FARMINGTON – The Board of Selectmen decided on Tuesday to uphold its original decision to not provide employees with a cost-of-living wage increase for 2016 and agreed to consider freezing or lowering the percentage of health care costs employees must pay out of pocket.

The board also decided to give the initial go-ahead to a housing development project at the Ingalls School building downtown. The final vote on that project would have to come from voters at March’s Town Meeting.

The board’s meeting lasted nearly three hours Tuesday night. Generally the board meets the second and fourth Tuesday of the month, but the Nov. 10 meeting was canceled because Town Manager Richard Davis was unable to attend. All of the board’s November agenda items were covered at Tuesday’s meeting.

At the Oct. 28 meeting, the board agreed to not give municipal employees a cost-of-living wage increase but said it would revisit the decision when the health insurance premium costs for 2016 were known.

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

Selectmen said they were disheartened by the increase in health insurance costs but were reluctant to give an across-the-board 1 percent cost-of-living wage increase. Instead, Davis suggested that the board freeze the percentage of health insurance costs at current rates, or possibly lower them once the town departments have turned in their budgets later this year.

Currently, for employee coverage, the town pays a 78 percent share of costs and the employee picks up 22 percent. For family coverage, the town pays a 73 percent share and the employee picks up 27 percent of costs. For a more extensive family plan, the town pays a 63 percent share and the employee pays the remaining 37 percent share.

Selectman Michael Fogg floated the idea of bringing cost sharing back to 1993 levels with the town covering 100 percent of an employee’s costs and 85 percent of family coverage.

While Davis said he wasn’t sure if budgets could support this change, he told the selectmen that something had to be done about rising health insurance costs to ensure that the town could be competitive with other employers.

“From one year to the next, (insurance costs) are a crap shoot. But I think for the employees, they deserve some level of security,” Davis said.

The board also gave an initial OK to a downtown housing project scheduled for the former Ingalls School building that was recommended by the Downtown TIF Advisory Committee.

Committee member and owner of Riverbend Property Management Byron Davis presented his project to the board and asked for the town’s assistance in realigning the TIF district to include the building as well as entering into a credit enhancement agreement with Davis that would reimburse him for all of his property tax payments for 10 years.

“As a town we need to be proactive,” Davis said. “Our housing stock is old and (people) are looking for something better.”

Davis’ project would convert the former classrooms of the 1903 building into 15 upscale one- or two-bedroom apartments.

Tri-County Mental Health owns the building and has been using it as office space, but it is looking to sell the top two floors and downsize to the basement level.

Tri-County Mental Health is a tax-exempt business, so currently the Ingalls School building is not in the downtown Tax Increment Financing district. Davis’ apartment development project would be taxable and Town Manager Richard Davis said it would be a “good revenue stream” where previously there had been none.

In order to restructure the TIF district, the town must hold a vote. The selectmen decided at Tuesday’s meeting to hold it at the March 28 Town Meeting.

Also at that meeting, residents will vote on the credit enhancement agreement that Davis is asking to enter into with the town. Over a 10-year period, Davis is asking that he be reimbursed roughly $40,000 per year in property taxes to be able to pay off a loan he will need to finance the development of the project.

“The town doesn’t lose anything but stands to gain a great deal,” Richard Davis said.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the board voted to accept the resignation of Michael Otley from the town’s zoning board after Otley cited problems with the way the board was operating.

Otley presented the board with an application to the Planning Board so he could “be more involved in the politics of the town.”

However, several selectmen expressed skepticism about Otley’s motives for stepping down from the zoning board and wishing to join the Planning Board, and the board denied Otley’s application.

“I am concerned in your motivation to want to get on the board. It seems like personal dissatisfaction with board members,” Selectman Stephen Bunker said.

Selectmen also agreed to consider joining with the towns of Wilton, Livermore Falls and Jay in a retail recruitment investment by subscribing as a region to the services of the Buxton Co.

The Texas-based company specializes in aggregating data for a geographic area, determining what businesses are missing and what businesses could prosper in the area, and then recruiting these potential businesses.

Generally, Buxton’s services cost $50,000 per year with a minimum three-year contract. However, the Buxton sales representative working with the four towns said he would consider splitting the $50,000-per-year cost among the towns and treating the area as a region.

Board members were excited about the service’s potential effect on retail and business development, but they were not ready to make a final decision until they meet with representatives of the other three towns.

Lauren Abbate — 861-9252

labbate@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @Lauren_M_Abbate