CHESTERVILLE — Voters will make four money-related decisions at a special town meeting Thursday, including one for playground equipment and another for waste management services.
The meeting begins 6 p.m. at the Dave Archer Town Hall.
The first article asks whether to appropriate up to $25,000 to build a playground at the Town Office beside the basketball courts and make necessary improvements. The money would come from the town’s allotment of the federal American Rescue Plan Act. Should there not be money available from that, the undesignated fund would be used.
The playground project would create a safe area for children and others, and include repairing bleachers, adding benches and replacing dirt in the baseline, if needed.
Town Clerk Melissa Letarte said about $121,373.50 from the federal program has not been spent.
Another article asks voters to authorize selectmen to sign a 15-year contract with Central Maine Power to convert town street lights to LED bulbs. If voters choose not to, CMP will continue to repair streetlights until it can no longer get high pressure sodium replacements parts, then switch to LEDs or the latest technology.
The estimated annual cost for the streetlights as of Feb. 22, with standard offer supply, was $4,688.43. LEDs would cost $3,092.83, a savings of $1,595.60, according to the warrant.
Another article asks voters to allow selectmen to sign an amendment to the contract with Waste Management. It is requesting a 2% increase due to disruptions in the supply chain for critical materials and equipment, labor shortages and significant increases in maintenance cost. The money would come from the undesignated fund.
“COVID-19 was a material and unforeseen impact to their operations that the town and Waste Management could not contemplate at the time the contract was executed,” according to the warrant.
The final article asks if voters will approve offering a simple Individual Retirement Account to all employees making more than $5,000 per year, not just full-time employees, which they did in June.
The municipal IRA packages offered by the Edward Jones financial company require that any employee who earns $5,000 or more per year be offered coverage for the IRA. The town will match its employees’ contributions dollar-for-dollar up to 3% of their annual compensation. If an employee does not contribute, they do not receive any matching contribution, according to the warrant.
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