HAMPDEN – It’s official: Tax rates are going down in Hampden.

With the final information in, Hampden town councilors on Monday formally set the 2005 tax rate at $18.45 per $1,000 of valuation, down $1.55 from last year.

This year’s tax rate follows a continued trend downward since at least 2001 when the mill rate was $21.10. In recent years, it has crept down, half a mill here, half a mill there. And Mayor Rick Briggs was expecting a smaller reduction of about half a mill.

“This is just fantastic,” said Briggs about the $1.55 rate drop. He credited the town staff with holding the line and finding places to save.

“Certainly, all of us have dug in,” he said.

Town Manager Sue Lessard said the rate decrease came despite more than $250,000 in increases from the school side of the budget and county tax increase. And she said that the tax decrease should help offset valuations that may have gone up for some residents.

“This will mitigate it a great deal,” Lessard said.

The town tried something different this year, tying the town’s budget with town growth, new construction growth and avoided the temptation to use other revenues, such as property values that increased without new construction, to allow for more spending.

In other action, the Hampden Town Council waived its usual bid process and gave Greg Nash, director of public works, the green light to install new cement push walls at the town’s transfer station. The new walls will cost about $15,800 and are intended to reduce bottlenecking that can now occur when trucks with trailers block the locations for demolition debris, metals, shingles and other items.