LIVERMORE — The meeting Selectpersons agreed to hold 6 p.m. Oct. 6 with representatives from Ameriprise and Maine public employee retirement system (MainePERS) has been postponed indefinitely. Tuesday night, Sept. 27, Selectpersons planned to invite the representatives to review their program and answer questions.
“I was unable to have the representative from MainePERS attend Thursday so there is no meeting,” Administrative Assistant Aaron Miller wrote in an email Monday morning, Oct. 3.
Five applications have been received for the deputy town clerk position but none for town clerk, Miller said at the Sept. 27 meeting. At the Sept. 13 meeting it was announced Town Clerk Renda Guild and Deputy Town Clerk Jean Tardif will retire Jan. 3, 2023.
Selectpersons agreed Miller should obtain the pay scales for those positions in other towns to use during the hiring process.
Later in the meeting Miller said the town offers employees a retirement plan through Ameriprise. The town and employee each contribute three percent to the plan, he noted.
With many municipal employees using the MainePERS system, Miller asked if the town should offer that retirement option to attract applicants. He said he had spoken with someone at Ameriprise. “There’s just so many details to this,” he noted. With MainePERS the deal breaker is you can’t offer a simple IRA, what the town offers through Ameriprise, he added.
“I would propose you get one [representative] from each to come in and talk with you about these things,” Miller said. He thought it best to have more people at the meeting as he might not think of all the questions to ask. “I don’t know enough about it,” he added.
Current employees are encouraged to attend the meeting to have their questions answered.
More information is needed, Selectperson Chairman Mark Chretien said.
It is hard for someone who has been with MainePERS for any length of time to go to a different retirement system, Selectperson Scott Richmond said.
In other business, Selectpersons voted to approve the 2022-2023 General Assistance Overall Maximums as set by the state.
Every year the GA Maximums have to be approved. “It’s a formality, you have to do this,” Miller said. Selectpersons can amend the amounts, establish their own maximums, he noted. “Typically towns go with the state [figures],” he added.
For a one person household in the greater Lewiston/Auburn Metropolitan area, the maximum that can be earned per month is $795, according to Appendix A prepared by Maine Municipal Association.
“So, if they make more than that, they are over the maximum meaning they would not qualify for general assistance,” Miller said before the vote.
Selectpersons also approved a tax abatement for $2,850 in valuation ($45.60 tax dollars) for the 2022-2023 tax year for Stephen and Shirley McNear. After review of the property at 35 Bartlett Road the acreage was corrected to reflect 2.90 acres.
A supplemental assessment of $404,760 in valuation ($6,476.16 tax dollars) was approved for Haley Bubier and Sean Ridge at 100 Butter Hill Road after it was determined their new home and parcel was inadvertently omitted from the most recent tax commitment. The home and parcel was assessed to Dwinald and Merry Bubier at 104 Butter Hill Road. The Bubiers were granted a tax abatement for $395,227 in valuation ($6,323.63 tax dollars) after their granddaughter’s new home and 1-acre lot it sits on were transferred.
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