Damariscotta voters will go to the polls on June 8 to elect members of the Board of Selectman, one member of the Great Salt Bay School Board and one member of the board of the Great Salt Bay Sanitary District.
The next day, the voters will assemble at the Great Salt Bay School to vote on a proposed $2.3 million town budget for the coming year.
While there are three candidates for the two seats on the Select Board, David Atwater, Ronn Orenstein and Samuel Tibbetts, no one has filed to run for the school board.
“As many people complain about the schools and the cost, no one has bothered to step up to the plate and run for the board,” said Dick McLean, the current chairman of the selectmen.
“It is awful. It is an abomination,” he said.
McLean’s comments were echoed by Greg Zinser, the town manager.
“You would think someone would want to help,” he said.
It is the second time in two years when no one has filed for the school board.
Last year, no one filed for the post and eight voters penciled in the name of Brent Hallowell, electing him to the board for a four-year term.
Winton Jacobs is seeking to be re-elected to the sanitary district board, however he missed the filing deadline and has announced he is running as a write-in candidate.
Voters will cast their ballots at the town office on School Street. Polls will be open June 8 between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m.
On June 9, voters will be asked to approve a town budget of $2.3 million that is $160,000 more than last year, a 10.74 increase. Of that figure, $386,133 is for county government.
Zinser said the proposed budget for local government is up, not because of municipal spending, but because revenues have dropped 18 percent. This year’s total proposed municipal budget $1,979,295 is down $21,000 from last year’s figure, $2,001,062.
The $160,000 hike is due to a drop in revenues including state revenue sharing ($60,000) and the town’s decision to use just $100,000 from the town’s surplus funds to cut the property tax burden. Last year, the town budgeted $220,000 in surplus funds to help hold the tax rate down, Zinser said.
To put more (surplus funds) into the current budget would put the Town onto a “financially unsure path,” said Zinser.
Voters at the town meeting, to be held at the Great Salt Bay School on June 9, beginning at 6:30 p.m., will be asked to decide whether to grant a three percent raise to the town’s five police patrolmen.
The town’s selectmen recommend a police budget ($336,740) that provides for no raises, while the budget committee voted to recommend a budget ($392,712) that includes a raise for the five police officers. The chief and the police secretary, and other town workers, were not granted a raise.