RUMFORD – In 75 minutes, about 125 residents passed all 34 articles Monday night at the annual town meeting, raising about 6.5 percent more money this year than last.
The 2005-2006 municipal and initiated article budget will be $7,027,525, up $434,746 from $6,592,779 for fiscal year 2004-2005.
Still to be added are the town’s share of SAD 43 taxes and the Oxford County tax.
The passage of all articles concerned some residents who are worried about rising taxes.
“There’s growing sentiment that we’ve been overspending because of the cash cow – the mill. Shouldn’t we be saving for a rainy day?” asked Seth Carey.
Selectman Jolene Lovejoy said Rumford maintains a healthy surplus that could tide the town over in the short term if something should happen to the taxes paid by the mill.
“We regularly put money away,” she said.
Some questioned the need for nearly $1 million budgets in support of the fire and police departments. Carey said such amounts are required in towns much larger than Rumford.
Fire Chief John Woulfe said many factors other than population figure into the Fire Department’s needs, such as older building construction, many vacant buildings and a high percentage of older residents. All these help boost the annual budget to nearly $946,000, he said.
“We are a full-time department that can respond within minutes. The taxpayers of Rumford have an excellent fire department. That’s what you are paying for,” he said.
Town Manager Steve Eldridge also argued for the Police Department, with a budget of almost $902,000. He said the number of incidents and the ongoing investigations will require maintaining the size of the current department.
“Until we look at regionalism, the budget won’t go down,” he said.
Resident Willard Shurtleff said the growing budget is a worry for retired people.
“I’ve watched this over the years. There are a lot of people on pensions. There’s no way this can keep going,” he said. “You keep rubber-stamping.”
Also approved this year was just over $19,000 for code enforcement officer services, $12,000 for the River Valley Growth Council under the town manager’s economic development budget, $1.13 million for public works, and a variety of initiated article requests including $100,000 for Black Mountain, an increase of $30,000 over last year.
The current tax rate is $18.60 per $1,000 valuation. The new rate will be set in August, with payment of half the property taxes due by Oct. 1. The second half is due by April 1.
Comments are no longer available on this story