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Chesterville residents to take up spending articles, LD1 limit at tonight’s town meeting

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Residents vote at the Chesterville town meeting.
Residents vote at the Chesterville annual town meeting in March.

CHESTERVILLE – Voters will be weighing $31,000 in appropriations, much of it associated with the annual town meeting in March, when they gather for a special town meeting tonight at 5 p.m.

After selecting a moderator, voters will be provided with an opportunity to raise the LD1 limit. As approved in March, the town budget is approximately $5,000 less than the limit, Selectman Tiffany Estabrook said. If approved in its entirety, the special town meeting warrant could result in the town exceeding that limit.

Two of the three appropriation articles pertain to the annual town meeting warrant. The first is a sort of correction: residents at the March 13 meeting voted to raise and appropriate $1,500 for the North Chesterville Homemaker’s Extension, a $1,000 increase over the previous fiscal year. That money was earmarked to allow that organization to host a Chesterville Days summer festival this year.

However, unbeknownst to the budget committee, the North Chesterville Homemaker’s Extension is associated with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, which prohibits the acceptance of funds for a specific event or purpose. The intent of Thursday’s meeting was to transfer the $1,000 appropriation from the Homemaker’s to the Recreation Department to hold the festival.

Another article passed at the March 13 meeting also resulted in a special town meeting article: residents approved the raising and appropriation of $25,000, matched by $25,000 in financed funds, to purchase equipment for the Public Works Department. Article 5 of tonight’s special town meeting would approve the $25,000 expenditure of funds that previously would have been financed through either taxation or through an appropriation out on the town’s undesignated funds.

It doesn’t appear that the department will require the full $50,000 to purchase equipment. If residents opt to raise and appropriate $25,000, the unused funds could revert to undesignated at the end of the year. If funds are instead taken from undesignated, the precise amount required would be raised.

A third article on the special town meeting warrant, Article 4, would raise and appropriate $5,000 for additional supplies and improvements to the town hall. These would include computer security improvements, such as a firewall required for the town to utilize Androscoggin Bank’s services, upgrades to allow the town’s TRIO software to function, security cameras as well as a new water heater.

The meeting will begin at 5 p.m. at the town hall. It will be followed by the regular selectman’s meeting, which begins at 6 p.m.

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1 Comment

  1. Nice that a town meeting is scheduled at 5 pm when most of us work until then and then have to commute .

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