Andover resident Bob Duplessie, center, serves as moderator Saturday at the town meeting at the Andover Town Hall. From far left are Selectman Justin Thacker, Selectman Joe Luce and Chairman Brian Mills. At far right is Town Treasurer Amber Cooper and Town Clerk Melinda Averill. The meeting lasted four hours as 46 residents discussed and approved almost all of the 63 articles on the warrant. Marianne Hutchinson/Rumford Falls Times

ANDOVER — The town meeting in Andover lasted four hours Saturday as 46 residents at the Town Hall discussed and approved almost all of the 63 articles on the warrant for the 2023-24 town budget.

The new fiscal year begins July 1.

Residents approved spending $900,000 on a bond to be used to reconstruct East Andover Road.

“This entire road needs culverts, reclaiming, gravel and paving,” Selectman Chair Brian Mills said.

Resident Dick Merrill asked if the town could afford the cost of the bond, saying, “I mean, if you look at every budget here, and it’s gone up by $5,000 to $10,000, and if it increases that every year, there comes a time when people are not going to be able to afford living here in Andover.”

Residents also approved spending $76,500 for the highway department’s summer roadwork, an increase of $30,000 from this fiscal year. The increase is to cover the cost to replace a failing culvert on Upton Road, Mills said. The winter roads highway operation budget remains the same for next year at $130,000.

A vote to raise $70,786 for the transfer station budget, which is $8,786 more than this fiscal year to cover an increase in Oxford County’s share for waste disposal services to unorganized territories, was also approved at the meeting.

For this fiscal year, which ends June 30, the town raised $54,500 and the county paid $7,500, for a total of $62,000. During the conversation about the amount of money needed to run the transfer station, transfer station attendant Matt Elliott expressed concern that the amount of money requested was “enough to do what we need to do there. I don’t want to see us going in the hole.”

Residents also approved spending $11,000 for a recycling container to be used at the transfer station. The container is to be used to send the town’s recycled materials to the town of Mexico’s recycling station, instead of sending them to Ecomaine in Portland, as a cost savings measure, Mills said.

Andover resident Dick Merrill, who is on the town’s budget committee, spoke several times Saturday at the town meeting at the Town Hall about his concerns with the town’s proposed budget for 2023-24. Marianne Hutchinson/Rumford Falls Times

An article to increase the wages of more than 18 town employees to an overall 3% increase in pay beginning when the new fiscal year begins, was approved with an amendment to increase the town secretary’s pay to $20 an hour and the town treasurer’s yearly pay to $20,800.

Lynda Airhart resigned as secretary this spring. She remains deputy treasurer, however, and Amber Cooper is the town treasurer.

The current pay rate for the secretary position is $16.55 an hour, but selectmen requested in a written amendment option that the pay be increased to $20 per hour because as they interviewed people to fill the position they “found that the wages and other concerns are not enough for a well-qualified person to accept the current rate or even the proposed (3% increase of $17.05) for 2023,” the selectmen wrote in a memorandum to the residents attending the town meeting.

Selectman Joe Luce brought up the need for an extra increase to the treasurer’s position, saying: “Do you want to pay (the treasurer) the same rate that you’re paying someone at McDonalds? Because that’s what you’re going to get. Amber (Cooper) is a fantastic treasurer. She’s done a great job for the town, and she doesn’t complain. And I think she deserves the money that goes with the position.”

Cooper’s pay this year was $18,356.

Library Director Janet Farrington, whose pay will increase to $17.05 an hour with the 3% increase, said she hopes an annual review of the town’s employees will include employees and selectmen.

“I hope that for a change, (a wage review) will include all of us. That we can all sit down together, because it’s not (right). Because when we do wages for the year, I always feel (upset),” Farrington said. “People, all of a sudden, they want a lot more money. I’ve been here 23 years this coming October, and I’m falling behind (in pay).

“I’m not going to ask for more money this year. My budget is set and I don’t want to (complain), but I feel like there needs to be more communication and we need to get this fixed.”

Andover resident Peggy Madigan, standing, who serves on the Planning Board, budget committee and other committees, speaks Saturday at the town meeting about the 2023-24 budget. Marianne Hutchinson/Rumford Falls Times

The committee requesting $11,400 to renovate the Fire Department bathroom for public access and $2,400 to rent a handicapped-accessible portable toilet for one year lost in its request for the $11,400 for public bathrooms at the fire station, but was approved to spend $2,400 to rent a portable toilet.

Residents approved the $11,400 for public bathrooms at the fire station at last year’s annual town meeting, but a request for another $10,000 needed for the project was denied.

The issue was back on the warrant because the bids were too high, Mills said.

Laura Owens, who is on the committee for the public bathrooms, said there is a portable toilet on the town commons and the committee will try various locations for the new portable toilet.

Residents also approved spending $1,000 for some large rocks to be used to mark off the boundary property lines at the fire station, rather than choosing fencing, which would be more expensive to install.

“This past winter, we had the next-door neighbor plowing closer to the (fire station) building, onto the leech field and (on our) the septic system, and they were using it for parking,” Chief Jim Adler of the Andover Fire Department said.

“I wanted to get markers and a survey of the land done so we can get the markers and know exactly where (our boundaries) were, so we could put up a fence to stop that from happening so we don’t have a septic system freeze up in the middle of the winter.”

Selectman Justin Thacker is seeking reelection for a three-year term and is uncontested in the town elections Tuesday, which run from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Thacker was voted in as selectman in February to fill the seat vacated by Jeff Elkie, who resigned in November.

Others seeking reelection Tuesday are school board representatives Timothy Akers and Karen Thurston, each for three-year terms.

There is also an opening for a school board representative for a two-year term. No one had applied for the position when nominations ended in April.