Local assessments to the five towns are down.
KINGFIELD – The SAD 58 superintendent was walking with a lighter step on Wednesday after his district’s $8,673,721 budget was adopted by a landslide.
“I think we tried to meet the people’s needs, and they responded by voting yes,” said Superintendent Quenten Clark.
He stressed the SAD 58 board tried to be sensitive to the stagnant economy, noting that the local assessment to the five towns was actually down $40,000 from last year to $3.17 million.
SAD 58, which educates a little more than 1,000 students, covers the towns of Phillips, Eustis, Avon, Kingfield and Strong. It is an area that felt a heavy blow earlier this year when many longstanding mills, like H.G. Winter in Kingfield and Forster’s Inc. in Strong shut their doors.
The adopted budget for 2003-04 is up 3.33 percent from last year’s amount of $8,394,404, with the increase blamed on rising insurance premiums.
“For the first time in a while, we are asking communities for less and that’s a hard train to turn around.”
Each of the eight articles relating to the budget easily passed in Eustis, Avon, Phillips and Kingfield. Things were tighter in Strong, where the ballots were split nearly 50-50 for and against. Even there though, every article passed except one, which was a tie.
“I am pleased we did as well as we did in Strong,” Clark admitted, saying the town has had the toughest year economically out of any town in the district.
The adult education and adult basic education budgets, of $49,759 and $12,300 respectively, also were approved, 208-126.
Comments are no longer available on this story