Around 625 Wiscasset voters, most of them voting via absentee ballot, approved 24 of 28 municipal questions on its annual town meeting referendum turning down both highway department articles.
The “no” vote on the highway department creates the need for a special town meeting to determine a new budget.
In the meantime, the department will have to operate on an amount not to exceed three-twelfths of the fiscal year 2008-2009 appropriation until the town passes a new operational budget. Voters determined the basis for that eventuality by casting 381-212 votes in favor of question one.
Controversy over whether the town should accept a proposed $634,128 budget or a $675,323 budget to allow for an additional full-time position to fill a vacancy created last year may have raised some confusion in voters’ minds.
Wiscasset officials discussed the risk of giving voters the option of one choice in a two-part question during previous public hearings, recognizing it was not a fail-safe solution.
Advertising for the position took place and several people submitted applications, but the board hired no one for the position. Instead, the board put the matter into the hands of the public either by choice or default.
Selectmen favored the $634,128 budget by a slight 3-2 margin and budget committee’s 1-7 vote while the budget committee recommended the larger figure by a 7-1 vote to the selectmen’s 2-3 vote.
The risk of providing two alternative budgets concerning contractual services proved effective in question five as voters approved the lower $117,000 figure with 347 votes for and 273 votes against.
Voters rejected controversial question 18, which proposed a $43,600 municipal building generator allowing the building to qualify as an emergency shelter. The article failed by a 181-437 vote.
Arguments about the cost and kilowatts needed for a generator transpired over the past several months with no conclusive consensus during public meetings.
Items that passed included a $744,390 budget for parks and recreation of which $274,390 would be through taxation and an appropriation from department revenues and surplus. The transfer station’s proposed $516,503 budget passed, of which $321,503 will come from taxation.
The proposed $386,854 appropriation for the wastewater treatment plant’s operational budget passed with funds to come from departmental revenues, impact fees, and surplus.
Other items approved included raising and appropriating $12,500 for town celebrations, namely Fourth of July and winter fests and raising and appropriating $5000 for the Lincoln County’s 250th anniversary celebration.
Ballot clerks wrapped up the vote count for the municipal question by 8:30 p.m. with the aid of the counting machine providing a group of citizens with early election results.
