BLAINE, Maine — The town of Blaine is holding a special meeting Wednesday for residents to vote on a potential tax increment financing project for a new potato storage facility and funding to fix to a dam on the Prestile Stream.
Officials at the meeting at 6 p.m. June 20 at the town office will ask residents to weigh in on the two issues before the town proceeds with the appropriate state applications, said town clerk Janet Bradbury.
One question is whether the town’s approximately 680 residents want to invest $50,000 in local funding in order to obtain $150,000 in state funding to fix the Robinson Dam on the Prestile Stream.
The dam isn’t posing any major hazards, but “it’s in terrible shape,” Bradbury said.
“The biggest concern is residents wanting it fixed and preventing invasive fish from swimming upstream,” she said, adding that invasive bass and muskie have been found in the waterway.
“For years, residents have been after the town [to do something] and there hasn’t been any money.”
Now, the town is eligible for a $150,000 state grant to fund repairs at the dam, Bradbury said. An estimate by engineers put the cost of repairs at around $200,000, so the town would have to contribute $50,000 to the project, Bradbury said.
If residents vote to approve that local funding Wednesday, the town will apply for the grant, Bradbury said.
Residents also will vote on whether to give the town the go-ahead to submit an application for a tax increment financing project with B.D. Grass & Sons, the potato growing operation of Brent and Neil Grass.
The Grasses recently built a new potato storage facility on the Grass Road and approached the town about putting the property into the state’s tax increment financing (TIF) program, which lowers tax liabilities for new business developments.
Bradbury said the town has been working with the Northern Maine Development Commission on drafting a TIF application to the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development.
If approved by local voters and the state, the B.D. Grass TIF would run for 20 years, Bradbury said. Under the arrangement, the Grasses would pay property taxes on the potato storage facility, which is valued at $1.9 million, and they would then receive 95 percent of those taxes back, with the town keeping 5 percent for a revolving loan fund, Bradbury said. At the same time, the value of that property would be sheltered from county and school tax liability under state property valuations.
“That gives a huge benefit to the town because that doesn’t count in our value,” Bradbury said.
This would be the town’s first tax increment financing project and if it’s OK’d by voters, Bradbury said it also could be approved by state officials by the time property taxes are determined in the fall.
“A lot of other towns are doing it,” Bradbury said of the TIF program. “We’re going to jump on board and see how it works.”
