Town of Baldwin, Maine
Town Office & Community Center
534 Pequawket Trail, West Baldwin, Maine 04091
(207) 625-3581
BALDWIN TOWN OFFICE HOURS
Monday: 8:00AM - 12:00PM
Tuesday: 8:00AM - 7:00PM
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 8:00AM - 4:00PM
Last Saturday of the Month: 8AM -12PM
*************************************************************************
The Town office accepts Mastercard, Visa, Discover, American Express credit cards. The minimum charge to use your card is $1.00. For a charge $40 and more, a fee of 2.5% will be charged.
**************************************************************************
The Soldier's Memorial Committee is gathering pictures of citizens who served in the military. The pictures will be scanned, returned to their owners and used by the Committee for fund raising/ future programs. Pictures may be left at the Town office or the Historical Society.
Municipal meetings are now available to watch online.
(posted after the meeting cannot be watched live)
Click here
Baldwin, along with, Porter, Parsonsfield, Cornish and Hiram, now belong to the AARP Network of Age-Friendly States andCommunities.
The spearhead for this effort was the
GratefulUndead, a local group of concerned citizens whose mission is to support folks that want to age in place and stay in their homes as long as possible.
BALDWIN COMPREHENSIVE PLAN
The Town’s Comprehensive plan was last updated in 1991. Since then there have been a number of changes to Maine statutes impacting subdivision ordinances, our land use ordinance, and shoreland zoning. In addition, the State expects municipal comprehensive plans to be reviewed/updated at least every ten years. Following is some information on the new Baldwin Comprehensive Plan initiative.
Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission (SMP&DC) has been engaged to update the plan. Baldwin will have an AdvisoryCommittee to interface frequently with SMP&DC and assess first drafts of plan output. The Advisory Committee members are Bob Flint, Jo Pierce, Tracy Grisez, Don Sharp, and Matt Fricker as Chair. A Review Council (Gordon Wentworth, Kathy Pierce, Allan Dolloff, Norm Blake, Laurie Downey, Wes Sunderland and Paul Thomas) will periodically review and provide feedback on the SMP&DC and Advisory Committee work products, with a focus on strategic direction.
The project is planned to be completed over a two year period. There will be a community-wide survey to determine key issues for the plan to address which everyone in Town will have an opportunity to complete. Also, the Town will vote on acceptance of the final Plan results at a Town Meeting.
The initial planning meeting was Thursday, August 4th, 2022. Future meetings will be held at the Town office the 3rd Wednesday of the month (Sept. 21, Oct. 19, Nov. 16,
Dec 21, etc.) at 3:00. Anyone interested in the Comprehensive Planning process is welcome to attend.
**** THE INITIAL AUGUST 4TH MEETING VIDEO IS AVAILABLE TO WATCH ONLINE****
Municipal meetings are now available to watch online.
(posted after the meeting cannot be watched live)
Click here
Notice to Baldwin Residents
The Town of Baldwin Select Board will be working on three separate but interrelated issues in the coming months that could have long term impacts for Baldwin. Last November the town approved $17,300.00 for a study of the fire and rescue services in Baldwin. The draft report has now been reviewed by the Fire Chief and the Select Board and the final version will be available within a few weeks. The report will be made available to anyone interested. The study looked at all aspects of the Town’s fire and rescue operations, personnel, equipment, and infrastructure and recommended a number of changes. Some of the changes will be relatively invisible to residents, others would require long-term financial commitments. The Fire Chief and the Select Board are planning hold public information meetings this summer to discuss these findings and to gauge public support for the various recommendations. As most of you are aware, five solar farms have been approved for construction in Baldwin. Two are already in operation and contributing to the Town’s tax base. Of the three remaining to be built, two are net billing type businesses (they sell directly to the consumer) like those already in operation. The third, Glenvale Solar’s West Baldwin Solar Station is by far the largest and it’s business model differs from the other four in that it would sell its electricity to the PUC as part of the standard offer and it would be taxed differently than the other four projects. In presentations to the Planning Board and the Select Board, Glenvale Solar has indicated it is interested in obtaining a Credit Enhancement Agreement from Baldwin via a Tax Increment Financing arrangement (TIF). A TIF with a Credit Enhancement Agreement would be for the benefit of the developer but a TIF could also have very significant tax revenue benefits for Baldwin. The town should fully understand the issues and then decide how to proceed. We will start with one or more public information meetings in the near future to inform people about the pros and cons plus the process and time lines of a TIF and gauge public response. Finally, a couple new laws were signed this year that were designed to increase housing availability. They apply statewide with little room for local control and have the potential to significantly alter the nature the local community. In addition, the Baldwin’s subdivision ordinance needs to be updated to match state definitions and the Comprehensive Plan is over 20 years old. Therefore, the Planning Board and the Select Board are planning a two-year effort to update the Comprehensive Plan, the Subdivision Ordinance, and any other ordinances as necessary. This effort is envisioned to include citizen input through responses to surveys and committee participation. These updates and revisions need approval by the voters so we need to get it right. Your support is needed. These three issues are interrelated. The Comprehensive Plan could impact zoning, which could impact future areas of development, which could alter the number of fire stations and where they should be built, which could drive a need for more revenue, which may make a TIF attractive. It would be nice to take these one at a time but we can’t. They are upon us now. We thank you for your participation as we work these issues.
Baldwin Select Board
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6TH - SELECT BOARD WORKSHOP
@ 6:00PM
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7TH - SAND POND BEACH COMMITTEE MEETING @ 6:30PM
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8TH - PLANNING BOARD MEETING
@ 7:00PM
Agenda:
Call meeting to order and designate voting members.
Consider the minutes of the previous meeting.
Continuation of consideration of a subdivision in North Baldwin on McNeal family land.
Continuation of consideration of a kennel on Sand Pond Road.
Discussion with the Code Enforcement Officer about our different filing systems. How do we make them more user friendly for him, for us, and for the public?
Discussion about tidying up the Planning Board room.
Adjourn