EAST MILLINOCKET – Town taxpayers should start receiving higher tax bills today after the Board of Selectmen voted unanimously earlier this week to raise the 2004 mill rate to 21.57 mills, town officials said Wednesday.

Citing the resumption of production at the Great Northern Paper Co., now operating under the name Katahdin Paper Co., and the impact upon town government of cutting the mill rate last year to 17.38 mills, the board voted 5-0 for the raise during a Monday night meeting.

The increase will help offset the costs of about $480,300 in equipment purchases, plus school expenses, Shirley Tapley, board administrative assistant, said

“When the mill [Great Northern] had shut down, there were no revenue expenditures allowed, so the need to buy new things has been there for some time,” Tapley said Wednesday. “No one likes to see a tax increase, but the budget was so bare bones last year that we kind of expected that we would have to raise the rate.”

A mill is equal to $1 of tax for each $1,000 of assessment. A property with an assessed value of $100,000 will pay a tax of $2,157 under the new mill rate.

The 23.49 mill rate set in 2002 is closer to the town’s typical mill rate, Tapley said.

Town workers were mailing the new tax bills to residents on Wednesday. The first half of the tax bill is due Nov. 24. The second half is due by Feb. 2.

The tax increase will help pay for several upgrades and new pieces of equipment, including $70,000 in repairs to the community pool, Tapley said.

The tax increase, plus a $50,000 state grant, will pay for a new roof to the pool building, plus new grouting and sealing in the pool’s shallow end, new recirculating pipes, an acid cleaning for the deep end, and new rugs and water pumps, Frank Clukey, director of parks and recreation, said.

“It’s in pretty good shape right now for a 22-year-old pool, but to guarantee that it will be around for at least another 22 years, we need to renovate and update it,” Clukey said. “When the work is done, it will look just like a brand-new pool.”

Among the other purchases are: $160,000 for a new firetruck and $15,000 for a thermal imaging camera, $85,000 for a new front loader for public works, $55,000 for renovations to the public safety building, $31,000 for sewers on Spring Street and $27,000 for curbing and sidewalks on Main Street.

Renovations on the public safety building have already begun.