LISBON – Voters wrapped up the second and final session of their annual town meeting Tuesday night, adding $46,000 to the Recreation Department budget for new tennis courts and increasing the $3,692,786 budget for regular elementary programs by $47,778 to keep French classes for students in kindergarten through grade 6 at the new Community School.
Attendance on Tuesday night dropped to 153, down from 231 on Monday night.
An amendment to remove $17,000 earmarked for hockey from the co-curricular budget was defeated. Voters decided to transfer up to $20,000 from the School Department’s undesignated surplus account to the operations and maintenance budget to keep the vacant Lisbon Elementary School heated until a decision is made on the disposition of the property.
Voters, some puzzled, lined up near the end of the meeting when they were told they were required by new state law, L.D. 1, to vote by secret ballot in order to raise $2,224,315 in additional local funds for schools, an amount that exceeded the state’s Essential Programs and Services funding model by $731,531. Moderator J. Michael Huston said he wished that the state senator and state representative who visited the meeting on Monday night were there to see the additional burden the state put on communities that have town meetings.
The article, which drew little debate, was passed, 92-30.
Elected to three-year terms on the Advisory Board by nominations from the floor were Dot Fitzgerald, Walter Morse, Roger Cote and Steven Curtis. Ralph Day was elected to a two-year term.
Other appropriations included: high school programs, $2,030,967; school support services, $1,403,451; special education, $2,172,170; school lunch, $282,297; general administration, $600,909; student transportation, $547,701; operation and maintenance of plant, $2,600,252; and adult education, $144,299, of which $74,547 will be raised by taxation. With the addition of French at the Community School, the total school budget, including receipts, totals $13,847,867.
Also approved was $10,000 for matching grants and contingencies; $64,878 for economic development, of which $61,878 will be raised by taxes; $38,812 for the teen center, of which $36,312 is from taxation; and $61,705 for debt service for the new school.
Defeated was a request to transfer $10,000 from school surplus to fund a building needs committee and a possible revolving renovation fund application.
In the final article on the warrant, voters approved transferring funds from the School Department’s unappropriated surplus as of June 30. The amount is not to exceed the amount appropriated for additional local funds, and is to be applied to that item to reduce the local tax dollars raised for it.
Michael Bowie, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, estimated at the close of the meeting that the tax rate will go down by one mill, as predicted earlier, even with the changes, as some of the additional funding came from surplus.
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