RUMFORD — Selectmen have voted unanimously to drop the property tax rate to $22.60 per $1,000 of assessed value due to the recent revaluation. That’s a $7.90 decrease from last year’s $30.50.
RJD Appraisal of Pittsfield recently completed the property revaluation.
Town Manager Stacy Carter said Friday that the estimate rate listed in notices sent to taxpayers was $22.90, based on the best numbers at the time.
“Upon completion of our work, we recommended $22.60, which is 30 cents per thousand less, and taxpayers will see a slight decrease in their bill compared to the estimate they received two weeks ago,” he said.
The first tax payment is due Oct. 30 and the second on April 1.
In other business at Thursday’s board meeting, it was announced that Canal and Lowell streets will be closed for paving Wednesday and Thursday. All vehicles need to be removed by 6 a.m. Wednesday.
Congress and River streets are available for parking.
Carter told the board that the town sent bid requests a couple of weeks ago to finish the multimillion dollar project to replace water and sewer lines in the downtown business district known as The Island. Paving, new curbing, sidewalk replacements and streetlights are included in the work.
Sargent Corp. of Old Town began replacing lines in 2018, but was slowed by unexpected structures in the ground and having to wait for voters to pass a $2.9 million bond to cover cost overruns.
The total cost of the project is estimated at $7.1 million, or $1.5 million less than an earlier estimate.
“We wanted bids for Canal and Lowell street, River Street and Bridge Street to include the traffic light loops,” Carter told the board last week. “However, they got no bids, simply because people are short on time and no traffic light companies provided a quote to the general contractors to do that work,” he said.
So, the town solicited bids to get Canal and Lowell streets finished, and the very end of Congress (Street).
“This is going to be a project out of the Northern Borders grant for The Island, which allows for paving,” Carter said.
The town received three bids; two were for the same amount and the third was $16,000 higher.
The recommendation was to award the contract to Spencer Group Paving of Turner, which has done all the town’s paving this summer, for $42,177. It was one of the two lower bids.
“While we won’t actually finish the downtown project until next spring, we’ll have to get River Street paved,” Carter said. “We’re going to be doing new curbing there, and we have to get the streetlights hooked up with the new sensors in the roadway. They’ll also be doing the lights at Morency Park.”
In acknowledging the recent increase in COVID-19 cases in the area, Carter said all town departments have mask policies in place to protect staff and the public. He said the River Valley Rotary Club will donate surgical masks to the town.
A meeting scheduled with Mexico officials to discuss a regional recreation center has been postponed indefinitely due to the uptick in COVID-19 cases.
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