by John Dowd
Last week, on Tuesday, September 23, the Stevensville Town Council held a special meeting to deal once again with the 2025/2026 budget, which was finally approved.
Once again, concerns regarding the budget were voiced by council members Wally Smith and Cindy Brown. During the process, the budget spreadsheets were displayed and Robert Underwood, a town finance officer, answered questions. One concern that has repeatedly been brought up was a suspicion that the budget did not balance. However, upon scrolling through the figures, Underwood showed that they did in fact add up. “So, this is a balanced budget,” said Underwood. These numbers referred to the estimated appropriations for the year, and the revenue.
Breaking the numbers down, the appropriations estimated for the year are $982,614. The estimated revenue is $940,922. The town’s “spend-down” amount, the amount needed to make sure they do not under-appropriate for the year, is $41,692. The spend-down amount plus the revenue equals the $982,614 figure, which balances the budget. These figures were included in the agenda packet that was available to the public prior to the meeting. However, this was a concern from Smith, who said that these figures had not been available.
It was also explained to council members that the spreadsheet Underwood and staff employees were using was a “working document,” and not the documentation they would be approving. Underwood stated that in fact the council was only approving the appropriations and revenue, items that town officials confirmed the council has had, which are figures that have been unchanged for months.
Council member Sam Bragg spoke, saying, “From what I understand, these are cheat sheets.” She said this referring to Underwood’s “working documents.” Bragg then questioned the council on why they have been “quibbling” over the working documents, instead of the actual documents. She expressed frustration over why issues were being raised over the “cheat sheets,” instead of things in the actual budget.
According to the finance department, the “working documents” are meant to simplify the nearly 80 pages that make up the actual budget. According to Underwood and Town Finance Officer Gina Crowe, the council can come in, along with anybody from the community, and look at those documents for themselves.
After public comment, the council continued to discuss the budget. Council member Stacie Barker said, “I came into town hall for two hours going over the budget with Gina.” Barker said she does not understand these concerns. She wondered why the other council members have refused to come to the town to get things explained.
Council members Smith and Brown remained unconvinced and voted against approval of the budget. However, council members Bragg and Barker voted to approve, with Mayor Bob Michalson voting in favor to break the tie. The budget was finally passed.
Brown stated her reasoning for her no vote was that the town council should have access to the actual budget documents. Smith said his concerns were based on how he was still not convinced that the figures he was seeing were correct.
The public comment period at the beginning of the meeting was also of note. Much of this period concerned the Spring Street repair project. Several to speak voiced how residents were not notified of the water shut-off. It was also claimed that town employees used extension cords to run to private homes without permission. Members of the public spoke on how water “bubbled up from ground.” According to one speaker, Kristin Porter, “We no longer feel safe in our homes,” referring to how town employees from Public Works plugged an extension cord into a private home, without permission.
These allegations were true, and according to Public Works Director Stephen Lassiter, he was the one who plugged into the home. Lassiter gave some background on the leak and what was needed to repair the damage. According to him, Spring Street was repaved last year. During the process, a main line leak was discovered within weeks of finishing the paving. Town officials suspect the old infrastructure may have given way during the paving process, leading to the first leak.
This year, another leak was detected and indeed, “water was bubbling up from the ground.” Town staff believe the leak was unrelated to the first one, but likely due to aging infrastructure. According to Lassiter, much of the Town’s water system includes very old galvanized piping, which is failing throughout the system, and could happen anywhere at any time.
During the break detected the week prior to the September 23 meeting, 42 houses were affected by the leak. According to Lassiter, they quickly scheduled a repair and put flyers on doors 48 hours prior to the repair. During the process, the public works team had to dig into the ground to access the lines. Because of the geology of Spring Street, the holes quickly filled with water, both from the leak, and from the natural environment.
According to Lassiter, that 48-hour notice included stating that the water would be shut off for the repair, meaning that a large portion of the water that quickly filled the holes was natural once they dug to a certain depth. Lassiter said they brought with them a pump and a generator to quickly effect the repair, pulling the water out of the holes. Without the pump, accessing the lines and completing the repair “would be impossible.” Unfortunately, their generator would not work, and they already had the repair scheduled, the street blocked and everyone inconvenienced by the project.
“Our main priority was restoring the water to everybody on that street,” said Lassiter. He accepts responsibility as the one who went to plug into the individual’s home, who at the time it appeared was not home. “I take full responsibility.” Later in the week, town officials visited residents of Spring Street to hear and resolve any concerns. The questions posed during the meeting, and concerns from the individuals whose home was tapped for power, appeared to have been resolved.
Finally, during the public comment period of the budget part of the meeting, Sue Devlin spoke, concerned about the number of misspellings in the minutes from the last meeting. “I had given up with all the misspellings,” she said. She then proceeded to read aloud a number of these, for several minutes. “This is something that’s going to go down in the records, and nobody bothered to use spellcheck,” said Devlin.