Edgecomb residents have long requested the ability to register vehicles online. At the annual town meeting Saturday, May 21, residents will have the ability to vote on it.
The question of whether to raise $8,425 to purchase the TRIO software program, which would enable online registration of vehicles, is one of three articles on the annual town meeting warrant devoted to upgrading Edgecomb’s presence in the digital world.
Voters will also decide whether to raise $1,015 for the maintenance of a new town website, and whether to raise $1,200 to purchase the domain name edgecomb.org.
The proposed appropriations to help Edgecomb cross the digital divide were some of the largest increases in Edgecomb’s municipal budget, which rose only 0.72 percent from $813,238 in 2015-2016 to a proposed $819,126 in 2016-2017, according to budget committee documents.
However, the municipal budget presented by the budget committee does not incorporate the full request for the fire department’s operations budget – the only point of contention in Edgecomb’s budget-setting process for the 2016-2017 fiscal year.
The fire department requested $89,439 for its 2016-2017 operations budget, an increase of 24 percent from the current year’s $72,129. The department is in need of new turnout gear, Edgecomb Fire Chief Roy Potter said, and the department will get a deep discount if it purchases the 15 sets needed at one time.
With the major expenditures in Edgecomb, such as the school budget, the county tax bill, and refuse disposal, outside of the budget committee’s control, there were few places to find savings, Edgecomb Budget Committee Chair Nort Fowler said.
The budget committee voted to recommend an operations budget of $75,509 for the fire department, which would enable the department to purchase eight new sets of turnout gear, at $1,990 a set, in 2016-2017, and the remaining amount the following year.
After lengthy discussion, the Edgecomb Board of Selectmen voted in April to place the full amount requested by the fire department on the warrant, and let voters decide whether to purchase 15 sets of turnout gear in a single fiscal year, or split the purchase over a couple of years.
The decision will mean the difference between a 1.82 percent increase in the overall public safety budget, from $107,723 in 2015-2016 to a proposed $109,682 in 2016-2017; and a 14.7 percent increase in the public safety budget, from $107,723 in 2015-2016 to $123,612 in 2016-2017. A decrease in fire department pay due to a reduction in projected call hours prevented a more significant increase in the public safety budget.
The municipal budget, however, is only a small portion of Edgecomb’s projected $3.87 million budget, with education costs composing nearly 68 percent of the total budget.
Voters will be asked whether to raise $2,664,336 to support the total cost of K-12 education in Edgecomb, a 4.96 percent increase from the 2015-2016 education budget of $2,539,182. The increase is due to increased special education costs and a decrease in revenue for the school.
The future of the Edgecomb Eddy School was the subject of extensive debate at the 2015 annual town meeting, with some residents in adamant support of the school, and others saying it would be cheaper to tuition out Edgecomb students.
In addition to the budget, Edgecomb voters will decide whether to join Boothbay Harbor, Boothbay, and Southport in adopting a new shellfish conservation ordinance.
The ordinance would establish new rules for shellfish harvesting that would require licenses, restrict the time and areas where digging would be permitted, and limit the size and amount of clams that can be harvested in one day.
The ordinance would also establish a shellfish conservation committee composed of representatives from each of the four communities.
Residents will also vote on proposed amendments to Edgecomb’s land use ordinance, which the ordinance review committee has been working on for the past year. The amendments are an effort to update the land use ordinance to make it more user-friendly.
Edgecomb will hold its election for municipal officials Friday, May 20. Polls will be open from 1-7 p.m. at the town hall.
Edgecomb’s open town meeting will take place Saturday, May 21 at 10 a.m. at the town hall.
