HARTFORD — Voters at the Saturday, June 17, annual town meeting agreed to change the town clerk position from elected to appointed, combine the winter and summer road budgets and reallocate money for social services, according to Board of Selectmen Chair Lee Holman.
Action got underway at 9 a.m. at the Hartford Town Hall, where voters approved the fiscal 2018 budget of $2.45 million, which is up $105,940 or 4.1 percent.
The town’s contribution to Regional School Unit 10 for fiscal 2018 is $1.34 million, an increase of $33,147 or 2.5 percent. Hartford’s contribution to Oxford County government is $92,736, which is up $2,483 or 2.8 percent.
A projected tax rate has not been calculated because the town is in the middle of a property revaluation, Holman said. The current tax rate is $18.70 per $1,000 of assessed value.
An article to change the town clerk/tax collector/treasurer position from elected to appointed passed 24-6 via secret ballot voting. The change will take effect when Town Clerk Betty Plumley’s term is up in two years or if it is vacated for any reason.
At the recommendation of the Budget Committee, voters approved amending and passing the article for the summer roads account to reflect both summer and winter roads for a total $600,600. This is a combined increase of $58,831.
The summer roads article was previously set at $316,000 and winter roads at $269,859. The winter roads article was nixed “so there is no winter roads account and there is just a roads account,” Holman said.
Voters approved moving all unexpended monies at the end of the fiscal year from the roads account into the roads reserve account. In the past, leftover money in the roads account went into the general fund and not toward fixing roads.
Also at the recommendation of the Budget Committee, the individual warrant articles for social services were combined into one for a total of $10,979, down $3,942. But voters decided to reallocate $500 from one organization to another.
“Health Equity Alliance – they didn’t even tell us what they did,” Plumley said. “It was up in Bangor area. There is nothing that they did down here. [Voters] decided to give that money to Safe Voices because we donate to them every year and for some reason we hadn’t [gotten] a request this year.”
Holman explained how the town operates regarding social service requests.
“Anyone who wants to benefit from a social service disbursement really needs to get their request in in a timely fashion – that means February,” she said. [To receive] social service funding from small towns, you have to be able to show you’re helping residents of our town.”
Other approved Social Services requests are: Hartford Heritage Society, $600; Snowmobile Club, $741; Androscoggin Home Health, $795; Bear Pond Association, $300; Buckfield Recreation, $350; Community Concepts, $1,000; Hartford Food Bank, $300; LifeFlight of Maine, $593; RCAM, $2,500; SeniorsPlus, $1,000; Tri-County Mental Health, $1,500, and Zadoc Long Free Library, $800.
Voters also approved:
• General, Administrative and Safety, $219,072, up $35,951.
• Sanitation, $96,913, up $8,158.
• Emergency Services, $81,082, no change.
• Reserve Account, $12,400.
• Revenues, $117,500, up $8,150, to lower the tax rate.
• General fund, $60,000 to lower the tax rate, no change.
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