‘Bare-bones’ budget on Orland agenda Raises eyed for clerk, plumbing inspector

ORLAND – Voters will face a “bare-bones” municipal budget when they gather for the annual town meeting next week.

The polls will be open for municipal elections from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday, March 27, at the town hall. Discussion of the remaining warrant articles will start at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 28, at the elementary school.

“It’s a pretty bare-bones budget on our side,” Selectman Wayne Ames said Tuesday. “We haven’t done much extra spending at all.”

The budget includes a raise for the town clerk and the plumbing inspector, Ames said. Voters will be asked to approve an increase in the fee charged by the plumbing inspector that would offset that salary increase.

After reviewing the preliminary budget, the selectmen chose to eliminate funding for several service organizations in an effort to keep the budget in line, Ames said. The budget will be just under $700,000, an increase of less than 1 percent, he said.

Residents also will be asked to approve again the borrowing to fund construction of a new town office building. The new vote is required under the borrowing agreement worked out with Camden National Bank, Ames said.

Selectmen were scheduled to sign the contract for the construction with Stackpole Enterprises, a local contractor that was the low bidder on the project. The low bid was $388,000 plus some minor negotiated additions. Construction could start anytime, Ames said, and selectmen expect the town offices to move into the new building the first week of October.

The school budget is $3,020,437, a decrease of $23,708 from last year. Despite that decrease, the local appropriation is expected to increase by about $137,972, or about 8.32 percent. That increase is the result of a sharp increase in the town’s state valuation and a decrease of $168,000 in state subsidy.

In municipal elections, there is only one candidate for the open seat on the Board of Selectmen. Michael Urango is the declared candidate to fill the seat left vacant when longtime Selectman Goodwin Ames chose not to seek re-election. Nancy Wasson, however, has mounted a write-in campaign to challenge Urango for the three-year post.

Kimberly Urango, now serving a one-year term on the school committee, and Thomas Taylor-Lash are the two candidates for two seats on that committee. Geoffrey Hauger and Robert Mushrall are unopposed for seats on the board of assessors and the fish committee respectively.