Edgecomb residents overwhelming approved a 180-day moratorium on new construction for Davis Island during their Annual Town Meeting at the Edgecomb Eddy School May 21.
The moratorium effectively gives the town’s planning board time to rewrite the existing zoning ordinances to be more restrictive, delaying new construction while the town considers a future for the much discussed property.
Other articles of note included an amended appropriation for $73,137.95 towards payment on Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) Project Account on a loan for the town’s new fire station. The amendment to the original amount of $42,450.12 was proposed by Selectman Stuart Smith in order to keep payments in line with the existing TIF, he explained.
“The recommended amount was the minimum payment due,” said Smith. “The whole idea when we proposed this fire station loan was that it would be done with when the TIF was done. In order to make the appropriate payments we should double the amount.”
Smith said the amount would essentially be a double principal payment and one interest payment.
Residents also passed Article 38, which asked for $5993.27 to satisfy the fire station loan for 2010-2011. Residents also approved $2,457,417 for the total cost of funding K-12 public education, $93,834 for refuse disposal, $1718 for Lincoln County Television, $5000 for the Wiscasset Public Library, and $7000 for maintenance of the town hall.
“This coming year we will be changing the windows on the side and lowering the back end of the building,” said Chairman of the Edgecomb Board of Selectmen Jack Sarmanian. “The $7000 will bring us closer to finishing the much need repairs.”
Smith said the town completed an energy audit of the building and will be utilizing green technology to save money. After the meeting, Sarmanian said the traditional gathering was “relatively easy” with very few controversial articles on the warrant.
“It was fairly straightforward and well attended,” said Sarmanian. “The 58 articles passed fairly swiftly. It was a very busy year and the town accomplished a lot.”
In addition to snacks and refreshments sold by the Eddy School’s sixth grade class to raise money for a trip to Chewonki, people had a glimpse of the new fire station via a slide show from Asst. Fire Chief Larry Omland. The still images, projected in the back of the auditorium via a computer, showed slow but steady progress on the project which officials hope to have completed by the fall.
Wiscasset resident Susan Blagdon moderated the meeting assisted by Town Clerk Claudia Coffin who oversaw the proceedings.
