TEMPLE — At the annual town meeting voters will elect municipal officers, consider proposed department budget requests and take up several other articles. The meeting will be held at 9 a.m. Saturday, April 29, at the town office, 258 Temple Road.
Positions to be filled include three-year term on the Select Board, two-year road commissioner and three-year term on the Regional School Unit 9 board of directors.
The proposed municipal budget for this year is $936,205 which does not include county or school assessments. The budget approved last year was $779,365 resulting in a change of $156,840 or 20.12%.
“The biggest increases, one is for the snowplowing contract,” Selectman Dean Collins said Friday, March 21. “The other one is the re-evaluation for the town. Those are the two major increases to the town budget. Things that we have got to move forward on.”
The plowing contract is increasing $65,000 while tax assessing is going up $85,500. Other increases are $9,000 for waste collection, $5,000 for town charges, $3,000 for insurance, $2,600 for animal control, $1,505 for ambulance service and $235 for Franklin County Animal Shelter. Town-owned building is decreasing $15,000 with all other lines at last year’s amounts.
Voters will again be asked to approve a 3% discount for taxes paid in full within 30 days of tax billing date.
“That has been approved for years,” Collins noted. “We always know [the discount] is less than borrowing money.”
Several outside agencies are requesting support this year: $596 for LifeFlight of Maine, $100 for Maine Public Radio/Television, $500 for Andwell Health Partners [formerly Androscoggin Home Healthcare + Hospice], $500 for Care and Share Food Closet, $500 for Community Concepts, $300 for Gary Owen House and $100 for Kennebec Behavioral Health.
Collins indicated the $2,596 in requests have not been included in the proposed municipal budget. “Any letter we get, I guess legally we are supposed to put it in there for voters to consider,” he said. “Those are the letters that we have received from different agencies requesting money.”
In all, 52 warrant articles will be considered by voters.
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