PARIS – Budget Committee members agreed Tuesday with selectmen to place two money articles before voters at an Aug. 25 special town meeting.

The first asks voters to approve an additional payment of $29,417 to Oest Associates to cover extra engineering work on the new Paris Fire Station on Western Avenue. Engineers needed to scale back the design for the station several times when voters rejected more expensive plans.

The second money article up for a vote Aug. 25 asks voters to authorize spending up to $10,000 to replace a tanker truck rendered unsafe when it was discovered to have a bent frame.

Both of the unforeseen expenses would be funded out of the town’s surplus account, which is projected at $1.1 million, according to Town Manager Steve McAllister.

The special town meeting will be held at 7 p.m. in town hall, just prior to the regularly scheduled selectmen’s meeting.

Also included on the warrant will be a request for voter approval for renewal of the Norway-Paris Solid Waste Agreement, which was created when NPSW was formed 21 years ago. The item, which has already been approved by Norway voters, was inadvertently left off the June Town Meeting warrant.

The agreement expired about a year ago, and both towns agreed to extensions while minor revisions were worked out by the NPSW Board of Directors.

Confronted with the need to replace the tank truck, selectmen initially considered funding the replacement out of the contingency account, which currently has a balance of $13,500. But the board felt it was too early in the year to be tapping that account, McAllister said.

ggeraghty@sunjournal.com

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