Board of Selectmen Meeting, December 2, 2024

Christmas Events

• The Christmas Parade will be on Saturday at 10 am. Show up early as parking is limited.

• Also, Saturday from 10:30 am to noon, is a craft fair at the Community Center.

• On Saturday, December 14, will be Santa’s ride through town. The route will be announced later.

• On Saturday, December 14 7th [thank you reader for the correction], the Fire Department will have its annual Christmas Tree sale.

Taxes

The new tax rate has been announced. It’s $0.98 per $1k valuation lower than last year. The tax rate has four components:

• Tax set by the state for state school funding

• Taxes set by the county for county government

• Taxes for local schools

• Taxes for town government

Taxes for town government fell by 5%, $0.20 per $1k valuation. Taxes for local schools also fell by 5% ($0.80).

Budgeting

The board continued work on the budget. It has tentatively decided to propose an operating budget and set of warrant articles that will be within what the Budget Committee is allowed to recommend to the taxpayers. [It’s the Budget Committee that is constrained by the 4% tax cap, not the board. The board is free to propose warrant articles to the voters for spending above the cap. It’s just that the Budget Committee is limited with regard to what it may recommend to the voters].

The board also tentatively decided that the usual warrant article for road reconstruction would include all the proposed reconstruction projects in a single warrant article, rather than separating the projects into separate warrant articles. These are likely to be the same projects the voters rejected last year.

• Paving a portion of Stevens Hill Road.

• Paving a short section of Priest Road.

• Installing paved aprons at the mouths of the more heavily used dirt roads.

The town has $62.4k in AARPA funds that must be committed by the end of the year. (The actual spending may be next year). The board discussed what it should commit the remaining funds to, as the board has been holding them in reserve. A decision must be made before the end of the year, and the board has only one more meeting scheduled. Likely candidates are work on Town Hall, new computers, and new audio-visual equipment.

Other Issues

• Town Administrator has been working with the town’s internet provider to get the town a better deal. In the past each town facility had its own internet contract. The provider is willing to roll all of them up into one contract, reduce the monthly total price by $300, and improve the bandwidth for some of the facilities.

• The grant the town and PLIA applied for a water quality study for Pawtuckaway Lake was rejected.