Guilford’s valuation may drop slightly in 2014, says MRS

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    GUILFORD — The Guilford Board of Selectmen learned at their Oct. 8 meeting that the town’s valuation may drop from $126,150,000 to $125,700,000 next year,  according to the Maine Revenue Service.
    But Town Manager Tom Goulette said that while the Piscataquis County total tax commitment is slated to drop by 2.3 percent,  he expects that Guilford taxes will go up. “We’re down about .4 percent,” Goulette said. “Eleven towns decreased and eight saw an increase in valuation. So any town that didn’t see a decrease of at least 2.3 percent, including Guilford, will see an increase in next year’s county tax demand.”

    Goulette also said that the drop in valuation is probably temporary. “The figures from MRS are usually about 18 months behind and are based on a real estate sales comparisons and commercial property values,” Goulette said. “For example, the new valuation doesn’t take Hardwood Products’ expansion last year into consideration.”
    Other towns that are projected to decrease in valuation are Abbot, Atkinson, Dover-Foxcroft, Greenville,  Lake View Plantation, Medford, Milo, Monson, Sangerville and Willimantic.
    Greenville’s proposed valuation decrease is the largest in the county at 6.7 percent while Sangerville’s decrease is the smallest at 1.1 percent.
    Kingsbury Plantation,  one of the smallest communities in the county, may be saddled with the largest valuation increase at 10.5 percent while Bowerbank’s figures will go up by 1.1 percent.
    MRS official stress that these are only preliminary figures, and the final valuations will be sent out statewide in January 2014.
    The Guilford Board of Selectmen also received a letter from Linda Packard, the longtime librarian at Guilford Memorial Library, announcing her retirement in April 2014. The board praised her for her contributions as well as overseeing significant expansion projects during her tenure.
    The town’s new police cruiser, a 2014 Ford Explorer, will be arriving before the end of the month, Goulette said. “The console will need to be installed and the 2006 (cruiser) will be gone in the trade process,” he said.
    Goulette and Jeff Libby from the public works department attended a workshop sponsored by Maine Local Roads Center. The uniform signage and striping codes were discussed and attendance was required in order to participate in the road sign grant, according to minutes of the meeting. The town will receive more than $1,000 worth of signs and parts for a 10 percent local funding match, which “will allow us to replace worn out and faded signs as well as to install some new ones as needed,” Goulette said.
    The traditional winter time parking ban and the cemetery clean-up notice were also announced by town officials. The parking ban runs from Nov. 1-May 1 and prohibits parking on any town road between 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. The cemetery notice requires that all decorations be removed from town cemeteries on or before Oct. 20. It was noted that holiday wreaths will be permitted, however.
    Goulette also announced that this would be the fourth year the town will participate in Save Lids to Save Lives, a promotion sponsored by Yoplait yogurt to raise money for breast cancer awareness. Lids may be brought into the town office where they will be sorted and sent in to the company to earn dollars for the fight.