Van Buren charter revisions to go on November ballot - The County

VAN BUREN, Maine – Van Buren residents will be able to approve several changes to their town charter during the upcoming Nov. 5 election. The revised charter will include changes to term limits and an updated attendance policy for school board members as well as spelling and grammar corrections.

Van Buren Council Secretary Paul Nadeau, who was the council appointee for the charter committee, said the last charter update was made nearly 20 years ago.

“When it was written back in the early 2000s, it reflected the needs of the community,” he said. “But the town has evolved in the last 20 years.”

The existing charter states that a councilor can run for election for two consecutive terms, and then they have to wait a year if they want to run again. The new charter would eliminate this requirement.

“You’ve got a group of people who have been here for five or six years, and have a lot of institutional knowledge to bring along,” Nadeau said.

He said the committee felt that it did not make sense to force someone off the board after two terms if their knowledge and experience was benefitting the town.

Another change will make it so the town’s local school board can address attendance issues with their board members. Nadeau said the school board at one point had absentee issues with one of its members, and this change will allow them to more directly address those issues.

Moving forward, Nadeau said they hope to update the charter once every decade. Because of this, part of the committee’s work included anticipating possible changes between now and 2034.

And though the town has taken recent strides in revitalizing itself, Nadeau said the recent charter revisions are unrelated to these efforts.

“The charter is more for the local government of the town of Van Buren and how it runs and operates, not particularly the economic side of it,” he said. 

Town Manager Luke Dyer said he was not involved in the charter commission’s meetings, as he did not want to directly influence any of the proposed changes.

“If they wanted my opinion on something, I gave it, but I tried to not direct them at all,” Dyer said.

Nadeau, a Caribou native, first moved to Van Buren in 1977. He said the community has been welcoming and accepting ever since, and that he is reciprocating that kindness through his work for the town.

“The community, through thick and thin, has been very good to me,” he said. “And this is the only way I know how to thank them, by trying to be a good servant.”