CHESTERVILLE – Voters passed all articles except for one Monday night and that one didn’t apply because the budget they approved stayed within the town’s state mandated tax cap.
The article would have only had to be approved if the town exceeded the tax cap.
Prior to the meeting, incumbent Selectman Craig Stickney was re-elected with 42 votes, and several other residents received one write-in vote each.
The 50 or so voters breezed through the 52 articles at the town hall within two hours with only a few items drawing discussion. The first 20 articles were approved within 16 minutes.
A $352,295 budget was approved for this year, which reflected an increase of $23,171 from last year, with higher fuel costs and tipping fees and a $15,000 payment for a loader the town bought in September attributed to that.
Voters did approve easing the setback restriction of an accessory structure such as a garage, barn, deck and shed to 50 feet from the centerline of a public or private road instead of 75 feet.
Residents wanted to know why the town had the right to tell people what to do on private roads.
Code Enforcement Officer Brenda Medcoff said it is the way the setback portion of the land-use ordinance was approved 10 years ago.
Selectman Craig Stickney said the setback requirements were written that way because people had concerns that residents on private roads would want the town to take them over in the future.
Medcoff said safety was also a factor in 1996 when the ordinance was established. Now, the angle at which the secondary structure is built determines whether the 75-foot or 50-foot setback applies, she said.
Medcoff said the Planning Board will be looking at wording of the ordinance including the definition of structure that now requires a permit for a dog house.
Primary or main structures such as a house still need to adhere to the 75-foot setback and if a garage has a residential unit above it, then it too needs to comply with the larger setback.
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