LRPC member Sparky Hurgin urges the Town Council Tuesday night to “make some hard decisions.” Jane Vaughan / Lakes Region Weekly

WINDHAM — Police Chief Kevin Schofield said “there was no direct threat or cause for emergency response” after Town Councilor Donna Chapman pressed a panic button after an interaction with a fellow councilor before a town council meeting Tuesday night.

Chapman pressed the button after a conversation with Councilor Jarrod Maxfield that occurred before the meeting began at 6:30 p.m. Chapman and Maxfield have often verbally sparred at town council meetings and have accused each other of wrongdoing. Maxfield said Wednesday that their conversation was about how councilors should not make personal attacks on one another.

Pushing the official panic button in council chambers triggers a call to the 911 center. Schofield said two officers responded at 6:21 p.m. “in emergency mode.”

After interviewing the involved parties, Schofield said, the officers “determined that there was no direct threat made to anybody.” One of the officers remained at the meeting for some time. 

Maxfield said he did not raise his voice or stand up during his conversation with Chapman, and “nobody was loud or boisterous.”

“The panic buttons are for real emergencies,” Maxfield said Wednesday. “There’s no basis for any type of threatening whatsoever. To press that button because you don’t like the conversation is, frankly, unhinged.”

Chapman said Wednesday that Maxfield was “saying some not nice things” to Council Chairman Clayton Haskell and Vice Chairwoman Rebecca Cummings when she arrived Tuesday night.

Cummings did not respond to voicemail messages left on Wednesday.

According to Chapman, Maxfield told her, “I’m going to personally attack you next.”

“I didn’t know if he would escalate or not,” she said, so she pressed the panic button. “He was out of control. His behavior last night was inappropriate.”

The meeting then continued at 6:30 p.m. as planned, and Chapman stayed for the duration of the meeting, where members of the Long Range Planning Committee said they were frustrated about the lack of feedback from the council about their work.

Development discussions

Development has been a topic of discussion for months, and residents are concerned about over-development, including the impacts on taxes, schools, roads, water bodies and the town’s rural character. In September 2018, the Town Council charged the committee with reviewing the standards for development in the farm and farm residential zones.

The committee has been focusing on the loss of open space and rural character as well as environment and habitat issues. Town Planner Amanda Lessard and Ben Smith of NorthStar Planning Tuesday presented some proposed amendments to the town’s Land Use Ordinance as well as a potential rezoning map of the town and asked councilors for their opinions.

“This group has been very productive on a number of different fronts, and it’s time to have a conversation about at least one of them,” Smith said.

Sparky Hurgin, member of the LRPC, said “our committee is frustrated as heck” because the council does not give the committee clear feedback.

“We’re not functioning as a team,” he said. “There’s a number of us on this committee that are just about ready to pack it in. We’ve spent years on this stuff.  Make some hard decisions.”

LRPC Michael Duffy agreed, saying, “I haven’t received direction from this council. We are just eager to move this ahead.”

Councilor Tim Nangle said he favored tackling the town’s zoning map, as did Maxfield.

Haskell expressed concern about working farms and urged the committee to keep them in town: “That’s part of the rural character of this town. This is what this town is founded on.”

Cummings supported the implementation of growth caps and impact fees.

Councilors discussed changing the town’s zoning map, altering the allowed uses in certain zones and addressing dimensional standards and other details in developments.

Lessard proposed another workshop with the council and LRPC to focus solely on the zoning map and allowed uses in each zones.

Chapman was optimistic about the council’s progress, saying, ” I don’t see us beating this to death much longer.”