LIVERMORE FALLS — Selectmen voted unanimously Tuesday to set the tax rate for 2018-19 at $21.60 per $1,000 of value of property, the same as last year.
To accomplish that, selectmen also voted to use $100,000 from overlay to offset what could have been a tax rate of $22.20. The board also agreed to go with an overlay of $36,886.74.
The rate means that an owner of a home valued at $100,000 would see a tax bill of $2,160, not factoring in a $20,000 Homestead Exemption. With the exemption, the tax bill would be $1,728.
Selectmen also voted to temporarily close the Town Office on Wednesdays, until a new treasurer is hired. Part-time Assistant Treasurer Barbara Robinson resigned.
Town Clerk Amanda Allen, who also holds the positions of sewer clerk and general assistance administrator, and Tax Collector Dawn Young, who also holds the positions of excise agent and register of voters, have picked up the assistant treasurer duties, Town Manager Stephen Gould said.
“The workload on the girls in the office has tripled,” he said. “They would like a day to close to get things done … They have done a fantastic job. Both of them have busted their rear-ends to get the work done.”
Allen, Young and Gould would still be working at the office, it just would not be open to the public.
“We are actively pursuing a new treasurer,” Gould said.
The town is also looking for residents to serve on the Budget Committee. There were only two people interested in being on the committee this past spring, he said. It is a nine-member board.
“It needs to be fixed,” he said.
In other business, selectmen voted to take $31,856.57 that was allotted in the 2018 budget for the Fire Department for the Fire Station rebuild loan, and the $50,000-plus budgeted in 2018-19 to pay off the $70,000 loan taken out for the renovation cost overrun.
“This would leave us with just one loan for the approximately $640,000,” Gould said.
The cost of the project was about $720,000.
dperry@sunmediagroup.net
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