NEW VINEYARD — Selectmen will hold a special town meeting Thursday for voters to consider using up to $25,000 from surplus to expand a cemetery. They will also see if the town wants to adopt a Board of Assessment Review Ordinance.

The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 1 at Smith Hall.

Board Chairwoman Fay Adams said selectmen used Farmington’s Board of Assessment Review Ordinance as a model to develop one to fit New Vineyard’s needs.

If approved, the ordinance would provide for a five-member board of residents to be appointed by selectmen to hear appeals of tax abatements that have been denied by municipal officers or assessors. No municipal officers or assessors would be able to serve on the board.

The review board would have the authority to take evidence and testimony as it deemed necessary and to decide on the request.

If the board denies the appeal, taxpayers could take their case to court.

Currently, if a tax abatement request is rejected by selectmen or assessor, taxpayers can appeal to the Franklin County Commission in Farmington.

Under the proposed ordinance, members shall serve for three years or until successors are appointed, except for the transition purposes, where initial terms will be staggered.

It would take three or more members to conduct business and to grant or deny an abatement.

Voters will also be asked to appropriate up to $25,000 from surplus to expand the Pratt Corner/New Vineyard North Cemetery, Adams said.

Brush has been cut from the area. The money would pay for removing stumps from the property and building roads in the existing cemetery and the new part, which is a little over an acre, Adams said.

The existing cemetery is less than an acre, she said.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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