OGUNQUIT - Ogunquit selectmen and the Budget Review Committee finalized the proposed fiscal 2009 budget at the Feb. 12 Board of Selectmen meeting.
The boards also discussed warrant articles for the upcoming town meeting and approved an additional 27 articles.
Most of these items passed without much debate; however, there were two lengthy discussions on the subject of creating a capital reserve fund and another regarding the installation of parking meters in the upper lot.
Initially, the Budget Review Committee stated that installing individual meters or paying an attendant to operate a gate would be too costly. However, a suggestion from Selectman Donald Tramuto provided an alternative solution.
Tramuto said that he had discovered a prepaid parking system that would be considerably less expensive than any of the other options that had been previously considered.
This one meter system would require lot users to prepay at a centrally located meter and then place a printed stub on the dashboards of their vehicles.
"It just seems like this is a no-brainer," said Tramuto. "We're spending $27,000 to potentially get half a million dollars."
After a brief discussion, the board voted to put $30,000 into the capital improvement budget for the purchase and installation of the new metering system for the upper lot.
The other hot topic of the night surrounded the possibility of creating a capital reserve account.
Members of the Budget Review Committee were strong advocates for the idea of starting a capital reserve account that would be used to replace police, fire and public works vehicles.
Committee member John Daley gave selectmen a list of reasons why he felt taking $150,000 from the $1.7 million town surplus fund to set up a capital reserve account would be a good move for the town. Daley said setting up the account would make the town look more agreeable to creditors and it would gather interest, which could be utilized for town spending. Daley also pointed out that the municipal bond market could be put in jeopardy if the mortgage crisis were to spread to it.
However, Town Treasurer Judy Yates informed selectmen that the current surplus of $1.7 million was approximately what town auditors suggested should be kept available. Yates went on to explain that the town's ability to borrow loans was largely based on the surplus fund balance.
Even though three of the five selectmen disapprove of the creating a capital reserve account, the board ultimately resolved to let voters participate in the decision rather than voting it out of the warrant articles altogether.
Selectmen Jon Speers, John Abbott and Jackie Bevins all voted to recommend voters not approve the account.
"Even though I'm going to be sticking to my policy of voting against recommending this to the voters, I don't think three of us ought to have the power to keep this away from voters," said Abbott. "So I'm going to vote in favor of putting this on the warrant articles and then I'm going to vote against recommending it to voters."
The budget that was approved at the meeting would leave the town's tax rate at $6.85 per $1,000 of assessed value, which is not a significant increase. It would also give the town one additional full-time police officer.
On March 4, a public hearing on the warrant will be held at the Dunaway Center.
