Town Meetings

Oxbow Plantation

The annual town meeting and election of officers will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 30, at the residence of Steven Sherman, first assessor.

Voters will elect three assessors – a town clerk, tax collector and treasurer – to govern this community of 56 people.

Sherman said Wednesday the proposed municipal budget to operate local government wasn’t expected to change the town’s tax rate of $19.25 per $1,000 in property valuation.

Anticipated education costs, expected later this spring, are a different story. “That’s always a shock to our system,” the official said.

Haynesville

The annual meeting and elections are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 30, at the town office.

From nominations at the meeting, voters will seat a selectman for a three-year term; a representative to the SAD 70 board of directors and a fire chief, both for two years; and a road commissioner for one year.

Town officials aren’t expecting significant changes in the proposed budget and don’t believe it will change the tax rate set last year at $19.25 per $1,000 in property valuation, unless education costs are increased greatly.

They estimated the county tax to be $600 higher this year.

New Limerick

A proposed municipal budget has yet to be completed, but town officials are gearing up for the annual town meeting and elections on Monday, March 25, at the Town Hall.

Polls will be open from 2 to 6 p.m. to elect a selectman and a school board member to three-year terms.

Incumbent Selectman Mark Stile is unopposed for the seat.

Janice Good is the only person to return nomination papers for the seat on the SAD 70 board of directors.

Incumbent John Doescher, however, is expected to launch a write-in campaign, according to town officials.

The annual business meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at the Town Hall. Officials are hoping the tax rate of $11 per $1,000 in property valuation will remain the same.

Westmanland

Voters at the town meeting Thursday, March 21, will decide whether the town should take over maintenance of the Little Madawaska Lake Road.

Voter registration will begin at 6 p.m., followed by the 7 p.m. meeting.

Selectman Tim Collins said Wednesday that approximately 90 of the community’s nearly 130 taxpayers own property at Little Madawaska Lake, but not all of them live there year-round and they aren’t all voters.

The road is maintained jointly by the town and the lake association. The camp owners think the town should maintain the road.

More families became permanent residents at the lake after last year’s tax rate dropped to a little more than $6 per $1,000 in property valuation, said Collins.

The reduction was due to state school subsidies that were given to the town last year after a family with several children moved away.

This year, despite lower tuition costs with fewer students, the tax rate is expected to take a jump without those same state funds to offset expenses.

Voters will elect three selectmen and a school board member.

– Compiled by Gloria Flannery