LITCHFIELD — Voters approved spending $725,000 to purchase a new fire truck and a plow truck during Saturday’s annual Town Meeting.
Residents overwhelmingly voted in favor of spending $475,000 to purchase a new tanker fire truck and up to $250,000 to purchase a new plow truck at the meeting attended by about 70 residents.
Residents hold up voting cards Saturday during the annual Litchfield Town Meeting at Carrie Ricker School. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
Fire Chief Michael Sherman, who earlier noted the volunteer department does not ask for things it doesn’t need, said the truck the new tanker would replace has already been in service for several years beyond its maintainable service life and is thus overdue for replacement.
“It has been several years since we were supposed to replace this truck,” he said. “If we put off replacement, and all these trucks break down all at once, that would be a bill we couldn’t afford.”
Residents also approved the use of $75,000 from the fire truck reserve account to repair the deteriorated frame of another of the town’s fire trucks.
One resident questioned the $250,000 residents agreed to take from the town’s surplus funds to buy a new plow truck, saying he had recently priced out the same basic type of truck from a Bangor dealer for $187,500.
Road Commissioner Larry Nadeau said a new plow truck the town recently took delivery of cost $243,000 and the dealer they bought it from was the only one that could meet the town’s needs at the time. He assured residents the town would seek out the best deal it could get, and wouldn’t necessarily spend the whole $250,000. He said the $187,500 price the resident found was “an amazing price” but expressed concern it may not have been equipped the way the town needed it to be.
“We’re going to get the best price we can get,” Nadeau said. “But we need another plow truck.”
Town Manager Kelly Weissenfels answers a resident’s question Saturday during the annual Litchfield Town Meeting at Carrie Ricker School. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
Just before the close of the three-hour meeting residents pondered how much to take from the town’s unassigned fund balance, an account made up of money unspent in previous years, to help reduce the impact on property taxes.
Selectmen and the Budget Committee recommended using $200,000. Town Manager Kelly Weissenfels said that would result in a 3.8% tax increase from the town’s $3.1 million share of the town and school budgets.
But after hearing from Weissenfels that the town had about $500,000 more in its unassigned fund balance account than it needed to be able to operate, resident Mark Russell, who in Tuesday’s elections lost a race for selectmen to incumbent Gary Parker by only one vote, made a motion to use $450,000 from that account to help reduce the increase in taxes. Weissenfels said the account built up in recent years, as the town sought to keep funds in reserve in case they were needed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s all well and good we prepare our town for bad times, but the $500,000 is over and above what will protect us from any bad circumstances,” Russell said. “This is your opportunity, you’ve been overtaxed and this is your opportunity to take it back.”
Parker said the selectmen’s recommendation to take $200,000 from the account would leave the town a security blanket if a recession takes place. He said taking $400,000 from that account would only reduce the tax bill for the owner of a $150,000 home by $54.
Voters rejected Russell’s proposal to use $450,000 from unassigned fund balance to offset taxes, by an 18 to 33 vote. They later approved a motion from another resident to use $300,000 from that account.
Residents approved $7,600 to have an engineer evaluate the Purgatory Dam. Upon a motion from a resident they removed wording in that article which stated the evaluation would be “of removing the dam.”
One resident said the dam provides a water source for Purgatory village and should be left alone.
Parker said the purpose of the evaluation is to determine what would happen, above and below the dam, if it were removed. He said he’s not an engineer but knows that every year the dam causes flooding and at some point the dam may fail. He said there are other potential ways flooding at the site could be alleviated, but removing the dam remains one of those options so that should be studied.
“That’s the idea of this article, to do the research before we make any kind of decision what to do,” he said.
Every other article put to residents on the 64-article warrant was approved.
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