Nobleboro voters passed all articles as presented and recommended at annual town meeting March 21.
The articles passed included an $828,084 municipal budget, up $44,036 or 5.62 percent, and a $3,024,738 education budget, up $173,248 or 6.08 percent.
A total of 41 voters cast ballots in the elections March 20.
For selectman, incumbent Dick Spear received 37 votes and Carolyn Baltes received one write-in vote.
For two seats on the school board, Joshua Hatch received 37 votes, Michael Ward received 35, and Carolyn Baltes received one write-in vote.
Road Commissioner John York was re-elected with 40 votes; Dale Wright received one write-in vote.
At the open meeting March 21, incumbent budget committee members Richard Powell, Peter Lawrence, and Steve Plumb were all re-elected.
The open meeting lasted just under two hours, and most articles received little or no discussion.
The biggest discussion was regarding the regular instruction category of the town’s education budget.
Budget committee member Carolyn Baltes moved to reduce the proposed amount ($1,598,461) by $40,000 in an effort to keep the overall school budget under $3 million.
The motion was seconded by Baltes’ husband, Clete, who handed out slips of paper in favor of such a motion at the door to the school before the meeting.
According to Carolyn Baltes, the reduction would more accurately reflect expenditures in recent years.
The slip pointed specifically to the school department’s 2013-2014 audit, which showed actual expenditures for regular instruction at about $124,000 under budget.
The regular instruction category includes the biggest increase for the education budget: a $106,736 increase in private school tuition, primarily due to an anticipated 6 percent increase in the private school tuition rate, according to budget documents.
Budget committee Chair Richard Powell and member Steve Plumb both stood behind the originally proposed amount, as did school committee Chair Josh Hatch.
“The school board does a great job with the money we give them,” Powell said.
The amendment eventually failed to pass, and the original amount was approved.
Powell also spoke up about road paving, recommending the town increase its budget for paving in future years.
Road Commissioner John York had requested $120,000 for the road paving line in 2015, but the selectmen and budget committee recommended it at $100,000, up $10,000 from 2014.
Voters approved the article at $100,000.
According to Powell, the annual paving budget covers paving around one mile, but Nobleboro has about 17 miles of town roads.
Increasing the paving budget to $150,000 in the future would put the town on a roughly 10-year cycle for repaving all its roads, Powell said.
The increase to the paving budget, funds for an additional part-time town office employee, and increases to the fire department, winter maintenance, and transfer station budgets all contributed to the municipal budget increase.
