NEW SHARON – Residents gathered Saturday morning at Cape Cod Hill School and passed a roughly $1 million budget, according to town treasurer Erin Norton, down 1.6 percent from last year’s figures.
Norton was reelected to her position as treasurer with 145 votes. Elections took place the day prior to the annual meeting this year, resulting in a warrant that was completed before lunchtime. Selectman Travis Pond will serve another term on the board, after receiving 137 votes. Regional School Unit 9 Director Jeff Harris received 153 votes to continue his work on the board and Road Commissioner John Pond was reelected with 151 votes.
Questions were raised over the town’s newly adopted assessing software, Trio, and the $5,000 increase in wages for the Assessor’s Agent, recommended by selectmen. The program is used by nearly all towns in the state and was purchased last year at a rate of $8,000 annually- making it the most affordable program available according to Norton.
Due to an issue with transferring data from the old system to the new, the town has realized since purchasing the software that the data entry will have to be done by hand using individual property cards- a process that will take time.
“It’s not a raise, there are items that need to be corrected and that will take time,” Pond said.
The article was passed as recommended.
An amount of $23,000 was passed for upkeep of the Jim Ditzler Memorial Library , including a list of repairs that are sorely needed, according to Selectman Pond. The town took over ownership of the library several years ago and has been working on figuring out the details of the budget since then. Selectmen and library employees are working on putting together an official board to oversee actions taken.
Only a 100 people make it to the town meeting,with over 1300 plus people in town that a pretty low turn, so for all of you who did not attend have no reason complain about anything this town does
Have a good day and a year in New Sharon maybe see you at the next town meeting