Happy New Year! 2025 has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? We're embracing the new year and everything in store for the Town of Scarborough. Town Manager Tom Hall speaks to this pointedly in his annual message, which reflects back on the standout moments of 2024 and looks ahead at what's anticipated. We also do a further breakdown on the year "by the numbers", and request your feedback on two important studies that will help shape future funding priorities.

Town offices are closed today, Wednesday, January 1st, for New Year's Day. We will reopen on Thursday at 7:00am.

Town Manager's Message: Looking Back at the Efforts of an Active Community

As 2024 comes to a close, I look back positively on the influence that many engaged community members have had on notable efforts this past year. The year started with fresh results of a community survey—the second in three years—as well as other feedback on various topics from residents ranging from our aging school buildings, to traffic, taxes, and growth.

After the resounding defeat of the school referendum in November 2023, the Town Council prioritized the need to get to a successful solution. Resident sentiment indicated this would only be possible with more voices at the table and a reasonable, pre-defined cost. In response, they partnered with the Board of Education to form an open process, which convened a 70+ member citizen committee last spring to consider how best to move the project forward. They first conducted a survey to better understand why the referendum failed and what elements could lead to success. This initial effort yielded four possible school solutions and a second phase (happening now) to identify the preferred solution. The key difference between the current process and the one prior (2023) is that they are intentionally inclusive and citizen-led, and financial viability is a forethought.

Tom Hall, Scarborough Town Manager

Another outcome from Fall 2023 that brought its way into the start of the year was the continued concerns around the pace of growth. The results of the community survey were rife with this feedback, and the Council understood. The Town had instituted significant changes to the Rate of Growth Ordinance just before the survey, and though it is still in process all indications are that these changes have had a positive impact. At the same time, new and updated impact fees were implemented to ensure that new development appropriately addresses impacts on services (impact fees are fees imposed on a developer by a municipality to support project funding to accommodate growth from the development). The Town Council also championed a 30x30 conservation goal (to conserve 30% of area by 2030) and strongly supported the renewal of the land bond, which was embraced by the voters. These conservation efforts will contribute to curbing growth in Scarborough.

The survey also indicated traffic and transportation as the top concern for residents, another perennial issue along with growth. To this end, the Town has been very active working with private development and government partners to make significant transportation improvements. I am particularly proud of upgrading all traffic signals on the Route One corridor with adaptive technology (AI) that has produced efficiencies and improved resident experiences. Another transportation matter that the Town Council considered was the proposed Gorham Connector, intended to address long-standing traffic congestion in North Scarborough. In response to widespread citizen concerns regarding the proposed alignment and the project in general, the Town Council suspended its support of the project. Congestion problems persist and solutions must be implemented. The Town is committed to involving the public as much as possible in identifying acceptable solutions.

While addressing these resident concerns, the Town was also faced with undergoing a revaluation (required by the State) while also planning the budget for fiscal year 2025. The annual budget process is an opportunity for the Town to translate the needs of residents into actionable steps. In recognition of the revaluation process and the impact on taxpayers, it was designed to minimize impact on taxpayers, while continuing to meet community needs. This is always our objective, but this year it was an evident central theme of all budget deliberations.

Perhaps of lesser impact to most residents, but very impactful for others, the Town Council took the fairly unique step of imposing moratoria in an effort to consider solutions to odor associated with cannabis establishments as well as to consider changes to the Light Industrial zone to protect abutting neighbors. These actions are the most direct evidence of the Town hearing concern from residents and taking action to identify solutions.  

My takeaway when I look back at 2024 and the dialogue through each of these efforts is that our Town government is actively listening and responding to community concerns. This feedback and response loop is essential for good government, and I expect the Town Council and staff will continue to engage residents and respond to the feedback we hear. As we look at what this means for 2025, it doesn’t take a crystal ball to predict that a major focus will be to identify a school solution that residents can get behind. At the same time we will continue to conduct thorough capital project planning to ensure that the community center and library expansion remain important elements in the discussion.

Looking ahead, the completion of an Open Space Plan and a Vulnerability Assessment will set us up for environmental and resiliency planning as major areas of focus in the coming year. These new documents will provide actionable steps to advance the discussion, and investments in this area will be a priority. I am certain there will also be a continued focus on growth and development. Town staff is committed to monitoring growth and conducting analyses to understand its impacts on infrastructure, taxes, and the resident experience. I am excited to see the emergence of the Town Center portion of the Downs Project as part of this monitoring. Our analysis of the project to date confirms that it is exceeding financial expectations, a trend that is expected to continue. This next phase of the project is essential in cementing the legacy of the project. 

Though these are natural areas of outlook for 2025, we rely on community involvement to influence Council direction and action. We look forward to supporting the needs of our Scarborough community and invite you to get involved in the issues that matter most to you. More voices around the table produces better results and who knows, you may be surprised with the responsiveness of your local government.  

Trash/Recycling New Year's Week Schedule

Public Works would like to remind you that there will be changes to your curbside trash collection this week due to New Year's Day. Trash collection will be delayed by one day for Wednesday-Friday pickup days. Monday and Tuesday collection days will remain unchanged.

• If your normal trash collection day is Wednesday, it will be picked up on Thursday.
• Thursday pickup will be on Friday.
• Friday pickup will be on Saturday.
• Collection on Monday and Tuesday will remain unchanged.

*Snowy weather reminder!* If there is inclement weather, please help our plow drivers by placing your trash and recycle carts in your driveway, not on the roadside.

Questions? Contact Public Works at pwinfo@scarboroughmaine.org or (207) 730-4400.

Public Works Tip: What To Do With My Christmas Tree?

With Christmas in the rearview mirror, it's time to toss the tree! Public Works will make their way around town picking up real Christmas trees left on the curbside (no artificial ones) through the month of January. Tree pickup starts the week of January 6th and will be on your normal trash pickup day. Please place it beside your trash bin (not in it) and don't leave it out too far in advance—if it freezes in a snowbank we will not pick it up. Please also be sure that all lights have been removed from the tree. If there is a storm, tree pickup may be delayed as clearing roads will take precedence for our Public Works crew.

That's a Wrap! A Look Back at 2024

And that's a wrap! As the year winds down, we’re taking a moment to crunch some numbers—not the budget kind, but the ones that tell the story of the Town of Scarborough in 2024. From conserved land to committee work and a major election, the numbers show just how much has happened in our active community. Here’s a look at some of the highlights:

$4.3 million: Scarborough public damages (Town infrastructure) that were submitted to FEMA from January 10th and 13th storm damage. Town staff worked long days and nights during the back-to-back January storms that brought historic tides and flooding, particularly affecting coastal neighborhoods. There was significant damage from flood waters to roads, a sanitary pump station, seawalls, and barriers. Natural disasters like the storms that occurred last January are a reminder of the vulnerability of our infrastructure and the fragility of being a coastal community. 

81: Total Town Council and council committee meetings. The Town Council meets twice monthly year-round (once in July and August) and councilors are also appointed to six standing Council committees. In 2024, there were 23 Council meetings and 18 Council workshops to gather further information in preparation for future agenda items. The Finance committee met 14 times, followed by Communications (10), Ordinance (9), Appointments (5), and Rules & Policies (2). All Council committee meetings are open to the public. Let's recognize the dedication of our Town Council this year!

91: Affordable housing units completed in Scarborough this spring/summer. Village Commons is an Avesta Housing redevelopment project at the site of the former Oak Hill public safety complex on Route 1 for older adults with low incomes. Jocelyn Place, a South Portland Housing Authority project near the Little Dolphin plaza, is also an income-limited apartment complex for ages 55+. These affordable housing projects are impactful to the vision for Scarborough to provide much needed housing at a time when the state of Maine is experiencing higher costs of living and limited housing stock. Addressing affordable housing was a goal of the Town Council the past two years, as well as an issue of concern for residents. In the 2023 community survey, 41% of residents indicated affordable housing as one of the most significant issues they think Scarborough will face over the next five years.

25 Yards: Length of the proposed lap pool included in the Community Center Feasibility Study. The Study was presented to the Town Council in late August after several months of work by the Ad Hoc Community Center committee and its consultants. The purpose of the study was to identify program needs (from community input), select sites and create a conceptual layout, and make a final report with projected costs. The programming portion of the study revealed a strong desire for a lap pool sufficient for competitive high school swimming as well as a recreation pool that could host swim lessons and aquatherapy. A lap pool was an anchor of the study from the beginning, and committee members conducted Midcoast facility site visits to assess their use of pools and other components of recreation centers.

23.7%: Percentage of population age 65 and older in Scarborough, according to 2023 estimates from the American Community Survey (released in December 2024). We are the 10th oldest community in Cumberland County. Of the coastal communities in Cumberland County, Falmouth, Cape Elizabeth, Freeport, Harpswell and Long Island have higher percentages of residents 65 and older. Scarborough's median age hit 48.4 in 2023. 

4: Number of concepts recommended to the Town Council for consideration by the School Building Advisory Committee (SBAC). The committee was made up of 70+ community members interested in finding a revised solution to the aging school infrastructure after the former proposed project did not receive voter support. This first phase met from February to June and resumed with Phase II in the fall. 

$7,821,453,300: New total taxable valuation base of the Town, as identified in the latest revaluation. A revaluation is the process of updating all property values in town to reflect their current market value (i.e., to maintain reasonable estimates of what each property could sell for on the open market). The revaluation occurred this past spring, five years after the last revaluation in 2019, in order to remain in compliance with State law. The new total taxable valuation is an increase of $2,678,870,124 from last year.

23%: Amount of the Town of Scarborough that is conserved land, according to the recently published Open Space Plan. The plan was developed by Maine-based landscape architecture, GIS, and planning firm Viewshed and will provide the Town with a set of conservation priorities to achieve its 30x30 goal (to conserve 30% of land by 2030). 2,200 acres (7% of Town area) are needed to accomplish this.

82%: Voter turnout for the November election, equating to a total of 15,270 ballots cast. Just over half of these were cast through absentee ballot. Additionally, there were approximately 700 residents who registered to vote on Election Day. 

Sign Up for CodeRED Alerts

Opt-in only notification system

Sign up for our Town's CodeRED computer alert system for emergency alerts. We occasionally send out an alert for criminal activity, severe weather, road closures, evacuations, and missing persons, but only those who are signed up receive these alerts. It's free and secure to sign up for cell phone alerts. Select how to receive alerts: text, phone call and/or email.

Register for Dog License by January 31

2024 dog licenses expired on December 31st. Register or renew your dog license in person at the Clerk's office or online (If you register your dog(s) online, you will receive your tag(s) at the beginning of the next month). All dog renewals must be completed by January 31, 2025 to avoid a late fee. The cost is $6 (spay/neutered) or $11 (not spayed/neutered). There is an additional $25 late fee after February 1st. To license for your dog, visit the Town Clerk's Office at Town Hall during our business hours, Monday through Thursday from 7:00am-5:00pm.

Why do dogs need to be licensed? Many reasons! Dog licensing ensures rabies vaccination which protects the health of your pet. Fees also go directly to the Maine Animal Welfare Program to fight animal cruelty and abuse, accounting for 95% of the State Animal Welfare Program’s entire funding. Without these fees, the State would be unable to protect the animals of this state.

Pick Up a CLYNK Bag in the Clerk's Office

Lots of cans and bottles from the holidays? Join the Town of Scarborough in a CLYNK Challenge to benefit Project GRACE's fuel program fundraiser. The program offers assistance to community members in need of fuel assistance, especially during the challenging winter months of home heating. Pick up a CLYNK bag in the Town Clerk's office so that your can/bottle returns can support the fund.

Save the Date: Fuel Rally on February 8th

The 13th annual Fuel Rally community fundraiser by Project GRACE will be Saturday, February 8th from 10:00am-Noon at the Scarborough Public Library. The rally raises critical funds for fuel assistance for neighbors in need. Project GRACE is a Scarborough nonprofit with a mission to improve the lives of Scarborough neighbors by identifying both those in need and those willing to share their gifts, and coordinating the interchange in a compassionate, confidential manner.

Community Programs: A Few Spaces Left

SCS offers programs for all ages year-round. Here are a few with spaces still left to participate and the date they begin:

Winter Youth Field Hockey (1/5)

Red Cross Babysitting (1/11); One day only!

Trip to Museum of Beadwork (1/17), Ages 55+

Needle Felted Gnome workshop (1/14)

View details in the Winter Brochure

✨Program Highlight: Red Cross Babysitting Course

Saturday, January 11, 9:30am-3:45pm

$100; Ages 11-14

Register

Learn the responsibilities and qualities of being a good babysitter while in a fun and interactive environment. Upon completion of this course, participants will receive an American Red Cross Babysitting certification. 

Our Winter 2024-25 brochure has arrived and it’s packed with some frosty fun!

Public Safety Specialty Programs

Hands-Only CPR Free!

Wednesday, January 15

6:00-8:00 pm

Public Safety Classroom, 275 US Route One

Free, pre-registration required

The Hand-Only CPR course is designed to teach the basics of performing CPR. The primary focus is on chest compressions to help someone experiencing sudden cardiac arrest. The Hands-Only CPR class target audience is the general public, including those with no prior CPR experience. This course teaches recognition of cardiac arrest, how to perform effective chest compressions, and how to use an AED.

This is one of three upcoming Public Safety courses. View them all here.

Committee Recommends Beach Fee Changes

This past fall, the Community Services Advisory Board reviewed beach fees based on a collection summary of the past few years. Beach fees were last amended in 2017. The Town Council will consider the board's recommendations in February.

Proposed Changes

• Resident season pass would remain at $40. No changes to the additional vehicle and resident senior passes either.

• Non-resident pass is recommended to increase from $150 to $180 (20% increase).

• Limit the number of non-resident passes to 425 (currently no limit).

• Daily parking rates (for non-passholders) would be streamlined to one flat rate of $20. It is currently $15 weekdays between 9:00am-3:00pm, $5 from 5:30-9:00am and 3:00-6:00pm, and $30 on July and August weekends.

2024 had the highest number of non-resident beach passes at 435, up 37% over the prior year and nearly double the average from 2019-2022. Stay tuned for a set Town Council meeting date when this will be discussed.

School Building Advisory Committee

Selecting a School Building Proposal for 2025

Make Your Voice Heard in January!

Your input will directly inform which options the SBAC moves forward with as we work toward a final option to go to referendum. Here’s how you can participate: 

Attend Community Forum #1: January 21st 6-8PM (Scarborough Middle School Cafeteria)

• Learn about the Four Options being considered for a school construction project to address Scarborough’s needs, ask questions, and provide feedback.

Take our community survey on the 4 options: Late January/Early February

• The survey will be released in late January, following Community Forum #1. More detail on this to come in the new year!
• The SBAC will take the community’s feedback under advisement as they evaluate and reduce from 4 options to 2.

Want to follow the process even more closely?

• Attend an SBAC2 meeting
• We’re meeting weekly in January (Mondays at 6pm). 
• Meetings are open to the public.
• Locations vary; check the District Calendar
• Attend the January 16th joint Town Council/School Board Workshop for a status update from the committee

Here’s what happened in December:

• Harriman Architects & Engineers was selected to work with the citizen-led SBAC2.
• Harriman’s team has been deep in data collection mode, visiting and assessing the existing schools, reviewing previous reports, meeting with leadership, and working closely with the SBAC2 to dig into the four options identified by the SBAC2.
• Communication and Site Selection subcommittees of the SBAC2 kicked off their work. Visit the updated project website.

Project Process & Milestones

Transportation Committee to Review Study Feedback

Give your feedback in submission form

The Town has been working with consultants for the past several months on a Townwide Transportation Study (view draft here). The purpose of the study is to support the Town of Scarborough in creating a multi-modal transportation network that promotes health, safety, economic viability, quality of life, and access. Key elements were presented in a Council Workshop on December 4th (view recording here).

Safe Streets

The Transportation Study covers mobility, connectivity, and safety of roadways. It focuses not only vehicles, but also bicycles and pedestrians. Suggested improvements to address roadway safety include:

• More bike lanes: Add or extend in areas such as Gorham Road, Pine Point Road, Black Point Road, Spurwink Road and more

• More sidewalks and connectivity: Link existing sidewalks or shared use paths that serve both pedestrians and bicyclists. Currently there are 38 miles of sidewalk (most in the Oak Hill area) compared to the 183 miles of roadway in Scarborough. There are no sidewalks west of Payne Road.

• New crosswalks: Install on Route 1 ant Little Dolphin Drive and Campus Drive. (Residents have also identified other areas, such as across Pine Point Road to Blue Point School)

• Traffic calming measures: Adopt a Toolbox of strategies such as lane narrowing, curb extensions, median islands, etc. This would help reduce vehicle speeds and/or decrease cut-through traffic volumes.

• Intersection Fixes: Identifies intersections for corrective action because of the high number of crashes they experienced. The six High Crash Locations identified were:

• Segment of US Route 1 from Dunstan Avenue to Broadturn Road
• Intersection of Dunstan Ave, Orchard Street, and Route 1
• Intersection of Payne Road and Cummings Road
• Intersection of Broadturn Road at Burnham Road
• Intersection of Broadturn Road at Holmes Road
• Intersection of Route 1 at Hannaford Drive

Let Us Know Your Thoughts

The working group relies on public input in this stage of the process. We ask you to review the Study on our website and complete this form with your feedback. This form will be open through January and comments will be discussed by the Transportation committee in their January meeting. We'll share out the meeting details in our next newsletter for anyone who would like to attend. The goal is for an updated version of the Study to go before the council this spring.

Draft Open Space Plan for Conservation Published

Share Your Feedback by January 15th

After months of work by consultants, Town staff, and the Ad Hoc Open Space Committee, a draft of the Town’s Open Space Plan is available for the public to review. The public is invited to review the draft plan and provide feedback until January 15, 2025.

The Open Space Plan is a document that provides the Town with a comprehensive set of strategies to ensure the Town’s approach to land conservation is done in a way that serves the whole community and protects important natural resources. The planning process started last spring with Viewshed, a Maine-based landscape architecture, GIS, and planning firm. It was developed with public input from online surveys, a July workshop, and outreach at community events this summer. Based on public input and resource mapping, Viewshed created a conservation focus areas map, a central component of the Plan. The information appears as a “heat map” that shows the general areas that should be prioritized.

Given Scarborough’s rapid growth over the past 20 years, the Town hopes to preserve its unique seashores, salt marshes, wetlands, forests, uplands, tidal rivers, and streams. The Plan outlines a set of conservation priorities and strategies for the Town to achieve its 30x30 goal (conserve at least 30% of Scarborough’s land by 2030). Viewshed inventoried existing protected lands to determine the 30x30 baseline and based on their analysis, 7,120 acres of land in Scarborough is protected, which is approximately 23% of the town. An additional 2,000 acres of land need to be conserved in order for Scarborough to meet the 30x30 goal. 

Public input on the draft plan will be collected through January 15, 2025. Viewshed will then work with Town staff and the Ad Hoc Open Space Committee to make revisions, and revised plan will be presented to the Town Council at a workshop in February.

MaineDOT Informs of 2025-26 Pleasant Hill Road Project

The Maine Department of Transportation (DOT) released an on-demand public meeting to share information about an upcoming roadway infrastructure project in Scarborough. The meeting informs on scheduled maintenance work to replace the wearing surface on the Pleasant Avenue Crossing Bridge located on Pleasant Hill Road. This will help protect the bridge and prevent deterioration of the deck. 

Maintenance of traffic during construction will consist of two separate weekend closures and detours to occur during Fall 2025, Spring 2026, or Fall 2026.

The MaineDOT project website includes meeting materials and a comment submission form. 

January Town Council Meetings

Due to New Year's Day falling on the first Wednesday of the month, January council meetings will be moved to the second and fourth Wednesdays. The meetings are scheduled for Wednesday, January 8th and Wednesday, January 22nd. Agendas and links will be posted on the Town Calendar a few days prior to each.

Council Goal-Setting Workshop

The Town Council will hold their annual session to set goals for the year on Saturday, January 25th. As Council Chair April Sither said in her last Council Corner article, the Council's goal "is not to reinvent the wheel, but to build on the work that has already been initiated". Last year's goals fit into seven categories: Financial, Housing, Growth/Development, Capital Improvements & Facilities, Conservation & Sustainability, Traffic & Transportation, and Communications (view all here). They were largely influenced by the results of the Fall 2023 Townwide Survey. We will keep you informed of their 2025 goals in February.

Town Council Corner: 

By Don Cushing, Town Council Chair

If you’ve been following along, you know that I share your concerns about growth in our town. It affects each of us in different ways. If I were visiting from way away, like say Mars, and listened to the chatter I would think Growth is some kind of disease. Its symptoms include traffic congestion, long waits at lights, buildings in places that some of us remember as beautiful fields and worst of all, lines at the supermarket and the restaurant. If I were preparing a report for my planet, which I am not because it’s too crowed to go back to, I would observe that the root cause of this problem is people. The problem is that this little hamlet has done such a nice job of creating a livable community that people want to live here. They often bring with them little people who need to go to school. Most of them have a car and they use it to take them places like the supermarket or the restaurant. The dilemma is that the nicer Scarborough becomes, the more people who want to come to Scarborough. 

This Martian has observed three things about growth: It’s not all good, it’s not all bad, and you can’t stop it. It appears that if you are thoughtful you can manage it. Doing so is a complicated process that is fraught with the possibility of unintended consequences. All growth management decisions are forward looking, and by forward I mean twenty or thirty years into our future. Individuals and businesses rely on growth management laws to make decisions about where to live and where to invest. It is important to get it right. This means having a clear and shared vision of what you want your town to look like. I discovered that Scarborough has such a vision. You can find it on the town website under the heading of Comprehensive Plan. Have you read it? Does it reflect your views?

The more people that understand the implications of decisions we make about growth, the better the outcome, which brings me to the point of this note. The Leader is kind enough to give us some space each week to share our thoughts about various issues affecting our town. This year we are going to use that space to provide you with information about the impact of growth in our town and strategies to manage it.  We will explore growth through the lens of our finances and taxes. We will look at the effects of growth on our environment what we are doing to sustain our beautiful spot on our planet. This includes protecting our beaches and our fishery. We will also consider growth in terms of its effect on traffic and transportation. We will look at the effectiveness of things we have done and inform you about what we are planning to do. Of course, all of us on the Council want to hear your ideas. If you follow along you may come to better understand the things your representatives think about when trying to use the tools of government to balance the sometimes-conflicting needs and goals of our community. 

Don Cushing

207-303-4858

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Scarborough Town Council.

Scarborough Town Council

April Sither (Chair) • Jonathan Anderson (Vice Chair) • Don Cushing • Scott Doherty • Bill Donovan • Cory Fellows • Karin Shupe

Town Council meets the first and third Wednesday of each month. Visit our Town Calendar for links to attend and view agendas.

Scarborough Board of Education

Events & Programs at Scarborough Public Library

A Letter to Yourself for the New Year

Thursday, January 9, 3:30pm-4:30pm

Register

Hey Kids! Join Caroline after school and write a letter to your future self. It's a way to reflect on who you are now, who you'd like to be in the future, and serves as a personal time capsule for your future self to enjoy.

Emergency Preparedness

Monday, January 6, 10:00am-11:30am

Register

Join Chief Sandler, Chief Kindelan, Aaron Milroy, and Nancy Crowell as they share their expertise in the field of Emergency Preparedness.

Sponsored by Age-Friendly Scarborough, Scarborough Community Services, Project GRACE, and Scarborough Public Library.

Big Conversations in 10 Shorts Minutes

Thursday, January 9, 6:30-7:30pm

Register

Three conversations in an hour with other people in Maine.

The prompts are simple. The conversations are non-political. What might you learn about (or from) your fellow humans? Let’s find out. Discover a little pocket of meaning.

This program is part of MECollab, a collaborative programming partnership between libraries throughout the state of Maine.

Penguins of the Antarctic

Tuesday, January 14, 12:00-1:00pm

Register (Not required, feel free to just show up)

Join Dr. Kristine Hoyt as regales us with tales of the Penguins of the Antarctic. Dr. Hoyt grew up in Cumberland, Maine. After graduating from Bowdoin College, she conducted cancer research at the Medical School of Bern, Switzerland. She did Masters work in clinical nutrition at University of Illinois before receiving her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Wisconsin in 1990. She initially trained to work with zoo animals at both the San Diego Zoo and Marine World, before completing an internship in small animal surgery and medicine. She has been specializing in cats since 1991. In the summer of 2010, she traveled to Botswana, where she worked in the bush, tracking leopards for the purpose of placing radio collars. She lives at Higgins Beach with her husband, daughter, three cats, and one dog who thinks she is a cat.

As this is a noon program, feel free to bring a lunch! Coffee, tea and snacks will be provided.