NORWAY – The Board of Selectmen voted Thursday evening to approve nearly $4,000 in personal property tax abatements.
Town Manager David Holt said the refunds “are all taxes that are not collectable because the tiny corporations that owed these assessments have gone out of business.”
“We’re trying to take care of loose ends,” he added.
Selectmen also voted to fix a real property assessment error for resident Jeff McEwen for 2014-15 for $273.60, and 2015-16 for $286.20.
Holt said the town’s assessor made an error in the 2014-15 and 2015-16 fiscal years, and “under Maine law, the assessor can only abate one year, while (selectmen) have to abate the other two years.”
In other business, selectmen agreed to postpone discussion on a proposed lending library at Longley Square.
Norway Memorial Library Director Beth Kane said Friends of Norway Memorial Library purchased a “lending library,” also known as a “Little Free Lending Library,” and are hoping to set it up in town.
The lending library is 23 inches tall with a plexiglass front, Kane said. It would likely be set up on a 4-foot tall post, “easy to reach if children want to take a book from it.”
Kane said the idea behind a lending library is that people can take a book from the small outpost without needing a library card.
“The idea is that it would be ‘take a book, leave a book,’” Kane said. “If someone is visiting town on vacation and they don’t have a book, they could go over to the lending library outpost and borrow a book.”
She said the lending library would have books for all ages, and they would not be library books with bar codes, or books that require a library card.
“Anyone can go up and borrow one,” Kane said.
Kane said that she hopes to meet with the Board of Selectmen soon to discuss it, but wants to speak with Norway Downtown first to figure out the best location for the lending library.
The idea for the lending library was born out of an attempt by the Norway Memorial Library to tie a project to their theme for the upcoming summer reading program.
“This year, our theme is ‘Building a Better World,’ and we thought we’d try to have some of our programs related to making a difference in our own community,” Kane said.
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