Monday was a busy night for local government duties as five municipalities held their annual town meeting to approve new budgets and elect officials. Littleton, Monticello, Oakfield, Sherman and Stacyville all held their town meetings, giving residents an opportunity to voice their positions on town matters.
The following is a wrap-up of those town meetings.
Littleton budget up slightly
In Littleton, about a dozen residents turned out for the town meeting, held at the Meduxnekeag Snowmobile Club that lasted about 30 minutes. The meeting also featured an opportunity for Fire Chief Dwight Cowperthwaite to show off the town’s new fire truck.
Townspeople approved a $447,891 municipal spending package at the meeting. After figuring in revenues, and $76,000 taken from the town’s surplus account to reduce the tax burden, the bottom line to be raised from taxes for the municipal budget is $232,000.
This figure does not include appropriations for Littleton’s share of the SAD 29 budget or the Aroostook County tax. In 2010, those figures were $353,828.40 (SAD 29) and $53,406.10 (County tax). According to Town Manager Courtney Toby, the tax rate will not be finalized until both the SAD 29 budget and Aroostook County budgets are finalized sometime in May or June.
The budget represents a slight increase due to an additional $10,000 to the town’s future replacement of equipment account. For the past few years, residents have authorized $10,000 for the account. This year, the town increased the amount to $20,000
“In all honesty, $10,000 is not going to buy much and we have three trucks in the highway department to keep up,” Toby said.
A slight increase in the ambulance department budget ($131) and a small increase in the town’s cemetery care budget ($600) garnered minimal discussion at the meeting. Snow removal also increased by $1,000, Toby said.
At the polls earlier in the day, only 28 people cast ballots for two seats on the board of selectmen and one seat on the SAD 29 school board. All three seats were unopposed with Robert Bartlett and Barry Campbell re-elected to the board of selectmen and Laurie Bartlett re-elected to the school board.
Monticello elects officials
At Monticello, residents gathered for about 90 minutes for their town meeting, approving a municipal budget of $526,495.52. According to Town Manager Ginger Pryor, that budget is a slight decrease over last year.
“There is always a conscious effort to keep the budget down,” Pryor said. “That’s not always possible though.”
Tax bills are not anticipated until July, after the school and County allocations are calculated, Pryor added.
At polls earlier in the day, about 189 voters cast ballots. Eric Nelson and Terry Wade were elected to three-year seats on the town’s board of selectmen. Nelson received 116 votes and Wade (an incumbent) received 109 votes. Also garnering votes for the two seats were Jimmy Burpee, 67 votes and incumbent David Pierce, 24 votes.
A one-year seat on the select board was also up for grabs. Burpee received 91 votes for the seat and was elected, while James Burlock collected 60 votes.
Incumbent Sandra Wilkins (108 votes) defeated challenger Amy Corey (60 votes) for a seat on the SAD 29 school board.
Oakfield OKs new plow/dump truck
At Oakfield Monday, voters approved a total municipal budget of $493,927, which is down about $3,500 from last year, according to Town Manager Dale Morris. Among the warrant articles authorized by voters at the meeting was an article to authorize the town to spend up to $125,000 for the purchase of a new plow/dump truck for the highway department. Morris said he anticipated purchasing the vehicle sometime in the fall.
“It’s basically a level-funded budget and when it was all added up, it came in slightly less than last year,” Morris said.
The town is anticipating a $24,546 decrease in revenues for 2011.
Other large accounts approved by voters were $156,482 for the administrative office; $55,220 for the volunteer fire department; $153,429 for public works; $57,575 for the transfer station; $28,367 for general administration; and $20,300 for the community center.
Voters also gave the town permission to enter into a purchase and sale agreement with Jerome and Charles Steinberg for the purpose of cemetery expansion.
Elected to the town’s Board of Selectmen was Cathy Briggs, who beat out Anthony White for the seat by a vote of 55-22. John Nadeau received one vote as a write-in candidate.
Sherman elects new officers
At Sherman, two new faces were among the three individuals elected to the town’s Board of Selectmen. According to Deputy Town Clerk Linda Smith, a total of 157 residents cast votes either at the polls or by absentee ballots. That figure is up slightly from year ago.
In the race for the three-year seat on the Board of Selectmen, Wade O’Roak was voted into office with 77 votes. Incumbent Franklin Vance received 44 votes and John Heath garnered 36 votes. Heath was already a member of the board, but vacated his position to run for the three-year seat.
Incumbent Rose Marie Bragdon beat Robert M. Heath for a two-year seat on the board. Bragdon received 89 votes to Robert Heath’s 64. Samuel Sides was elected to a one-year seat on the board with 143 votes. John Heath previously held the seat.
A one-year term on the SAD 25 school board had no official candidates. Vance received seven votes as a write-in candidate. Smith said she had yet to contact Vance to see if he would accept the position. There were several other individuals who received single votes.
Due to small changes made in budgetary items at the town meeting, Smith said she was unable to provide a bottom line budget figure at presstime.
“We made some changes here and there and I don’t have those changes calculated just yet,” Smith said. “There were some changes in amounts requested by various agencies. I just haven’t had a chance to go down through all of those figures.”
Smith said tax bills will not go out until sometime in August and will depend on the amount assessed by the school budget.
Editor’s Note: Attempts to obtain information on Stacyville’s town meeting were not successful by press time.
