POLAND – Voters attending the April 5 town meeting will be asked to approve school and municipal budgets that should lower the property tax rate by more than $1.

“On the town side of the budget we are looking at more than $600,000 less to be committed in taxes, that’s about a 1.43 mill rate tax cut,” Town Manager Dana Lee said.

While Lee points to a budget that is lean, with no new programs, no new people, no new debt, it is not without muscle.

There is a call to replace Poland Rescue’s 1994 ambulance and a 1978 loader at public works.

The budget request also includes a major paving program that will apply nearly $400,000 toward Birch Drive and Strout, Cobb, Brown and Bailey Hill roads, plus money to study what should be done to Adam’s Bridge and $35,000 to address electrical, lighting and safety issues at the old Town Hall.

“Survey results showed sentiment for preserving the old Town Hall. We will begin with $35,000 this year, but we don’t want to borrow,” Lee said.

The town’s school and budget committees directed School Union 29 Superintendent Dennis Duquette to craft a budget that keeps the amount to be raised by local property taxes the same as this year: $5,750,172.

Duquette noted that as personnel costs drive school budgets, keeping the amount of local property taxes the same meant cutting positions and restructuring others.

The proposed budget eliminates a net of two positions at the Union 29 Central Office, two teachers and a half an administrative position. The latter would be the result of putting all elementary and junior high at Poland Community School and the Bruce Whittier Middle School.

Lee noted that his projection for a reduction in property taxes is subject to change, depending on what happens at the state level.

“These are current estimates, awaiting the Legislature’s cuts to local government,” Lee said.

Voters will also decide the fate of proposed changes to the town’s land use code and to the zoning map. Two practical items at issue are whether self-storage units will be allowed in an area along Route 11, south of Route 26, and whether to reduce minimum lot size in the Village District.

On Friday, April 4, polls will be open at the Poland Town Hall from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. to elect one selectman, two School Committee members and two library trustees, all for three-year terms.

There are no contests for either the selectman or the School Committee seats.

Only one person, Peter Bolduc Jr., came forward to place his name on the ballot to replace Sandra Knowles, who is not seeking another term as selectman.

Norman Davis is seeking re-election to the School Committee. No one came forward in time for his or her name to be placed on the ballot replacing outgoing School Committee Chairman Kim Moody, however Martha Stone recently announced that she would run as a write-in candidate.

Nancy Norton, Catherine Tetenman and Stanley Tetenman are on the ballot for the two openings on the Ricker Library Board of Trustees.

Saturday, April 5, the business portion of the annual town meeting will convene at 9 a.m. in the Poland Regional High School Auditorium.