Budget, methadone ordinance face E. Millinocket vote

EAST MILLINOCKET – Residents will decide tonight whether to endorse proposed anti-blight and anti-methadone clinic ordinances when they gather for the annual Town Meeting, officials said Monday.

Voters were already filtering into Town Hall on Monday to vote for two open selectman’s seats and a single school committee seat.

About 130 of approximately 1,800 eligible voters had come in as of 2:30 p.m., said Sharon Goddard, election warden.

The town meeting starts at 6 p.m. at Schenck High School, town Administrative Assistant Shirley Tapley said. It is preceded by a selectman’s meeting at 5 p.m.

Except for a portion of commercially zoned Main Street at the western edge of town, mental health and substance abuse facilities such as methadone clinics would be banned if residents approve one of the proposed ordinance changes. The ordinance would go into effect 30 days after the vote.

The ordinance would bar clinics from residential, industrial or mixed zone areas. It would allow permits for clinics in commercial zones if they are more than 1,000 feet from another clinic or school, public library, public park or “youth-oriented establishments” and are not abutting residential zones.

About 53 articles, including a proposed $2.9 million municipal budget, are among the issues residents will decide at the meeting, Tapley said.

The school committee budget is not finished, due to the pending statewide school reorganization plan, and will be the subject of a later meeting.

Another issue to be decided is $30,000 in funding for economic development. The money might go to the Millinocket Area Growth & Investment Council, as it usually does, but is not specifically earmarked for the quasi-public economic development agency because town officials suspect MAGIC might undergo a name change or other change in status over the next fiscal year, Tapley said.