Board: Mechanic Falls Town Council

Met: Monday night

Snow removal costs

Issue: The town charter prohibits councilors from spending more than what voters allocated for the public works budget, with no allowance for overruns caused by this winter’s snow.

Scoop: This year’s budget was designed for 14 plowable storms. With 23 plowable storms, plus an extraordinary number of calls for sanding, and clear days spent trying to reduce the size of drifts, labor and fuel costs have soared – and there are still roads down to one lane.

Up next: The council agreed that a special town meeting should be called to deal with the overdrafted public works budget, as well as the welfare budget, which Town Manger John Hawley said is overspent by 254 percent.

Hawley suggested holding a special town meeting May 17, prior to the regular annual town meeting, as a way to avoid some of the administrative costs.

May town meeting

Scoop: The annual town meeting will be held Saturday, May 17. Hawley said school officials had asked for a delay because the amount of state aid to education remains uncertain. Hawley, noting that town charter specifies the meeting is to be held on the third Saturday of May, said that date is firm, and that if the estimates for state aid prove to be too inaccurate, a special town meeting will be considered.

The council announced that its proposed municipal budget for next year asks for a $72,480 increase in new taxes, or a 46-cent increase in the tax rate, the first increase in three years.

Five Corners

Issue: The Maine DOT has released plans to improve the Five Corners intersection at routes 11 and 26, and Winterbrook road, all within 200 yards of Poland Regional High School.

Scoop: Critics of the plan believe that a full set of traffic lights would provide an effective – and far less expensive – solution to an obvious road safety problem.

Shawn Damon was circulating a petition to request a nonblinking traffic signal at the intersection, noted that town officials are the only ones who can make a formal request for the signal, and asked the council to do so.

The council agreed to act on Damon’s request.

Up next: A letter requesting a traffic light system for Five Corners will be sent to MDOT.

Emergency phone

Issue: On more than one occasion, a person has run to the Municipal Building outside of regular business hours, seeking help from the Police Department, but upon arrival, was unable to make themselves heard.

Scoop: The Police Department used to be readily accessed from the street, but with the recently completed renovations, it no longer is. Councilman Robert Guptill, by chance, encountered two instances where people failed to secure help at the Municipal Building. He reported that a waterproof emergency phone that, if picked up, would ring in the Police Department, or, if unanswered, would connect directly to E-911, could be installed outside the Municipal Building for $1,300.

Up next: The council directed the emergency phone be installed with funds to be drawn from the Municipal Complex reserve account.

Town elections

The scoop: On May 17, voters will elect two people to three-year terms and one person to a one-year term on the Town Council; two people to three-year terms, and one person to a one-year term on the School Committee; and one person to three-year term as sanitary district trustee.

Nomination papers, available at the clerk’s office, must be returned by March 14 in order for the a candidate’s name to be placed on the ballot.

-Win Durgin