RUMFORD – A special town meeting will be held next month to correct an error in the way residents acted on one of the articles at last week’s annual town meeting.
Town Manager Steve Eldridge said Friday morning that the article that asked voters to approve raising more money than the state allows under L.D. 1 was voted on by a show of hands rather than by secret ballot.
At the June 6 town meeting, residents approved raising $120,000 more than the state said the town should raise under the formula established by L.D. 1, which aims to reduce property taxes.
He said that apparently a state statute had been changed from allowing a hand vote to a ballot vote got by him and the town’s lawyer.
“I assume full responsibility,” he said, adding that he had read of the possible change in the Maine Townsman magazine, but then forgot. “It was an oversight.”
He said a check with a Maine Municipal Association legal counsel this week advised the town to hold the special town meeting so that another vote could be taken.
That special town meeting has been tentatively called for 7 p.m. on July 11 in the Municipal Building Auditorium. At that time, residents will have a chance to decide by secret ballot whether to raise the additional money.
If residents at the special town meeting approve raising the additional amount, then the adopted $7,027,525 municipal budget will go into effect as planned. If not, then another special town meeting will be called to make $120,000 in cuts in the budget.
He said two or three other items, all grant related, will also go before residents at the special town meeting. These include approval to apply for a Department of Conservation $50,000 grant for use on the planned River Park, another $50,000 grant for a trail, and up to $500,000 for a grant that would allow the town to construct a building in the new business park that would then be leased/purchased by a local business that wants to expand.
In other action following Thursday’s board meeting closed session, Eldridge said selectmen agreed to allow a Department of Economic and Community Development $50,000 business retention grant to pass through the town to benefit William F. Porter Construction. He said the DECD grant is part of a business restructuring package that includes other funds from Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments and the River Valley Growth Council.
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