When Jan Griesenbrock says he’s done a lot of things, he’s not kidding. Over the past 60 or so years, he’s been a farm hand, signal officer in the Army, a news reporter, a lab tech in an aerial photo lab, a photography instructor, a National Guardsman, a ROTC professor of military science, and a budget manager. Somewhere in there, Jan also earned his master’s degree in geography. Jan was introduced to Maine in his last job, as a recruiter for National Guard in South Dakota: his pamphlets and literature happened to be printed in Augusta. He met a woman there, and they moved to Waldoboro. By the time he left the military, he was a Lt. Colonel. But he continued working, this time a the operations manager at Maine Photo Workshops in Rockport for the next nine years. And on leaving that, he went part-time -- for Hannaford’s in Waldoboro and Damariscotta, and then at Pemaquid Lake Campgrounds doing mowing and general maintenance. A couple of heart attacks have slowed Jan down. He still volunteers for the American Legion and here and there in town, but he’s resigned from the Board of LCTV as well as Waldoboro’s Select Board, a position he held from 2020-2023.
One Sunday, Abden Simmons and Bob Butler came over and said, “How would you like to run for Select Board?”
I was honored. Everybody in Waldoboro knows everybody, but at that time, I really didn’t know many people in Waldoboro. I’d never met Abden or Bob. So, it was a surprise.
Because I’d never been in politics, I thought I would sit back, and if people saw my name in the paper and recognized me, maybe they’d vote for me; and if it didn’t happen, no problem.
But the people that run the Republican party and others on the Select Board said, “You need to do more. Send out mailers and put up signs,” and they gave me the name of a printer. Two people made donations, but I basically paid for the mailers and signs. I got it done.
Being a newcomer on the Board, I didn’t know anyone or know anything. I decided, for the first year, I would listen, read, and watch. By the second year, I came out of my shell a little more. The third year, I was running the board, and when you do that, you’re not upsetting the apple cart. You’re keeping people together.
The whole experience gave me the utmost respect for those who are on the Select Board and those in the Town Office. Being on the Select Board is not a job where you just go to meetings every two weeks. Uh-uh. You’ve got to go committee meetings. If somebody’s going to be in town for something, you need to be there. If someone needs the space for something, one of us has to be there. There’s a lot of the reading. Calls to each other. I reckon I worked a little on Select Board business every day.
I think everybody ought to serve. For the military. Or, for the state. Or, for the county. Or, for a non-profit. Or, for Waldoboro, like on the Select Board or a on committee. It’s all service.
New members on the Board are important because they have new ideas and different points of view. I came to the Board from a town in South Dakota a little bigger than Waldoboro, and they had industry. They had jobs. They had businesses. The town owned the gas company, the electric company, telephone and cell phone. You paid the town for that. They even ran a liquor store. How neat is that? There was no competition, but a lot of people were watching them because the town was running them. It made me think, where can we apply this to Waldoboro?
But the experience and knowledge of seasoned members is invaluable. Those members knew the situations of many people in Waldoboro intimately. That makes a difference. They knew the history of the issues and what has succeeded and what has failed.
The most surprising thing that I learned, and it still stays with me, is how challenging the economic situation is here. A teacher I talked to said, “Of the students we have in school, 60 percent come to school every day unkept, hungry or tired.” Sixty percent! When I talked to other Selectmen about this they said, “Yeah, that’s about right.” Why is that? Is it drugs? Is it alcohol? Is it the lack of industry here without good-paying jobs?
The budget pulled at me the hardest. It was always thought out, and everyone on the Select Board and Budget Committee looked at it in great detail, too. One thing that came up in staff meetings with the town manager was that the town’s workers like the EMT, police, and those in the office or in maintenance, felt they could make more by working for Walmart than for Waldoboro. So, we said, “You deserve more and should get a raise.”
Budget discussions always meant that some people wanted more of this and others, of that. I didn’t agree with everything but then again, I didn’t vote against them. I tended to bend towards the middle, towards others who had more experience and knowledge. Besides, with five members on the Board, one dissent won’t make a difference.
The town always needs more money. Waldoboro doesn’t have many ways to raise funds other than from government grants and taxing its residents. And its residents are having a hard time supporting the budget. A widowed woman on a single income just doesn’t have much left for taxes.
But that’s the way it is — until business or industry arrives to help with tax relief, and to help the town grow and prosper. Throughout my term, we talked a lot about broadband. It was a topic that would come up and then go away. Sure, we have it for that small stretch on Jefferson, but nowhere else. Other towns can say to someone thinking of moving a business there, “We’ve got this, and we’ve got that.” Waldoboro can’t.
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