The Bremen Board of Selectmen will hold special town meetings Thursday, Feb. 23 to address changes to the town’s clam ordinance, a shortfall in the secondary education budget, and a potential change in the town’s fiscal year.
A public hearing about the new shellfish conservation ordinance and a special town meeting to vote on the ordinance will take place at 10 a.m. Thursday.
Selectmen Boe Marsh and Wendy Pieh, with Shellfish Warden Rand Maker, of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, have worked with the Maine Department of Marine Resources over the past months to develop an effective ordinance for the town, which voters will consider during the meeting.
The first meeting of the day was scheduled for 10 a.m. to coincide with high tide, which will allow shellfish harvesters to attend the hearing and special town meeting.
The other public hearings and the second special town meeting will begin at 6 p.m.
The evening session will include a public hearing and a special town meeting regarding a proposal to transfer funds from the town’s undesignated funds to the secondary education budget to cover an unanticipated increase in enrollment. The final public hearing of the day will revolve around a potential change in the fiscal year.
Regarding the transfer of funds, residents will decide whether to authorize the town to transfer $35,000 from undesignated funds to cover the shortfall in the secondary education budget.
Speaking to a meeting of the Bremen School Committee on Thursday, Jan. 26, AOS 93 Superintendent Steve Bailey said 25 high school-age students were budgeted for in the last fiscal year. As of January, Bremen has 30 students in grades nine through 12.
Bailey said a contingency fund for two additional students has been built into this year’s proposed budget in an effort to avoid a recurrence of the issue.
The change in the fiscal year, the focus of the day’s final hearing, has been brought up at several selectmen’s meetings as a way to align with the state’s budgeting practices.
Currently the town operates on a calendar year. The proposal is to switch to a fiscal year starting on July 1 and ending on June 30.
Other hearings
In the weeks ahead, the Bremen selectmen will also hold two public hearings to discuss a proposed land use ordinance, which combines previously separate ordinances: the minimum lot size ordinance, building permit ordinance, and industrial site plan review ordinance.
The public hearings have been scheduled for Thursday, March 2 and Thursday, March 16.
