County awaiting UT tax bills

By Stuart Hedstrom, Staff Writer

DOVER-FOXCROFT — While property owners in the Unorganized Territory await their tax bills for the 2025-26 fiscal year, Piscataquis County officials are doing likewise.

“Right now the state assessor has the UT at ($1 billion-plus) and that’s a letter that goes to the secretary of state,” County Manager Mike Williams said during a July 1 meeting of the Piscataquis County Commissioners. “When we do our budgeting in the fall we use those numbers.”

Similar to municipal valuations, UT valuations need to be within a certain percentage of what the state has for the valuation. 

UT land that is not on the water needs to be at 55 percent of what that state assessor has said these properties should be worth, Williams said he was told. 

“The water frontage is at 56 percent of what the state assessor says it should be,” Williams said.

“Long story short, unless they did something really strange with that portion of the UT budget, taxes should not change too much but the mill rate should drop,” Williams said. “The current mill rate that was on last year’s taxes was $6.89 I have been told. It should drop down, but that’s the best explanation I have gotten so far.”

“We will know in about a month to seven weeks because that’s when the tax bills should come out,” he said. Should the bills have a mill rate that does not drop then county officials are likely to get a number of questions.

In other business, the commissioners heard an update on the Piscataquis Area Community Center from Executive Director Manda Stewart. 

The pool at the Park Street facility in Dover-Foxcroft needs to have all the paint remnants removed. All the machinery needed for this specific work is currently in use at sites across the state so there is no timeline for this currently. The cement is still in good shape.

“Once we get the pool open I think it will be a gamechanger,” Stewart said, as many in the region are awaiting the return of an indoor place to swim.

Pool operations will be able $100,000 annually so grants are being sought to help ensure adequate funding is in place.

“Memberships have gone up from 37 in February to just over 1,200 this morning,” Stewart said.

The center’s juice bar Vitality Blends is now open and serves fresh juice and smoothies. Anyone, not just PACC members, are welcome to come in and enjoy a drink.