Dover-Foxcroft officials looking at revised budget timeline

DOVER-FOXCROFT — Months ago the annual Dover-Foxcroft town meeting had been planned for the morning of Saturday, April 25 with residents later heading to the polls to vote on the 2020-21 municipal budget — along with the RSU 68 budget and state ballot — at the June 9 referendum. Among the countless changes brought about by the COVID-10 pandemic is an alteration to the budget schedule in Dover-Foxcroft but town officials have a plan for a revised timeline.

During an April 27 select meeting conducted via Zoom, Town Manager Jack Clukey said the budget was a topic of discussion at the meeting two weeks prior and since then he had the opportunity to speak to members of the budget advisory committee. “They all seem willing and able to resume that process this way, teleconference, in May,” he said.

Under a proposed schedule, the committee would have its first post-pandemic meeting on Wednesday, May 13 with a joint meeting between the group and selectmen taking place a week later. Clukey said the week of Memorial Day the board often has its second regular meeting of May that Wednesday so a public hearing on the 2020-21 budget could take place on Wednesday, June 3.

The board voted to have its second meeting of May on the 27th and town officials could formally approve the new budget schedule at the May 11 meeting.

“That timeline I just laid out gives us a lot of flexibility to decide when in late June we have our town meeting,” Clukey said, provided restrictions are lifted in order for the public hearing and town meeting to take place.

Via an executive order Gov. Janet Mills moved the state primary date from June 9 to July 14 so the Dover-Foxcroft budget referendum would likely be held on the mid-July date.

In other business, the selectmen voted to suspend disposal fees for brush dropped off at the transfer station unless this becomes a burden for the town.

Several residents had asked about the new charge, at the start of the month new rates were $55 per wheeler (10 yards), $30 for pickup and trailer and $20 pickup only.

Clukey said he has spoken with Solid Waste/Transfer Station Director Joe Sands and Sands agrees. “I don’t think there’s any urgency to bring it back now,” the town manager said.

He said with the snowstorm earlier in the month many residents will be clearing downed trees and limbs from their properties and this will continue throughout the year, including seasonal residents when they arrive in town.

In his report Clukey said, “We are coming to the end of our safety study with the MDOT. We have a draft report that’s up on our website (dover-foxcroft.org/).”

“We wanted to get it up there,” he said. “The last piece of the puzzle is to have another public hearing for question and comment and that all would be part of the final report.”

He said the public hearing on the downtown traffic study could potentially be conducted in-person on a June evening or remotely in May. “Maybe by May 11 we should firm up how and when we want to do that,” Clukey said.

Select Vice Chair Cindy Freeman Cyr encouraged residents to look at the online document so they could provide additional input to be incorporated into the final version of the study for the downtown.