Proposed new values on Central Maine Power property in Alna would cut other taxpayers’ bills by hundreds of dollars each, starting this year, according to town officials.

Hiring the expert opinion on CMP's poles and lines was the best $2,000 that selectmen have spent, Third Selectman Doug Baston said July 29.

The new values that tax assessment contractor William Van Tuinen recommended would mean $400 less to pay in taxes on a $200,000 home, town officials said.

CMP's taxes would jump $112, 447, from last year’s $78,468 up to $190,916, according to town officials and a July 29 email the town received from its assessing firm, John E. O'Donnell & Associates of New Gloucester.

Selectmen waited on approving the new values; they wanted to first know if John O'Donnell & Associates also figured in Van Tuinen's proposed land values of $3,000 an acre for CMP and Maine Electric Power Co. (MEPCo). If not, the board would wait until the land values have been determined and then approve all the new values at once, members said.

CMP owns 78 percent of MEPCo’s common stock, according to CMP’s website at www.cmpco.com. Bangor Hydro Electric Company and Maine Public Service Company also own part of MEPCo, the website states.

Selectmen and Town Clerk and Tax Collector Amy Warner expect this year's tax bills to go out to property owners in late August or early September. With the town's Regional School Unit 12 bill down this year and the county and municipal tabs up, the tax rate had been expected to come in near the current $22.80 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, town officials said. The new CMP values would add enough to the town's tax base to drop the rate to $20.80, officials said.

CMP can challenge the new values with an appeal to the board of selectmen, Baston said. CMP did not challenge the hike it faced in neighboring Whitefield after a Van Tuinen assessment, Warner said.

In a July 30 email response to a request for comment on Alna’s review of CMP’s property values, CMP Spokesman Gail Rice writes: “CMP will review this assessment to compare it with the investments we made in Alna.”

Alna selectmen hired Van Tuinen, of Madison, in May to assess CMP’s equipment. The board first expressed an interest in the idea in July 2014, when Warner told them that she’d heard from Aaron Miller that Whitefield had hired Van Tuinen for the same purpose. Miller, of Alna, is Whitefield’s treasurer and at the time was also Alna’s.

In the loop on

Federal Street

Selectmen decided to remind the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) that they want to be kept apprised of new developments regarding the weight limit on Wiscasset’s Federal Street. The board recently reaffirmed its stance against the weight limit’s removal.

An MDOT official has said a change will most likely be made, at that the most likely change is for the limit to be removed.

Baston on July 29 said the issue is Wiscasset’s to fight,  but that Alna would also see new truck traffic if the 6,000-pound weight limit goes away.

He questioned whether MDOT can decide to change the limit that’s been in place on Federal Street for decades. The state has that authority, Scott Rollins of MDOT’s planning bureau has said. MDOT would be willing to have representatives at Wiscasset selectmen’s planned public hearing on the weight limit issue, Rollins has said.

Alna selectmen said they had already asked MDOT to keep them in the loop, but that they would ask again, now that a change is being eyed.

“I think (the request to be informed) goes in the bureaucracy ... unless you squeak,” Baston said.

Another fire truck for sale

Alna Fire Chief Mike Trask and selectmen discussed possible ways to sell the 1986 GMC fire truck that the town’s new pumper-tanker truck has replaced. One fire truck salesman told Trask it was worth $1,500; however, selectmen viewed that estimate as low. The new tires on the truck are worth that much, Baston said.

Trask suggested advertising the truck online. It’s in good shape and could be a fire truck again or a dump truck, wrecker or some other use, he said. It could be a hay truck, First Selectman David Abbott said.

Selectmen asked Trask why the department wasn’t keeping the truck. Most of the equipment is off it now, he said. “I can’t fight a fire with it, and I don’t want to be accused of stockpiling fire trucks.”

The department’s 1972 Dodge Power Wagon recently sold for $10,071 after a Craigslist ad brought in 35 sealed bids.