OXFORD — Selectmen will ask the town to approve two tax increment financed projects at a special town meeting early next year. The date has not yet been set.
Selectmen unanimously voted to allow Town Manager Michael Chammings to prepare a draft warrant for the meeting and to set up a tentative schedule. Chammings said the warrant would have two articles: one for a TIF on the Black Bear casino property and one for the southern end of Route 26.
He said for commercial properties coming in the next 10 to 20 years, the taxes will be an incentive and it will help the town pay to expand water and sewer lines up to the edge of town.
Chammings said he wants to hold two public hearings before the special meeting to get input from residents and change the warrant to reflect people’s ideas.
“You have a public hearing and get some good ideas, you can amend it and change it around,” Chammings said.
He said he would have to get started immediately. The state requires the town to apply for the TIFs by March 1.
Residents approved the water expansion project at a special town meeting in July. The project will eventually send water and sewer service up Pigeon Hill on Route 26 to the casino. It includes a 500,000-gallon water tank on the north end of the casino’s property, which has been built.
The water section of the project is nearly finished, according to an email to Chammings from Jim Lord, projects manager for Dirigo Engineering. The piping has been installed and needs only flushing and disinfecting. A water booster pump station is also under construction.
The project cost the town about $1.5 million. Black Bear Development gave the town $500,000 for the project, and developer and Black Bear partner Bob Bahre loaned the town bonds to cover the rest. The TIF would be used to pay Bahre back, although Chammings has said that if the state rejects the town’s TIF application, the project will be paid for with the town’s share casino revenues. If the casino folds and that revenue is not available, Black Bear will cover the remainder of what is owed to Bahre.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story contained an error in the last paragraph. If the TIF fails, the debt to Bahre would come from the town’s casino revenue and would not be forgiven. It was a reporting error.
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