Town of Northport, Maine

Incorporated in 1796

Announcements

Spring Clean-Up

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The Town’s Climate Resilience Committee is hosting the fifth annual spring roadside cleanup on Saturday, May 9, from 8am to 12 noon. Come to the Town Office for trash bags, dump stickers, gloves, scones, bagels, and a cup of coffee before heading out to pick up litter along your favorite road! This year’s clean-up is sponsored by Hammond Lumber, Hannaford’s, The Scone Goddess, and Spark Bagel. Drop off trash bags at the Transfer Station before 4pm.

Contact James Kossuth at administrator@northportmaine.org or 338-3819×6 with any questions.

Climate Resilience Community Workshop

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The Town’s Climate Resilience Committee is hosting its fourth annual community workshop on Wednesday, April 29, at 6pm at the Drinkwater School. Hear the latest updates on the Town’s climate resilience projects, news on the Town’s most recent grant award, and help the Town identify other ways to enhance the Town’s climate resilience.

Contact James Kossuth at administrator@northportmaine.org or 338-3819×6 with any questions.

Bayview Park Shoreline Stabilization Project

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The Town received a $75,000 grant from the State to perform shoreline stabilization at Bayview Park. The total cost of the work is estimated to be approximately $110,000. The Town and Village will share the remaining cost of the project. The plan is to complete the project before May 2026.

Gartley & Dorsky developed the plans as a result of a grant that the Town received in 2023 to survey four segments of public shoreline in Town and design stabilization plans for those areas. (Stabilization work at one site, near 600 Shore Road, was completed in May 2024. Stabilization at a second site, at Kelly Cove, is expected to be completed in February 2026. Stabilization at the final site, near Auditorium Park, is pending funding.)

Shoreline stabilization plans for Bayview Park.

Shoreline stabilization cross-sections for Bayview Park.

If you would like to submit any comments about the Bayview Park plans, please email them to James Kossuth at administrator@northportmaine.org by February 20. All written comments received by February 20 will be reviewed and considered.

NORTHPORT CHILDREN’S CHRISTMAS PARTY 2025

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From Patsy Littlefield, Northport VFW Post #6131 Auxiliary —

We were invited by principal Todd Martin to come into the Edna Drinkwater School on December 22nd to present a Christmas bag to each student (all 120 students!). We had Santa, the Grinch, an Elf and 4 other Santa assistants present for this activity. We also provided each school staff member with a bag of goodies (32 in all) as they are the ones in charge of the students’ education and safety. We are blessed with a very caring team in our school.

Each student received a goodie bag from Santa which included:

Bag was plastic, two handled, with Christmas theme, and contained:

  • Card making kit: Quart sized Ziploc baggie containing:
    • 2 envelopes
    • 2 folded cardstock pages for creation of cards
    • 2 sticker sheets (one each of build-your-own Christmas Tree and Snowman)
    • Info taped to bag to encouraging sharing and caring
  • 2 Holiday or winter themed pencils
  • 2 pkgs microwave popcorn
  • 2 pkgs hot chocolate mix
  • Bag of holiday candy (3 Hersey Kisses, 3 mini assorted candy bars, chocolate Santa)
  • 1 Holiday bendable character
  • Christmas card signed by Santa
  • 1 Reindeer candy cane nestled in tissue paper

Santa also handed each child a candy cane when presenting the goodie bag.

The middle school grade of 6, 7 and 8 also had a small box of crayons and small box of colored pencils included in their goodie bags. All staff members received a similar goodie bag, minus the bendable character.

Santa’s Elf was there and offered stuffed animals to each of the students, either for themselves or someone they know.

This Santa time was overwhelmingly happily received by students and staff alike.

A big THANK YOU to Todd Martin for inviting us into the school; Toupie Rooney for creating the adorable Reindeer and being such a generous Elf; Katherine the Grinch; and the volunteers from the Fire Department and the VFW Post #6131 Auxiliary. They say it takes a village to raise a child, and Northport has proven that they are fully in support of the children in our town. THANK YOU to all who donated during our bake sale on voting day – this is where your support went, to a very worthy cause.

Special Town Meeting / Property Revaluation Informational Session / Town Office Project Update

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The Town will be holding a Special Town Meeting on Wednesday, January 21, 2026, at 6:00pm at the Drinkwater School to vote on a proposed Town-owned solar array on Town property at 216 Beech Hill Road (the old sand/salt shed). The warrant is posted here and at the Town Office.

Immediately following the Special Town Meeting, there will be an informational session with a representative from Maine Revenue Services, who will explain the property revaluation process that is currently underway in Town. He will be able to answer general questions about the process, why it is important, what sort of tax impacts people can generally expect, and property tax-relief programs offered by the State.

There will also be a brief update on the status of the Town Office and Community Center project, now that the Town has received federal funding and is beginning the next steps to get ready to put the project out to bid and start construction.

The event will be recorded and the video posted on the Town’s website.

Contact James Kossuth at 338-3819×6 with any questions.

2026 Waldo County Budget

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The Waldo County Commissioners are holding the public hearing for the 2026 Waldo County budget at 6pm on Friday, December 12, at the County Commissioners Courtroom (39B Spring Street, Belfast) and online via Zoom.

A copy of the proposed budget, which proposes a 36% annual increase, is available here.

A bit of context from Breanna Pinkham Bebb, Northport Select Board Chair and member of the County Budget Committee:

“The proposed county budget increase means a huge hit for taxpayers. It is painful to all of us. As a committee, we spent over 30 hours in meetings drilling through line by line with department heads over the last 2.5 months. The biggest contributor to this is health insurance for county employees. I.T. was another hit. It’s incredible what it costs to run tech for a modern, dependable, compliant Sheriff’s department for example. 

“And we’re all being buried under rising costs in our own lives too. Every committee member feels that and takes it seriously. The proposed budget at the beginning of our work was much higher and we were able to cut about 9% off that to get to this budget. 

“Now, some good things… This budget represents a more realistic (i.e., not pulling from reserve accounts) and financially sound approach. The County is getting caught up on financial audits (ask any school or municipality – there aren’t enough auditors to do this work and it takes longer than it used to), and we have a dedicated and skilled finance director who has stuck with us after several staff turnovers in just a few years. We also have a new Commissioner with decades of experience in the big business side of healthcare who is trying to get the County out of ‘self-insuring’ for employee healthcare, which could mean some savings in next year’s cycle.

“If you’ve been paying attention to the news of other counties (Washington, Knox…) it’s pretty grim out there. I was skeptical when I first joined the committee. But, I’ve seen a lot of transparency and accountability from the Commissioners and department heads during this process. As well as thoughtful collaboration among the committee as we did our darnedest to wrestle with the tax burden.

“I welcome questions and ideas at breanna@northportmaine.org. I learned a ton about the services the County provides and the ‘why’ behind all of the costs, and I am happy to share what I know with residents.

“As a Town we will be doing our best during our own budget planning this Spring to account for the County increase and try to keep our overall Mil rate under control. In the meantime, the Public Hearing for the County Budget is this Friday at 6pm at the Probate building at 39B Spring Street, Belfast. All are welcome in person or via Zoom.”