Madawaska approves town, school budgets

MADAWASKA – Residents approved a municipal budget and the Madawaska School Department budget at the annual town meeting Tuesday night.

Residents approved expenditures of $5,108,488 for town expenses and a school budget totaling $7,966,589. The local cost of the school budget is $4,805,579.

The municipal budget is an increase of $265,780. The school budget is an increase of $121,161, or 1.5 percent, which includes a $200,000 reserve fund for future expenditures in the town’s schools. However, the local share of that budget is $4,805,579, a decrease of $261,173.

The town budget includes $50,000 reserve for a future municipal revaluation, $18,000 for the future cost of retirements, $10,000 for surveying the town line between Madawaska and Frenchville, $40,000 for a plow truck reserve, $75,000 for the construction of a salt and sand shed on Lavertu road, and $20,000 to crush old paving materials stored at a gravel pit.

All projects are slated to be completed over a two- to five year span.

Residents agreed to give a local seniors center $20,000. The center asked for the money to go toward energy-saving renovations at its Main Street location. The request was recommended by the Board of Selectmen but not the town’s budget committee.

John Ezzy moderated the two-hour session, where roughly 125 people attended.

Christina Therrien, Madawaska’s new town manager, did not develop the budget approved by residents Tuesday night. She began her duties in Madawaska on June 5. Tuesday night’s town meeting was her first in Madawaska.

“I think it went fine,” she said of the session. “I have no problem in working with the budget,” she said.

Overall, staff increases were included at 2.5 percent.

The school department is cutting five positions in the coming years – four teachers and one teacher aide.

Residents at the session re-elected Leonette St. Onge to a three-year term on the Madawaska Public Library’s board of trustees. They also elected Frances Gendreau and Pierette Soucy to three-year terms on the Madawaska budget committee and Edgar Morin to a one-year term on the budget committee.