ANDOVER — Andover selectmen decided Tuesday the town meeting originally scheduled for June will be changed to another date because several members of the town’s budget committee need more time to prepare for the gathering.

A new date has not been set.

The town is transitioning from a Jan. 1-Dec. 31 fiscal year to a July 1-June 30 fiscal year to match with the school department’s fiscal year. During the March town meeting, many warrant articles covered only the first six months of 2018’s town operations.

On Tuesday, residents will vote on a proposed $1.2 million school budget for 2018-19, Superintendent Alton Hadley said Wednesday.

“This year’s budget is a reduction over 2017-18’s budget of 12.86 percent,” Hadley said. “We consolidated bus routes, reduced the number of buses, and by consolidating those routes we were able to reduce a (bus driver) position that was vacant.”

Andover has 64 students in grades pre-K through 12, with 22 students at the Andover Elementary School in grades kindergarten through five. The rest of the students in grades six through 12 are enrolled at schools in Bethel or Rumford.

Voting for the school budget and state primary elections is Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Town Hall in Andover.

In other matters, selectmen approved an article for the next town meeting that a 1988 ladder truck bought by the Andover Firemen’s Association be accepted as a donation to the Fire Department, and another article requesting that proceeds from the sale of the department’s original ladder truck will go to an account for future apparatus purchases for the Fire Department.

Fire Chief Jim Adler presented both requests to the selectmen Tuesday.

“I’d like to see that money in the carryover fund put in an account for future apparatus purchases because everyone in the Fire Department knows that Engine 2 and Rescue 2 are slated to get replaced, and we don’t have a budget for them,” Adler said. 

Selectmen also approved use of the “wintertime KP room,” downstairs at the Town Hall, by Art Group members Denise Hurd, Wendy Hutchins and Pam Berry during Olde Home Days weekend Aug. 3 and 4.

This will be the fifth year that the group has held an art show during the Olde Home Days celebration. Organizers plan to open the show to the public Friday evening and Saturday until 4 p.m.

mhutchinson@sunmediagroup.net

Andover Art Group members Denise Hurd, left, Wendy Hutchins and Pam Berry were given permission by selectmen Tuesday to use the “wintertime KP room” at the Town Hall for an art show during Andover Olde Home Days on Aug. 3 and 4. (Marianne Hutchinson/Rumford Falls Times)