BYRON – Residents overwhelmingly approved a $110,000 municipal budget during a two-hour annual town meeting Monday night.

The 22 percent rise in the budget, from last year’s $90,000 figure, is largely attributed to the town’s $15,000 match for the purchase of a new pumper firetruck.

This small town of just over 120 people wrote a grant to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for a new firetruck. The federal agency granted Byron $135,000, providing the town would raise $15,000.

That amounts to a one mill increase for one year, said Selectman Steve Duguay.

Selectman Bruce Simmons said the town’s 1979 pumper, donated last year by the Mexico Fire Department, will either be given to a small town in need of a truck or sold, with any money raised going to the Mexico Firemen’s Relief Fund. The Fire Department also expects to retire a World War II vintage army transport truck that firefighters converted into a tanker years ago.

Fire Department members are currently looking into new trucks. The first of several trucks that will be reviewed is expected to be available for residents to inspect at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Town Office complex, said Simmons.

Residents also raised $2,500 more than last year so that more work can be done to complete the expansion of the Easter Hill Road cemetery, up to $4,000 to pay newly appointed Planning Board members who will be developing land use ordinances for the town over the next year and $200 to become a member of the River Valley Chamber of the Commerce for the first time.

They also adopted a new dog control ordinance.

Simmons said the new, two-page document increases fines for violations and more clearly outlines procedures for issuing summonses for barking dogs.

He said any law enforcement official can issue a written warning for the first complaint. Only the animal control officer can write a summons to court for any subsequent complaints.

The town’s approved budget does not include Oxford County or school taxes. Simmons said tax bills will likely go out at the end of August or in early September. This year’s $13 per $1,000 valuation will likely rise by about $1.50 per $1,000 valuation, he said.

Those who pay their property taxes by Sept. 15 will receive a 10 percent discount. Residents approved raising $15,000 in anticipation of early taxpayers.

eadams@sunjournal.com

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