Milo sets $27.25 mill rate

MILO — The Milo Select Board set the 2024-25 mill rate at $27.25 for every $1,000 in assessed property during a meeting on July 10.

Town Clerk Betty Gormley said she had three options for the select board to consider. “Personally I recommend the $27.25 one,” she said, saying this mill rate would provide approximately $32,100 for overlay.

“It’s good to have a little extra,” Gormley added.

Select Chair Paula Copelane said the other options were a $27.50 mill rate with $58,000 in overlay or a rate of $27.10 with $16,000 in overlay.

“Last year it was $23,” Gormley said about the previous mill rate. “But before that we were almost at $26 so this gets us back up there.”

“I agree with this recommendation of $32,106, if we have abatements,” Copeland said. “If we have other things, we don’t want to overspend our budget.”

Gormley said abatements have been down compared to previous years.

Josh Bragan of Maine Assessment & Appraisal presented the board with the 2024 ratio declaration, which was signed as written.

“Each year the state audits our tax assessments compared to what they are selling at,” Bragan said. “This year our state valuation, assessed value vs. market value was at 76 percent so everything gets adjusted by that, homestead, tree growth reimbursements, etc. Veterans exemptions get adjusted by that percentage”

“It’s not necessarily a problem until it gets to below 70,” he said. State law says below 70 percent is failing.”

“The biggest negative effect is that homesteads aren’t worth as much,” Bragan added.

He said last year Milo received $248,000 in homestead reimbursement and this year the amount is estimated to be around $251,000.

In other business, Town Manager Bob Canney gave an update on the public safety building project. 

“It’s probably going to be a September timeframe when that goes out to bid,” Canney said. 

The town is currently in the planning stages of a new building to house the fire, police, and public works departments. The community can spend up to $6,375,000 in USDA funds for the public safety building, which will be located at the business park and across the road from the Milo Water District office less than a mile up Park Street from the 100-year-old town hall where the fire and police departments are currently located.

Plymouth Engineering had been meeting with town officials and department heads to design each department’s section of the facility, with plans being solidified. The engineering firm estimates the building, groundwork, and engineering costs to total $7,200,758 or $825,758 more than what Milo has available in project funding. To make up the difference, residents approved a line of credit not to exceed $825,758 to cover costs above and beyond the $6,375,000 at a special town meeting 

“I was hoping it would go out sooner but they said September, late August,” Canney said. He had previously said the construction process would be an 18-month build.

Fire Chief Matt Demers said the department has located a potential replacement ladder truck and several firefighters would be checking the approximately decade and a half old vehicle out in person. Demers said the truck is currently in service.

“It’s not just height, it’s reach because if a house sits back off the road you need to reach if you can’t get in the driveway and can’t get close,” he said. The chief said a ladder truck is also needed to fight fires on structures with metal roofs.

Earlier this year the Milo Fire Department located a vehicle in the Midwest to replace a more than 40-year-old ladder truck. Upon in-person review, the crew traveling out decided it was not the right fit.

In the fall Demers said insurance won’t cover the needed $20,000 repairs on the approximately 42-year-old platform aerial truck. He said the original purchase price was $95,000.

Town officials also heard from Arthur Wilkins of the Friends of Milo about the idea of using the town right of way on the Ferry Road to the Piscataquis River “to create a green space and potentially a boat launch.”

Wilkins said the Friends of Milo has heard the town is interested in providing more recreation opportunities. “We believe that creating more access is an important thing and it would drive tourism, commercial business,” he said.

The organization is proposing that the right of way, which is used as a turnaround for both snow plows and garbage trucks, also becomes seasonal parking with a natural launch (as opposed to a ramp) located nearby.

“We intend to pick up some brush, install a gate to prevent (vehicle) access to the river from the road and eventually, if we get permission from you guys, we will seek out grants and potentially some fundraising to create a space,” Wilkins said. 

He explained a gate would have an opening to allow a canoe or kayak to be portaged to the river. Wilkins said they would also check in with the Milo Water District to see if adjacent land could be used for the project.

“We’re looking forward to moving this town forward and keeping access to some of those rivers that we’re so famous for,” he said. “This is one of best town-owned accesses to one of our greatest resources.”

“I think it’s a phenomenal idea and I fully support it,” Select Person Tony Heal said. “I think at some point we have to look at pivoting toward tourism and trying to nurture because we all have it in our backyards. You just look down the road and you have (Katahdin Iron Works) and so many natural resources that I don’t think we have done a great job of advertising or using or kind of nurturing that.” 

Wilkins said town officials can mull the idea over and think about what they may ask the Friends of Milo in order to move it forward. Rules and regulations would be developed in the future.

He said an economic development advisory committee has adopted a mission statement to meet at the town hall at 6:30 p.m. the last Thursday of the month.

The public sessions are now listed on the town office calendar at https://www.milomaine.org/index.asp?SEC=E9DBFCCA-A55A-4B41-ACE3-6C0878C93045&Type=B_EV.

Wilkins said the economic development advisory committee is looking to start compiling a directory of Milo businesses.

The select board voted to use $7,900 from the paving budget to fix the surface of the basketball court located behind the American Legion.

Canney said Street’s Landscape of Old Town, which has worked on Milo roads before, will do the work. He said he will ask the company for a quote on refurbishing the tennis courts, and bring this forward to the board for discussion.