The meeting is set for Saturday at the Hebron Station School.
HEBRON – Residents going to the town meeting on Saturday will find that the proposed town appropriation is down this year.
Last year the town had a budget of $418,987. This year officials are seeking $408,283, plus whatever the first year bond payment would be on $39,000 spread over seven years for improvements to the still-under-construction town office.
Selectman Richard Deans believes that first payment will be below $10,000.
“We’re going to try and hold the mill rate down,” Deans said. “But, you don’t know what people want to do until you get there. They might be in a real spending mood.”
Although the town is holding the line on spending, county taxes are expected to rise about $2,300 to $33,605, and the SAD 17 tax is also expected to rise above the $446,678 spent last year.
Deans said he really has no estimate of the SAD 17 cost because the town is on a January to December fiscal year and SAD 17 is on a July to June fiscal year.
He knows that from January to June his town pays the old SAD 17 tax rate and then pays the new rate from July to December.
Deans said that $189,750 has already been approved to renovate the former Hebron Elementary School into the new town office building. But, $39,000 more is needed to complete the job. The town is seeking $26,000 for a vault, $5,000 for a septic system and $8,000 for paving of the area.
He said the building was in its third week of what, by contract, is supposed to be an 80-day renovation period.
Town officials are also asking voters for $20,349 to cover overdrafts in accounts for winter roads, the Hebron Volunteer Fire Department, transfer station, equipment and miscellaneous expenses.
A good portion of the funding request will be going to roads with $145,000 sought – $95,000 for care and maintenance of winter roads and $50,000 for summer roads.
Last year, $72,000 was approved for winter roads, and another $20,000 had to be raised at a special town meeting later in the year.
The town meeting is scheduled to begin Saturday at 10 a.m. Voters will have to elect a selectman to fill the vacancy left by Deans, whose term expired this year. He said Tuesday that he intends to run again.
They will also have to select a road commissioner, trustee for the Moody Library and two SAD 17 directors. Glen Drake, current road commissioner, said he also plans to seek that position again.
The meeting will be held a the Hebron Station School at 10 a.m.
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