PERU – Voters on Monday approved spending $13,876 to secure a federal grant to construct a new building and buy safety equipment for the Peru Fire Department.

The $125,000 grant comes from the federal Department of Homeland Security. The proposal to provide the $13,876 local match to get the grant passed overwhelmingly.

Before the town meeting at Rockemeka Grange Hall, selectmen met and discussed possible ramifications of the Palesky tax-cap initiative. Most of the board members are planning to attend a Maine Municipal Association meeting in Augusta this week to learn more about the situations many municipalities will face should the initiative go through.

The board is planning to release a statement in the near future to explain its concerns about the initiative. However, after reviewing a budget breakdown reflecting the initiative’s effects on this year’s budget, there was little doubt about how most board members felt about lowering the tax rate to $10 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

According to figures presented by the town clerk, Peru would have had just $130,000 for municipal services after paying county tax and school expenses. That is more than $420,000 less than the town currently has to work with.

“You can’t run the town office for that much,” Selectman Jim Pulsifer said.

Pulsifer extolled the town meeting as the place where people have power over the amount of their taxes. “You don’t get something for nothing,” he said. “If you cut your taxes that much, then you are going to lose your services.”

The board awarded the winter sand contract to Daniel Noyes, who submitted the lowest bid of $3.50 per cubic yard. The bid was 4 cents per yard lower than last year’s contract, and $1.50 per yard lower than the only other bid, which was by Von and Sons.