The town’s Advisory Board has approved school and municipal budgets with only minor cuts totaling $51,000.

Voters will have their say at the annual town meeting on May 19.

The Advisory Board recommends a school budget of $12.33 million, which includes cutting $30,000 in credit reimbursements.

The board endorsed a request to use $151,000 from the School Department’s unappropriated surplus account to make the first-year payment on the new elementary school.

On the municipal side, advisers recommend a budget of $6.01 million, which reflects cuts totaling $21,000.

Town Manager Curtis Lunt speculated that few cuts were recommended by the Advisory Board because the Board of Selectmen and School Committee kept their costs at a minimum and made cuts during their budget processes.

Every effort was made by both boards “to keep taxes down as much as we could,” Lunt said.

He estimated the overall increase in the combined budgets this year will be about 3 percent if they are approved as the Advisory Board recommends.

The budgets presented reflect the amount to be spent and do not take into account various revenues that are still to be calculated, Lunt said.

-Connie Footman
Mechanic Falls:

Stickers must be stuck

The Town Council agrees that transfer station stickers must be adhered to some window in a vehicle, even if not the windshield.

Town Manager Dana Lee said the discussion came in response to what he called an obscure state law prohibiting more than one sticker other than the state inspection sticker on windshields.

At issue, he said, is nonresidents borrowing stickers from friends who live in Mechanic Falls and using the transfer station for free.

The stickers are printed in reverse and must be adhered to glass.

New stickers will be available for $5 beginning May 1. No vehicles without current stickers adhered to glass will be allowed in the transfer station after July 1.

-John Plestina
Mechanic Falls: Council bans parking on High

The Town Council voted to ban parking on both sides of High Street after receiving a letter signed by six residents of that street.

Town Manager Dana Lee called High Street a “dangerously narrow” 16-foot-wide roadway. He said residents claim most of the cars parked on the street are visitors at two apartment buildings.

– John Plestina
Mechanic Falls: Town Office to close

The town office will be closed May 29 and 30 so that offices can move into portable space that will be on the front lawn of the Municipal Building. Renovations will take place inside the building for eight to nine months.

— John Plestina

Lewiston: LAWPCA back in compliance

A change in the sewage treatment process has brought the Lewiston facility back into compliance with the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Superintendent Clayton “Mac” Richardson said after the April board meeting on Friday that the changes that were implemented on March 17 allow a greater flow of sewage to be treated without washing out filamentous organisms.

When the organisms that DEP requires to be present in the system were washed out the plant failed to meet standards required by the DEP permit. The Lewiston-Auburn Water Pollution Control Authority plant exceeded its legal limit four times in March.

In other business, the directors discussed amending personnel policies to include the use of computers at work stations.

The board also entered into an agreement with the town of Sebago for holding tank and septic tank waste at $250 per year from the town. Haulers would be charged additional fees. The service is currently provided for 23 towns.

— John Plestina