Heated opinions on Old Town budget aired

OLD TOWN – About 80 city residents turned out Monday night to register strident opinions on the proposed Old Town municipal budget for 2002-2003. Heading a long list of concerns was the action of the Penobscot County commissioners, who are taxing the city thousands of dollars for the county’s regional dispatch center.

Old Town is one of a few Penobscot County communities left that does not participate in regional dispatch. The assessment was called “taxation without representation” by one resident who urged the City Council to avoid paying the county tax this year.

“Remember the tea party. Throw it over,” said Peter Dufour.

Regarding city operations, concerns were expressed about suggested cuts that could eliminate a police officer position, wipe out the school-based D.A.R.E. program and possibly cut the popular junior firefighter program.

The first reading of the budget revealed it calls for city expenditures of $7,130,366, school expenditures of $12,188,500 and Penobscot County taxes of $428,639 for a total budget of $19,747,505. The total revenue is listed as $10,384,114 for a net property tax requirement of $9,363,391, about a 9 percent increase for local taxpayers.

Some anger was directed at officials who convinced the city to build a new $14 million elementary school for which the city must start paying its $3 million share this year. A representative of the local Georgia-Pacific paper mill asked the City Council to give the major employer some indication of mill rate stability over the next few years.

The public hearing on the budget was a key focus at an Old Town City Council meeting that started out with local residents pleading for help with an allegedly out-of-control apartment building filled with partying college students on College Avenue Extension. Four couples asked the City Council for an ordinance to make the students accountable for their actions that vary from having sex and going to the bathroom on their lawns to recently breaking out the windows in Paul’s Cabinet Shop owned by David Caldwell.

The meeting ended with a warning of dire results, such as the continuing problems on College Avenue Extension, if the police force is cut.

“You will pay later if you don’t invest in children. You will need more police” to keep things in control, said Sean Yardley, director of programs for the River Coalition, a youth-oriented program in which area police may not participate if their budget is cut.

A volley of critical comments was aimed at Penobscot County’s demand that Old Town, even though it does not currently participate in the county dispatch, pay a $46,000 increase in county taxes this year. About a third of the increase would be used to support the regional dispatch program based in Bangor.

A former Old Town city councilor asked if an injunction could be issued against the county to prevent it from proceeding with taxing nonparticipating communities for the regional dispatch center. Other residents expressed concern with the City Council’s recent request that Police Chief Don O’Halloran come up with scenarios that could result from joining the regional dispatch. O’Halloran earlier presented options that included 11/2 to two dispatching positions being retained locally, none of which settled well with Monday night’s crowd.

The city could save up to $100,000 by joining the regional dispatch but money isn’t everything, according to local resident Dottie Ehman. “Why do we have to change something that is working perfectly?” she asked.

Ehman said police, fire and dispatch departments save lives. “Why do we need an assistant to public works? That man will not save a child’s life,” Ehman said.

County Commissioner Richard Blanchard is a resident of Old Town. He attempted to explain that the county budget committee, which is composed of selectmen and town councilors sent by area communities, has final control over county budget decisions. The group decided on assessing nonparticipating communities for the regional dispatch and the three-member county commission did not have authority to override it, he said. At one point, local resident Ernie Gallant chided the commissioners for “not taking the responsibility to vote” on the matter and urged the city to avoid paying the county assessment. The City Council later advised the group it would be unwise to avoid paying the county assessment.

Other concerns were expressed for the tax increase brought about by the new school and proposed municipal improvements, including a new fire station. Councilors said they have heard from many older people on the verge of selling their homes because they fear they cannot afford a tax increase.

Bruce Brockway, a Georgia-Pacific official, said he represented Ralph Feck, vice president of operations at the paper mill. He spoke of the need to make the Old Town mill more competitive and said like the city, “we at the mill are making difficult choices.” Georgia-Pacific, a major taxpayer, “needs some type of stability in the next three to five years. We need to know what to expect for a mill rate and to level off the mill rate, the sooner the better,” Brockway said.

A second reading of the budget is scheduled for June 3. The school committee will present its final budget to the City Council on May 23.