Josh Gerritsen is seeking one of two three-year term positions, June 2017 to June June 2020, on the Lincolnville Board of Selectmen, Assessors and Overseers of the Poor.

Please provide a short biography of yourself.

I grew up in midcoast Maine and left to pursue a career elsewhere, like many young people do. I got a degree in Environmental Studies at Skidmore College and worked as a photographer in New York. After a decade away from Maine, I realized Lincolnville was where I wanted to settle down. I moved back and started a farm called Donkey Universe Farm. I have transitioned to working as a filmmaker full-time making documentary and narrative films. I have served on the Lincolnville Lakes and Ponds committee for the last two years and have been the chair of transfer station's citizens committee, known as Waste Watch, since the beginning of the year. I have also served on county and state committees for the Maine Democratic Party and played an active role shaping how Lincolnville handles its trash for the next 20 years.

What are the most pressing issues facing Lincolnville today, and how would you like to see them resolved?

Besides the harbor, the LSD sewer system, and the future of our transfer station (which I address below), Lincolnville needs more access to high-speed internet. I am one of the few people that has Lincolnville Telephone's fiber optic service running down my street, and it has allowed me to make a feature film based out of my home. This would have been impossible with slower transfer speeds. More and more jobs require reliable high-speed internet and Lincolnville could be a leader in our area in this regard. We need to encourage more fiber optic running up and down our streets and figure out a way to make it more affordable.

We should also transition to electronic versions of the packets for the Board of Selectmen, or at the very least make copies available at every select board meeting. It's challenging to follow what's going on in select board meetings with just the agenda in your hands. There are pages and pages of background information for every agenda item that is crucial to grasping the issues being discussed. Camden and Rockport post their board packets online the weekend before their meetings, and we should as well.

In addition, online streaming and archiving of select board meetings needs to be implemented. If we want to get more people involved with local government and increase transparency, we need to make it easier to watch the meetings and follow along. When I brought myself up to speed on the solid waste issue last year, it was only possible because the Midcoast Solid Waste (MCSWC) Board of Directors streamed their meetings and archived the recordings on the web. I was able to binge watch over ten hours of their meetings in one week to understand the issue. We can't expect people to drive down to the town office to watch a past meeting when they could do it from their homes.

Finally, I fully support food sovereignty ordinances that have been passed in eighteen municipalities around the state, including Hope and Appleton. If LD 725, An Act to recognize local control regarding food and water systems, overrides the governor's promised veto and becomes state law, I will push hard for food sovereignty in Lincolnville. This would allow you to purchase food produced by your neighbor without regulations standing in your way. Being able to sell food to your neighbor without state regulations is something we've done for hundreds of years in this country and I think it's important we allow that to happen again.

How will you protect the municipal taxpayer as you help shape a municipal budget, and juggle various interests that request municipal spending through the year?

When shaping the municipal budget, it's crucial to balance the needs of the community while not increasing the financial burden on our citizens. I would look to the past year's budget and see how well that served the community, only spending more when it would benefit the the majority of citizens in Lincolnville.

It has been said that Lincolnville's best asset is almost a private facility, and that is the harbor. It's a contentious issue between the fishermen and other boaters, with some feeling like it's dangerous to try and sail or motorboat in and out of the harbor. How would you open the discussion and work toward making the public harbor a real public harbor for all?

The draft harbor study from Collins Engineers has given us a solid framework for how we should move forward with the harbor. We have a real opportunity to expand the use of our harbor and bring in more users from Lincolnville and beyond. We need to change how the harbor is managed to remove any real or perceived conflicts of interest. We all agree that we need fair and equal access to our harbor for fisherman, citizens, and visitors alike. One of the first things we should do is create an online booking system for our two town moorings. As of now, there is no user-friendly system for visitors to book the moorings, so they sit unused for most of the year. It's very important that once the final version of the harbor study is released, every Lincolnville citizen, especially users of the harbor, read the entire thing without prejudice. There will be hard truths, but the sooner we all acknowledge something needs to change at our harbor, the sooner we can move to a more equitable solution for the community.

How do you envision the future of solid waste processing for the four towns; i.e. recycling, waste stream reduction?

I have been deeply committed to recycling my entire life. Since last spring, I have attended almost every MCSWC Board of Directors meeting. I have been the chair of the transfer station's citizens committee since the beginning of the year. If elected, I also hope to serve on the MCSWC Board of Directors. We have an incredible opportunity to shape the future of our transfer station this year. The MCSWC Board of Directors is currently working on a facility re-design that could save us over $100K a year by trucking larger, heavier loads of solid waste. A re-design is required in order to use new live-bottom trailers but it means less trips to the incinerator and a more standardized truck, allowing for a more competitive bidding process for drivers. I fully support this proposal. We should also switch to single-sort recycling, which means that you can put all of your recyclables into one container. Not only would this make it much easier to recycle and raise our recycling rates, but it would give us more room at the transfer station for other projects.

I also strongly support expanding our swap shop to a larger space with extended hours, including Saturday, to ensure we are capturing all of the reusable items that people bring to the transfer station. I want to implement a system where salvageable items are diverted from the landfill and metal bin to the swap shop. When you walk into the swap shop, not only should you have the usual wonderful assortment of items waiting for you to choose from, but building supplies as well. No one in our four towns should have to buy cardboard and packing supplies when they need to ship something. The swap shop should have it all. And finally, we should have an after-hours drop-off bin right outside the gate of the transfer station for people that can't find the time to get to the transfer station during operating hours.

It's taken a while for the select boards of Lincolnville and Islesboro to reconnect. How do you feel about working with other towns on contentious issues, and are there any examples of issues or potential issues with neighboring towns that you would like to work on during your tenure, if elected.

It's unfortunate that it has taken so long for Lincolnville and Isleboro to reconnect again, but I'm thrilled that our Board of Selectmen have worked diligently to restart this relationship with our friends across the water. Lincolnville should absolutely work with our neighboring towns on issues that affect us all. If I'm elected, I would spend more time working with Camden and Northport to ensure we are doing everything we can to protect our shared water bodies.

Some Lincolnville taxpayers say they don't feel welcome at Coleman and Pitcher ponds, because there is no real public access point, among other reasons. How do you feel about the Lincolnville Comprehensive Plan saying there should be public access to all lakes and ponds in town, but a lack of awareness of that goal by the people who live along Lincolnville's lakes and shores. How will you work to improve that communication and make sure all taxpayers have access?

I have been a member of the Lincolnville Lakes and Ponds Committee for the past two years, and we have taken our charge to expand public access seriously. We have continued to look for properties for sale on these water bodies that could become public access points. However, the town collectively needs to decide if acquiring properties is worth our tax dollars. As a select board member, I would continue to work with the Lakes and Ponds Committee to keep looking for public access points. I would also work very hard to educate the public about how important it is to protect our precious water bodies. Our lakes and ponds in Lincolnville are a treasured resource, and we need to stay vigilant about protecting them against nutrient runoff and invasive species. It is all of our responsibility to protect them.

What is your opinion on the Select Board asking voters to raise and appropriate $25,000 to establish a Wastewater Capital Reserve Account in lieu of asking voters to approve the Lincolnville Sewer District's request to help pay a portion of bond payments ($19,035 for 10 years) for its project to build a larger sewer system at the beach and extend the system further up Route 173.

I strongly support the Select Board's decision to ask voters to raise and appropriate $25,000 to establish a Wastewater Capital Reserve Account. At first, I was very skeptical about asking the town to help pay a portion of bond payments for a private sewer system. However, after doing a lot of research, listening to the stakeholders, and attending select board meetings where it was discussed at length, it's pretty clear to me that it's essential for the health, safety, and growth of Lincolnville for this sewer system to be built. First off, $3.35 million dollars in grants and low-interest loans have been awarded to build this system that will serve 66 homes and businesses. If they don't receive help from the town, these grants and loans will expire by the end of the year, and they won't be able to build the system. At some point, there will be a catastrophic failure and the town will have to step in, spending substantially more than $19,035 for ten years. The reason the select board is asking for $25,000 is because this wastewater capital reserve account could also be used for future wastewater projects, like in The Center. A robust sewer system in Lincolnville Beach would allow existing businesses to expand and convince entrepreneurs to start up more businesses down there. I know at least one couple that was scared off from buying a property to develop at Lincolnville Beach because of the lack of a sewer system. If we took away this roadblock, the beach could go back to being the thriving economic center that it once was.

Related link:

• Lincolnville Board of Selectmen candidate: Sanford Delano