CHESTERVILLE – Some 60 Chesterville voters turned out for a Monday night annual town meeting and turned down an article to double the minimum size of building lots.

Residents approved an update to the town’s shoreland zoning ordinance, which clarifies existing regulations that state the street frontage is to be 100 feet minimum.

When it came to a change in the land use ordinance, voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposal calling for increasing the minimum buildable lot size from 20,000 to 40,000 square feet, which Code Enforcement Officer Brenda Medcoff explained as necessary to more easily meet state regulations concerning setbacks for wells and septic systems.

Medcoff said the intent is “to help people instead of to hinder them,” but resident comments generally followed the theme that “we will pay taxes on land we can’t use.” Selectman David Archer subsequently urged residents to vote it down so the planning board and other town officials can “go back to the drawing board.”

They did.

A budget of approximately $560,000 was approved. It is about $23,000 more than last year’s.

Major appropriations OK’d include town officer salaries/fees of tax collector, $55,768; code enforcement, $20,124; Social Security expenses, $13,400; tax discounts,$14,000; fire department, $20,000, firetruck debt, $11,599.45; and tipping fees/waste transportation to Norridgewock, $77,000.

Public works appropriations include winter road work, $57,000; summer road work, $49,000; repair of Borough Road, $55,780; repair of Sanborn Hill Road, $63,000; Adams Road repair, $1000, loader debt, $15,126.52; equipment maintenance, $25,000; equipment reserve fund, $14,000; town garage maintenance, $8,000; and roadside mowing, $2,000.

Residents also authorized the town to purchase a used replacement vehicle for the Highway Department, using money from an equipment reserve fund. There is $37,000 available to use toward a used truck.

Other appropriations include town office maintenance, $10,000; Recycling Center, $6,782.95; Franklin Memorial Hospital ambulance service, $8,000; insurance, $4,500; administrative/legal expenses, $6,500; office expenses, $5,350; auditing services, $2,750; tax assessor, $7,000; animal control, $3,200; firetruck reserve account, $5,000; street lights, $3,900; Sandy River Recycling, $1,200; Planning Board, $200; cemetery maintenance, $3,000; beach maintenance, $200; Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments dues, $1,500; Maine Public Broadcasting, $100; recreation, $500; and fire department training, $500.

Charisse Keach motioned to cut the Work First Inc. request of $700 to $150, but the suggestion was soundly defeated after other residents described the work the agency does with handicapped individuals, including four Chesterville residents.

David Archer was re-elected selectman and Charisse Keach to the SAD 9 board.

The meeting on the 52-article warrant opened at 7 p.m. and adjourned approximately 90 minutes hours later. It was preceded by a lasagna supper served by the Chesterville Historical Society.