Mount Desert votes to remove fluoride from water

MOUNT DESERT – Voters have decided to remove fluoride from the public drinking water supply and took two nights to finish up the warrant at this year’s annual town meeting.

Apparently, the number of voters at Tuesday night’s open session dwindled below 50, the minimum required by Mount Desert’s town charter, and they had to come back the next night to finish off the warrant.

The fluoride vote on Monday was 229 in favor of removing it and 42 opposed, Mount Desert Town Manager Michael MacDonald said Thursday.

Officials with the Mount Desert Water District had proposed taking fluoride out of the water. Fluoride is most effective when applied topically, they said, and can cause health problems when ingested in large amounts, especially by infants.

Residents also decided to change the date of annual town meeting from the first Monday in March to the first Monday in May in order to improve the town’s annual budget preparation process, according to MacDonald.

The vote on that proposal was 193 in favor and 79 against, he said. The first town meeting at the new date will take place in 2008.

Overall, voters approved a total budget of $12.1 million, including education costs.

Residents also approved a measure for the town to sell the former firehouse on Main Street to the Great Harbor Maritime Museum for $1.

Officials with the museum, which has occupied the building for several years, and the town will have to work out details of other conditions that might be included in the sale agreement, MacDonald said.

The town manager said voters got through about 70 specific proposals in the town meeting warrant Tuesday night before some realized that the number of voters at the meeting had dwindled below 50.

Mount Desert’s charter requires that at least 50 registered voters be at town meeting for votes to be legally binding.

As a result, they adjourned the meeting and reconvened Wednesday night. About 54 or 55 voters reconsidered a handful of the articles that had been voted upon the night before to make sure they passed the town’s legal requirement, and then they finished off the remaining dozen or so articles in the warrant, MacDonald said.

In elections on Monday, James “Rick” Mooers and incumbent Jeff Smith won terms on the board of selectmen. Mooers replaces former chairman Rick Savage who decided not to seek re-election after serving nine years on the board. Heather Jones and Brian Reilly were elected to the school board and Michael Musetti was re-elected as a school district trustee.