Spending plan is off to the budget committee
By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer
BROWNVILLE — With the annual town meeting, held the third Monday of March, over five months away, the figures comprising the preliminary 2015-16 fiscal year budget are now in the hands of the budget committee following an Oct. 8 selectmen’s meeting.
Town Manager Matthew Pineo presented the board members with an updated list of current department expenditures and revenues, which were a mix of increases and decreases. He said the budget committee was scheduled to have its first meeting to work on the spending plan, provided the selectmen gave their approval, on Oct. 9.
The selectmen voted to move the budget forward, and they also approved the finished water and sewer budgets for the 2015-16 fiscal year. Pineo said there would be no rate increase for water and sewer customers.
In other business, Pineo reported the Piscataquis County Commissioners approved a fire contract on Oct. 7 with Brownville, Milo and Sebec for covering the unorganized territories in eastern Piscataquis County. The deal, continuing an existing agreement, is for three years at $46,000 annually, with this split into about $22,000 for Milo, $18,000 for Brownville and $6,000 for Sebec.
“That revenue coming into our fire department was crucial,” Pineo said. He said a five-year contract was proposed during negotiations, but the county commissioners wanted a shorter-term deal in the event of future board turnover. “We don’t have to think about it until 2018,” Pineo said, as recent contracts have been single year extensions.
Brownville officials and those from other municipalities in SAD 41 and its AOS 43 partner in SAD 31, made of communities in the Howland area, have been invited to attend an informational meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 6 p.m. at the Marion C. Cook School in LaGrange. The meeting is being held to address a perceived lack of understanding regarding the AOS and how it serves the two school districts.
Pineo said the Brownville selectmen are scheduled to meet with their colleagues from Milo on Oct. 15 — at 6 p.m. at the BJHS Alumni Building in the Junction — and the school system and Nov. 18 AOS meeting may be topics of conversation.