LIMESTONE, Maine — RSU 39 voters will decide during a special town meeting on Sept. 21 whether to transfer the entirety of Limestone’s reserve account of about $516,000 back to the community.
Established on Oct. 31, 2009, the reserve account contained money Limestone had before becoming part of RSU 39. That account then contained $697,038.62, which the other RSU 39 member towns of Caribou and Stockholm agreed not to use for anything other than to help Limestone’s school or to offset any tax increases related to the town’s school.
Since then, Limestone has held numerous special meetings in order to request a portion of the money to help with the year’s school budget. These meetings required the presence of a town clerk and moderator, as well as numerous townsfolk to vote forward the fund transfer.
Last year, residents held a meeting to approve withdrawing $25,000 from the account to reduce their tax assessment and, even with a few questions from those present, the meeting was over in less than five minutes.
In 2015, the meeting lasted 15 minutes and included a $55,000 transfer to offset taxes. During that meeting, RSU 39 Superintendent Tim Doak explained that “when RSU 39 was created in 2009, the communities of Stockholm, Caribou, and Limestone had to pool their assets together, and in doing so, the schools all had a reserve they could access. This will be the third time Limestone has dipped into that money to help pare down their costs.”
According to RSU 39 Business Manager Mark Bouchard, Limestone was considering holding another town meeting this year to request roughly $40,000 from the account. Due to the nature of RSU 39 managing three separate towns, budgetary decisions of this nature have to be made via a formal vote and thus require the posting of warrants and gathering of voters each time a request is needed.
To reduce costs and time associated with holding such special town meetings, RSU 39 officials recently decided that transferring the entirety of the account back to Limestone would expedite the transfer process.
Currently, Limestone’s reserve fund is held in two CD’s owned by RSU 39, one of which expires on Oct. 6 and contains $138,261.57, and the other which ends on May 31 of next year with $378,025.52 in it.
If voters allow RSU 39 to transfer the money back to Limestone, the community would receive the money from each CD as it expires.
RSU 39 Board Chairperson Tanya Sleeper suggested transferring ownership during the board’s Aug. 16 meeting, but RSU 39 Business Manager Mark Bouchard said that letting the accounts expire before the transfer would result in a cleaner transfer without any monetary penalties.
Board Member Ron Willey asked if there would be a caveat in the motion to ensure the transferred funds could only be used for educational purposes.
RSU 39 Superintendent Tim Doak confirmed that this would be the case, and that the motion also would indicate that the last dollar from the account wouldn’t be received until the second account closes in May of 2018.
Members of the RSU 39 Board, representing all three communities, were unanimously in favor of the transfer.
The special town meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Sept. 21 in the Limestone Community School auditorium.
