The location was changed because there was no running water at the town hall and the furnace was so noisy it was hard to hear people speak.
MEXICO – Residents will not only elect a new selectman when they meet on Monday. They will also hold their annual town meeting at a new site.
The meeting will be held at the Mountain Valley Middle School auditorium beginning at 6:30 p.m. But before business starts, residents will be served coffee and sweets starting at 6 p.m.
Town Clerk Delia Knapp said officials have been thinking about providing a time for socializing before residents get to work on the new municipal budget for quite a few years. Holding the meeting in the middle school rather than in the tiny municipal building will give them that chance.
The town meeting was moved because the town building, which also houses the Fire Department, has no running water and last year proved a real challenge. The firetruck was moved out of the garage to allow room for residents to discuss the warrant articles. The temperature was so low that the fire engine froze up, leaving the town without a means to fight a fire for a time. And besides, she said, the furnace in the meeting hall makes so much noise that it is difficult to hear what people say.
Nominations for several positions will come from the floor. Residents will elect a selectman to replace Stephen True, who is completing a three-year term begun by former board member Mark Touchette. True is not running again. The new selectman will join board members Timothy Gallant and Tina Howard.
Longtime Cemetery Committee member Sylvia Touchette will seek another three-year term. Knapp, too, will run again for a fifth, one-year term as town clerk, tax collector and treasurer.
If all 55 articles are passed, residents will have approved a $318,299 municipal budget, down from last year’s approved budget of $319,873. Residents last year paid a tax rate of $15.70 per $1,000 valuation.
Most accounts remained the same in this year’s budget warrant as in last year’s, with some rising slightly and others declining a bit.
Selectmen recommend raising $72,856 for winter road maintenance, $6,000 for fire protection, and $6,000 for insurance, all the same figures as last year. Rising a bit are accounts for auditor services at $2,150, picking up assessment values at $2,500, and town building maintenance at $7,000.
One article asks residents whether they want to close the Old Town Road that runs along a portion of the Swift River on the westerly side of Route 17.
About 25 residents in this town of about 380 attended last year’s town meeting.
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