KINGFIELD – Town meetings aren’t what they used to be, Town Clerk Sandra Jean Orbeton pointed out as officials prepared for voting on the municipal spending package for 2004.
“When I grew up in Rangeley, town meeting was a big whoopee,” she said. “It was a whole day event.”
Kingfield’s annual March meeting begins at 9 a.m. Saturday, March 6, at the Kingfield Elementary School, and Orbeton expects it will be out by lunch, as usual.
The town has a population of around 1,000, 711 of them registered voters. Only 70 to 80 people will actually come to the meeting though, she said.
Those who do come will get a chance to vote on the proposed $566,010 spending package, which is $25,934 more than the $540,076 passed in 2003. There are 37 articles.
The budget committee is recommending that voters raise $30,000 for the Fire Department; $89,131 for municipal services; $8,600 for cemeteries; $52,875 for Kingfield’s share of the transfer station operation; and $52,194 for the Sugarloaf Ambulance Service.
If any issues are going to raise a stink among voters, Orbeton pointed to the proposed ambulance subsidy.
Last year the town raised a total of $41,970 for the ambulance service.
Voters understand the increase is an issue in every town, and that it’s cheaper, and easier, than running their own ambulance. But, she said, they are still disappointed about the sudden jump in cost.
Other than that, it should be business as usual.
Orbeton said it’s the town’s older residents who most look forward to the meeting, both for the chance to participate in the purest form of democracy, but also for the chance to see their friends and neighbors after a long and bitter winter.
She attributed the lack of interest in town meetings to people being more excited to do other things on a Saturday, like relax.
“People are busier now than they used to be,” Orbeton explained. “A lot of people work on Saturdays. And if they don’t have to work, they want to relax. I can’t blame them, but it’s too bad more people aren’t involved.”
Voters will elect municipal officials right from the floor early on in the meeting.
Running for a three-year selectman position is incumbent Heather Moody and up for a three-year SAD 58 school board position is Judy Dill.
sdepoy@sunjournal.com
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