PARIS — Community-wide budget meetings with SAD 17 Superintendent Rick Colpitts have been rescheduled.

In a letter dated March 30, to town officials from the eight district towns, Colpitts said the community-wide budget hearings have been delayed from this week until after April vacation in order to provide the most up-to-date information to voters.

The community meetings had been set to begin this week and run for a two-week period.

Comments and questions will be gathered from those forums and become part of the Budget Committee’s deliberations in preparing its proposed budget will will go to the full board for a vote on May 7.

Voters in the eight district towns will then meet at the annual District budget hearing/meeting on June 7 and validate the budget during the referendum at each of the town’s voting polls on June 12.

The new schedule calls for a meetings for:

• Norway and Paris residents on April 23 at the Paris Elementary School
• Otisfield and Oxford residents will meet on April 24 at the Oxford Elementary School
• Hebron and West Paris residents will meet on April 25 at the Hebron Elementary School
• Harrison and Waterford residents will meet April 26 at the Waterford Memorial School.

All meetings start at 6 p.m. and are open to the community at large.

Colpitts unveiled his proposed $40,046, 613 Fiscal 2019 budget at April 2 Board of Directors meeting and reviewed it with boards of selectmen at a meeting on April 3. The proposed budget shows a .39 or $157,166 decrease over the Fiscal 2018 $40,203780.

Details of the superintendent’s budget, which is still being refined, will be made available at the community forums.

Following the community-wide meetings, the Budget Committee will meet on May 2 to finalize the budget.

The entire Board of Directors is expected to adopt the budget at its May 7 meeting.

The district/budget hearing meeting is set for June 7 at 7 p.m. in the Forum at the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School followed by the validation referendum at each of the town’s polling places on June 12.

ldixon@sunmediagroup.net

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