MEXICO — Voters easily passed all articles as presented during Tuesday’s referendum on the 2023-24 municipal budget.
Manager Raquel Welch-Day said the town budget of $3.72 million represents a small increase. Last year’s approved town budget was $3.28 million.
“I’m hoping to keep the tax rate the same,” Welch-Day said, “but we’ll have to see how things play out with the school budget and the surplus.”
Depending on how the school budget comes in and other factors, they may use up to $150,000 from surplus to maintain the current tax rate, she said.
Welch-Day said the department budgets are the same, except for increased costs for oil and electricity. Salaries are up 2 percent.
There’s no major equipment purchases and nothing big for road projects.
Welch-Day said there was good news about the upcoming project on Thompson Hill Road. Mexico is one of 32 towns receiving $150,000 grants from Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s Municipal Stream Crossing Grant Program, which provides grants that match local funding for the upgrade of culverts at stream crossings on municipal roads.
Besides the box culvert, Welch-Day said the town is going to replace the small existing bridge there with a 16-by-40-foot bridge.
“There’s only one house on the other side of the one-lane bridge,” Welch-Day said. “We wanted a bridge that could support a fire truck and an ambulance, as well as logging trucks.”
Welch-Day said originally it was thought the town would be asking for $110,000 at the annual Town Meeting in June and another $110,000 at the 2024 annual Town Meeting to replace the small existing bridge there. The original estimate of the project was $349,000.
“We got it down to $276,000, less the grant for $150,000, and the bids came in a little lower, so we’re only going to have to put $40,000 in,” Welch-Day said. “It went from a two-year project to getting it done in a year.”
Select Board Chairman TJ Williams was reelected for another three-year term. Newcomer Kevin Jamison was elected to replace Cliff Stewart, who did not seek reelection. Both ran unopposed.
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