KINGFIELD — Voters will be asked in June to decide how much to pay and how to pay for the Village Enhancement Committee’s proposed cultural, community and economic development improvements.

Selectmen reviewed at their Monday night meeting a number of the committee’s projects, each with funding options and prospects for long-range commitments. In 2011, voters approved the formation of a Village Enhancement Committee and tasked it with developing projects that would improve and promote the downtown.

Since then, the committee has used tax-increment financing funds to develop several plans for a village green, historic walking loops and a riverfront park. Committee Chairwoman Cynthia Orcutt presented a detailed plan to selectmen and answered their questions about the proposals.

Selectman Wade Browne expressed concern that selectmen had to commit their time and the town’s money to developing these plans before getting firm commitments from abutting property owners. He recalled that the recent problems acquiring easements for town access to Mill Street properties hadn’t ended well. Selectmen had tried to persuade property owners to sign a mutually agreeable easement for development of a riverfront park along the Carrabassett River, but because the property owners were unwilling to agree unanimously, the project stalled.

Browne asked Orcutt why she and the committee expected the town to approve the proposed plan if the town did not have a firm easement commitment from the bank and the property owners, including Orcutt and her husband.

“We have nothing solid for an easement,” he said. “Something you and your husband didn’t like, whatever that was, caused you to take your easement out of play.”

Browne protested that the current proposed costs to the taxpayers would be a significant burden and that total funding had changed several times without explanation. The plan, he said, started with at least $400,000 of the town’s money, but at a recent Village Enhancement Committee meeting, the town’s commitment was reduced to $100,000.

Orcutt said she and other property owners expressed a commitment to signing easements for the original village green project that voters approved in 2011. She said reducing the original costs to $100,000 would not pay for that proposed construction plan. 

Orcutt’s figures presented to selectmen on Monday night asked for $360,000, which she suggested could be borrowed and repaid with TIF money. That tax-incentive agreement with Poland Spring Bottling Co. allows the town to shelter a portion of the company’s taxes and use the funds for approved projects.

Selectman Brian Hatfield, who also attends the committee meetings, suggested the town’s voters should become more familiar with the plans before the town meeting to understand how and where development money would be spent. The original goals in 2011 could be modified if voters chose not to make such a large investment.

“I do not think (the Village Enhancement Committee) ever put forth a plan publicly,” noted board Chairwoman Heather Moody.

The initial proposal and resulting easement requirements for the village green project have been scaled back, Orcutt said. The committee’s $360,000 request will go to voters in June. The town’s option to pursue an easement with landowners will expire soon after that.