Grand Isle

Voters at Tuesday’s town meeting added $65,600 to their municipal budget and now expect a drop in the tax rate by 2.3 mills with savings in education costs.

A $33,000 addition to the budget will renovate one section of the former schoolhouse into the town office and purchase tables and chairs for the community center in another part of the building.

Another $30,000 was approved for a contract with Gerald Blier to continue as town administrator for another year. He began work in May.

The 58 voters who turned out for the annual session added $2,600 for an agreement with the Edmundston (New Brunswick) Sports Complex to use the facility.

The new budget required an estimated $285,000 in local taxation. Of that sum, $160,000 supports general government, $15,673 pays for county taxes and the balance is for education. Other revenues include $43,000 in unappropriated surplus funds.

The town has a $144,000 reserve on hand after the local school closed last June. That fund is earmarked for future special education and regular tuition costs.

With 14 fewer students to enroll in classes in Madawaska – 15 will graduate and while one additional pupil will enter the elementary school – the tuition charge should be less, Blier said.

Blier said the three new budget items would have meant a 5.5 mill tax increase if education costs in the first five months of the new year, estimated at $47,000, had equaled the $141,000 cost for the same period in 2001. The lower number reflects savings of $94,000.

“If the property valuation stays the same as last year, the tax rate will drop from $25.53 [per $1,000 in property valuation] to around $23.23,” the town official said.

Last year, the community’s tax rate dropped from $39.75 to $25.53 per $1,000 in property valuation after the school was closed.

At the polls, voters elected Emile Morin Jr. to a three-year term as selectman, assessor and overseer of the poor with 30 write-in ballots. That term had failed to draw any candidates.

Incumbent Carmen Daigle defeated challenger Michelle Michaud 45-37 for the three-year term on the school committee.

Incumbent Helen M. Sirois was re-elected, unopposed, to the one-year term of town clerk and treasurer.

Haynesville

Town officials in this community of 112 people hope the tax rate will drop a little after property re-assessment is completed.

The 27 residents at the March 30 town meeting approved a $43,109 tax appropriation, approximately the same as last year.

Norma Malone, town manager for the last 15 years, said the new $66,556 municipal budget, similar to the 2001 budget, included an estimated $8,322 in county taxes. The county figure was up about $600.

The cost for education still is unknown.

“Most of our people are on fixed incomes, and we try to hold the taxes down but the schools and county tax take most of it,” Malone said Wednesday.

The tax rate is $19.25 per $1,000 in property valuation.

The new census report said the community had lost nearly 30 people during the last 10 years.

Voters returned incumbents to office. They were July Oliver, selectman, three years; Roy Aldrich, SAD 70 board of directors, three years; and road commissioner, one year. Steven Rouse was elected fire chief for two years.

– Compiled by Gloria Flannery