Town meetings

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Freedom

A town meeting request for a new firetruck could be the deciding factor in whether property taxes will increase this year.

Residents will gather at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 29, at the Dirigo Grange for the annual meeting. The major request confronting voters is a $120,000 proposal for a new firetruck. The Fire Department has about $26,000 in its reserve account.

“We can hold the line on taxes unless we buy a new firetruck,” said First Selectman Carol Richardson. “We’ve been working on the budget for the last six weeks and have got it trimmed to the point where we will not have to raise the mill rate unless we go for the firetruck.”

Richardson noted that $24,000 in expenditures equals 1 mill, meaning that approval to purchase the truck could add 4 mills to the tax rate. She expected increases in the SAD 3 and Waldo County budgets also could change the existing tax structure.

Another item that should spur some discussion is a request from the town of Knox for $1,000 for upkeep on its baseball diamond at Larrabee Field.

“We have our own ball field,” said Richardson. “We have to maintain our own field and we don’t ask Knox to support us.”

In municipal elections, Richardson is being challenged for a second three-year term on the board by former Selectman Everett Lingley.

There is also a three-way race for road commissioner. Maurice Elwin Turner, Clint Spaulding and Ronald Littlefield all are seeking the one-year position. The selectmen have been acting as road commissioner since the December resignation of Warren Spaulding.

Frankfort

With no looming budgetary items on the warrant, Town Clerk Melissa Brassbridge is forecasting smooth going when residents gather for the annual town meeting.

“It should be pretty calm, and we like the calm ones,” she said.

Polls will be open for town elections from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, March 27. Town meeting will take place at 8 p.m. Friday, March 28, at the Frankfort Elementary School.

Brassbridge said there are no contested races on the ballot, including that of Board of Selectmen Chairman Carlton Brassbridge.

Also on the ballot is a seat on the planning board, town fire warden and animal control officer.

Brassbridge said the budget hammered out by the selectmen will be the same as last year and that municipal spending will not result in a tax increase.

“It’s not over last year and the only thing that is going to put it up will be the school costs and Waldo County taxes,” she said.

Brassbridge said she also expected that town attorney Charles Gilbert would update residents on the situation with the West Winterport Dam. The conservation group Facilitators Improving Salmonid Habitat wants to remove the dam from the Marsh Stream.

The town has joined with neighbor Winterport in a legal fight against the dam’s removal.

Alexander

Residents will meet at 7 p.m. Monday, March 31, at the elementary school gymnasium to elect officers and vote on 21 warrant articles.

Voters will set salaries and wages for town employees after considering recommendations by selectmen.

They also will elect to one-year positions a town clerk-tax collector-treasurer, cemetery supervisor, and one or more overseers of the poor and road commissioners.

Voters may decide to elect one or more assessors and school board members for three-year terms and one or more members on the planning board for five years.

They will consider whether to raise $37,000 as recommended by selectmen to build a state-mandated salt-sand shed. The community never has had such a facility and has its salt and sand dumped in a pile alongside Route 9.

Voters also will decide whether to transfer money sitting in a reserve fund for property tax relief to projected expenses for a salt-sand facility.

Other articles will address money received in a first responder category in the volunteer fire department; joining other communities to save money for employee health benefits and whether to appropriate $1,000 for the salary of a code enforcement officer.

A date has not yet been set for the annual June business meeting to establish budgets for the town, school and county.

Liberty

A proposal to ban personal watercraft, or Jet Skis, on Lake St. George is expected to generate discussion when residents gather at the Walker School for the annual town meeting at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 29.

Residents also will choose a second selectman for a three-year term and vote on the annual budget.

First Selectman Judy Fuller said the personal watercraft ban was placed on the warrant by a resident with a home on the lake. She said the town will hold a public hearing on the matter before bringing the proposal before the town meeting.

“I’m sure it will draw some comment,” Fuller said.

Fuller said selectmen hope to push through a budget that will be lower than last year’s figure. She said the need to reduce expenditures was driven by the expected 1 mill increase in the tax rate brought on by increases in the town’s portion of the SAD 3 and Waldo County budgets.

She said that one area where cuts may be found is in the property tax discount rate. The town discounts property taxes by 2 percent if they are paid within 30 days. Fuller said voters will be asked to consider lowering that discount to 1 percent.

Another area that may receive scrutiny is a request from the Fire Department to add $40,000 to its capital reserve account. Fuller noted that because the town bought a new pumper truck this year and built a new fire station three years ago, “there may be some people in town who are going to be reluctant to give any more money to the Fire Department for a while.”

Fuller said that incumbent Second Selectman Cliff Randall has indicated that he will stand for re-election. She said it was likely another candidate would surface in time for town meeting.

South Thomaston

There are no special warrant articles or major purchases planned for voters’ consideration at the annual town meeting, according to Town Clerk Carolyn Grierson.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 26, at Guilford Butler School on Route 73, and the election of town officers is from the floor.

The only town vacancy is a three-year selectman-assessor-overseer of the poor seat held by Robert Grierson.

The proposed municipal budget totals $723,304, according to Carolyn Grierson, which is 4.1 percent higher than last year.

That figure does not include the amount usually contributed to social service agencies, she said, which over the past few years has been approximately $8,700.

The amount to be raised by property taxes toward the municipal budget is $347,258, Carolyn Grierson said, which is a 28 percent increase from last year.

The town’s share of SAD 5 and Knox County taxes is not yet known, but last year the town paid $1,391,750 to SAD 5 and $130,958 to the county, according to Carolyn Grierson.

The town’s current tax rate is $17.75 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

Centerville

The annual meeting and elections for the town of 27 residents will begin at 7 p.m. Monday, March 17, at the municipal building.

Town Clerk Marjorie Gaudette said town officers work up a municipal budget at town meeting. Last year, voters approved town expenses at $21,000.

Tuition for the town’s two students at SAD 37 last year cost $18,000. This year, the town’s four children will be tuitioned to the district.

A year ago, the town was taxed by the county at approximately $5,900.

The largest taxpayers are owners of woodlands and blueberry fields.

Voters will elect officers to these one-year positions: three selectmen and three assessors, held by Margaret Dorsey and Richard Dorsey, one member resigned; clerk, treasurer and tax collector, held by Marjorie Gaudette.

Vanceboro

Town meeting voters Monday will be asked if they want selectmen to investigate possible deorganization of their township.

The town meeting and elections will begin at 6 p.m. March 17 at the schoolhouse.

“We’re down to 140 people,” Douglas Keene, first selectman and assessor for 30 years, said Thursday. “It’s hard trying to find willing people to do the jobs.”

Keene, an inspector with U.S. Customs, plans to retire within a year and possibly move from the area.

Money troubles are not the problem at this time.

“The town’s finances are pretty good,” Keene said. “But these are things they need to be thinking about. We want to see where their interest lies, if they want to try to plan ahead or wait until they have a crisis.”

A warrant article will ask whether the town would authorize the selectmen to explore possibilities of deorganization, amalgamation with adjacent townships or to continue as they are.

Keene said almost 12,000 of the township’s total 13,000 acres is woodlands.

The proposed municipal budget, at approximately $192,000, stayed about the same as last year’s expenses.

The town has a 10-year-old school where 16 children attend kindergarten through grade eight and seven are in a preschool classroom.

Elections will fill these three-year seats: selectman, held by Susan Slowe; planning board, James Slowe; school committee, Penny Grass. One-year offices available are clerk and treasurer, held by Louise Labossiere; tax collector, held by Cindy Scott; and registrar of voter, held by Helen Beers.

– Compiled by Gloria Flannery