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Farmington town meeting, elections are Monday

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FARMINGTON – Voters will elect two school board directors and decide on $5.79 million of proposed expenditures at Monday’s town meeting. Polls will open at 9 a.m. at the Community Center and run until 6 p.m. The remaining articles will be taken up at 7 p.m.

A single, three-year term on the Board of Selectmen is open this year, with incumbent Selectman Matthew Smith running unopposed.

Two seats on the Regional School Unit 9 school board are also open: one two-year term and one-three year term. Incumbent Director Iris Silverstein and challenger Nancy Porter are running for the three-year term. Heather Ahern-Huish is running unopposed to complete the last two years of Director Ryan Morgan’s term, after Morgan left the board earlier this year. Selectmen already voted to have Ahern-Huish serve on an interim basis until July 1, when school board terms begin.

The proposed budget includes $5,013,301 in municipal operations and another $759,775 for capital improvements like the paving plan, debt service and outside agencies such as the Franklin County Animal Shelter and the Farmington Public Library. Voters will also decide whether to distribute an additional $18,000 among several non-profit organizations. The total $5.79 million budget would represent roughly a $100,000 reduction from the current fiscal year, or roughly 2 percent. The current fiscal year includes the $250,000 increase made by residents at the March 2017 annual town meeting for public works equipment.

Most of the municipal increases are represented in the salaries and benefits lines, including at the Farmington Police Department, which showed an increase of $70,000 in those lines, particularly wages, a contractual item, FICA and health insurance costs. Police Chief Jack Peck previously said that he attempted to make reductions elsewhere to absorb the impact, including cuts to fuel and uniform funding, as well as the computer and equipment reserves. In total, the department’s budget would rise $61,111 or 4.91 percent.

Fire Chief Terry Bell, with a full fiscal year of full-time officers now under the department’s belt, is requesting the addition of a $10,500 overtime line. That increase is more than countered by an $18,000 decrease in the department’s health insurance line. An increase in vehicle maintenance funding is also requested, as the department deals with issues in its aging trucks. Of specific concern is Engine 1, a 2002 fire truck, which has developed a difficult-to-diagnosis defect that will likely require it to be sent to the nearest factory in Massachusetts.

Other salary increases in some departments, such as Parks & Recreation, are hinged on the minimum wage increase mandated by last year’s citizen’s initiative. Department heads are generally requesting a 2 percent increase for salaried employees.

Public works is seeing a $275,062 decrease in this year’s operations budget request, although much of that is on the back of last year’s $250,000 increase at town meeting to the Vehicle & Equipment Reserve. The town is proposing to pave the rest of Titcomb Hill Road to the Mosher Hill Road intersection this year; other potential improvements include Perham Street, High Street and Front Street.

The town is also saving money with a $25,000 in insurance expenditures and another $15,000 in health insurance costs at the town office, where an employee will be taking the buyout instead of health insurance. The assessing budget will be increasing by $32,000 to cover the cost of a revaluation.

The Farmington Public Library is proposing a budget of $199,409, up slightly from last year. Increases include electricity due to the anticipated installation of new heat pumps, an audit of the library’s finances, setting aside $2,500 to go toward a roof project and the rising costs of paper materials. The library has also been impacted by the minimum wage law.

Late additions to the warrant, Articles 24 and 25 both relate to funding reductions for outside agencies at the county level. Article 24, a non-binding resolution, would request the county restore funding to the non-profits and continue supporting them regionally. Article 25 would raise and appropriate $18,000 to support nine local economic development and social service agencies, specifically: Children’s Task Force, Adult Basic Education, Tri-County Mental Health Services, Western Maine Transportation Services, Western Maine Community Action, Greater Franklin Development Council, Seniors Plus, Sexual Assault Prevention & Response Services, Androscoggin Home Care & Hospice and Franklin County Soil & Water Conservation.

The $18,000 figure corresponds to Farmington’s tax assessment savings as they relate to the $143,000 cut to the programs in the previous county budget process. A proposed disbursement for the funds, based off the proportional amount of money each agency lost in those cuts, will appear with the article.

Also on the warrant is a new performance standard for the zoning ordinance, adding an “Odor Nuisance Control and Abatement” section. Another set of proposed changes, affecting the sign ordinance, would add language pertaining to temporary signs, ban LED signs in the Village Business Historic District and make other modifications.

Voters will also be asked to extend the retail marijuana moratorium for another 180 days. A statement of fact appearing with the article notes that the state legislature has not yet enacted the regulations necessary to implement the development of retail marijuana businesses.

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20 Comments

  1. Nancy Porter needs to voted in there! We need her . We need someone who tells us the honest truth and doesn’t care if we like her after she does it.She likes to save money and keep lower taxes just like mist if us struggling working families. She gets it! That’s what we need. We also need a rational person with experience and Nancy fits that description as well. She’s got my vote.

  2. Ann, I agree 100% ! I would LOVE to see Nancy Porter on the school board. She is smart enough to see both sides of issues and isn’t intimidated by people who don’t agree with her. We MUST control spending.

  3. I will be voting for Iris Silverstein and I hope that the majority of Farmington residents understand the importance of maintaining her position on the school board. Iris’s long career as a pediatrician, including her specialty work with children with developmental and behavioral challenges, allows her to weigh the spending challenges in our district with the needs of all of our students – both the students with learning or behavioral difficulties and the other students who are impacted daily by the children with difficulties. Iris is smart and rational, and also compassionate and respectful. She understands the many challenges our children face in today’s world, and I trust her vote to balance appropriate spending with appropriately supporting the RSD #9 student population.

  4. I will be voting for Iris and Heather. Both ladies are intelligent, compassionate, fair, truthful, forward thinking, good humans to represent our children and schools. They will work hard to find ways to keep the budget in check for all that they serve, in a decent and constructive manor.

  5. i Will be voting for Iris and Heather. I think that a fundamental requirement of being a school board member is to have respect for the organization or agency on whose board you sit, and Nancy has been clear that she does not. Iris has the understanding and knowledge of many aspects of the challenges many of our students face, as mentioned above, and brings that understanding to the board articulately and respectfully. Nancy has made her negative feeling very clear about education itsel, as well as all things MBRSD related, including insulting, name calling, intimidation and threats towards administration, staff, board members, and students alike. How could we then ask better of our children and students?

  6. Definitely time for changes in both administration and the board. Let’s work toward a new start with less waste and better education for the students. Equal voting by the school board, new faces,ideas ,techniques…change people, time for change! Vote for Nancy.

  7. Hope the town takes a look at Bailey HIll for road repairs also it is a dangerous road it is tearing apart when two cars meet each other it’s a crapshoot which one can maintain control from the cracks and bumps and washouts. Might want to take a look at it just as important as down town roads.

  8. @ Bulldog. It’s a ONE lane road now. All you can use is some parts of the road is just the center of the road, and the logging truck that keeps on hauling out wood isn’t do the road any good either.

  9. Yes Bulldog as well as Mosher hill, Ramsdell, Savage rds and the towns part of Rte43. So many roads get neglected that people pay to drive on. I’m sure there are others as well.

  10. No money to fix roads as it goes to schools then police,fire dept.,and then roads. Got to cut somewhere.,can’t the county, sooooo ????

  11. Nancy is and acts like she does because she cares about the spending and if more people paid attention to her you might be better off, financially! I suggest you vote for NANCY!!!!

  12. From about age 12, when I realized & learned what a School Board Member was, the information came from my parents and education in our school. From that early age & up to my present 70+ years of age, I have always
    held fast to the strong belief that a School Board Member must be a mature adult, respectful & law abiding,
    strong team-player, and most importantly, dedicated to the care and education of ALL STUDENTS within the
    School that the Board Member represents. Iris Silverstein & Heather A. Huish have my vote….they both have all
    the strong qualities that I listed above & they will be excellent and valuable additions to the Board.

  13. @Wendy A Huish… I believe what you seem to be implying is Nancy does not fit the criteria you grew up with . The only difference I see between the three people is the fact ONE isn’t your type of folk. She’s not a doctor or a doctors wife. She is however full of common sense , honesty , knowledge about our town and it’s history, guts to stand up for us tax payers that can’t afford any more! She has TIME to dedicate for us. She doesn’t back down and hide behind people. She can hold her own. She doesn’t need money to get my vote. What she does for a career doesn’t change how she will do on the school board. She has shown me she can the job!

    By the way I was taught how to be a strong team player growing up , show respect to my peers , be law abiding as well and Nancy was too without a doubt.

  14. “ But can Nancy actually be a team player? “ What kind of question is that? She is a responsible, hard working taxpayer, employed by Paul Mills. She understands that taxpayers have paid nearly one million more for each of the past two years and this year RSU 9 is asking for another 1.69 million. When we see comments in the Bulldog that read “Start a petition to get you and your ignorant, simpleminded town out of my district. We do not want you. MBSD does not need Chesterville, or any other town that opposes the budget increases. You need us. If you don’t want to pay for schools, leave MBSD.” we should all start to worry. Best of luck to Nancy. PLEASE VOTE TODAY .

  15. I have no doubt Nancy can be a team player and most likely teach the rest of them how to be one as well.

  16. Sammy: Please remember anyone who writes in to the Bulldog, is representing themselves, unless they put their actual real name, and position within the organization..

  17. Of course she can be a team player, don’t underestimate Nancy. I would vote for her for sure!

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