Erik Hellgren, front left, provides input March 29 during the annual town meeting held at the Temple town office. He was reelected to another two-year term as road commissioner. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser

TEMPLE — Voters approved the $936,205 budget request March 29 during the annual town meeting.

The budget represents an increase of $156,840 over the 2024 spending plan. Temple uses a calendar year cycle for its budget.

Voters also changed the wording on an article allowing selectmen to accept all funds from any source with expenditure of those funds being used for their original intention to specifically authorize selectmen to accept or reject such funds.

One man questioned the article’s wording, noting there were no limits on amounts that could be accepted.

Amending the article to say “with the approval of selectmen” was suggested.

When asked, Selectman Dean Collins gave an example of a grant the town has submitted or trust funds to help maintain town cemeteries, he stated.

“One of the old town reports asked if the town could accept any proposed money as trust funds,” he said. “That was approved. We used to have a special town meeting or this one to accept those funds.”

The article gives selectmen ability to accept funds without need for a special town meeting, Road Commissioner Erik Hellgren said.

Selectman David True proposed adding “or reject” to the article. “I think we should have the right to say ‘no’ given the things that are going on in Wisconsin,” he said.

If approved as written, all funds must be accepted, one man noted. Adding “accept or reject” allows control, he added.

Village Cemetery funding

There was some debate on whether $1,600 should be appropriated for Village Cemetery care. One lady questioned $6,600 that had been discussed at a Budget Committee meeting.

Collins said that was put under a town account as it is for the sextant, not cemetery care.

A motion was made to use trust fund interest if more than the $1,630 left in the account from last year is needed.

Collins stated he went back through town reports to 1900 and checked every trust the town has. “Some of them are dedicated to a lot, some of them to a cemetery,” he said. The town fixes gravestones that don’t fall under one of the trusts and are not private cemeteries, he stated.

When asked why money was being requested when none was spent last year, Collins said there have been discussions about bushes in the cemeteries recently. “We are trying to upgrade, to keep the cemeteries nice looking, get in control of the cemeteries,” he added.

Moderator Thomas Saviello of Wilton said by state law only veterans’ gravestones are the town’s responsibility — all others are at the town’s discretion.

The amendment was withdrawn and the funding approved.

Assessing

Another debate centered on appropriating $100,500 for tax assessing. It was noted $85,000 would be used for a town revaluation.

The last revaluation was done in 2013 and it cost $35,000, Treasurer Sue Cantrell said. The same company (John O’Donnell & Associates) is doing it, she said.

“This company is very much in demand,” Saviello added.

When asked, Cantrell said Temple is on the list to have the revaluation done this year.

Tax liens

Voters approved using the tax lien method to secure real estate taxes not paid in the given eight-month period.

“We have two properties that we are looking at starting the process,” Collins said when asked about properties listed as owing taxes.

If someone has a payment arrangement, it stops the process, Cantrell stated.

Any missed payment starts the process all over again, Saviello explained. “There is a very arduous process you have to go through,” he said.

After the lien has matured, “it’s going to stay on,” Cantrell said. “There is nothing we do unless we foreclose on the property.

Some properties the town may not to want to take over due to family situations, she said.

“There are so many loopholes and things that we have to do,” she said. “We have discussed a few we are in plans of foreclosing on this year.”

For dilapidated properties, Saviello said towns sometimes do not exercise the lien or take ownership due to liability.

One voter suggested advertising properties with liens, saying somebody might want to buy them and a quit claim deed could be issued. “It’s not like we are sitting on it,” the voter noted.

If the property is a dump, the town doesn’t want it; that’s not a good way of doing business, another voter said.

Collins said taking a property and cleaning it up is something that could be discussed. Each individual piece of property has to be looked at, he noted.

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