GREENE — Greene residents at the annual town meeting Saturday approved a budget of just over $2.72 million, an increase of 1.37 percent, or $37,394, over the 2016-17 budget.

Articles 1 through 51 were all approved.

Selectman Glenn Chateauvert motioned to amend Article 8, changing the date that interest will begin to be charged on past-due taxes from Sept. 18 to Oct. 2 to accommodate those who use their Christmas club accounts to pay their taxes.

The article passed as amended.

Selectman Anthony Reny defended the salary of Greene Town Manager Charles Noonan as “middle of the road compared with other towns,” when a resident remarked that it was higher than the governor of Maine’s salary.

“I’ll take a cut in salary if you want to pay for a house and a car for me like they do for the governor,” Noonan said.

Inadequate road maintenance was one of the longer discussions at the meeting.

Noonan suggested that funding for additional road improvements should be put on the warrant at next year’s town meeting.

One resident motioned to increase the proposed budget for road maintenance from $475,00 to $525,000 due to significant road problems. The motion was seconded but was defeated, as only six people voted for the increase.

The provisional budget presented by the School Administrative District 52 for 2017-18 on March 2 reflected a 4.26 percent increase over the current $25.57 million budget. Greene’s 10.43 percent portion of the school budget hike would amount to a $78 tax increase on a $100,000 property.

Noonan said they were still working on the school budget, and that number could come down.

Glenn Chateauvert and Anthony R. Reny were both re-elected as Turner selectmen on Friday night with 54 citizens voting. Chateauvert received 45 votes; Reny, 30, which resulted in no changes to the board. Write-in votes included three for Robert Stevens and one for Bobby Doyon.

Re-elected as SAD 52 school board directors were:

• Jon Woodward, three-year term;

• Yuri Kowalski, two-year term; and

• Pamela Sirois, one-year term.

The Budget Committee remains the same except for the addition of Roberts Stevens.

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