RUMFORD — Residents approved a revised General Assistance budget on Tuesday by a difference of eight votes.
Sixty-seven voters chose selectmen’s recommendation to raise and appropriate $65,000, and appropriate all revenues and reimbursements received by the town designated for General Assistance, Town Clerk Beth Bellegarde said Tuesday night following a hand count after the polls closed at 8 p.m.
Fifty-nine voters chose the Finance Committee recommendation to raise and appropriate $70,000 and appropriate $50,000 from available funds for a total budget of $120,000, including the appropriation of all revenues designated for General Assistance.
A third option for neither recommendation got 58 votes, Bellegarde said.
The issue came up last month when voters rejected the original recommendation of $93,406 at the June 10 town meeting referendum. It was the only municipal budget article that failed to pass. On June 19, selectmen unanimously approved a budget of $65,000, a $28,406 decrease.
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- Rumford resident Dick Lovejoy had the polls all to himself early Tuesday afternoon while casting his vote on the General Assistance budget in Rumford Falls Auditorium. The polls, which closed at 8 p.m., attracted 95 residents by 2 p.m. and 89 more afterward, with most arriving shortly before 8 p.m., Town Clerk Beth Bellegarde said.
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