Anson residents voted to build a new wing to the town garage on Spear Hill Road Saturday at the annual Town Meeting and approved borrowing $400,000 to pay for it.
They also will be getting a plow truck, a 1-ton truck and a loader.
“Everything went well; everything passed,” Administrative Assistant Tammy Murray said by phone Monday.
Murray said incumbent selectmen John Bryant and Brenda Garland were re-elected to the Board of Selectmen, outpacing former Selectman Philip Turner who was seeking a return to the board.
Robert Demchek and Murray were elected uncontested to three-year terms on the Regional School Unit 74 board of directors. Steven Everett was elected unopposed as an Anson-Madison Sanitary District trustee, as was Randall Turner, also unopposed, to a second position on that board.
With Saturday’s voting from the floor of the meeting, about 58 residents adopted an annual budget of about $1,700,510. The 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 budget is adopted and the county tax has been assessed.
Saturday also saw approval of the lease-purchase of a new 2018 Western Star plow truck for $99,684, resulting in a total payment of $198,419 over the life of the five-year lease. It would be funded 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.
Anson residents also agreed to raising $20,000 for the purchase of a 1-ton truck to replace the town’s 1998 Dodge.
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 in a lease-purchase agreement over the next five years.
Voters agreed 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.
Murray said Anson voters agreed to build a 60-foot-by-60-foot addition to the highway garage and to borrow up to $400,000 to pay for it. She said the spending package will go out to bond, and construction should start sometime this fall, depending on bond timing.
Voters also approved 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. They also approved spending $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 approved a highway budget of $445,114, with $444,275 to come from excise tax and $839 to come from direct taxation.
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter:@Doug_Harlow
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