CARRABASSETT VALLEY – The annual town meeting is set for Wednesday, beginning with election results and the consideration of a 61-article warrant at 7:30 p.m. at the Outdoor Center.
Polls open 8 a.m. at the Town Office, following the selection of a moderator, and close at 6 p.m. Selectman Jay Reynolds is running unopposed for another three-year term on the board, as is School Director Earle Morse. Another school board seat, currently held by Director Kathi Gray, is open. On the Sanitation District board, Robert Briggs is running for reelection and Richard Smith is running unopposed to fill John Clements’ seat for the single year remaining on his term.
The budget committee and selectmen are recommending the town raise and appropriate $50,000 for the Recreation Endowment Reserve, for the first time in roughly 20 years, according to Town Manager David Cota.
“We haven’t done that in a long time,” he said.
The account currently includes $175,171, but at one point contained more than $1 million, according to Cota. The money is used to match external sources of funding, public or private, for either capital improvements or programs like MacDonald Junior Golf. Major projects at least partially-built with recreation endowment funds and leveraged money include $300,000 for the new library building, $150,000 for the Narrow Gauge Pathway and $600,000 for the Anti-gravity Center.
Cota said that with the mil rate projected to hold steady or go down slightly, both boards felt that it was a good time to put money into the recreation endowment fund.
Other articles of interest include the expenditure of up to $5,000 in money garnered through the Forest Management Plan to build an eight- to 10-lot campground near the Outdoor Center. There will also be a request to allow selectmen to enter into another five-year lease with Sugarloaf for the Outdoor Center, a reoccurring item at Carrabassett Valley town meetings.
Town officials said most of the warrant is fairly routine. Municipal appropriation requests are up, including the $50,000 recreation endowment fund request, but are counterbalanced by equal decreases in the education appropriation requests. Counting a projected jump in county taxes, town officials project the budget at $3.2 million and the mil rate is estimated at 0.0066.
