NEWS
(from the March 2008 Maine Townsman)

Avon: Voters passed a new ordinance on March 15 requiring property owners to notify the town whenever they make permanent improvements that would change their property value. Residents passed the measure after being assured it was only a way to help the town assessor keep track of new property and therefore ensure fair taxation, and was not an approval process for the improvements.

Benton: Residents took the first of two steps toward hiring their first administrative assistant to help selectmen with their growing workload. On March 15, town meeting voters authorized selectmen to create a plan to make the change, and bring it back to voters in November.

Camden: The town’s annual financial report has been recognized by an international finance officers group, along with Finance Director Carol Sue Greenleaf. The excellence award for public financial reporting is the highest honor bestowed by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA).

Cumberland: The town is proposing to merge two departments and eliminate the public works director’s job as a cost-cutting measure for the fiscal 2009 budget. The new department would be called the Department of Services and combine the public works and recreation operations.

Kennebunkport: Vision Appraisal will conduct a townwide revaluation for $283,000, the lowest bid received. The contract also includes a $7,000 software upgrade. Vision conducted the town’s last revaluation 10 years ago.

Lisbon: Town Manager Stephen Eldridge has told department leaders to cut five percent from their existing budgets to cover rising road maintenance costs and declining state education funding without raising the property tax rate. Eldridge also expects to reduce capital projects this year to get the budget back in balance.

Perry: Voters rejected a tri-town proposal to merge town office staff and build a joint new town hall, ending for now two years of effort by selectmen in Perry, Charlotte and Pembroke to create a new, more efficient government structure for the three small Washington County towns. Town meeting voters in Charlotte and Pembroke also rejected the plan.

Pownal: Residents ended a 200-year tradition this past March when they held the town’s final March annual town meeting. They passed a six-month transition budget of about $580,000 until the town moves to a July-June calendar year.

Richmond: Selectmen are searching for ways to shorten the annual town meeting, held in June, as a way to encourage more people to attend.

Swanville: Voters agreed to override the town’s LD 1 budget limit in order to maintain its depleted fund balance at a level of at least $400,000. Nearly $600,000 from the so-called “surplus” has been used in the past three years to maintain the property tax rate despite rising costs. The override vote was passed by a vote of 27-3.

Weld: Groups that rent the town hall for weddings and other parties still won’t be able to drink there after voters re-affirmed the town’s ban on alcohol being consumed at the town office or surrounding grounds.