WINTER HARBOR – Voters at the annual town meeting Wednesday night approved a municipal budget of more than $1 million and amended the general development zone in the village, according to a town official.

Winter Harbor Town Manager Roger Barto said Thursday that the approved 2002-03 municipal budget of $1.096 million is about $36,000 less than the current year’s municipal budget of $1.132 million. Included in that sum is $621,715 for the town’s grammar school, he said.

The town also will have to spend an additional $270,742 in 2002-03 to pay its share of the operating expenses for Flanders Bay Community School District, the multitown district that runs Sumner Memorial High School in Sullivan.

Barto said the town’s current tax rate, under which the owner of a $100,000 property has to pay $1,405 in taxes, should not change significantly.

“It will stay pretty close to what it was this year,” he said.

The majority of the 70 or so people at the meeting voted to amend the town’s general development zone, which encompasses most of the businesses in the village area, Barto said. The zone was changed because its boundaries previously had been drawn arbitrarily through the middle of some individual properties, he said.

Also, the zone has been extended roughly a half-mile north on Newman Street to make it easier for businesses there to expand, he said.

Before Wednesday night’s vote, that part of Newman Street had been zoned rural and businesses were not permitted to build within 250 feet of the road, Barto said.

In local elections Tuesday, incumbent Terry Bickford was elected to a three-year term on the board. Bickford was elected to a two-year term last year but decided to run for a longer term when Katherine Heidinger opted to not seek re-election to her seat, Barto said. Bickford was unchallenged in his bid for the three-year term.

Taking over the remaining year of Bickford’s previous term is Sandy Guptill, who won a 79-75 victory over Jayne Ahrens, the only other candidate.

Steven Loan was re-elected in his unchallenged bid for his school board seat. Peter Drinkwater was uncontested in his bid for a five-year term on the planning board. Chris Byers and Bruce Lanning, two write-in candidates, were elected as planning board alternates with two votes each, Barto said.