POLAND — Documentation for the town’s three Tax Increment Finance districts is in proper order and the paperwork for an amendment to alter one of the TIF districts is ready for final signing, selectmen learned Tuesday.
“The letter’s on the commissioner’s desk,” Noreen Norton said, referring to George Gervais, commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development.
Norton, from the law firm of Rudman Winchell of Bangor, has been working as an intermediary between state and town officials — notably Town Manager Bradley Plante and Administrative Assistant Nikki Pratt — to determine what properties are in which districts, as well as the flow of revenues and expenditures over the past few years.
“A major accomplishment,” Selectman Walter Gallagher said. “It’s great to know exactly where things sit.”
The next thing Gallagher said he wants Norton to do is provide information regarding what the town can and can’t do in each of the three TIF districts.
“We’ll want to look at the cash flows of the districts,” Selectman Steve Robinson said, “how we can spend revenues from the districts and how to handle the situation of where a TIF district is generating more revenue than can be spent in it.”
Plante noted that having this information would be very helpful as the board prepares a budget for approval at the April town meeting.
Norton agreed to meet with selectmen on Wednesday, Nov. 18, in a workshop to address how the town should move forward.
In other business, Plante gave the board a copy of the town’s governance policy for review, along with suggested revisions.
Plante noted that he and Pratt had found and corrected a number of errors in the policy — such as a line which reads that the town manager appointed the health officer — and had added a table of contents.
Selectwoman Janice Kimball noted that the document should be reviewed for gender neutrality.
The board agreed to bring the proposed governance policy up again at its next meeting for final approval. The board also went over a wish list of items that will be up for consideration as selectmen begin preparing next year’s budget.
Items on the list, which board members have suggested to Chairman Steve Robinson over the past two weeks, include:
*discussing the erosion problem at Tripp Lake Beach;
*developing plans to renovate the municipal complex;
*deciding what to do with the McGonaghy house;
*installing a sprinkler system for the community room at the Ricker Library;
*tying up loose ends associated with the Hilt Hollow property;
*establishing a road-paving priority list; and
*taking steps to place land conservation easements on certain town properties.
“That’s quite a bit,” Kimball said, reflecting on the list. “There will be a bit of competing for the money.”
The dollar figures for what it might take to rectify the erosion problems at Tripp Lake Beach might be determined at a workshop scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 5, which Plante said will deal with the findings that came from a meeting that he and other town officials held earlier in the day with Department of Environmental Protection officials.
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