Voters said ‘yes’ to every item on the Jefferson town warrant at this year’s town meeting on March 29. Most articles passed by a relatively wide margin.
The vote will create a $735,660 town budget, not including education, which will be handled separately later this spring.
Robert “Jigger” Clark, Chairman of the Jefferson Board of Selectmen, retained his seat on the board in a contested race with Gale “Vicki” Burbank. The vote was 281-56.
Six candidates ran for four seats on the Jefferson Budget Committee.
Winners are: incumbents Blaine Kimball (229 votes) and Christina Moylan (197 votes), and newcomers Darin Walker (234 votes) and Josiah Winchenbach (173 votes). Roger White received 167 votes and Tina White received 145 votes.
The only article that failed to pass at last year’s town meeting was an article to give $845 to Midcoast Maine Community Action, a nonprofit that provides rent, mortgage and heating assistance, Head Start, job training, financial and nutrition assistance for children and mothers, among other services.
This year, voters approved Midcoast Maine Community Action’s request for $845 by a vote of 176-163.
Voters also approved an $18,000 increase to the assessors’ agent’s salary and a 2 percent raise for town office employees.
Those salaries, which were all in the same article, passed by a vote of 204-138.
One item that received some attention before the vote, but passed easily, was the creation of two new reserve accounts: at the end of the year, unexpended funds from the office expense budget and road maintenance budget would be placed into reserve accounts to pay for future expenses in those budget areas.
The town office reserve account passed by 235-106; the roads reserve account passed by 260-83.
