LIVERMORE FALLS — Livermore Falls selectmen Tuesday approved by a 3-2 vote $70,000 in contingency funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for potential cost overruns in the fire station renovation project.

Selectmen Chairman Heather Bronish and Selectmen Nixon Ortiz and Rodney Heikkinen voted in favor, while Selectmen George Cummings and Tom Barker were opposed.

Voters had approved up to $650,000 at a special town meeting earlier this year for the renovations. It is expected that around $634,000 of that amount will be used on the project.

Fire Chief Edward Hastings IV told the board that the USDA wasn’t comfortable with only having $16,000 left in case of an emergency involving the project. They like towns to have a 20 percent contingency fund for construction projects, he said.

The USDA will take the contingency funding and set it aside. It will not impact the current project costs. If the town needs to use the contingency funds, it would have to hold a special town meeting and get voter approval.

Assessing agent Paul Binette was present to talk about the town’s tax rate, and noted that last year, about $99,000 was collected “above and beyond what we needed to operate.”

The board asked him if the extra money could be used to offset a tax increase this year.

Binette said that it could, adding that to keep the tax rate the same as last year, Livermore Falls would need to take $180,000 out of its general fund.

“What we don’t want to do is put people’s payments into an escrow,” Binette said.

He explained that the lower the town sets its tax rate this year, the higher the rate would be in the future.

Due to a sharp decline in valuation at Verso Paper in Jay, he said, Jay’s share of the Regional School Unit 73 budget had decreased, while Livermore and Livermore Falls are facing increases next year.

Tax collector Dawn Young asked Binette if the town could benefit from a revaluation, as it hasn’t had one since 2000.

Binette noted a revaluation would be costly and that the town’s current tax assessments and quality ratio were about where they should be.

In other business, the board voted 3-1 to give an abatement to Dana Cummings for his 20 Baldwin St. property, with Ortiz voting against and Selectman George Cummings abstaining. The abatement was for lien fees that had been applied to the property.

Dana Cummings explained that he hadn’t been able to pay his tax bill because he hadn’t received a bill, as it was sent to the wrong address, and the lien had been mistakenly applied.

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