HARTFORD – Selectmen on Thursday night voted 3-to-0 to not support a proposed Oxford County budget formula change.
A letter was read from Oxford County Sheriff Skip Herrick informing Hartford officials of a proposal by the town of Bethel seeking to reduce the amount of funding for the eight towns that have their own law enforcement departments. The remaining costs would be paid by those towns that don’t have their own police departments.
All municipalities currently share the cost of the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office based on their state valuations.
Board Chairman Scott Swain said it sounds fair but it would cost the town of Hartford an additional $10,429 and that was why he did not support the change.
The current share of patrol cost to the town of Hartford is $15,461.
Oxford County has 36 municipalities, with eight of them operating local police departments that constitute 46 percent of the total taxable value of the county.
In other business, SAD 39 Superintendent Rick Colpitts was present to give an update on the proposed tax relief presently being considered in Augusta. The state has placed a cap that means no town should have to pay more that of 8.26 percent of what it costs to educate a child.
If Essential Programs and Services is fully funded, Hartford would see tax relief. That is not the case as the state will only fund 84 percent but the town still has to come up with the cost of a certified Gifted and Talented teacher for next year and a foreign language teacher the following year.
Swain asked about a high speed access video program the school was trying to use to teach Latin. Colpitts said, “It is incredible teaching technology that is incredibly difficult to use. The high school finally had to find someone in house to teach the Latin course which was attempted.
“Unfortunately the district has another year to run on a contract that was signed five years ago for a cost of $2,400 a month.” Colpitts added that there were several issues making the use of this technology so difficult, one of them being scheduling with SAD 17.
“I’m here to say, don’t expect a zero-budget increase next year,” he said.
The board accepted a policy to have the Town Clerk Zoe Cowett make the decision on closing the town office during inclement weather. She will call television stations and local radio stations. Cowett also hired Raeleen York this week to serve as her deputy.
The board approved by a vote of 2-to-1 to have an article on the next town warrant to have the Road Committee appointed instead of elected.
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