AUGUSTA, Maine — A proposal to see the community of Oxbow Plantation deorganize into an Unorganized Territory was given initial approval March 9 by a state Legislative committee.
A similar proposal for the community of Cary Plantation in southern Aroostook County was denied.
Lawmakers on the Legislature’s State and Local Government Committee quickly voted in favor of LD 1635, An Act Authorizing the Deorganization of Oxbow Plantation. Pending further votes in the House and Senate and further action by residents of the plantation, Oxbow would cease to exist as a town and join Maine’s vast Unorganized Territory, which is run by the state.
According to testimony provided by Marcia McInnis, fiscal administrator for the state’s Unorganized Territories, Maine statutes provide for the deorganization of municipality in Title 30-A MRSA Chapters 302, and 303. Deorganization allows incorporated municipalities to surrender their municipal charters and their corporate municipal powers. After deorganization, the former municipality loses its ability to enter into legal agreements, and it becomes a township in the Unorganized Territory Tax District.
Steve Sherman, first assessor for Oxbow, testified in Augusta on his town’s behalf.
“l have been involved in local government since the late 1970’s,” Sherman stated. “My family has been in Oxbow since 1840. I believe the time has come for Oxbow Plantation to deorganize.”
Sherman said the reasons for his town wishing to disband were simple.
“Our population is declining at an alarming rate,” he said. “The 2010 Census found 66 residents. l did an informal count last week and found 48. Approximately half of these people are 65 years of age or older.”
The town also has just four school-aged children.
“Because there is very little local employment opportunity, there is no reason for young people to stay in our area,” Sherman testified. “Increasing education costs lead to reduced revenues to provide other services, like roads.”
He added there was a lack of people willing to become involved with local government.
“We have had to hire our town clerk and tax collector from a neighboring town because no one local would take these jobs,” he testified. “This is not very convenient for anyone.”
Oxbow voters will have to weigh in again in the November general election, and among other duties will have to pay off about $57,000 for its share of the 5-year-old Ashland District School.
In 1994, Oxbow residents voted 21-9 against deorganization, but this time it’s different, residents said, because of the tax burden — a mill rate of $23.50.
In order to deorganize, a town must liquidate its assets so new owners will have to be found for the community center, which housed a grade school until 1967. A local church could take over the community center, the county would likely take over two cemeteries and the state will have to take ownership over a boat launch.
Oxbow was settled in 1842 by Elias and Samuel Hayden, pioneers from Somerset County who poled up the Aroostook River three years earlier, according to the Oxbow Historical Society. As more settlers came and started mills and farms, Oxbow was organized as a plantation in 1870.
In the last 100 years, 42 communities in Maine — many of them faced with rising property taxes and dwindling populations that no longer could afford local government — have ceased to be towns. The last to do so was the neighboring town of Bancroft, which officially deorganized in June 2015, ending a three-year process.
Staff Writer Anthony Brino contributed to this report.
