GREENE — Residents will gather for the annual town meeting Saturday to consider nearly $1 million in requests, including repairing the Sabattus Pond Dam, replacing a culvert on Main Street and bringing high-speed internet to areas of town.

The meeting begins at 9 a.m. in the Greene Central School gym. Election of officers will be held from 1-7 p.m. Friday at the Town Office.

At a public hearing July 23, dozens of residents filled the fire station to discuss the $385,000 request to repair the Sabattus Pond Dam. Wales and Sabattus have already agreed to pay $385,000 each to fund the repairs.

The mid-19th century dam was last repaired in the early 1980s, according to Sabattus Pond Dam Commission member Jeffrey Baril. The dam gates, which can be raised and lowered to help control pond levels, need to be repaired and if they are not done soon, Baril fears they will fail and water will flow freely through the dam. If they do, properties along the pond would not be considered waterfront, which could impact property values, sending ripples through the entire town’s tax base.

Though the warrant article requests $385,000, the Sabattus Pond Dam Commission is expecting to receive grant money from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to cover most of the repairs, according to Casey Clark, Department of Marine Resources marine resource scientist. When the grant funds are released, each town will only need to pay $38,000.

The Department of Marine Resources plans to place a fishway at the dam to help restore alewife spawning in the waterway. The two projects have joined together, helping the Dam Commission to fund the repairs.

One resident thought Greene property owners on the pond should have to foot the town’s share of the bill, while others contemplated what the loss in property taxes might be if the dam was not repaired, failed and reduced those property values.

Many people were nervous about approving the funding, thinking the town will get the grant money only to have the funding fall through and then the town would be on the hook for the whole $385,000.

Though there is no guarantee the town will get those funds until they have been signed over, the organization issuing the project funds, Maine Rivers, has publicly announced it has selected the Sabattus Dam project for funds, Clark said.

“We feel very confident that we’ll have this funding but we’re not going to have a signed word agreement, meaning signatures on paper, until October,” he said.

If the funding request is approved, residents must decide between two funding options, either approve a five-year bond at 6.69% interest or raise all of it through taxation.

There are also two funding options for the Main Street culvert replacement. Voters could choose to get a three-year $350,000 bond at 6.59% interest or raise the whole amount through taxation this year.

According to Budget Committee member John Soucy, there is no immediate danger of it failing but it is “on its way.” The culvert is made of granite blocks and many are cracked and pushing out.

The town was awarded a $150,000 grant for the project and it has $347,075.84 in the bridge’s capital reserve account, both to be put toward the $850,000 expense. A design has been drawn, the Army Corps of Engineers has issued its permits and the project is getting ready to go out for bid, Soucy said. The new culvert, if approved, will be a box culvert.

Some residents have been vocal on social media about their stance against the $186,000 request for a broadband project that would bring high-speed internet to areas of town.

Roads that would get broadband access include, Bull Run Road, Buzzell Lane, Claybrook Drive, Coburn, North Hills Ridge and Cooper Ridge roads, Island View Drive, County Road, Hillside Estates Drive, Draper Lane, Gosselin Heights Road, Labrie Lane, Morgan Drive, Quiet Acres Drive (north), Allen Pond Road, Bubble Lane, Quiet Aces Drive (south), Rose, South Mountain and Sanborn roads, Saunders Lane, School Street, Thomas Road and possibly others. Spectrum does not currently provide service to these roads.

The Greene Broadband Committee is proposing the town spend the money, along with $100,000 it got from the county for the project and an undetermined amount from the New England Clean Energy Corridor, to have Spectrum provide wiring along those roads, according to a sponsored Facebook post by the committee. The total project cost would be $285,321.

While Selectmen are not recommending a vote either way on the article, many people expressed their views against the request on Facebook, feeling that the cost was too steep for the number of households they believed would be hooked up to broadband. Others thought homeowners on those roads should pay for it.

In another article, selectmen and the Budget Committee are recommending different amounts to be raised for the Fire Protection Expense Account, with selectmen recommending $296,412 and the Budget Committee recommending $314,480. It is about an $18,000 difference.

They also have differing recommendations for the Public Works Road Maintenance Expense Account warrant item, with selectmen recommending $765,020 and the Budget Committee recommending $794,720, a nearly $30,000 difference.

Total municipal appropriations recommended by the selectmen, along with appropriation requests that selectmen left up to the voters, amounts to nearly $4.42 million.

Total municipal appropriations recommended by the Budget Committee, along with appropriation requests the committee left up to the voters, amounts to nearly $4.48 million, or $59,802 more than selectmen’s recommendations.

Selectmen and the Budget Committee recommend using almost $2 million in revenue to reduce the total tax commitment.

On Friday’s ballot, voters will choose between Selectman Kevin Mower and challenger George Farris Jr. Maine School Administrative District 52 Director Kyle Purington is running unopposed.