WOODSTOCK — Residents will vote on a $1.69 million municipal budget and a garage purchase at the annual town meeting at 7 p.m. Monday, March 28, Town Manager Vern Maxfield said.
The budget, which does not include county tax or education costs, is approximately $228,000 more than the previous year.
Several articles ask voters if they wish to approve buying a Maine Department of Transportation garage on Route 232, and property from Richard Gordet on North Pond for a public boat launch and landing.
At the beginning of 2015, Lorrinda Connelly and Norm Haggan of the MDOT offered the garage to the town for $125,000. The building hasn’t been used since the state built another one on Main Street in Dixfield 10 years ago.
The old garage is at 366 Route 232.
The MDOT later put the garage on the market for $150,000, Maxfield said.
The board made a counteroffer of $90,000.
MDOT responded with a counteroffer of $120,000 and the board voted against pursuing the purchase.
Maxfield told selectmen at the following meeting that MDOT decided to offer the building to the town for $65,000, with the condition that it be used for transportation purposes.
Maxfield said the building would be used “as a base for PACE Ambulance and Rescue Services.”
The article asks residents if they wish to raise $85,000 to buy the building, with $38,000 taken from the sale of the Billings Hill woodlot, $40,000 from the tangible benefit money of the Spruce Mountain Wind project, and $7,000 from property taxes.
The $85,000 would “provide enough for the purchase price, and up to $13,000 for interior renovations,” Maxfield said.
“It has been determined that to build or remodel for the needed space at the current fire station would be more expensive and would not be as efficient as the purchase and relocation to this building,” Maxfield said. “It would be a number of years before any exterior maintenance would need to be done on the building.”
He said the garage has a septic system and well that work satisfactorily, and the heating system is in working order.
Voters will also decide whether to raise and appropriate $45,000 for expenses within the Building and Property Maintenance account. The expenses include:
• $24,000 for building maintenance, which includes repairs to the Whitman Memorial Library and the Town Office furnace;
• $20,000 for grounds and cemetery care; and
• $1,000 for roadside spring water testing.
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