FARMINGTON — Farmington Selectmen, at their meeting on May 27, approved the time, date and location for a special town meeting and were provided information for the Regional School Unit 9 budget referendum vote on June 10.

The referendum will be held in the upstairs conference room at the town office on June 10 with polling hours from 1 to 6 p.m., Town Clerk Diane Dunham noted in her report to the selectmen. “It was recently brought to my attention that the Community Center will not be available for us to use,” she wrote. “I will be working with the Superintendent’s Office to make people aware of the change of location.”

Absentee ballots for the budget vote are available when the office is open, Dunham noted. “Those that have requested lifetime absentee ballots will still receive them in the mail,” she wrote. “The June School Budget Referendum is a local election, and we are able to move the voting location with just a notification to the voters. November 4th is a State Referendum Election and there are different rules for changing the voting location.”

Selectmen voted to hold a special town meeting at 7 p.m. on June 10 in the upstairs conference room. They approved beginning their regularly scheduled meeting downstairs at 6:30 p.m. and pausing it for the special meeting.

“It’s my fault we have to have a special town meeting,” Town Manager Erica LaCroix said. Town meeting warrant articles seeking to borrow money are supposed to have a treasurer’s statement included with the article, which didn’t happen, she noted.

The affected article deals with borrowing money for the Community Center roof renovations. LaCroix said. There wasn’t any estimate available for the interest at the annual town meeting because that isn’t known until the funding arrangements are worked out, she noted. “I did reach out to the Maine Municipal Bond Bank, was told to hedge at 4.5% for a 10-year note,” she stated. “That comes out to $211,000 in addition to the $800,000.”

LaCroix said with the Community Center unavailable to hold the meeting, other options were looked into. Available dates and costs were:

St. Joseph’s June 10 or 17 – $50.
Town Office Meeting Rooms June 10 or 17 – no charge.
UMF: North Dining Hall June 17 – $110.
UMF: Roberts Learning Center June 10 or 17 – $225.

The upstairs conference room, which is handicapped accessible will be busy with RSU 9 budget referendum voting until 6 p.m. Chair Matthew Smith proposed holding the special meeting in that room at 7 p.m. to be ADA compliant. “I know we’ve done that before, during COVID,” he said. “I know how we have done this in the past. We will get five people.”

On May 30, Smith said selectmen will start their meeting downstairs, then move upstairs for the special meeting.