PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Presque Isle city councilors are currently working to finalize next year’s municipal budget, for which they hope to reduce the projected property tax rate and invest more funds in the capital reserve account.
In early November, City Manager Martin Puckett had stated that he would propose to the Council a budget of $13 million with a 3.4 percent increase in the tax rate from $25.60 per $1,000 of property value to $26.70. During the most recent council meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 5, Puckett said that through negotiations on individual department budgets, the city now has a projected mill rate of 25.84.
While the capital expense requests from all department heads — which include those from the public library, airport, IT services, the city clerk, public works and the fire and police departments — initially came in at $520,000, councilors have since reduced that total to $125,000 for all departments based on decisions regarding which municipal expenses to pursue or leave off the table until 2020.
Early Wednesday evening, Presque Isle resident Maureen Hanley, who ran an unsuccessful bid for a four-year council seat this year, urged councilors to decrease the mill rate to encourage more people to remain in the city. She also spoke against the possible purchase of a new engine/tanker truck for the Presque Isle Fire Department, stating that the councilors should be careful in how city money is spent.
“I know that you all have been working hard and that sometimes it feels that there’s good reason to spend money on certain expenses,” Hanley said. “But I urge you to say ‘no’ more often because from what I’ve been hearing from folks, they are frustrated with how high the mill rate is in Presque Isle.”
Councilors thanked Hanley for her input and encouraged members of the community to attend the next public budget meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 12, beginning at 5:15 p.m. in the council chambers of City Hall. If the council does not finalize the budget then, another meeting will be scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 19, to begin at that same time.
During the Dec. 5 meeting, councilors asked Presque Isle Fire Chief Darrell White exactly how much it would cost to replace the fire department’s 34-year-old engine truck, called Tanker One, which doubles as a tanker and includes extra space that firefighters use to store air packs and other equipment used during emergencies.
White said that unlike the tanker truck that the department operates, also known as Tanker Two, the engine/tanker is in more dire need of replacement. The department has dealt continually with repairs to Tanker One such as water leaks and water pipes for many years.
“If we were looking at replacing Tanker Two, I would have no issue with taking that expense off the budget and waiting another year,” White said. “The problem is that Tanker One is crucial for the services we provide.”
In early 2018, the fire department received notification that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had rejected the department’s request for a $300,000 Assistance to Firefighters grant, which would have covered much of the estimated $600,000 expense for a new truck. Puckett reminded councilors and White that the city only has $240,000 set aside in the reserve account for the purchase of a new fire truck, which would force the municipality to take out a loan for the rest of the purchase price.
“One of the things we’ve been looking at is possibly purchasing more used equipment to make the amount that we have in the capital reserve account last,” Puckett said. “Ideally we would be able to put $1.7 million into reserves annually but we’ve only been able to do $800,000.”
That reduction in capital reserve funds, which are set aside for major or unexpected expenses throughout the year, is largely due to decreases in state revenue sharing from $1.3 million in 2008 to around $800,000 in recent years.
City council deputy chair Mike Chasse asked White if there was any way the fire department could go out to bid on a new engine/tanker truck, if only to find and compare exact costs between various manufacturers.
“I’d rather we make a decision on this instead of putting it off again,” Chasse said. “But I think we would feel more comfortable making a decision if we had prices to go by.”
White stated that he feels it would be morally wrong for the department to go out to bid only for the sake of comparing prices and not accepting a company’s bid right away.
“I’m afraid it wouldn’t put us in a good relationship with these companies if we rejected everyone’s bids just because we aren’t ready to choose yet,” White said.
The councilors made no formal decision regarding the fire truck but agreed to further discuss the issue as budget negotiations continue and to consider setting aside funds in the capital reserve account for smaller fire department expenses.
Councilors have until Dec. 31 to approve the 2019 municipal budget.
