Mariaville

Residents are expected to consider approving funds next week at the annual town meeting for improvements to the town’s transfer station, according to a town official.

Voters will be asked to consider committing $159,000 to the project, which would improve the facility’s recycling capability, Mark Johnson, Mariaville’s administrative assistant, said Friday.

The annual town meeting will take place at 7 p.m. Monday, March 31, at Beech Hill School in the neighboring town of Otis.

Mariaville’s annual meeting was moved to the school, which is run jointly by Mariaville and Otis, in 1997 because of handicapped accessibility issues at the former meeting site, according to local officials.

Preceding the meeting at 6:15 p.m. Monday will be a public hearing at the school on the proposed transfer station improvements, according to Johnson.

Another item voters will consider was put on the ballot by a citizens petition, Johnson said. A proposal to commit $171,000 of undesignated fund balance to reducing the town’s 2003-04 tax burden was signed by 42 voters, he said.

The overall proposed 2003-04 municipal budget is $406,936, according to Johnson. This does not include school costs, which will be voted on at a separate meeting later this year.

Johnson predicted that neither the municipal budget nor the school budget will have much of an effect on the town’s current tax rate of $13.80 for each $1,000 of a property’s value.

In elections, Geraldine Frost is retiring from her position of town clerk; assessor Robert Frost, the town clerk’s husband, has decided not to run again; and Third Selectman Scott Austin is seeking re-election. Nominations for each position will be made by hand at town meeting, Johnson said.