Webster Plantation cites dwindling population as reason to deorganize

WEBSTER PLANTATION – The problem, Theo Jipson says, is a lack of bodies.

With a population of 70 to 85 residents, there simply aren’t enough people living in Webster Plantation, a small hamlet between Winn, Kingman and Springfield, to defray rising taxes, handle the work required to run a municipality, and maintain some semblance of public services.

That’s why Webster Plantation wants to deorganize, if it can.

“The town’s population is decreasing and most of us are elderly,” Jipson said Thursday. “I just think it would be cheaper for the town to deorganize.”

Undeterred by the state Senate’s rejection of Drew Plantation’s attempt to deorganize, town residents want to continue to investigate whether to abandon the town’s status as an organized municipality and become part of the state’s unorganized territories – even if they don’t have much hope of succeeding.

On Monday, the Senate shot down Drew’s effort, and Drew’s census showed about 50 people. Another town that failed in its attempt to deorganize, Cooper, in Washington County, listed about 120 people. With a population between those two towns, Webster Plantation doesn’t seem to have much hope of succeeding, Jipson said.

The lack of population leaves town government a family affair. Jipson is the town’s tax collector. Her husband, Hazen Jipson Sr., and their daughter, Charity Cole, are the town’s assessors and overseers of the poor.

Her daughter-in-law, Robin Jipson, is a former first selectman whose husband, Hazen Jipson Jr., is the town’s road commissioner. He is also a distant cousin of the town’s first selectman, Rachel Worster, Robin Jipson said. All get paid small yearly stipends, not enough to keep people in the same jobs for any length of time.

Webster Plantation has a town office, but it’s usually unstaffed, with most town officials working from home. The selectmen meet twice a month, but there usually isn’t much to talk about.

“I hate to see the town losing its identity,” Robin Jipson said, “but it’s expensive for people here to survive and maintain the town budget. I grew up in Prentiss and that deorganized a few years ago. That was hard to go through. My parents worked there as selectmen or tax collector and treasurer for years.”

The town’s tax rate of 25 mills, or $25 per $1,000 of property value, is higher than most of the surrounding towns, but with fewer people and less money, the town budget doesn’t go very far. The 13 people who attended Saturday’s annual town meeting voted to approve a $37,176 budget, about $3,000 less than last year’s, and to continue to investigate deorganization.

The budget will cover school expenses at SAD 30, among other things, but won’t be nearly enough to hot top the town’s approximately six miles of roads, particularly Tucker Ridge and Pickle Ridge roads. Both are main town arteries and are deteriorating fast, Robin Jipson said.

“My husband fills the potholes,” she said, “but that’s not enough.”

Jipson fears taxes will continue to rise, even if the town’s population doesn’t.