Alna selectmen on July 24 set the tax rate at $18.20 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation. Last year’s was $17.75. The board attributed the hike to higher county and education tabs, and to the board’s taking nothing from surplus to offset taxes.

That’s to keep more money on hand, First Selectman Melissa Spinney explained. The town should keep enough to pay bills for three months, compared to the two days’ worth it had last year, she said.

Committing taxes in July should cut what the town has to borrow in a tax anticipation note, Spinney said. The board committed taxes in September last year. Last spring, voters agreed to a July commitment.

Selectmen announced longtime Deputy Treasurer Honora Perkins is leaving Maine and has resigned. Baston said she was very competent. They went with Treasurer Amy Stockford’s pick, Amy Preston, to succeed Perkins. Baston said the only issue with that was having two Amys.

Selectmen and residents around the road to the sand building mulled what the road needs and how to pay for it. Deb Brown has a $2,500 estimate to put a culvert at the top of a hill. She said runoff goes to her property. Town officials said it’s because her home is in a low spot. Road Commissioner Jeff Verney said he adds gravel to the road when the town’s plowing contractor, Hagar Enterprises, calls.

“That’s a lot of rock and a lot of work that’s going into it, and a lot of dollars from the town, versus really thinking about ... the long term needs,” said one of the residents there, Megan Taft.

Selectmen reiterated the town could share costs with the households who, like the town, have easements there. That’s all the town can legally do, because it’s on private property and is not a town road, Second Selectman Doug Baston said.

Making it one would be a long process, and he can’t imagine the town doing it, he said. 

Midcoast Conservancy’s senior watershed manager Maranda Nemeth said the nonprofit, which neighbors the area, could help seek a watershed protection plan which could mean federal funds toward projects like crowning, ditching or other long term solutions. “We’ve successfully done that in The Damariscotta Lake Watershed so we have a feel for how that process works.”

“That’d be great,” Baston said.

Nemeth cautioned it won’t help short term: It takes at least year, maybe two, she said.

Also July 24, the board looked back at an earlier 10-year plan for roadwork town-wide. Spinney said the town has nearly paid off the last roads loan and, based on roads’ needs, may have to get another one. 

Whitefield Selectman Charlene Donahue and Selectmen’s Chairman Lester Sheaffer asked how Alna handles alewife harvesting. Alna has been awarding David Sutter its rights for decades, selectmen responded. Following last year’s removal of Coopers Mill Dam, Whitefield wants to avoid an “alewife war ... a bunch of hassles with the folks coming in and out,” Sheaffer said. At the Whitefield board’s request, Alna selectmen said they would send Whitefield a letter each year so Whitefield can seek to work with Sutter, too.