Allagash

The first selectman slipped back into office by one vote according to ballots cast on Friday at the polls.

Ricky McBreairty wasn’t surprised by the ballot results. McBreairty had just completed his first year in that seat held by Roy Gardner, who had served 38 years,.

McBreairty garnered 34 votes, Gardner got 33 write-in votes and Howard Baker got 32 votes. Carola O’Leary had 14 votes.

“I won by the slimmest of margins,” McBreairty said Monday. “I wasn’t surprised. We are a very small town. It was a cold, rainy day, and there was a death in our community and many people went to the wake in Fort Kent and intended to vote when they came back but never did.”

At 113 voters, the turnout in the community of 260 residents was down by 55 people from a year ago.

McBreairty also said he knew his strong support base from last year had slipped with some of the decisions he felt he had to make in the past year.

In other races, Joel Jackson was re-elected second selectman with 67 votes. Daniel Pelletier had 25 write-in votes for that position.

Incumbent Louis Pelletier III was unopposed for third selectman, with 94 votes. There were no write-ins.

Nola Begin had 76 votes to return to the office of town clerk. These four residents had write-in votes. Barbara Baker, 4; Josie Pelletier, 3; Michael Hubbard, 3; and Annie Paradis, 2.

Begin also was elected treasurer with 76 votes. The same four people had the same number of write-in votes for treasurer.

Annie Paradis was re-elected tax collector with 99 votes. These people had write-in votes: Josie Pelletier had two; and Patty Pelletier and Nola Begin each had one.

Sean Lizotte was unopposed for the two-year seat on the SAD 10 board of directors.

Since no one had filed papers for the second seat available on the SAD 10 board, the person with the highest number of votes, Hilton Hafford, who had two votes, will be the first one contacted from the large field of one-vote write-in names to see if there is any interest.

Mount Chase

In a 14-12 vote, residents at the March 17 town meeting turned down a recommendation by selectmen to use a $35,600 fund balance, created by the sale of road equipment, to complete the paving of Owlsboro Road.

They approved instead a recommendation by the budget committee, 19-5, to take $18,700 from the fund to finish paying off a loan to build the town’s firehouse a few years ago.

The Owlsboro Road connects the Shin Pond Road and the North Road. The unpaved section is about one mile of uninhabited area of dirt road.

The road equipment was sold after the town began contracting for snowplowing service with a local man.

Residents also defeated a $5,000 request by the Upper Valley Economic Council. Executive Director Charles Upton spoke to residents about the goals of the council.

After the 19-11 defeat, voters didn’t take another vote to raise a lesser sum.

Rhoda Houtz, administrative assistant, said Monday that Mount Chase has few businesses and basically is a vacation and retirement community with approximately 75 percent of the year-round residents of retirement age.

Tourism is popular in the village that is the gateway to the northern entrance of Baxter State Park. The population of 247 year-round residents more than doubles when owners come to their camps situated on two ponds.

Houtz estimated 80 to 85 of the 510 property parcels were occupied by year-round residents.

The $125,300 municipal budget approved by voters is about 4.3 percent higher than last year. Office expenses along with general maintenance of town property, plus a slight increase in the cost of solid waste disposal, contributed to most of the increase.

Houtz didn’t look for the local budget to raise the tax rate of $17.60 per $1,000 but said the school bill expected in June was an “unknown factor.” The town’s 19 students attend classes at SAD 25 in Stacyville.

The county tax, at $20,807, is up about 9.5 percent this year.

Voters re-elected Christine Olsen to a three-year term as selectman.

They also re-elected incumbents to one-year terms in several offices. They were: Richard Skinner, constable-animal control officer; Terry Hill, Northern Katahdin Valley Waste District; Jesse Eddins, sexton; Richard Hill and Eve Rice, Upper Valley Economics Council.

Rice was the first person from the town to be elected to the Patten Ambulance Advisory Committee. The position had been an option not exercised by voters until this year.

Voters re-elected five members to the budget committee: Beth Bates, Finley Clark, Thomas Daggett, Rhoda Houtz and Debra Cuhan. Vicki Nanni and David Rice were named alternates.

Reed

About two dozen residents spent 21/2 hours on Saturday approving budgets to run their town of 200 residents and to educate their children.

A grade-school teacher organized a potluck noon meal for meeting attendants at the community hall.

Town Manager Joan Emery said the school budget, at $259,506, was down $13,852 from last year with the decline of students enrolled in schools in Danforth and Lee.

The $140,603 municipal budget was held to a $200 increase.

The county tax assessment for Reed was down by $3,000 this year, said Emery.

Resident A.M. Lansky defeated incumbent Douglas Hanington, 16-9, for the one-year term as assessor.

Officers re-elected were: Larry Cowan to a three-year term on the school board; Joan Emery, treasurer, and Nyoka Irish, clerk, both one-year terms.

Perham

Town meeting participants will have to revisit a vote they took on March 18 to form a committee to investigate the purchase of a highway truck.

No date, however, has yet been set for the vote.

When it came to the warrant article to appropriate the first of five $15,000 installments for a truck purchase, a resident presented an amendment to form the committee.

With less than a seven-vote difference from ballots cast by the 100 people who attended, the amendment passed, Town Manager Kristi Moir said Monday.

The original article wasn’t brought up again.

Two days later, Moir brought the matter up to a member of the legal services department of the Maine Municipal Association.

The MMA representative said that because the original article was not voted on, the amendment had failed. He recommended a new article be presented for consideration at a special town meeting. The amendment can become advisory, he added.

About an hour of the 21/2-hour meeting was spent on that issue, said Moir. Voters approved the last 10 of the warrant’s 24 articles collectively.

Voters also turned down an article asking for a $5,000 appropriation to an equipment reserve fund.

By the time that article came up, more than 30 voters, many of whom lived on roads maintained by the town, had left the meeting, said Moir.

Most of the opposition came from people who lived on roads owned and maintained by the state, she added.

The town’s Public Works Department consists of one highway truck and a payloader, said Moir, who added that town officials were hoping they could have taken advantage of the low interest rates to buy the much-needed truck.

The town does have an agreement to share equipment with the neighboring town of Wade, which has a larger truck and a backhoe.

Voters did approve a $200,246 municipal budget with an 8 percent increase in the general government account for personnel overtime in the highway department and expenses related to equipment breakdowns during a snowstorm.

Moir said the $50,000 realized from a recently completed timber harvest on the town-owned 307-acre woodlot would be applied to the school bill when it comes to the town.

Another harvest won’t be conducted until 2020, she said.

Town officials are expecting an increase in the county tax.

During elections the day before, on March 17, Ellie Snyder had 108 votes to defeat James Poulin, with 101 votes, and Thomas Adams with 17 votes, to win the three-year seat on the Board of Selectmen.

Incumbent Connie Heald was returned, unopposed, to another three-year seat on the SAD 45 board of directors.

– Compiled by Gloria Flannery