PERU — A petition that seeks ultimately to have tax bills lowered for the second half of this fiscal year was presented to selectmen Monday night.

Signed by 177 voters, the document was circulated by former Selectman Bill Hine Mark Irish, Marie Eastman and Richard Powell. It asks the town to reaffirm the June 8 vote not to exceed the state spending limit, have selectmen recalculate the tax commitment and adjust bills accordingly. The issue would be on the November ballot, if the petition is accepted by the board.

The town voted 271-207 on June 8 not to exceed the state’s spending limit law, but a subsequent vote of 32-30 on June 28 allowed it to be exceeded by $125,000. Most of the money would be for road improvements.

Town Clerk Vera Parent said taxes were committed after the June 28 vote and bills were mailed.

“We have already collected much of the first half of the taxes,” she said.

Parent said the reason for adding $125,000 to the municipal budget was because there has been no money budgeted for tarring roads for the past two years.

“We were behind two years on money for the roads because it wasn’t in the budget,” she said.

She said of the $125,000, $98,190 was for roads, most of $10,455 for insurance, $3,500 for MedCare ambulance service, $4,600 for Oxford County taxes and $500 for recreation.

The board took no action on the petition and will address it at their next meeting.

 In other news, Selectman Tim Holland said they need someone to mow the ball field. Anyone interested is asked to call the town office.

 Roach said bids for 2,000 cubic yards of screened winter sand should be in the office by next Monday.

 Holland said he would bring his tractor to help clean out the debris at the Worthley Pond outlet Aug. 28 at 9 a.m. Volunteers are needed to help.

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