MECHANIC FALLS — The Town Council signed a letter at Monday’s session, objecting to Regional School Unit 16 changing the annual school budget vote from the second Tuesday in June to April 11.
At its October meeting, the school board of directors changed the date and notified town officials only recently.
The letter drawn up by Town Manager Vic Hodgkins states, “Currently, on election Tuesday in June, the citizens decide on the town budget as well as the school budget. One election gets the job done. . . . Holding two separate elections creates staffing issues and extra costs for the town . . . Administering an election is a complex and involved task. In addition to warrant requirements, other tasks include ballot preparation, recruitment and training of election workers, accounting for and tracking all absentee ballots, ensuring voter rolls are up to date, processing new and amended voter registrations, conducting the actual election, and finally tabulating the results.”
Hodgkins said he plans to attend the RSU 16 board meeting Monday, Nov. 14, at Poland Regional High School with Poland Town Manager Matt Garside and Minot Town Administrator Danielle Loring.
“Hopefully,” Hodgkins said, “the school board will really seriously reconsider this.”
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