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HARRISON – Voters will go to the polls Tuesday, June 10, to elect two selectmen and other officials before gathering for the annual town meeting Wednesday night.

Incumbents George R. Wright and Donald Woolley, and newcomer Scott Andrews are running for election. Polls will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the town office to elect two of them to three-year terms.

Others running for offices are Planning Board member Edwin Rolfe Jr. for a three-year term and Appeals Board member Gerald Smith for a five-year term. No one is listed on the ballot for a two-year term as SAD 17 director.

The annual town meeting will convene at 6:30 p.m. at the Harrison Elementary School.

Town Manager Michael Thorne called the proposed $1.9 million budget fiscally conservative and said three of the major increases are due to expenses the town has no control over. They are more than $15,000 extra for waste disposal fees, $4,257 for the resident deputy from Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department and $14,011 more for health insurance.

Thorne said selectmen changed insurance coverage to a less expensive plan this year to keep the increase at 8 percent. The employee co-pay increased by $5 a visit and the cost of prescription drugs did not change.

Another large increase is $9,254 for town office salaries that, Thorne said, represents a 40-cent per hour across-the-board raise, and the cost of a per diem clerk for 10 hours per week.

The two largest increases, if voters approve them, are $33,000 for Caswell Library restoration and $35,000 for the Harrison Elementary School floor. Those items account for more than half of the nearly $130,000 increase in the municipal budget.

The SAD 17 and Cumberland County assessments are expected to go up $155,520 and $7,974, respectively. The school figure is $2.2 million and the county $192,338.

The total tax commitment for the town is $3.7 million.


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