LIVERMORE — Selectpersons have approved offering eligible town employees partial payment of health insurance for their spouse and children, a benefit meant to help keep and attract workers.
The town pays 100% of employees’ health insurance premiums but has never covered their families. On Tuesday, the board approved paying 65% of the cost of family coverage.
The cost for the town would be about $11,000 per person, per year, Chairman Mark Chretien said.
Administrative Assistant Aaron Miller will check whether a special town meeting is needed to appropriate American Rescue Plan Act funds from the town’s allotment to cover the first year of expanded health insurance.
Regarding one vacancy, Chretien said, “We are having a hard time finding experienced people for the highway department.”
“A couple of people would have applied but without health insurance they just couldn’t do it,” Selectperson Scott Richmond said.
“If you don’t offer (family health insurance), if you get somebody without experience (plowing snow), you will put the money into the truck,” Chretien said. “You will pay one way or another.”
Asked about hiring a contractor to plow, Richmond said three towns did that and then established their own departments because of unreliable service.
“You are already established,” Miller said. You won’t get cold patching, ditching or cutting woods with contracting, he added.
“We have 41 miles of road ourselves, 48 with Crash Road and Route 108,” Chretien said. “We have got to do something to be competitive.”
Selectpersons agreed to advertise for the highway department position using a range of $18 to $21 per hour, based on experience. The new health insurance option would also be included.
Also at the meeting, the board set the property tax rate at $16 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, the same as last year.
Referring to a conversation with assessing agent Paul Binette of John E. O’Donnell & Associates of New Gloucester, Miller said, “In talking with Paul, your spending is down, revenue-sharing is up. You have seen an increase in personal property so it looks promising.”
Selectperson Scott Richmond moved to keep the rate at $16. The amount available for tax abatements would be $153,252.78.
Last year, $50,000 was taken from the undesignated fund balance to lessen the increase in taxes, Richmond said, noting there are no plans to take money from the account this year.
Unspent money is returned to the undesignated fund balance.
In other business, members of the Brettuns Pond Association are interested in helping with beach cleanup and would like a shed there for storing supplies. Central Maine Power is expected to install a light, and power would allow better camera coverage of the area. A copy of Turner’s beach ordinance was shared as a possible template for Livermore.
Audrey Lovering of Lovering and Associates attended the meeting to discuss the economic development proposal she submitted. It highlights the Route 4/Route 108 corridor. She said there is always room for a couple of small restaurants, more medical and more technology facilities.
“It’s a beautiful place to telecommute,” she said. “A lot of industry is looking to move to Maine.” Livermore could be the first stop for tourism with businesses such as sports, fishing, biking, she noted.
Knowing what people want their town to be is an important first step, selectpersons agreed.
Creating a strategy for the business corridor is a multiphase, multistep process. Time to complete it depends on what the town has for data and background information, but it could entail 140 hours or more. The company charges $85 per hour.
Selectperson Brett Deyling will create a survey to send with tax bills. Replies can be completed online, through Survey Monkey or sent to the Town Office.
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