PARIS – Town officials are preparing for budget season and town meeting.
The Paris Board of Selectmen on Monday chose June 18 for the annual town meeting. Elections will be held June 14, Town Manager Sharon Jackson said.
This year, the annual report will be mailed only to property owners. Jackson said efforts to mail reports to all residents in the past has resulted in many of the documents being returned to town hall.
“I don’t know why they come back, but an awful lot of them do,” she said.
Another concern, Jackson added, is that people often do not bring their reports to town meeting. She suggested the town scale down or eliminate the mailings and make the reports available at places such as the town office.
Selectman Barbara Payne said she was concerned people would not get the reports if they weren’t sent in the mail, and Selectman Raymond Glover said he finds people often are anxious to receive them.
“I think at a minimum, we should mail them to property owners,” he said.
The board voted 4-0 to approve the mailings. Chairman Bill Merrill was absent.
The board also voted 4-0 to dedicate the report to W. John Barlow Jr., former chairman of the Planning Board and superintendent of the Paris Utility District. Barlow died Jan. 24 of cancer.
Glover said that despite the talk of the town report, the document won’t be available for some time.
“I mean, we’ve got to get through the budget process first,” he said.
Jackson said the first Paris Budget Committee meeting will be held Thursday at the town office.
In other business, Jackson announced she has received 10 applications for the part-time position of Paris Parks and Recreation director.
“The plan now is that I will review the applications with the (Paris Parks and Recreation Committee) and then we will schedule interviews,” she said.
The town has been without a parks and recreation director practically since creating the position last May.
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