POLAND – Voters will consider several spending issues at the annual town meeting Saturday, but taxes are expected to remain on par with last year.

Town Manager Richard Chick said the mill rate is expected to remain at $19 per $1,000 of valuation. He called the proposed budget a “flat tax rate budget. That’s the way it seems to us assuming there are no unforeseen surprises from Augusta or anywhere else.”

The budget includes $11,866,399 for education. The total municipal budget is $2,958,125. The town will receive some of its income from state subsidies and user fees. The amount to be raised by taxation is $7,707,424. Last year, $7,394,150 was raised from property taxes.

Chick explained that the mill rate is not expected to increase because the town is estimating $15 million in new valuation. That is a combination of new construction and new machinery and equipment at industrial sites.

The big ticket item on the warrant this year is the proposed expansion at the public works garage site. An article calls for an expenditure of $1.5 million to expand on a proposal to build a sand and salt storage building, a groundwater protection project at the site, engineering and environmental licensing and permitting, a new fuel island, school bus storage and for expansion of the town public works garage to include an additional service bay for school buses. The above improvements are an expansion to a $590,000 project to build a sand and salt storage facility that was approved in 2001.

The town owns all of the school buses used to transport Poland children. Currently, bus storage and maintenance is contracted out.

Chick was asked what he thought the reaction of the voters might be to the $1.5 million expenditure. “There’s really no way of knowing. It depends on whether or not they see this as a valuable project. It came out of discussions by the selectmen and the School Committee to save the taxpayers money. If we don’t do it this way, at some point the School Committee is going to be faced with some of the same issues we are faced with now,” he said.

Voters will also decide the fate of an article calling for the establishment of a full-time recreation department. Voters at the 2002 town meeting nixed a similar proposal. The estimated startup cost for the department would be $144,820. Chick said he estimates that $93,900 could be recouped from user fees and fund raising. The cost to taxpayers would be $50,920.

Another article proposes to combine the fire and rescue departments into one department under one chief. Fire Chief W. Ballard Nash is planning to retire this year.

The town manager said he thinks the merger of the departments would be a wash financially. “I can’t say that it would be (a savings). We see it as more of a management issue. This is really more of a governance issue than anything. We’re not billing this as a cost-saving measure. I think the best-case scenario is that it will be the same (cost to the taxpayers). That will come from operational efficiencies. That is not a reflection on the respective chiefs,” Chick said.

Other articles include amendments to the comprehensive land use ordinance. Over the past two months, the selectmen and Planning Board made several changes to new sections of the ordinance relating to farm markets.

On March 4, the selectmen told the Planning Board that proposed restrictions on farm markets were too stringent. The Planning Board’s original proposal included a ban on farm markets in the farm and forest zone, and limits on maximum square footage of structures used for farm markets and the number of employees.

Voters will consider changes including that farm markets would be allowed on working farms of at least 20 acres in the rural residential district and on smaller lots in other zoning districts.

The annual town meeting will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday at Poland Regional High School.