HEBRON – Selectmen set the new tax rate Monday night and the rate rose from 17.5 mills to 17.55 mills.

This means homeowners’ taxes will go up a nickel per $1,000 of valuation.

“We took money out of allowable deductions and kept the overlay down,” said selectman Richard Deans.

The money is being raised to meet total appropriations of $896,989 – broken down to $446,678 for SAD 17, $418,987 for the town and $31,324 for the county.

Selectmen also reviewed proposed interest rates from area banks on the cost of renovating the former elementary school to new town offices. The cost of $165,000 with a 15 percent overrun cap was approved by voters at a special town meeting held in August. Selectmen Joan Francis noted that Key Bank and Androscoggin Bank offered similar rates and she volunteered to further investigate the rates.

The town just investigated the rates and did not ask for a formal bid on the loan.

A Hebron Academy proposal for the town to remain on its septic system was held for further study.

“They talked about several different things that we hadn’t touched on,” Dean said. “There has never been a formal agreement between the town and the academy.”

In other business selectmen:

• Tentatively approved donating domed, monkey-bar playground equipment currently behind the proposed town office to the Boxberry School, a private, non-profit elementary School in Oxford.

• Instructed Road Commissioner Glen Drake to investigate the cost of a 12-foot by 12-foot concrete pad needed at the transfer station, so the roll off storage bin is kept on a solid foundation. The bin is used to store demolition waste.

• Told Transfer Station Manager Carol Daggett to investigate putting a larger heater in the weather hut he built at the station. Currently there is a small heater powered by a 20-pound tanks of propane. Daggett thought money could be saved with a larger heater.

jsmedley@sunjournal.com

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