CHARLESTON – Town officials will recommend to residents at the annual town meeting March 13 that a revaluation of properties be conducted over a two-year period.

Selectmen figure the cost for the revaluation will be about $18,000 in each of the two years.

“The sales ratio is sliding to the point where we’ve got to [do a revaluation],” Selectman Richard Goodwin said Thursday. The town is currently assessing at just below 70 percent based on sales-ratio studies, he said.

Goodwin said other large issues to be decided at the 10 a.m. meeting center on the school and the future education of the town’s youngsters.

Residents will decide if they want town officials to continue to pursue withdrawal from SAD 68 and to explore the option of educational needs for high school students at Foxcroft Academy.

The future of the former elementary school, which is where the town meeting will be held, also will be discussed. Suggestions for the building to be presented to residents include keeping it and using space in it for a new town office and library, or selling it. Should residents vote to renovate the school building for municipal offices, selectmen have included an article to raise and appropriate $5,000 for the work.

Residents also will decide whether to allow the use of all-terrain vehicles on the town’s discontinued roads and to use Farm, Perkins, Sprague, and Shute roads to access the trails.

A decision also will be needed on winter road maintenance: whether to contract for the service for three or five years, or have the plowing and sanding done on an hourly basis.

Among the budget committee’s recommendations include: $12,000 for the Fire Department, $3,600 for the salaries of selectmen, $76,000 for general administration, $2,000 for animal control, $2,200 for street lights, $88,000 for winter roads, $4,000 for welfare assistance, $47,000 for highway maintenance, and $17,200 for solid-waste management.