Residents raise their cards during a vote in the Whitefield annual town meeting on Saturday, March 15 at the Whitefield Elementary School. Over the course of the meeting, voters approved a $1,800,859 municipal budget. (Johnathan Riley photo)
Whitefield residents carefully scrutinized the budget figures and waded into the minutia of parliamentary procedure in the course of dispatching a 37-article annual town meeting warrant at Whitefield Elementary School on Saturday, March 15.
As approved, the municipal budget totals $1,800,859, a decrease of $73,567 or 3.92%. Voters will be tasked with raising $970,058 in taxes, a decrease of $87,228 or 8.25%
The recommendations from the select board and budget committee varied slightly throughout the warrant.
According to Whitefield Select Board Chair Seth Bolduc, most of the discrepancies between the recommendations related to an anticipated reduction in electricity cost due to the town’s installation of solar panels. The select board opted to include anticipated electricity costs while the budget committee made estimated reductions.
The select board’s recommended budget totaled $1,804,337, a decrease of $70,089 or 3.74% from last year, while the budget committee recommended $1,802,862, a decrease of $71,564 or 3.82%.
Voters opted for the select board’s recommendations over the budget committee’s where the two split on items such as the Whitefield Library, salaries and utilities for the recycling center, and operation of the Whitefield Fire Department.
The select board proposed no changes to an allocation of $20,000 to Whitefield Library. The budget committee recommended $19,800, a decrease of $200 or 1%.
The budget recommended by the select board for salaries and utilities for the recycling center totaled $5,419, an increase of $550 or 11.29%. This increase is due to a 3.5% cost of living increase to wages. The budget committee recommended a $5,344 budget, an increase of $475 or 9.76%.
Voters reduced the budget by $1,739 by eliminating contributions in the nonprofit section of the warrant.
Whitefield Select Board member Brian O’Mahoney suggested eliminating the contribution to Maine General Hospice because the CEO of the organization makes a high salary, which dovetailed a conversation earlier with residents about rescinding contributions to LifeFlight, a mobile intensive care system, for the same reason.
“I’m a big fan for hospice care,” he said. “But its chief executive officer earns $938,000 a year, so on the same basis of the LifeFlight conversation, I’m not sure how much sense it makes for us to pass town money on to what is essentially a corporation.”
The contributions were reduced from $1,137 to $0 for Maine General Hospice Care and from $602 to $0 for LifeFlight.
Whitefield residents concluded the meeting by thanking outgoing select board member Keith Sanborn who chose not to run for reelection.
Sanborn will remain a member of the Whitefield Road Commission.
Ninety-one voters cast their ballots in Whitefield’s municipal elections, held at the central fire station Friday, March 14. (See related article in this edition.)
Incumbent Seth Bolduc and write-in candidate Erin Anderson were both elected to three-year terms on the Whitefield Select Board. Bolduc received 86 votes and Anderson 53.
Kathleen Goetzman’s was reelected unopposed to a three-year term on the RSU 12 Board of Directors with 61 votes. Christopher Penncok was elected to the Whitefield Panning Board with three votes as a write-in candidate. Glenn Angell, who served as meeting moderator, did not run for reelection.
