MONTICELLO, Maine — Monticello residents will vote on a slightly increased municipal budget and choose among five candidates running for the Board of Selectmen on April 1.
At the annual town meeting beginning at 7 p.m. at the fire station, residents will be presented a proposed budget of $510,779.96, according to Town Manager Ginger Pryor. Increases to the budget include a $10,000 allocation in the paving account, along with $10,000 more for the winter road’s account. The town also has set aside $2,000 to repair broken headstones in the cemetery.
“The other accounts increased a little bit, but they were just negligible increases,” she said. “I think everyone was happy that we were able to keep the budget down as low as we did.
Voters also will have a number of people to choose from when they go to the ballot box.”
“We have five people who are running for a three year term on the board of selectmen,” she said on Tuesday.
They include Jimmy Burpee, Diane Doe, Myrna Ford, Lawrence Goff and Lisa Good.
Max Upton is seeking a one year term on the select board.
At the same time, residents will be voting on two ordinances that were addressed as one combined at the town meeting last year
Pryor said that the ordinances involving an automobile graveyard and livestock are largely the same, except that they are no longer combined.
One question on the warrant reads, “Shall an ordinance titled “Town of Monticello Automobile Graveyard and Junkyard Ordinance” be enacted?”
Wade Hanson, code enforcement officer for the town, said last year that according to state law, an individual is operating an automobile graveyard if he has three or more unregistered or uninspected vehicles in his yard. There are many caveats to the law, which allow for more accumulation of unregistered and uninspected farm equipment. Automobile hobbyists also are allowed to have more vehicles on their property. The law also excludes an area used for temporary storage of vehicles or vehicle parts by a business that is doing vehicle repair work.
Last year, Pryor said that there were a few properties that she was getting regular complaints about, and the ordinance would assist town officials with that. Hanson said the Maine State Police is currently responsible for enforcing the state ordinance.
The new “draft fowl chicken” ordinance provides municipal authority to enforce standards established regarding chickens within the residential business district of the town. The district runs from the Station Road to the Dalbek Road and one thousand feet on either side.
Issues came up at last year’s meeting about lot size and the number of chickens that would be allowed. A number of residents thought that people shouldn’t be raising livestock in that area. Revisions to the proposed ordinance removed livestock and clarified what is needed for chickens, not roosters, to be raised in the residential/business district.
