Saco City Council Meeting Minutes – July 28, 2025
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Saco City Council Meeting – July 28, 2025
The Saco City Council met on Monday, July 28, 2025, at 6:30 PM. The meeting covered committee reports, public comments, approval of minutes, consent items, several action items including a debate on downtown surveillance cameras, and a workshop on beach management. The council also entered executive session and made appointments.
Consent Calendar
- Renewal of solid waste permit with Agricycle, confirmation of the Human Resource Director, and the August 2025 council schedule were approved by a 7-0 vote.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Steve Hewitt (380 Main Street) spoke against the demonstration project on Main Street, citing difficulties with left turn lanes near Good Street and the train station, and narrowed lanes.
- Sarah Petrin (120 Main Street) also opposed the left turn lane changes, describing construction disruptions lasting past 2 a.m., rude interactions with city workers, and difficulty exiting her home due to traffic.
- David Plevin (36 Lower Beach Road), chairman of the Shoreline Commission, supported a comprehensive beach management plan, noting ongoing Army Corps projects, the need for integration with the county plan, and the importance of addressing beach conditions (rocks, tar, seaweed).
- Inga Brown (161 Simpson Road) spoke on the Grievance Review Committee report, advocating for the recommendation that the planning board chair not be a real estate agent or broker, citing potential conflicts of interest.
- Chelsea Hill (108 Bradley Street) echoed concerns about the planning board chair, emphasizing the need for higher standards to avoid bias and impropriety.
- Colin Chard (72 Grant Road) raised concerns about action item C (downtown cameras), questioning the lack of a policy, the capabilities of the Verkada system, data security, and the potential for misuse by federal agencies. He asked for more deliberation.
- Don Pylon (16 Glenhaven Circle) commented on the Grievance Committee report, suggesting that training for planning board members be prioritized over paying them, and that a real estate background is useful for understanding terminology.
Discussion Items
- Committee Reports: Councilors shared updates on e-bike safety messaging (BPAC), age-friendly Saco luncheon, Dyer Library book sale, traffic safety committee (Jenkins Road speed study request), and a charter issue regarding student members on the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board (now requiring registered voters).
- Approval of Minutes: June 16, 2025 minutes were approved 6-0 (Councillor Hewitt recused). July 14, 2025 minutes were tabled (5-0) to add missing opposition noted by Councillor Hewitt.
- Action Item C – Downtown Cameras: Councillor Gunn presented a motion to approve one camera on existing traffic light poles. After discussion about privacy, data storage, company terms of service (Verkada), and the need for a formal policy, the council voted 7-0 to table the item pending further information.
- Action Item D – Grievance Review Committee Final Report: The council accepted the report by a 7-0 vote, with the understanding that individual recommendations would be addressed in future meetings.
- Action Item E – Property Tax Due Dates: Due to the commercial/industrial revaluation delay, first-half taxes will be due October 6, 2025, and second-half March 10, 2026. Easy Pay now has eight monthly payments. Approved 7-0.
- Action Item F – Technical Design & Construction Standards Manual: First reading approved 7-0; public hearing rescheduled to August 25, 2025.
- New Business – Beach Management Plan Workshop: Director Moore and Rob Adams (Tie and Bond) presented a three-phase plan for a comprehensive beach management plan, with emphasis on coordination with county and federal efforts. Discussion included funding, use of ARPA funds, and potential grant opportunities. No vote taken.
- Camp Ellis Trolley Funding: Removed from agenda pending additional information.
Key Outcomes
- Action Item C (Cameras): Motion to table passed 7-0; staff will provide a policy, a map of proposed locations, and company terms of service before a future vote.
- Grievance Review Committee Report: Accepted 7-0; recommendations will be taken up separately.
- Tax Due Dates: Approved 7-0.
- TDCSM First Reading: Approved 7-0; public hearing set for August 25.
- Executive Session (8:03 PM – 8:35 PM): Entered 7-0 for real estate (Piney Woods Road properties) and personnel matters (interim city administrator and city administrator search).
- Executive Session Report 1: Motion to deny sale of map 11, lot 71-1 (landlocked access from Piney Woods Road) passed 7-0.
- Executive Session Report 2: Motion to appoint Emily Cole Prescott as interim city administrator effective August 28, 2025, at a temporary rate of $135,000, passed 7-0.
- Adjournment: Motion passed 6-1 at 8:37 PM (Councillor Parks opposed).
Meeting Transcript
Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Sacco City Council meeting for Monday, July twenty-eighth, twenty twenty five at six thirty PM. I would like to make recognition of all members of council present this evening, including City Administrator Bahankel. Would you please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance? Pledge allegiance to the flag. And to the republic for which it stands. Thank you. Okay, moving on to item number four this evening. There is no general. Item number five is committee correspondence to council. Are there any counselors members wishing to share? Councilor Berman, then Councillor Redwoods. Yeah, thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh this is from uh the bicycle pedestrian advisory committee. And they'd like to note that uh we've seen an increase in e-bike usage in Sacco and several city departments and advisory bodies are collaborating to incorporate e-bike safety messaging into the city's ongoing safe streets educational campaign. This is in in particular in response to some e-bike accidents and incidents that that have resulted in injury. As a result of this, there's gonna be a newly printed flyer and ongoing digital postings that are gonna stress the importance of writing e-bikes safely, explain what rules and regulations are in place, and direct viewers to additional training materials. The flyer is gonna be handed out at upcoming city events, including National Night Out and Harbor Fest, and is gonna be distributed through the city's online platforms. I'd like to thank the Sacco Police, Fire Planning, and Communications Department, and SACO's traffic safety committee for working together to connect community members to this important information. And if you want to learn more about what the city is doing for safe streets, you can go to SacoMain dot org slash safe streets. Thank you. Thank you very much. Councilor Edwards. And you can come and bring your chairs and listen to some great music. Also, age-friendly Sacco on the 14th will be having another delicious luncheon. Um on Thursday, uh, August 14th, the doors will open at 11 30 a.m. And that's at uh the 68 Ocean Park Road, Sacco. That's the Elks Club. If you are from around town and you know where you are. Registration will be required. You want to go to the website, age friendly Sacco dot org, I believe, to register. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Councilor Hewitt. Um, the Dyer Library on August 15th is gonna have a preview night for their annual book sale. And then on August 16th through 30th, the book sale will continue. Thank you. Anyone else? Councilor Johnston. Thank you. Uh the last traffic safety meeting. Uh guess that was a week and a half ago. Um, the committee voted to forward a request to council to um petition the state to do uh evaluation of the speed on the Jenkins Road. So that should be coming our way at some point in the future. Um it requires council to approve it and request that the state do a speed study and uh uh evaluation for any potential changes. Uh then additionally the well, it'll be a special joint meeting with BPAC for uh August that will be a facilitated meeting where we will be reviewing a matrix of uh sidewalks and other pedestrian-related related amenities, hopefully to come to one consensus for future pedestrian amenities as part of the master plan that we are currently working on. So I thought that was important to get out there, potentially, you know, other counselors might want to attend. Um, and then lastly, uh it was recently discovered at the most recent Parks and Record Advisory Board meeting that because of our recent change to the charter, where we now require uh appointee members to be registered voters. Uh it we've always I should have said this first, we've always had uh student member of those, and so now that they're required to be registered voters, we have a problem with having a student member. Um so that's a potential change for charter.
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