SIDNEY — It was a long day of discussion Saturday during Town Meeting, but in the end voters approved all 46 articles.
Selectman Kelly Couture said Sunday that the proceedings, which ran from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., went smoothly, due in part to better communication between the board and voters.
“We got our information out to the public sooner than usual,” she said of the town report. “And selectmen were assigned certain topics to speak to, so we were better prepared to discuss each issue.”
There were two major issues on the warrant — funding a major road project and a furnace replacement.
Couture said Road Commissioner Floyd Luce spoke on behalf of a $500,000 project to reconstruct and re-pave Goodhue Road: Either the town could pass the article as written and fix the road from the ground up, or they could continue to throw money at the road for stopgap measures.
In the end, voters chose the $500,000 bond at 1.9 percent interest over five years, Couture said.
Voters amended an article regarding furnace replacement at the Grange Hall after learning that the board had received a better price quote for the new equipment after the warrant was printed. The amount was reduced by half, from $40,000 to $20,000.
In total, voters approved nearly $1.4 million in spending, an increase of 6.7 percent over last year.
Ben McCanna — 861-9239
bmccanna@centralmaine.com
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