LIVERMORE – “The town office was a very busy place Aug. 17, 18 and 19,” Administrator Kurt Schaub told selectmen Monday night. On those three days, roughly 250 individual meetings were held between taxpayers and assessors, he reported.

According to O’Donnell and Associates, which did the revaluation, the number of meetings was at the high end of the usual range for a community of Livermore’s size, but not surprising considering that it has been 16 years since the last evaluation, Schaub explained.

Most values have increased, especially waterfront properties, he said. In 2002, the last state valuation, it was estimated that the 1988 waterfront values were at 52 percent of market value. Non-waterfront properties were at 82 percent.

It was an exhausting time for the office staff, he said, and he praised Town Clerk Renda Libby and Administrative Clerk Ann Gile, for their assistance, especially in greeting residents and helping to put them at ease.

Selectman Brenda Merrill said residents complained because they thought the town was raising more money, because their valuations went up. That is not the case, the board agreed, because the town is not raising any more money than was approved at the annual town meeting.

Among figures approved at the town meeting were $195,000 in new spending for schools and roads. On the old valuation, that would have added two mills to last year’s 19.5-mill tax rate, but the reassessment firm thinks the 15.5-mill estimate will hold, Schaub said.

He will be soliciting bids for a tax-anticipation loan to present at the next meeting. The tax rate will be set at that time. Bills will probably go out by Sept. 20, and first-half payments will be due Nov. 13.

The board expressed grave concerns about consequences if the Palesky tax-cap proposal is approved in November. “People just don’t understand, we won’t have enough to pay the school assessment,” said Schaub.

“Anger is being misdirected,” he commented. “The cost of funding education is exceeding the increase in income; what is needed is a change in the way we fund education, not a cap.”

In other business, Schaub reported that 138 30-day notices had been mailed to taxpayers who have balances outstanding on their 2004 property taxes. The number is high, he said, but the total amount, $86,000, is less than normal.

A tax-acquired mobile home on rented property on Route 4 near the bridge has been removed, but it cost the town $1,000 because it was not worth renovation.

The Department of Transportation will pay $900 for the ball field, $300 for Lakeside Cemetery and $250 for the beach, all property acquired for the Route 4 project.