ROXBURY — Voters will decide at Sunday’s annual town meeting on a budget that includes 4% salary and stipend increases and more money for a townwide property revaluation.
Action on the 91 warrant articles will begin at noon at the Town Office and will include electing a selectman and a school board director.
Tax Collector and Treasurer Renee Hodsdon said the proposed municipal budget for 2023-24 is $670,109, nearly $100,000 more than this fiscal year, which ends June 30.
Much of the increase is due to an anticipated 20% increase for salt and sand and an expected increase in a three-year plowing contact, Tim Derouche, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said. Plowing bids are being solicited and a price should be known by Sunday, he said.
Voters will be asked to appropriate $5,000 for a townwide property revaluation to add to the $27,400 in the account. Derouche said the last revaluation was done in 2013 for $38,000 and he expects the next one will be around $50,000.
The budget includes 4% cost-of-living raises in salaries and stipends.
Hodsdon said a group would like to start a historical society and one article asks to raise $1,500 to support starting one and getting nonprofit status.
Another article asks to use $7,500 from the town’s allotment of the federal American Rescue Plan to upgrade safety gear for the Fire Department, Derouche said.
There are also articles to use $2,827 from the pandemic relief bill for Med-Care ambulance service’s capital improvement fund and $2,750 to update the town website.
Three articles ask to use money from the Roxwind tax increment finance account: $1,750 to the Slippery Sliders Snowmobile Club to maintain a snowmobile bridge; $1,000 to the Roxbury ATV Riders Club to maintain its trails; and $1,000 for administrative fees.
Selectman Ray Hodsdon is seeking a three-year term on the board, but no one has filed nomination papers for a three-year term on the Regional School Unit 10 board of directors.
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