Burnham

When residents gather for the annual town meeting, they will be presented with a budget with few differences from last year.

The meeting will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 15, at the Reynolds Corner Municipal Building, and administrative assistant Carolyn Hamel predicted smooth sailing for this year’s warrant.

“There are no big changes in the budget, and that’s the important thing,” said Hamel. “They don’t want any big changes.”

Hamel said the major topic of discussion likely would be focused on roads. She said residents would have an opportunity to discuss road paving projects as well as a recommendation to discontinue maintenance on Country Lane, a dead-end road that leads to a single dwelling.

In the municipal election, incumbent Board of Selectman chairman Stuart Huff is unopposed for re-election to a three-year term.

Voters also will choose a town clerk, tax collector, treasurer and road commission. The incumbents for each post are unopposed in their bids for re-election.

Deblois

At Monday’s town meeting, residents raised $10,000 less for education and almost $2,000 more than a year ago for 2003 municipal expenses.

Sixteen of the town’s 70 residents, including town officers, attended the meeting, a slight gain from previous years.

Lill Campbell, administrative assistant, said the tax rate of $7.40 per $1,000 in property valuation would stay the same or drop a little.

Voters raised $78,000 for education and $58,000 to operate town government.

County taxes were $3,648 higher than last year.

A $19,000 carryover in the school account kept the cost down for tuition and transportation to schools in Cherryfield and Harrington.

The salary of the town hall custodian was raised by $75 to a total of $200 for the year.

Voters budgeted $18,000 for snow removal and $8,000 in solid waste disposal fees to the transfer station in Cherryfield.

The $4,000 Fire Department operational expense account included an additional $1,000 for federal-mandated safety gear to be worn at fires.

A $2,000 fire-suppression account ensures funding to fight forest fires, fires on blueberry barrens or on peat moss bogs when sparks from running equipment accidentally ignite plants.

Voters re-elected Laurence Grant, first selectman for three years; Lill Campbell, tax collector and treasurer, one year; Virginia Torrey, town clerk, one year, and school board, three years; Allan Torrey, cemetery caretaker, one year; John Campbell, fire chief, one year; and Lori Haag, town hall custodian, one year.

Swanville

It appears that a special election is in the works after Monday’s balloting for a seat on the Board of Selectmen ended in a dead heat.

Both incumbent Carol Simon and challenger Bret Armstrong Jr. polled 101 votes in their race for a three-year term on the board.

“We have a tie,” Town Clerk Barbara Sholes said Wednesday. “It looks like we’ll have to have a special election.”

According to state law, the meeting is supposed to be adjourned to another day when ballots are again cast for the candidates tied for the offices in question.

The exception would be if all but one tied candidate withdrew by delivering written notice signed by the candidate and notarized to the municipal offices within seven days.

Sholes said neither candidate plans to withdraw. She said selectmen would have to decide a date for the special election, likely sometime next month as ballots need to be printed.

“I have no idea what they are going to do, but the sooner the clerk gets the ballot to the printer the better. We have to have absentee ballots on hand 14 days before the election,” she said.

In other election results from Monday, Sholes was re-elected town clerk, and tax collector-treasurer Kit Kerrigan also won another term. John Blanchard was elected to the planning board. Seats on the budget committee were determined by write-in votes. Terry Sawyer and Dan Horton were elected to two-year terms with two votes each, and Roger Newcomb, Cliff Sawyer and Fred Moylen were elected to one-year terms on the committee with two write-in votes each.

As for the town meeting warrant that was acted on Tuesday, all the articles recommended by the selectmen passed as written. Discussion was kept to a minimum, according to Kerrigan.

“It was a pretty smooth meeting. There was no name calling, no shouting and screaming,” Kerrigan said Wednesday. “As Swanville town meetings go, it was a big disappointment.”