Nobleboro voters will have their say on an $828,084 municipal budget and a $3,024,738 education budget at the annual open town meeting Saturday, March 21.
Town meeting begins on Friday, March 20, with a secret ballot vote to elect town officers. Polls will be open at the Nobleboro Town Office from noon to 6 p.m.
There are no contested elections in Nobleboro this year and all candidates are incumbents.
Selectman Dick Spear and Nobleboro School Committee members Josh Hatch and Mike Ward are all running for three-year terms; Road Commissioner John York is running for a two-year term.
The remainder of the warrant articles, including the budgets, will be addressed at the open portion of the meeting, held at Nobleboro Central School starting at 10 a.m. on March 21.
School budget
Nobleboro’s K-12 education budget for the 2015-2016 school year is proposed at $3,024,738, an increase of $173,248 or 6.08 percent.
The budget committee voted 8-1 to recommend the budget in January.
The biggest bump in the proposed budget is in the regular instruction category, up $143,958 or 9.9 percent.
The increase is primarily due to a $106,736 or 21 percent increase in private tuition funding for high school students, due both to budgeting for an extra 2.5 (equivalent) students to attend Lincoln Academy and a 6 percent increase in the tuition rate.
Regular instruction also includes a $13,097 or 2 percent increase for teacher salaries, and a $17,083 or 12 percent increase for teacher health insurance.
The insurance increase is due to an anticipated 9 percent rate increase and staff members changing their plans, AOS 93 Business Manager Kati Hunt said previously.
The largest decrease in the proposed budget is in the facilities maintenance category, proposed at $259,063, down $32,202 or 11.06 percent, largely from a $50,013 cut to capital funding.
According to Nobleboro Central School Principal Ann Hassett, the $32,640 included in the budget for capital expenditures is proposed for sound panels in the gym and new LED light fixtures for the parking lot, with both projects possibly being implemented over several years; repair or replacement of the school’s 20-year-old intercom system; and repair of retractable walls in the music room.
The school budget categories are proposed and recommended at:
- Regular instruction, $1,598,461, up $143,958 or 9.9 percent
- Special education instruction, $482,521, up $9,786 or 2.07 percent
- Career and technical education instruction, $8,627, down $7,974 or 48.03 percent
- Other instruction, $27,613, up $836 or 3.12 percent
- Student and staff support, $175,971, up $15,558 or 9.7 percent
- System administration, $71,749, up $1,929 or 2.76 percent
- School administration, $163,994, up $13,846 or 9.22 percent
- Transportation and buses, $222,252, up $21,223 or 10.56 percent
- Facilities maintenance, $259,063, down $32,202 or 11.06 percent
- All other, $14,487, up $6,288 or 76.7 percent
Municipal budget
The proposed municipal budget for 2015, recommended by both the selectmen and budget committee, totals $828,084, an increase of $44,036 or 5.62 percent over the current year.
The category for town administration is proposed at $174,850, up $12,878 or nearly 8 percent.
The increase is due in part to the addition of a new town office employee this year in an attempt to improve office coverage and because of an extra two-week pay period this year, selectmen said previously.
The town’s paving budget, proposed at $100,000 and up $10,000 or just over 11 percent, was agreed upon by the selectmen and budget committee over a $120,000 request by Road Commissioner John York.
According to Spear, York had requested the larger amount to cover half of an estimated $240,000 project to pave Duckpuddle Road and Bennett Road in 2015 and 2016.
The proposed budget includes $15,000 in contingency funds, an increase of 50 percent.
The selectmen used most of their $10,000 contingency in 2014 for chimney and sump pump repairs, and for extra winter sand, Spear said previously.
“If we don’t use it, we don’t use it,” Spear said.
Other increases in the budget include a $4,308 increase for the Nobleboro Fire Department and a $4,513 increase to winter maintenance, which includes an extra $1,000 for sand and about $3,500 for a contractual increase for snowplowing contractor Hagar Enterprises, according to Spear.
The town’s share of the Nobleboro-Jefferson Transfer Station is proposed at $65,833, up by $3,053 or 4.86 percent. The 4.86 percent increase applies to all the member towns, and was set at the transfer station council’s annual meeting on Dec. 30.
One article, recommended by both the selectmen and the budget committee, asks voters to appropriate $500,000 – $225,000 in excise taxes, and $275,000 from surplus – to reduce the town’s tax rate for 2015.
