Lincoln County commissioners voted, 3-0, April 16 to make the district attorney’s office more efficient. Commissioners approved spending up to $2,993 to provide the five office employees more privacy by dividing a room with a new wall. County Administrator Carrie Kipfer told commissioners the current situation made doing individual work difficult. “When someone is on the phone everyone hears the conversation,” she said. “We have our witness advocates calling witnesses preparing for trial, and found they needed a more secluded location.”

The renovation calls for installing a wall and door. 

In other action, commissioners accepted district attorney paralegal Nicole Gilbert’s resignation. Her final day is April 24. Her upcoming departure has created more changes in the DA’s office. The remaining office personnel proposed changes. The new policy reassesses office workload and restructures staffing. The office supervisor and a paralegal position will be combined. A second paralegal will also be hired. Commissioners accepted the proposal and agreed to post for a second legal secretary.

Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission will soon welcome a new employee and two summer interns. Commissioners approved hiring Curtis Brown of Portland as the new land use and transportation planner. Executive Director Emily Rabbe told commissioners Brown would focus on assisting towns with ordinance writing, implementing LD 2003 changes, and other housing policy changes.

For the past six years, LCRPC has hired an intern from Margaret Chase Smith Foundation. In 2024, the commission will hire a second intern. Madelyn Kennedy of Winthrop graduates from a Nova Scotia college this spring. She will work with County Community Resilience Planner Laura Graziano assisting municipalities on climate sustainability programs. The second intern position was created to work on local road planning. 

Alan Wang graduates from Bates College this spring. He moved to Lewiston from the People’s Republic of China. Rabbe reported he will work with Damariscotta and possibly a second town inventorying and mapping municipal rights-of-way. “He will be digging through centuries old records figuring out where town property begins and ends which is important for placing sidewalks,” she said. 

Both interns begin work on May 28.

Commissioners also approved a $12,995 purchase order to install a closed-circuit television unit at the Lincoln County Regional Planning Office. The added security system is funded through a federal Homeland Security Grant. Kipfer told commissioners the office qualified for added security funding due to its status as an emergency back-up location for county emergency management agency and communication center. The county will hire Guardian Systems of Maine in Portland to install the inside and outside surveillance camera network.

Commissioners denied a Newcastle couple’s tax abatement request. On April 2, commissioners heard Lina and Frederick Post’s appeal for an abatement between 2019 and 2024. The couple requested a reduction from $3,524 to $2,547 in the 2024 tax bill plus additional reductions dating back to 2018. Commissioners’ written April 16 decision stated the petitioners sought relief because the “building was inhabitable, and the town of Newcastle prohibited improvements in its current condition.”

Commissioners ruled against the appeal because petitioners “did not demonstrate with evidence the fair market value of the property including the building, so it is not clearly evident the property is incorrectly assessed.” Maine state law requires abatement requests to occur within 185 days, so commissioners denied property tax abatement requests between 2019 and 2023. 

Commissioners meet next at 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 7 in the courthouse.