PARIS – A good year in real estate coupled with a tight municipal budget have resulted in a lower property tax rate.

Selectmen on Monday set the rate at $21.50 per $1,000 of value, a decrease of $1.77 from last year.

Town Manager Steve McAllister praised selectmen for their frugality with this year’s $2.5 million municipal budget.

“The board did a wonderful job keeping everything down,” he said.

It was a good year for real estate values, too, he added.

The town’s total valuation was calculated at $164.4 million, including $4.7 million in properties that qualified for discounts under the state’s Homestead Exemption law.

The town’s share of the eight-town SAD 17 education budget, at $2.2 million, came close to the cost for the entire municipal budget. With a county tax of $164,000, the total appropriations for tax purposes was $4.96 million.

Helping to offset the spending, Paris had $1.53 million in revenues, which left the net to be raised by taxes at $3,429,833.

Also Monday, the board agreed to have Selectman Nancy Record serve on the Old Fire Station Committee. McAllister said he has written a letter to all department heads asking if they had any interest in using the Market Square property.

The committee’s next meeting will be 4 p.m. Nov. 19 at town hall.

Board members were also told that the smokestack from a tractor-trailer broke a cable attached to the new public safety building on Western Avenue.

The cable was moved up higher when it was replaced, and the town will be filing a claim for an insurance reimbursement, McAllister said.

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