Waldoboro voters passed all 45 articles on the annual town meeting warrant except one Tuesday, June 14.
The only article failing to pass muster was article 5, which would have raised $148,438 for the office of the town manager. The article failed, 367-335.
The request for the office of the town manager was an increase of $13,371 or 10.19 percent.
The board of selectmen and budget committee were split on recommending article 5, voting 3-2 and 6-2 respectively.
This marks the second year in a row voters in Waldoboro have declined to approve the budget line for the office of town manager.
In elections, voters chose challenger and former Selectman Robert Butler over incumbent Ronald Miller, who joined the board in 2013.
Butler received 401 votes and Miller received 315.
For the budget committee, voters chose Susan Price to fill a one-year term and voted in John Higgins, William Maxwell, and Valdemar Skov to serve three-year terms.
For the RSU 40 Board of Directors, voters selected Danny Jackson to fill a three-year term and Natasha Irving for a one-year term.
Seth Hall also was voted in for a one-year term, receiving six write-in votes.
Write-in candidate Liam Ducharme received five votes to serve a three-year term on the town’s Utility District Board of Trustees.
Had the entire proposed municipal budget of $4,051,244 passed, it would have been an increase of $192,912 or 5 percent from the last fiscal year.
Some of the increases can be attributed to the general government, public safety, and public works categories of the budget.
General government, covering the town office and municipal building, is currently budgeted at $576,479, an increase of $20,153 or 3.62 percent.
Public safety, a budget category that encompasses emergency medical services, fire, and police, totals $1,531,318, an increase of $46,055 or 3.1 percent.
The public works budget is $740,555, an increase of $32,738 or 4.63 percent.
Public works includes maintenance of the town’s infrastructure and work on town parks and cemeteries.
Under the proposed budgets, employees in all departments of the municipal government are slated to receive a 1 percent cost-of-living increase.
Voters approved article 34 to authorize the town to continue as a member of the Municipal Review Committee by entering an agreement to deliver its waste to a proposed waste management facility in Hampden, developed and run by Fiberight LLC.
The town’s waste disposal contract with Penobscot Energy Recovery Co. in Orrington expires in 2018.
Fiberight intends to build a $70 million facility utilizing a mechanical-biological treatment process to separate recyclables and organic material from solid waste.
The planned facility in Hampden will be constructed with private funds, including financial support from Covanta Energy, a corporation based in New Jersey.
The Municipal Review Committee plans to purchase, develop, and lease the property, and to retain an interest in the operation.
The initial contract term is for 15 years. Joining members have the option of terminating the contract at the end of the 15-year period or contracting for up to five additional five-year extensions.
The Waldoboro Transfer Station Committee unanimously recommended that the town go with Municipal Review Committee and Fiberight following the expiration of the town’s current municipal waste disposal contract in 2018.
Voters approved an amendment to the town’s land use ordinance.
Changes to the ordinance included an increase in size limit for name signs and rental signs from 2 square feet to 3 square feet. Name signs include a family name for a residence and rental signs advertise apartments for rent, for example.
The setback limit on town roads has been increased from 5 feet from the edge of the traveled way to 10 feet.
A section addressing special events and “open” flags has been added to the ordinance under signs not requiring a permit in order to acknowledge common practice and provide flexibility.
