A day after re-electing David Bourget to a fourth term on the Board of Selectmen, West Bath residents will gather this evening at West Bath Elementary School for the annual town meeting.
Bourget, who ran unopposed, garnered 248 votes, according to Town Clerk Robert Morris.
Voters today will consider 54 articles on the town meeting warrant, including a proposed 2012-13 municipal budget of $970,437, Town Administrator Jonathan Davis said today.
Added to the town’s share of the Sagadahoc County budget — which increased 7.8 percent — and the Regional School Unit 1 budget — down 16.97 percent — the proposed municipal budget would decrease the property tax rate from $9.95 to $8.75 per $1,000 valuation, according to Davis.
Among articles to be debated this evening, one would change the road commissioner position from an elected three-year term to an appointed, one-year term.
The Board of Selectmen and an administrative review task force established last summer to study the issue support the change, according to Abbe Yacoben, chairwoman of the Board of Selectmen.
The task force “found that an appointed road commissioner would be more efficient than an elected road commissioner, as the appointed position would be an employee within the ‘chain of command’ like other employees such as the tax collector/treasurer, assessor, fire chief, clerk, or administrator,” Yacoben wrote Tuesday in an email to The Times Record. “It would be more effective to have a road commissioner a member of the administrative staff than elected every three years.”
Other agenda items include a proposal to spend $14,550 from an existing account to purchase a boat for the Marine Resources Board and shellfish warden to conduct water testing and patrol for illegal digging activities; a proposal to raise and appropriate $5,000 for the Fields of our Future project in Bath; and a proposed ordinance that would move the election for a seat on the Board of Selectmen from June to November — when voter turnout is usually greater.
The town meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. today at West Bath Elementary School.
bbrogan@timesrecord.com
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