MINOT — Selectmen on Monday voted to recommend increasing municipal spending for 2016 by about 7 percent.

The total municipal budget as proposed stands at $1,708,010 – about $100,000 higher than the 2015 budget. If approved as it stands, it would increase the property tax rate by 0.55 mills.

More than half of the proposed increase comes in road accounts, with selectmen requesting $33,000 more for the summer paving program and raising the appropriation for snow and ice removal by $14,000. The increase brings the town in line with what it’s been spending the past few years.

The town is allowed to overdraft the winter roads account. However, Town Administrator Arlan Saunders thought budgeting a figure close to the average cost the town has spent in recent years made the most sense.

The proposed 2016 budget now goes to the town’s Budget Committee, which is scheduled to meet on Jan. 6 and Jan. 13 to develop its recommendations.

Townspeople will have the final say on the budget at the annual town meeting on March 5.

In other business, selectmen signed a consent agreement between the town and Shaw Hill Road resident John Varney that sets terms for him to bring his property into compliance with the town’s land use code as it pertains to junk cars.

Varney, present at the meeting, told the board that he has cleaned up his property and believes that he is in compliance.

Selectman Lisa Cesare thanked Varney for doing so. The board asked Saunders to contact Code Enforcement Officer Ken Pratt in order to verify that Varney is in compliance.

Saunders also told the board that he had received an offer for a piece of tax-acquired land that no one had shown any interest in when it had been placed out to bid.

The property in question is the four-acre Sutcliffe property located on the westerly side of Bog Brook, close to Mechanic Falls. The parcel has no road frontage and floods regularly, Saunders said.

Selectmen agreed to accept Steve Holbrook’s offer of $100 for the property and directed Saunders to begin the sales process.

Saunders reported that, in response to the board’s appointment of Bernice Fraser and William Perry as the town’s representatives to the Regional School Unit 16 Budget Committee, he had learned school officials only wanted one appointee to represent the town, but had no objection to any resident attending.

Selectmen agreed to let Fraser and Perry know that that they both can attend, one as the town’s primary voting member and the other as an alternate, and that they could decide who would adopt which role.

Selectmen appointed Budget Committee members William Perry and Colleen Quint to new three-year terms, through Jan. 31, 2018.

Fire Chief Dean Campbell reported that work on the additions to the department’s Orchard and Central fire stations is in its final stages and could be complete by the end of January. He also noted that 12 West Minot Fire Company volunteers recently spent a day manning the Salvation Army kettles at Wal-Mart and, enjoying every minute of their duty, raised a good sum of money.