FARMINGTON — The Franklin County commissioners will hold a public hearing Tuesday on a proposed $1.1 million unorganized territory budget for 2014-15.
The hearing will begin at 9 a.m. Dec. 17 at the Franklin County Courthouse.
The budget as is represents a $251,580 decrease from the current budget.
The lower budget is mainly due to $150,000 being proposed for paving compared to $450,000 this year.
Franklin County commissioners received a rough work estimate of improvements in 2012 that are needed on the roads they oversee. It was more than $1 million.
County Clerk Julie Magoon said she expects there will be some slight changes to the proposed budget at the hearing.
Kingfield Selectman John Dill explained to commissioners in November why the amount Kingfield proposes to charge for waste disposal for Salem Township is up $42,000 to make it $60,000.
Dill said not enough was budgeted in the current budget for disposal. It is estimated that the cost for Salem Township would be nearly $50,000, he said. It is difficult to create a budget for the Kingfield-New Portland Transfer Station eight months ahead of time, Dill said. If the county waited until March 2014 to put together the budget for 2014-15, the town would better know what the actual estimated cost would be, he said. Kingfield’s budget runs from July 1 to June 30.
The state requires the UT budget to be approved by commissioners and submitted by Dec. 31. The budget goes into effect on July 1, 2014.
The county will only be billed for its share, he said.
Just because the amount is $60,000 does not mean the county will be assessed that amount, Dill said.
The current budget for the transfer station and associated costs is about $170,000, he said.
New Portland, Somerset County and Kingfield also pay a share.
dperry@sunjournal.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
