DIXFIELD- A little more than 60 residents turned out for the annual town meeting Thursday night, and of those who were present, there were many who had a lot of questions as to how selectmen arrived at the proposed figures.
Sonya Fuller, Scott Belskis and Dan McKay were just a few who kept elected moderator, Dave Duguay, on his toes and town manager Eugene Skibitsky looking up those figures for explanation.
The meeting began with a congratulatory address from Skibitsky thanking Chairman of the Board, Steve Donahue, for all of his work and wishing him luck, as Donahue is not seeking re-election to the board. “You have put in a lot of hours of hard work. We thank you for your service and we wish you luck in your retirement to civilian life,” noted Skibitsky.
The floor was then turned over to Chairman Donahue for the presentation of the town’s Distinguished Citizen Award to Ike Libby. “Ike, you are one of the most generous of our valued citizens and we value you,” noted Donahue. Libby was presented with a plaque and a potted plant.
Business then got under way as Skibitsky noted there was a mistake in calculations and that if the town approved all of the selectman’s recommendations, they would not have to increase the property tax levy limit.
It was previously reported that the town was $58,207 over the levy limit, which would have forced them to increase the limit or go back to the drawing board to cut that amount from the budget. As it turns out, the total proposed budget stood at less than $2,066,860, as previously reported.
Those residents present voted down the selectman’s recommendation for the executive, police, and public works departments by a total of $9,266 and agreed to accept the remaining recommendations for a total of $910,594.
The mil rate will be established in the coming weeks after the school and county budgets are finalized.
Citizens were asked to authorize the municipal officers to use undesignated funds, in the amount of $110,000, from surplus to reduce the tax rate for the fiscal year 2013, of which they unanimously approved.
The final budget numbers will be available as soon as the school and county budgets are decided upon in the coming weeks.
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