SANDY RIVER PLANTATION – Sandy River residents laughed their way through the warrant at their Friday evening town meeting. In two-and-a-half hours residents worked through 58 articles with a number of lengthy discussions.

The Heritage Trust, an organization from Rangeley concerned with the protection of local lakes and waterways, asked if Sandy River residents would appropriate $1,341.60 to help the trust measure water purity levels and battle the invasive aquatic plant milfoil. The plant recently was found in some Belgrade lakes.

Rebecca Kurtz, coordinator of the Invasive Plants Program for the Heritage Trust, spoke at the meeting in an effort to compel residents to contribute to the trust’s $69,000 budget for this year. Kurtz assured people the budget would be reduced by next year. However, $36,000 of this year’s budget is donated, along with the time of volunteers and experts, Kurtz said.

Calling milfoil “plants on steroids,” Kurtz said that, “12 percent of boats in Rangeley Lakes last summer came from infested lakes.” The invasion of milfoil, Kurtz warned, could cause $11 million in lake front property devaluation and cost roughly a $1,000 an acre to treat. That is an exorbitant price to pay for a plant that has not yet been successfully eradicated from other infested lakes, Kurtz said.

Sandy River resident and member of the town’s Budget Committee, John Benoit, lent his support to Kurtz. “This is an economic issue,” he said.

Residents opposed to this article argued that people would not listen to the “nice people” asking boaters to remove weeds from their hulls before they enter Rangeley Lake, and suggested that volunteers have no legal power to enforce upon people not willing to comply with volunteer boat inspector’s requests. “If somebody wants to do it they’re gonna do it. You can’t stop them,” said one man opposed to the article.

“But you’ve got to start somewhere,” said Benoit before the article was passed.

As the meeting moved away from the milfoil discussion residents relaxed a little, and readily passed the request of $45,072.50 to be raised and appropriated for county taxes, a $7,749.50 increase over last years $37,323.

“We have no choice,” said a number of residents.

Similarly, residents easily passed a resolution to appropriate $115,145.89 for the school budget, all commenting again, “We have no choice.”

“Having an up-to-date and active library is very important,” said a concerned Sandy River resident as another lengthy discussion was needed to sway people into raising and appropriating $6,000 for the Rangeley Public Library, an $1,300 increase over last year’s amount of $4,700.

“This is a high water mark for what we’ll ask from towns and plantations,” said Larry Hall, the library’s treasurer. He explained that $1,300 is needed for the $80,000 mortgage taken out to finance an addition to the area library. Residents passed the article.

Harold Spiller and Holman Ferguson kept their positions as first and second assessors and overseers of the poor and road commissioners. Keeping her spot as first assessor, Evelyn Wing was given a $2,000 pay increase. She will earn $22,000 during the next year. Wing said she has gone without a raise for five years. Her raise came out of a $53,550.73 budget surplus.

Wing waa given a round of applause for her seven years of service to the town.

rholmes@sunjournal.com

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