KINGFIELD – Residents in SAD 58 will get a final opportunity to ask questions about the district’s proposed budget for 2003-04 at a public hearing this week before it hits the polls on June 10.

The hearing will be held at the superintendent’s office in Kingfield at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 20.

The proposed budget for SAD 58, which covers the towns of Phillips, Eustis, Avon, Kingfield and Strong, has been set at $8,661,421. That’s an increase of 3.18 percent, or $267,017, over last year’s approved amount of $8,394,404.

According to the district’s Superintendent Quenten Clark, the increase can mainly be attributed to rises in set salary and insurance costs for district employees, which accounted for $215,000 of the increase.

“Our budget is pretty stable,” Clark said earlier this month. “There are no huge increases and no huge decreases, except for insurance costs.”

The state has chipped in an additional $43,000 to bring the total allocation to $3,517,443. Meanwhile, local taxpayers in the five towns will pick up just over $2.2 million of the bill.

Avon is expected to chip in the smallest amount of the five towns contributing $295,003 to the budget, a 3.09 increase over last year’s amount of $286,158.

Eustis will add the largest amount, $976,455, a 2.07 percent increase over last year’s amount of $956,664.

Phillips’ assessment is up the most, over 7 percent from last year. They will pay $557,782 if the proposed budget passes as is.

Meanwhile both Kingfield and Strong will contribute less. Kingfield will pitch in $746,535, .19 percent less than last year, and Strong is down 1.06 percent from last year with an expected payment of $621,548.

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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