the municipal and school budget, Potter said the only other matter that should inspire discussion is recycling.

The town is a member of a five-town solid waste district whose transfer station is located in the Knox County town of Union. While some residents take their trash and recyclables to the Tri County Solid Waste facility in Union, most rely on private contractors to pick up their waste. As a result, a lot of items that could be recycled end up in the trash.

“We’re trying to encourage more recycling,” Potter said Saturday. “We could be doing a lot better.”

The article asks the voters to consider hiring a private contractor to provide door-to-door pickups for recycling or having the town establish an area where residents could drop off their recyclables.

The estimated cost for the door-to-door pickup option would be $400 per month, or $4,800 per, year while the cost to have a designated location to deposit recyclables would be $300 per month, or $3,600 per year.

Residents attending the meeting will receive a commemorative town report filled with detail about the town’s first 200 years. The town celebrated its bicentennial last year.

Prepared by J.A. Black Printers of Belfast, the town report features a glossy cover of color photographs of celebratory events that occurred over the past year. Included are photos of the bicentennial parade, the new memorial dedicated to veterans of the Civil War and World War I in Veterans Memorial Park, and the town’s birthday cake.

“We kind of did it as a theme,” Potter said this weekend.

Potter credited Millard Howard and members of the Palermo Historical Society with compiling the historical information contained in the town report. The society was established in 1994, and early meetings were held around the kitchen table of Milton and Virginia Dowe. There, Howard and the others began collecting the numerous resources and historic information.

The society’s mission is to “preserve, record and disseminate the community history, enhance the sense of our culture and build on our reputation as a caring, help-thy-neighbor community.”

As part of the Palermo Bicentennial observance, the society sponsored a re-enactment of the first Palermo Town Meeting of Jan. 9, 1805.

Although many of the town’s records were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1908 at Branch Mills, the society managed to recover some of the information from newspaper accounts and old town reports.

Included in the town report are the names of nearly all of the selectmen who served from 1804 on as well as names of town treasurers, tax collectors, school committee and town clerks.

Though many devoted their time to the community, Clair S. Bradstreet holds the selectman’s record, having been elected for successive terms from 1957 through 1995, a total of 38 years. Walter C. Banson served 15 straight years as treasurer and tax collector from 1971 to 1986. Virginia W. Dowe served 43 straight years as town clerk from 1950 to 1993, and Patricia Glidden served eight straight years on the school committee from 1987 through 1995.

The municipal election will take place from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, March 11, at the Palermo Town Office. The annual town meeting will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday, March 12, at the Palermo Consolidated School.