PERU – The Board of Selectmen were forced to table discussion on whether to accept a revaluation bid from assessor Parker/Fraiser after a tie vote at Monday evening’s meeting.
Town secretary Angela Barkhouse said Chairman Jim Pulsifer and Danny Wing voted in favor of accepting the bid, while Larry Snowman and Lee Merrill voted against it.
As a result, the motion was denied and tabled until next week.
“As of right now, we have two members who wish to approve the bid, and two who don’t,” Pulsifer said Tuesday afternoon. “We’ll have to table it until we can vote again.”
Barkhouse said the board also voted on whether to advertise the revaluation bid package on the town’s website to attract more assessors.
Snowman and Merrill voted in favor of the motion, while Wing and Pulsifer voted against, so the motion failed.
Residents voted 158-142 in November 2013 to allow selectmen to take $40,000 from the revaluation reserve account and money from surplus to hire an independent appraiser this year.
The last time Peru had a property revaluation was in 1999.
In other business, Pulsifer said selectmen voted to approve sending a letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for disaster relief fund due to the “hard winter” Maine towns dealt with in 2013-14.
Pulsifer also said the test of the Worthley Pond public spring came back negative for coliform or E. coli bacteria. The town tests the spring monthly.
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