FARMINGTON — Selectmen will review how an increase in health insurance premiums for municipal employees will affect its previous decision to not apply a cost of living increase to the 2016 wages for municipal employees when they meet Tuesday.

The board will meet at 6:30 p.m. at the town office. It’s the first meeting of the month for the board, which usually meets the second and fourth Tuesday of the month. They canceled their Nov. 10 meeting because Town Manager Richard Davis was not available to attend.

At the Oct. 28 meeting, the board agreed to not give municipal employees a cost-of-living wage increase, but also agreed the decision would be revisited once the cost of health insurance premiums for 2016 were known.

Davis said that the town received premium costs earlier this month and that most employees will see their contribution to health care costs increase by 6 percent. Davis said for some employees with broader coverage costs may increase 8 percent.

The board will be presented with the numbers Tuesday and will decide whether to give employees a cost of living wage increase to make up for the increase in insurance costs.

Davis generally recommends that the board align its yearly cost of living adjustments with the Consumer Price Index average cost of living for urban wage earners and clerical workers. But for 2016, the CPI reflected a 0.175 percent decrease for municipal employees nationwide. The board decided it would not be fair to decrease the current rate of pay and instead kept it the same.

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The board will also review a development idea that was brought before the Downtown Tax Increment Financing Advisory Committee for the Ingalls School building on High Street downtown. Committee member Byron Davis proposed that the 1903 building be converted into upscale rental units.

Davis and his wife, Taffy, own Riverbend Property Management in Farmington, and he plans on heading up the Ingalls school project if it is approved.

The board will decide at Tuesday’s meeting if the project is worth pursuing. If they vote to go forward, the final approval of the project must come from the voters because the downtown TIF district would have to be amended to include the Ingalls School property, Davis said.

“These would be really nice units that would bring a good revenue stream,” Davis said.

Lauren Abbate — 861-9252

labbate@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @Lauren_M_Abbate


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