St. John Plantation elects officers, OKs budget

ST. JOHN PLANTATION – Six plantation offices were filled by voters last Thursday, and a 2006 budget of $82,675 was approved by residents at the annual town meeting Friday night.

In municipal elections, Patrick Nadeau, a former assessor for the plantation, beat incumbent First Assessor Joella McBreairty for the position by a vote of 84-42. Second assessor Norman Marquis kept his seat over a write-in effort by Dennis Pelletier by a vote of 84-36.

Levite Gene Ouellette retained his seat over Dora Berube by a vote of 84-15. Barbara Pelletier had 29 votes in her write-in effort.

Joyce Martin, the incumbent whose name was not on the ballot, is again plantation clerk treasurer and tax collector, with 79 write-in votes.

All municipal offices are for one-year terms. A total of 136 ballots were cast in the elections.

On Friday night, 29 residents took 45 minutes to approve the proposed budget.

Residents, by a vote of 14-13, agreed to give their second and third assessors a raise of $300 per year. That gives second assessor $1,500, and the third assessor $1,200 for the year.

It was the first time in 11 years that the assessors received a raise for their work.

Residents said no to raising $1,000 for the plumbing inspector’s position. They were told the town could do with leftover funds to support the position. They also reduced, from 11 percent to 7.5 percent, the amount of interest that will be charged on unpaid taxes.

All other proposals put to voters were approved.

Of the $82,765 budget, residents agreed to use excise tax collections to pay $21,500 for officers’ salaries, and also to fund administrative services with $2,500. They also agreed to use another $40,000 of excise tax collections to reduce the tax commitment.

The largest expenditure on the budget for the municipality of 282 residents is solid waste disposal at a cost of $23,000.

The approved budget does not include the plantation’s share of SAD 27 educational expenses, nor their share of the Aroostook County budget.