Funding to be decided for traffic project

SANGERVILLE – A proposed 2006-2007 municipal budget that reflects an increase in appropriations of $35,428 over this year’s spending plan will be presented to voters at the annual town meeting.

Included in the budget is $2,800 for the installation and first year’s maintenance of a flashing traffic beacon at the four-way intersection in the village. The total cost of the installation is $8,000, of which the Department of Transportation will pay 75 percent. Some residents petitioned town officials to have a four-way stop at the intersection but state officials support a flashing beacon instead.

The town meeting will be held at 9 a.m. Saturday, March 25, in the fire station. A noon luncheon will be offered by the Sangerville Historical Society.

“In most of the municipal areas, we’ve held pretty tight,” Sangerville Town Manager Dick Drummond said Monday, of the proposed budget.

Voters will need to ratify an overdraft of about $55,000 attributed mostly to road maintenance, public works and the garage operation. With those overdrafts in mind, selectmen and the budget committee have recommended using $200,000 from surplus to reduce the tax commitment, rather than the traditional $250,000.

The budget also includes performance-based increases in pay for town employees that average about 4 percent, according to Drummond.

Drummond said residents will be asked to borrow $90,000 over a two-year period to improve the remainder of the Silvers Mills Road. They also will be asked to raise $45,000, which either will be spent on capital improvements or held for the first year’s loan payment in 2007.

A request to spend $16,000 at the former Abbie Fowler Elementary School for a restroom that complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act also will need voter action. Local businesses rent space in the school, a source of about $20,000 in revenue for the town.