Select Board Meeting ~ August 11, 2026

2026-08-11 · Select Board · 38:16 · watch on YouTube →

Regular Select Board meeting held at the fire station on August 11, 2026. The board convened as the Board of Assessors and set the 2026 municipal tax commitment, adopting a rate of $25.50 per thousand on the assessor's recommendation. It then discussed a request from residents to sell pay-as-you-throw trash bags at the town office; no member moved to do so and the chair declared the item dead for lack of a motion. The town manager reported on which regional stores have agreed to stock the bags, and on scheduling the first Economic Development Committee meeting. The chair announced that the next meeting will be given over to a facilitated goal-setting workshop run by GPCOG.

No written minutes could be matched to this meeting. The transcript records that the speaker changed but never who was speaking, so any name attached to a statement below is inferred from context and is marked (?).

What was discussed

1. 4:01
   Call to order, agenda and minutes

   Joe opened the meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the fire station with a quorum and the pledge. A question was raised about whether the pay-as-you-throw discussion needed to come earlier on the agenda; the town manager said no, so the agenda stood as written. There was no public comment, and the minutes of the July 28, 2026 meeting were approved.

2. 4:01
   Board of Assessors: 2026 tax commitment

   The board voted to convene as the Board of Assessors at 6:32. Donna (?) reported the town picked up $5.4 million in new value, is currently assessed at 47 percent of market value, and has a full revaluation to 100 percent scheduled for next year. Exemption values at 47 percent were given as $11,750 for homestead and $2,820 for veterans.

3. 4:01
   Tax rate options

   Donna (?) presented two options rather than the usual three: $25.50, giving an overlay of about $26,000, or $25.45, giving an overlay of $6,519. She recommended $25.50, noting that at the lower figure a single abatement on $256,000 of value would exhaust the overlay.

4. 9:18
   Vote on the tax rate

   Josh (?) moved and John (?) seconded adopting option one at $25.50. In discussion a member said the figure looks high because the town is at 47 percent of value; Donna (?) said the 2010 revaluation dropped the rate to 12.05, and that if valuation roughly doubles the rate would fall accordingly. Joe (?) added that the mill rate on its own does not account for valuation.

5. 9:18
   Revaluation timing and tax bills

   Donna (?) said she would have a breakdown of the revaluation schedule after returning the following Monday. Tax bills will go out as a single bill with two payment sections, due October 15 this year and April 15 next year, and residents may pay the whole amount at once.

6. 9:18
   Selling trash bags at the town office

   Joe (?) raised resident requests to sell pay-as-you-throw bags at the town office, saying vendor coverage cannot be fully controlled by the town. The town manager said WasteZero had no objection and the bags could be stored in the account manager's office with no upfront cost, but questioned whether it was a good use of staff time with the office short one person and tax bills going out.

7. 19:50
   Board declines to add bags at the town office

   John (?) said he would not vote for it, citing staffing and a preference for leaving it to private vendors. Other members agreed to let the current arrangement run and revisit it if Get and Go stopped carrying bags. No motion was made and Joe declared the item dead on the floor for lack of a motion.

8. 24:54
   Agenda format: member update subheadings

   Joe (?) explained that member names on the agenda now carry update subheadings, and asked members to send anything they want listed by the Thursday before a meeting. He said items go on the agenda only when a discussion and vote are needed; updates and questions belong in reports.

9. 24:54
   Town manager report

   The town manager reported that Hannaford in Topsham, Brunswick and Lisbon will carry the bags, Auburn declined and Bow Street is out, and Shaw's will participate in Freeport and Lisbon. The first Economic Development Committee meeting is being scheduled for September 15; no further at-large applications have come in and the vacancy will be repeated in the Friday newsletter. He said he cannot attend the town and city managers conference because of an injury.

10. 29:58
    Chair report: goal-setting workshop

    Joe (?) said the next meeting will be a facilitated goal-setting workshop, the first year GPCOG has offered one, and that he and the town manager have met with the facilitator. Members' submitted goals are being forwarded unaltered, and boards and committees were also asked for ideas. He said his experience is that the town has capacity for one or two large changes and one small one per cycle, and that the next comprehensive plan review is a couple of years off.

11. 29:58
    Chair report: municipal tax task force

    Joe (?) said he will present a few slides on Friday at the town managers conference in Carrabassett Valley about the GPCOG task force on municipal tax issues, including local option taxes on lodging and travel. He said the presentation is in his GPCOG role and is not an endorsement on behalf of the town.

12. 35:05
    Board member updates

    Deb (?) reported no progress on the bandstand, still waiting on a materials list to take to the town manager and Calvin, and had not connected with the Eagle Scout candidate. Rebecca and John had nothing to report.

13. 35:05
    Consent agenda, upcoming meetings and adjournment

    The consent agenda was approved. Upcoming meetings listed were the Agriculture Committee on August 12 at the Eureka Center, Select Board on August 25 at the fire station, Planning Board on September 2, and the Economic Development Committee tentatively on September 15. A member asked whether the public could speak at the workshop; Joe (?) said he believed the workshop itself is between board members but that a public comment period would still open the meeting.

What was decided

• 4:01
  Approve the minutes of the July 28, 2026 meetingpassed
• 4:01
  Move into the Board of Assessors at 6:32passed
• 9:18
  Adopt option one, a tax rate of $25.50, giving an overlay of about $26,000passed
• 19:50
  Sell pay-as-you-throw trash bags at the town office; no motion was made and the chair declared the item dead for lack of a motionfailed
• 35:05
  Approve the consent agendapassed

An outcome reads "unclear" where the recording does not state it plainly. The recogniser drops short words, and "the motion does not carry" is one missing word from its opposite.

Worth knowing

• 4:01
  The tax rate was set at $25.50 while the town is assessed at 47 percent of market value. A full revaluation to 100 percent is scheduled for next year; Donna (?) noted the 2010 revaluation dropped the rate to 12.05.
• 4:01
  The two rate options differed by a nickel but produced very different overlays: about $26,000 at $25.50 versus $6,519 at $25.45. Donna (?) said one abatement on $256,000 of value would wipe out the smaller overlay.
• 9:18
  Tax bills go out as a single bill with two payment dates, October 15 this year and April 15 next year.
• 24:54
  The town manager and John both objected to selling bags at the town office on staffing grounds, with the office down one person and tax bills going out; the manager said the town is not a convenience store for trash bags and that it would pull foot traffic from a vendor a mile away.

Motion language found in the transcript

Located by pattern matching, with no model involved: "I move that", "I'll second", "all those in favour". This is an independent check on the summary above: 6 passages of motion language, against 5 decisions summarised.

Elsewhere

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