NORWAY — Voters approved a comprehensive plan and agreed to pay another $35,000 for General Assistance at a special town meeting Tuesday night.
About a dozen residents showed up at the municipal office to act on the three-article warrant.
The request for additional funding for this year’s General Assistance budget came on the heels of last week’s town meeting approval of spending $110,000 for General Assistance, which is the town’s welfare program, in the coming fiscal year.
Town Manager David Holt told voters that the request for additional funds was made so officials could estimate as accurate a figure as possible before the fiscal year’s books are closed out on June 30.
The additional $35,000 is on top of the $85,000 voters approved for General Assistance at last year’s town meeting.
The budget is one of two, which also includes snowplowing, where towns are allowed by law to overspend, if necessary.
Last week, voters approved a budget of $110,000 for the next fiscal year, which runs from July 1 through June 30, 2012, but did so with some discussion from a few voters who objected to the high amount of money being spent on the needy.
“It’s regrettable,” said Holt of the need to appropriate additional funds for the General Assistance budget. But, he said, hard economic times bring out more need and that need should be respected.
If the town refused to pay the additional money, Holt said, the state would pay it and assess the amount against the town.
Holt has said in the past that Norway has a higher General Assistance budget than surrounding towns because more people in need tend to generate to Norway because of its low-income housing.
Voters also accepted the 2011 update to the Norway Comprehensive Plan as part of the eligibility process to apply for state grant money to restore the first floor of the Opera House.
During a public hearing prior to the vote, Holt told voters the plan is not enforceable. It simply lays the foundation for where the town of Norway envisions itself to be in the future.
The document had to be voter-approved so the town can apply for more than $400,000 in highly competitive Communities for Maine’s Future bond money to help restore the Opera House storefronts. If successful, the Norway Opera House Corp. will raise the $400,000 match requirement.
Holt has said the tentative plan would be to sell the Opera House to the Norway Opera House Corp. for $1 and use the grant money to fix up the storefronts by the following summer. Work that must be completed includes plumbing, electrical, mold removal, new doors and bathrooms, sprinklers and other items. The corporation could then rent out the storefronts.
Voters already authorized the Board of Selectmen to take the Opera House property by eminent domain after a portion of the roof collapsed in September 2007. A severed sprinkler pipe flooded first-floor occupied spaces and compromised the stability of the building.
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