Readfield residents can weigh in on the proposed Town Meeting warrant at 6:30 p.m. April 12 at Gile Hall.
The entire warrant is voted on by secret ballot, so the proposed budget is prepared well in advance. This year’s Town Meeting vote is scheduled for 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. June 13 at Gile Hall.
The current draft has 43 articles mostly pertaining to the budget.
Among the major items on the ballot is a request to spend $125,000 for capital improvements for Maranacook Lake Dam, with $45,660 of that coming from designated funds. The town of Winthrop pays for almost half the work at the dam because the two towns share the dam.
Town Manager Eric Dyer said Tuesday that the proposed municipal budget should be roughly equal to the current year’s, $2.57 million, which includes everything but funding for the schools.
Currently the property tax rate is $18.93 per $1,000 worth of assessed property value. However, the school costs drive the bulk of that.
Another item to be added to the ballot is a referendum question about accepting the town of Fayette as a full partner in the Readfield Transfer Station, formerly known as the Readfield/Wayne Transfer Station.
Readfield and Wayne now are partners in the transfer station and Fayette is a customer.
Fayette voters are scheduled to cast their vote on whether Fayette should become a full partner at a special town meeting set for 7 p.m. Monday at Fayette Central School.
“We think it’s a real benefit to Fayette residents as well as Readfield residents,” Dyer said.
In Readfield, nomination papers also are available for town offices. On the selectboard, Thomas Dunham’s term is lapsing. So far, Matthew Curtis has taken out nomination papers. Dunham, who had threatened to quit the board in August 2016 over its handling of a snowplow contract award, later decided to remain.
It is not clear whether he will run for re-election, and he was not reachable by phone Tuesday.
Two seats are up for election on the of Regional School Unit 38 board of directors, which runs Maranacook area schools. Adam Woodford, who was appointed recently as an interim member to fill the seat until the election, has taken out papers to run for a three-year term.
No one has yet taken out papers for a one-year seat, currently held by Kelly Crotteau.
There are also three seats — for one, two and three years, respectively — available on the town school board, including that of incumbent Caroline Knight, whose post is up for election for a three-year term.
Nomination papers with signatures of a minimum of 25 registered voters in Readfield must be returned to the Town Office by 3:30 p.m. April 28.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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