LIVERMORE — Tuesday, August 11, voters approved adoption of an ordinance and 48 other articles normally presented at the annual Town Meeting.

In May, the Board of Selectpersons voted to hold the 2020 annual Town Meeting by referendum due to guidelines from the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. To help slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, gatherings were limited to less than 50 people.

Tuesday, Town Clerk Renda Guild said 137 ballots were cast, 41 by absentee ballot.

“That’s a wicked incredible number,” she said.

With a vote of 91 yes to 44 no, the Town of Livermore medical marijuana ordinance was enacted.

Voters were in favor of all other articles, including 2 that the Budget Committee recommended no votes on.

Raising and appropriating $368,054 for the highway department drew 82 yes votes and 52 no votes. The same numbers were seen for raising and appropriating $400,000 for capital road improvement.

At last year’s town meeting, voters cut $16,500 from the selectpersons’ recommended amount of $395,000 for capital road improvement. A previous amendment by Budget Committee member Warren Forbes to cut it to $350,000 failed.

The closest vote was for borrowing $125,000 for the purchase of a truck for the highway department. During a July 8 meeting on the warrant articles held by Zoom videoconferencing, moderator Clint Boothby said, “A fire truck is very expensive. By raising some money each year and putting it in a reserve account, you don’t have to borrow as much.” 69 approved while 64 were against.

Borrowing $80,000 to purchase a used loader for the highway department passed 76-57.

Raising and appropriating $40,345 for building maintenance passed 75-59

Funding street lights was approved 83-49. The budget committee and selectpersons discussed street lights at a March 11 meeting, but asked for more information before setting the amount to be requested. The March 18 meeting was canceled because of COVID-19 gathering restrictions.

Voters also approved increasing the property tax levy limit, 72-62. At the inperson annual Town Meeting last year, voters cut $17,000 from the budget to stay below the limit allowed by the state.

At the July 8 budget meeting, interim Administrative Assistant Amy Byron said the proposed budget was $16,733 more than allowed by the state. When asked what would happen if the tax levy limit article failed, she said the entire budget would need to be revisited.

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