Alna property owners this year will pay 15 cents more for every $1,000 of assessed valuation. Selectmen on Sept. 17 set the tax rate at $22.80 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, up slightly from last year’s rate of $22.65, Town Clerk Amy Warner said.

So the taxes on a $200,000 home will be $30 higher than last year.

New construction bolstered Alna’s tax base and the tab with Regional School Unit 12 dipped. Those two changes nearly fully offset a $17,000 hike in town spending and a $20,000 drop in state aid, Warner said.

Plans called for tax bills to be mailed Friday, Sept. 19, so people should get them Sept. 20 or Sept. 22, she said.

Progress continues toward plowing deal

Selectmen continued contract talks with Hagar Enterprises of Damariscotta to plow the town’s roads. The board authorized Third Selectman David Reingardt to further negotiate with the firm and spend at most $1,000 to consult with a lawyer. The board set another meeting for 7 p.m., Sept. 24, at the town office, to consider signing the deal.

Co-owner Mark Hagar did not object to selectmen’s rejection of the firm’s earlier suggestions that the contract spell out how the board respond if voters block the contract’s second and third years. He said the business just wants to work with the town and be able to expect the contract to continue after this winter.

“If we’re performing a good job we want to know (the town) is going to keep with us,” Hagar told the board.

Selectmen said the deal’s second and third years depend on townspeople’s ratification of the contract next March. Board members said they plan to ask voters in a single question at town meeting to ratify multi-year contracts. The others involve existing deals with an auditor and a mowing firm.

Board members said they support a  three-year contract with an option for another two, but, to their knowledge, the decision lies with the town.

“This is a chance you’re taking,” Reingardt said. “Nobody here can guarantee it.”

Later in the meeting, First Selectman David Abbott said it occurred to him that, when he served on the board previously, town meeting voters may have authorized the board to enter multi-year contracts. If so, and if no subsequent votes changed that, the board could still have that authority, he said. He planned to research the matter.

Selectmen noted they had been making multi-year deals for years until learning this summer that those need voter approval.

Related:

Alna plows ahead toward next contract

Going over the details