EASTON, Maine — The town of Easton is boosting its equipment and reserves in its next budget, while leaving open the possibility of lowering the town property tax rate depending on the school budget, according to Town Manager Jim Gardner.
Easton held its annual town meeting April 1, when the town approved a 2019-2020 municipal budget of $1.34 million. The whole budget is up about 10 percent from last year, with much of the increase stemming from a $127,000 addition to town reserves and investments in town equipment, Gardner said. The town’s operating budget is up just 1 percent, he said.
“We want to put more money into our roads and of course equipment is getting more expensive,” Gardner said.
Among new equipment, the town has purchased a rubber wheel excavator that will allow town employees to do road ditch work. “That will help save money by doing it in house instead of contracting out,” Gardner said.
The town’s fire department also purchased new personal protective gear with matching funds from a grant program.
“The budget speaks to the needs but also to what we have to make available,” Gardner said.
The town manager said it remains to be seen what happens with the mill rate, which is currently at $18.05 per $1,000 of property value, including the school and county portions.
The Easton School System still needs to set its 2019-2010 budget, and a real estate revaluation is still wrapping up for its two major factories, McCain Foods and Huber Engineered Woods.
The revaluation is likely to bring in additional revenue to cover new spending in the budget, and there’s also the possibility that new revenue could be used to lower the overall tax rate, Gardner said.
“We won’t know until we get all our numbers together in July when we set our mill rate,” Gardner said. “We’ve been very cautious here in the town government.”
In other Easton news, the town recently completed its streetlight conversion to LED lights. The municipality also is working on grant applications to help fund improvements to its park along the Prestile Stream.
The building in Easton’s town center that previously hosted a Katahdin Trust branch has a new owner, a truck brokerage business, Gardner said.
Gardner added that a town-owned unit vacated by a former health clinic will soon be put on the market for sale.
