Proposed 2017 budget to include funding to start pavement management plan

By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

DOVER-FOXCROFT — With the Budget Advisory Committee starting its work next month, the selectmen now all have copies of the preliminary 2016-17 spending plan. “To sum this up in a sentence, it’s similar to last year but we have a road capital improvement plan in here,” Town Manager Jack Clukey said during a Feb. 22 meeting of the selectmen.

The budget includes funding for the first year of the pavement management plan, which was presented to the board in January by Gorrill Palmer of Gray. Carrying out the work in the plan would increase the road budget from $123,000 to $400,000, a difference of $277,000. Clukey said the overall budget would increase by just under $339,000 from the spending plan for the current year.

He said revenue projections for 2016-17 are virtually flat compared to the present time. With the road work included, the mil rate is estimated to rise by $1.2 mils, or 6.46 percent, to $19.80. Without the additional road work being included in next year’s budget, the projected increase would be 1.56 percent.

“This is an issue we talk about every single year and there was a lengthy road budget discussion last year,” Clukey said, saying town officials and budget committee members both feel this is the year to address the community’s travelways. “I think we are where we said we wanted to be at the end of last year’s process,” he added.

Selectman Steve Grammont suggested the annual report contain clear information of the road work schedule, even if the project falls behind, such as what the goals were for 2017 and what improvements were carried out. “If we are going to get more money from the townspeople, I think there should be a quick and easy way for them to get this information,” he said.

Select Vice Chair Cindy Freeman Cyr wondered about methods of educating the public on the pavement management plan. Clukey said the PowerPoint from Gorrill Palmer will be put on the town website, and representatives from the engineering company could possibly speak at the annual town meeting on Saturday, April 23.

“The common understanding is our roads need to be addressed and I think it’s more of a question of how,” Clukey said.

Grammont said an idea may be to show much money is lost by letting roads deteriorate further. “Inaction doesn’t save us money, it costs us money,” he said. “We are going to have more potholes and broken pavement along the way.”

“We already have $2 million in construction and that number will double in a few years,” Select Chair Elwood Edgerly said.

The Budget Advisory Committee is scheduled to have its first meeting on Wednesday, March 2, and tentatively will meet each ensuing Wednesday the rest of the month. A public hearing on the 2016-17 budget would be March 30, and then the town meeting takes place in April to move the proposed warrant articles to a referendum in June.

The remaining positions on the committee were filled by the selectmen on Monday evening. “At our last meeting we recognized we had one vacant seat,” Clukey said.

Erin Callaway will serve the last two years on the seat vacated by Bradley Martin. Racquel Bozzelli, who is a senior at Foxcroft Academy, will serve as an alternate on the committee through the end of June.

In other business, the selectmen formally approved the placement of a land use ordinance amendment on the June ballot concerning the keeping of domesticated chickens. The amendment would increase the number of domesticated chickens allowed in the residential and village zones from six to 12 hens.

“The planning board is in favor of this after having a public hearing and a vote, and they brought it back to us whether to have it on the ballot in June,” Clukey said.

The ballot will also include a question regarding whether to establish a charter commission and provide for the election of commission members should the charter commission be established.

“This is an item that comes around every 10 years or so,” Clukey said, with the charter adopted in 2007 and the document specifying that the selectmen provide for a charter review commission every 10 years. “If we don’t do it this year we would have to do it in 2017,” he said.

“There’s a question, a standard question, to see if town will vote to establish a charter commission for the purpose of revising or establishing a charter,” Clukey said when asked to provide an example of the wording on the ballot. “If the voters say no we don’t want to establish one, that’s it.”

Clukey said should the question pass, a question listed right below on the ballot will concern the election of seats on the commission — which will be made up of six elected members and three who are appointed. Nomination papers can be taken out in early March and would be due by late April.

In his report, Clukey provided the correct bid tabulation for a recent solid waste truck purchase. He said with the tabulation corrected, Prouty Ford had the low bid of three submissions at $37,228. Clukey said this error was discovered after an order had been placed with Rowell’s Garage, which was awarded the bid when town officials believed the $38,000 price was the lowest.

“In the future I plan to use a checklist and a standardized bid form to make it easier to compare bids and avoid similar errors,” Clukey wrote. He said Prouty Ford wants the public to know the dealership’s bid was the most competitive for the solid waste vehicle bids and that Prouty Ford is very competitive when it comes to its pricing.