NEW GLOUCESTER – The Budget Committee’s public hearing on Monday on the proposed 2005-2006 municipal spending package concluded in less than 10 minutes.
The few citizens who attended said they were hampered in asking questions because they had no copies to look at.
Town Manager Rosemary Kulow said copies have been available for the public at the Town Hall.
“I expected them to be asked for in advance,” she said.
The hearing was the first of a series before selectmen sign the warrant for the annual town meeting that will be held May 2.
The municipal budget proposal totals $3,152,902, which is $428,324 less than this year. Based on projected revenues of $2.1 million, $739,853 would be raised by taxes.
The SAD 15 and Cumberland County assessments are not approved yet.
In other business, David McNally’s request to purchase a piece of town land on Route 100 was rejected because selectmen oppose selling any property that has potential use.
Resident Penny Hilton’s resolution asking the U.S. military to permanently replace all National Guardsmen currently engaged in active combat was rejected for inclusion in the annual meeting warrant.
She told selectmen she will by April 7 present a petition with names of at least 10 percent of the voters in the last gubernatorial election so the resolution will have to be included.
Hilton’s resolution states:
“In light of the events of the last three years, the citizens of New Gloucester, with unconditional respect for, and in unconditional support of, all Maine citizens who serve in the National Guard, Military Reserves and United States Armed forces, assert the following:”
• Guard members have been deployed for active duty without sufficient training under battlefield conditions.
• They are without appropriate protective personal and vehicle armor.
• Their extended deployment has caused extreme economic and psychological hardship to their families and economic hardship to their employers, and the economy of Maine;
• The long-term deployment of the state militia is incompatible with regional and homeland security.
• “Unprecedented cuts to benefits available to these veterans on their return home constitute an act of outrageous and cynical treachery on the part of the responsible governmental bodies which we, as their friends and neighbors, will not tolerate.”
Hilton’s resolution asks that New Gloucester residents direct Maine’s congressional delegation to inquire about these complaints and to make full, public report to the town. It also asks that the U.S. military permanently replace all National Guard members currently deployed in areas of active combat.
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