DOVER-FOXCROFT – Local residents approved several bonding packages Monday during the annual town meeting.

The OK to bond up to $140,000 for two new loaders, $400,000 for road improvements, $425,000 for major renovations to the public works garage and $300,000 for an expansion of the Thompson Free Library carried the town over the legal property tax levy limit of $1,262,205. To remedy that, residents on Monday voted 87-44 during a written vote to increase the tax level limit by an estimated $75,840 to cover the overage.

“We’re exceeding the limit because of these projects,” Town Manager Jack Clukey said Monday.

The $300,000 bond payment for the library will be used with $538,000 to be raised by library officials through charitable donations and grants. About $350,000 of the latter amount has been raised already, Tom Lizotte, a library trustee, said Monday. Had residents not approved the bond package, Lizotte said the library would have had to postpone the project until later years and pay higher construction fees and it would have jeopardized a $100,000 grant the library received for the project.

Another bonding package also was approved for capital improvements to the wastewater treatment and collection system, specifically for the removal and dehydration of sludge, but that $380,000 project will be paid solely through sewer fees assessed to customers. New rates approved on Monday increase the operation and maintenance charge from $3.05 to $3.34 for each 100 cubic feet of water consumed, and increase the fees for the debt service, capital outlay and equipment replacement costs from $71 to $78.36 per each 5,000 cubic feet of water consumed.

About 158 people attended the nearly three-hour meeting, at which explanations were requested and attempts were made to amend some of the warrant articles. Residents ultimately approved all 42 articles as proposed.

While expenditures for 2005-2006 increased by about 6 percent, the mill rate is expected to decrease because of a projected 9 percent increase in valuations, according to Clukey. The mill rate is expected to drop from $19.86 to $19.06 per $1,000 property valuation.