New Gloucester residents approved all budget items at Monday’s town meeting but denied efforts to designate a new town road and mandate recycling.

Most of the 36 proposed articles passed quickly and with minimal discussion. Town residents turned down the new solid waste and recycling ordinance and decided against turning the Lower Corner House School lot over to the historical society and accepting Douglas Drive as a public way.

With the use of more than $675,000 from the undesignated fund balances, the town share of the mil rate will increase 2.7 percent. The total mil rate will increase from $10.20 to $11.22. The Maine School Administrative District 15 share will be $8.37, while Cumberland County’s share will be 58 cents.

Budget items included an increase from the previous year for the fire department of $12,000 to $196,000 and a $7,000 increase to the highway department to more than $600,000. Town residents approved $205,000 to purchase a new dump/plow truck and pickup truck and $26,000 to paint and stain the town hall and library.

Additional funding for the current fiscal year public works department budget also passed. Due to a costly winter, the public works budget was depleted by the week of the town meeting, almost three months before the end of the fiscal year.

The last article of the evening brought the most discussion, as residents of Douglas Drive and others debated whether the town should take care of the road as a public way. The Board of Selectmen opposed the idea because the road does not meet all town specifications.

Selectmen Steven Libby voiced concerns that the road is too flat, which impedes drainage.

John Neilsen, a resident of the subdivision on Douglas Drive, disagreed. “I’ve lived there three years and we haven’t had any water problems,” he said.

Dan MacDonald, a Gray resident who owns the subdivision land and road, defended the article he filed for the warrant. “It seems ridiculous to refuse this road as a town road for such a minimal infraction,” he said.

Lenora Conger, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, worried that accepting the road would in essence alter the ordinance. “That’s the tool with which we have to make a decision,” Conger said of the town specifications.

“We’re not asking for a change in the rule, we’re asking for an exception in this case,” another resident of Douglas Drive countered. The article failed by a vote of 42-32.

The town’s new solid waste and recycling ordinance failed by a 50-30 vote. Residents balked at the requirement worded “all recyclable materials generated within the town must be deposited at the transfer station.” Several residents worried that the wording of the ordinance could prohibit them from selling their recyclable cans, bottles, and scrap metal to other facilities.

The third article to fail, which would have transferred the school house lot to the historical society, did so by a one-vote margin. Sam Coggeshall, who recently purchased the Village Store, recommended residents deny the article because he wanted to install parking for the store on part of the lot in question. Coggeshall said he would like to share the lot with the historical society.

Though the annual town meeting normally draws 125 residents, New Gloucester Town Manager Rosemary Kulow estimated this year’s attendance at 80. The turnout was “very, very light,” Kulow said, citing the beautiful weather as a possible cause.