PARIS — Over 50 residents attended the annual Town Meeting on Tuesday, approving a $5.2 million municipal budget and $30,000 for new laptop computers for the Police Department.

Of the 28 articles on the warrant, two were amended and the rest passed as presented in the two-hour meeting.

One of the amendments allocated $30,000 more for the Police Department’s $933,938 budget recommended by the selectmen. The amendment was made in response to Bob Jewell asking Police Chief Michael Dailey if the amount recommended was enough.

Residents overwhelmingly voted in favor of adding $30,000 to the police department’s budget at the annual Town Meeting Tuesday to replace the laptops in four Paris police cruisers with tablets. Police Chief Michel Dailey said the tablets will enable officers to file reports away from the station at take photos.

Dailey said the department needs to update the laptops in four cruisers for about $30,000. Jewell motioned to increase the allotment by the same amount. The amendment was overwhelmingly approved.

Dailey said the tablets will enable officers to file reports in their vehicle rather than returning to the police station. The tablets can also be used to take photographs at scenes, which the laptops cannot. When the department eventually switches to an e-ticketing system for parking tickets, police cruisers will already be equipped with the right technology, he added.

“It just saves time and money later,” he said.

The department has applied for a grant to purchase the tablets, he said. If awarded, it would offset the cost of the tablets and the department would put the extra money toward something else to benefit the town, Dailey said.

The department also received enough funding to hire an additional officer during evening hours.

The second amendment increased the interest rate on abated taxes from 5% to 6%. The amendment to Article 7 was done to mirror the 6% interest charged to property owners who don’t pay their taxes by the due date each quarter.

In total, the approved $5.2 million budget is a 16% increase from this year’s $4.5 million.

During the meeting, Town Manager Dawn Noyes said she did not feel comfortable estimating the tax rate increase because she isn’t sure what it will be. The town does not yet know what it will receive in revenue from the state, and the Maine School Administrative District 17 budget approved last week as higher than anticipated, she said.

Sara Glynn moderates her first annual Town Meeting on Tuesday at the Paris Fire Station. Town Clerk Elizabeth Knox, left, and Town Manager Dawn Noyes sit at the table. Vanessa Paolella/Sun Journal

Previously, the tax rate increase, including the municipal, school and county budgets, was estimated at between $1.50 and $2.50, or between $300 and $500 on a property valued at $200,000. Noyes said after the meeting that she believes the increase will still fall in that range.

In another discussion, Selectman Peter Kilgore said the portable toilet at Moore Park will only be unlocked for events because blood, needles and trash continue to be found inside.

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