FARMINGTON – Selectmen voted unanimously to set the town’s property tax rate at $18.15 per $1,000 of valuation at their meeting Tuesday – a decrease of 5 cents from last year.
Last year selectmen approved using more than $200,000 from the undesignated fund to offset the mill rate. This year, Assessor Mark Caldwell suggested using just over $54,600 from the undesignated fund to offset property taxes. According to Richard Davis, town manager, about $1.5 million was in the undesignated fund at the end of 2004.
Davis said the state’s increase in the Homestead Exemption did not help the town to lower taxes because the change effectively lowered property valuations without a comparable reimbursement to the town. He attributed the decrease in property taxes to a rise in commercial valuation and to the town’s efforts to keep the budget essentially unchanged from last year.
Selectmen voted to allow the town’s transportation advisory committee to raise money for the rail trail project that was started in 2003. The trail, running between Farmington and Jay, will be completed once a bridge is constructed over the Sandy River. According to committee member Bob Bachorik, the group needs need to raise $12,000 by the end of this year to receive a $48,000 matching grant from the state’s Department of Transportation – the total $60,000 will be used to engineer the bridge.
A preliminary estimate for bridge construction is more than $373,000, he said, and he anticipates needing to raise at least $80,000 more for that.
Bachorik said he joined the committee with the idea of promoting the trail as a source of alternative transportation. He said he’s not alone in his desire for the trail.
“It’s not just Bob Bachorik who wants this trail, it’s the town of Farmington who wants it,” he said.
Tony Perkins, president of Shiretown Snowmobile Club, agreed. Having the town accept donations would lend credibility to the project and assure people that their money was going directly into the trail budget, he said.
Selectmen agreed, giving the town manager authority to oversee and administer the funds.
In other business, road paving will begin on two local thoroughfares in the next few weeks.
Davis said the town’s department of public works hopes to begin construction on a section of High Street near the fairgrounds within the next few weeks. The project will cost $173,433 and is expected to be stretched over two years.
Repaving of Wilton Road – Routes 2 and 4 – between Rite Aid and the Wilton town line is expected to begin Monday, according to Davis, who received the information from the state’s Department of Transportation. Completion by Oct. 4 is expected, he said.
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