Anson residents at Town Meeting on Saturday will be asked to borrow up to $400,000 to build a highway garage and to make payments on a plow truck, a 1-ton truck and a loader.
Polls open for the election of officers at 8 a.m. at Garret Schenck School and will remain open until 2 p.m. The annual business meeting is scheduled to follow at 2:30 p.m.
On the election ballot this year are three candidates for two open seats on the Board of Selectmen. Incumbent board members John Bryant and Brenda Garland are seeking a return to the board for three-year terms. Former Selectman Philip Turner also is running for the position.
Robert Demchek and Tammy Murray are uncontested for three-year terms on the Regional School Unit 74 board of directors. Steven Everett is running unopposed for Anson-Madison Sanitary District trustee, and Randall Turner is unopposed for a second position on that board.
Tammy Murray, the town’s administrative assistant, said if all the articles pass as written Saturday on the meeting floor, the annual budget will be about $1,700,510. The proposed spending package for the coming year is up $18,676 from last year’s, Murray said.
The tax rate going into the meeting is $20 for every $1,000 worth of assessed property value, but the final figure for 2018 will not be known until the school budgets are adopted and the county tax has been assessed.
Among the big-ticket items facing voters Saturday is approval of the lease-purchase of a new 2018 Western Star plow truck. The request is for $99,684, resulting in a total payment of $198,419 over the life of the five-year lease. It would be funded, with voter approval, using $50,000 from the existing highway capital reserve account as a down payment and $25,000 from the sale of the town’s 1992 Mack truck, leaving $24,684 as the 2018 payment from taxation, according to the town report.
The Board of Selectmen and the Advisory Board both unanimously recommended the article.
In the next article, Anson residents will be asked to raise $20,000 for the purchase of a 1-ton truck to replace the town’s 1998 Dodge. Both boards backed the measure.
Murray said the town puts away $45,000 every year, which covers the combined payments on the two vehicles, with the plow truck paid for over time in a lease-purchase agreement over the next five years.
There also is a proposal to take $12,507 this year from the highway capital reserve for the lease-purchase of a 2018 loader. The lease is for three years, with the total due after trade-in allowance to be $37,520.
Also on the list of Highway Department spending is a two-part proposal, first to build a 60-foot-by-60-foot garage on Spear Hill Road, and second to borrow up to $400,000 to pay for it.
Voters also will be asked to maintain a seven-member Advisory Board and three alternates to serve as consultants to the municipal officers. Both boards support the idea.
In other spending questions Saturday, residents will be asked to spend $329,865 for town administration, including wages for the Board of Selectmen; $102,599 for the Anson Fire Department; and $47,800 for the AMS Ambulance Service.
Residents also will vote on a proposed highway budget of $445,114, with $444,275 to come from excise tax and $839 to come from direct taxation.
There also is a request to spend $30,000 to renovate the meeting room at the Town Office and to appropriate $162,093 for debt service — $114,000 to cover the road construction bond and $48,000 for the sewer bond. Murray said the town floated a $600,000 bond for road construction in 2014, which she said will be paid off in 2019.
She said tax bills that went out last fall contained a clerical error. The bond debt to the town including the combined sewer bond and the road paving bond was $539,920. The error showed that number just for the road bond, which with this year’s payment and next year’s will be paid off.
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter:@Doug_Harlow
Send questions/comments to the editors.
