Belgrade residents are being asked to come to a special town meeting 9 a.m. Aug. 20 to vote on three separate items, including funding cost overruns at the newly completed Town Office.
The Board of Selectpersons approved the warrant Tuesday at their regular meeting.
The first article asks voters to approve an expenditure of $156,797.52 from the town’s undesignated funds to finish paying the bills for the new Town Office located on Route 27 south of the old Town Hall.
Several unanticipated costs drove the price tag above the $1.2 million that was approved at the most recent Town Meeting.
Those extra costs included raising the area for the office building, creating a retention pond and installing a water filtration system for the whole building. Initial tests of the newly drilled well showed a high level of salt content. The town gravel pit, where the office is located, previously was used as a salt and sand storage area for both the town and the state.
The 5,000-square-foot building, which is significantly larger, more sun-lit and accessible than the old Town Office, opened for business June 20.
If the additional expenditure is approved, Town Manager Carrie Castonguay estimated that some $1.4 million would remain in the town’s undesignated fund.
The second article asks for an additional $409.42 appropriation from the undesignated fund toward a bond payment for the office. Castonguay said the wrong dollar figure was approved at the Town Meeting, and the auditor recommended this method to correct it.
A third article was added Tuesday and asks voters to accept an in-kind donation from David Hallowell Construction of Belgrade to provide excavation and finish site work for Plan 5 at Pine Grove Cemetery. The plan is the next phase of the cemetery expansion.
Castonguay said the work would involve removing a sand hill, putting in a gravel road and digging ditches to install a water line.
Judy Hallowell, who runs the construction firm, said the donation is to mark the fifth anniversary of her husband’s death. David Hallowell was 56 when he died of brain cancer on Aug. 17, 2011.
“I wanted to do something to keep his memory alive, to honor him and to help the town,” Judy Hallowell said on Wednesday. “I’m paying it forward, I guess. David was like that. He had a good heart.”
Her brother, Rick Damren, who is a member of the selectboard and who also works for the firm, helped explain the proposal to his fellow board members.
In return for the donation, Judy Hallowell requested the town install a bench at the cemetery that would be engraved with David Hallowell’s name.
The family has a plot in the older section of Pine Grove Cemetery, she said.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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