ANDOVER – A majority of the 55 people at Andover’s town meeting on Saturday in the town hall, successfully pared the proposed municipal budget.
However, amid the confusion of cutting and applying surplus funds to lower taxes, selectmen said they did not know the outcome of the final budget tally.
It began somewhere beyond $650,000 and climbed to more than $734,000, but that was without surplus monies applied to the latter figure.
By the time voters got to Article 61, which sought to give selectmen authority to increase the property tax levy limit of $314,554 if the tax commitment was greater, selectmen were still baffled.
“What you’ve raised today, I’m not absolutely sure it’s going over,” Selectman Trudy Akers said, speaking about Article 61’s limit.
However, Selectman David Percival said he thought the amount had gone over the state-set tax levy limit by $11,870.02, but, he wasn’t entirely sure.
Hesitantly, a majority voted to approve Article 61.
Voters decreased Article 14’s amount to be raised for various insurance accounts from $34,350 to $30,000, and cut the amount for a town health insurance package from $38,150 to $36,000.
They also pared $10,000 from Article 20, which sought to raise the money for a firetruck account. Instead, they didn’t want any money to be raised.
The majority did the same with Article 35, which sought to raise $10,000 for the designated new highway equipment account.
This was after they agreed, in a confusing series of motions, to take $56,362 from the new truck account and $46,226 from surplus to allow Road Commissioner Marshall Meisner to buy a new plow truck for the highway department.
Voters also pared money from some of the social services requests and cut money from the Recreation Committee.
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