DIXFIELD – About 100 residents turned out Thursday night to approve virtually the entire proposed 2009-10 municipal budget as recommended by the Board of Selectmen.

The only item not passed was $2,500 in support of the Western Valley Access Channel, whose volunteers covered the 2-hour annual town meeting. A budget of $1,889,850 was approved, which is about $12,000 less than the municipal budget adopted for 2008-09.

Town Manager Eugene Skibitsky said after the meeting that he expects the tax rate of $16.25 per $1,000 valuation to remain the same, pending the town’s share of the Western Foothills School District budget. That will be known following the June 9 referendum election.

Changes attempted

Although nearly all money articles passed, many attempts were made to reduce proposed figures in the executive department, police department, economic development, and reserve accounts.

Attempts to add money to the selectmen-recommended figures for Black Mountain of Maine, which received no money, and to double the $1,250 recommended for the River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition, failed.

Vacancies left unfilled on the Finance Committee and Water Advisory Committee will be filled by selectmen once the committees submit recommended names.

An article asking to adjourn the town meeting if it went beyond 9 p.m., then reconvene on Saturday or another night next week, was not needed. Resident Freemont Tibbetts had circulated a petition to place the article on the town meeting warrant. Last year’s meeting ran for nearly eight hours.

‘Reasonable’ budget’

Selectmen will set the tax rate in July. Tax bills will go out soon after, with a due date for payment of the first half of taxes without penalty of Sept. 15.

“This was a very reasonable budget for this year,” Skibitsky said.

Before the meeting, former Selectman Montell “Bummy” Kennedy was honored as the town’s Distinguished Citizen of the Year, and Charlotte Collins, the town’s deputy treasurer, was honored for her 30 years of service to the town.

Kennedy is the town’s representative to the River Valley Growth Council, serves on the Water Advisory Committee and has served more than 30 years as a Dixfield and Peru volunteer firefighter. He has worked 21 years for SAD 21, is a past member of the Finance Committee, and was elected later in the meeting as the newest member of the Ione Harlow Scholarship Committee.

Collins will officially mark her 30 years with the town in July. She has spearheaded numerous downtown beautification projects, including the village green and gazebo, the village clock, floral arrangements, and was responsible for the annual town report winning a state award a few years ago.