Residents at Kingfield’s Town Meeting on Saturday will decide whether to approve a $450,000 village green project, the only one of seven projects from the town’s Village Enhancement Committee five years ago that has made it onto a Town Meeting warrant.
Town Meeting will begin at 9 a.m. at the Kingfield Elementary School on Salem Road.
Residents will be asked to approve securing a loan not exceeding $350,000 and using $100,000 from the Poland Spring tax increment finance reserve account for the project, two of the warrant’s 43 articles.
The Board of Selectmen and the Budget Committee voted in April against recommending the articles because they said the cost is too high.
If passed, the village green would be established on an existing green space at the corner of Main and Depot streets. Plans for the project include parking, a community bulletin board, enhanced landscaping, additional park benches, and possibly a gazebo.
The Village Enhancement Committee was created by the Board of Selectmen in 2010 following the establishment of the Poland Springs TIF, which includes a line item that mandates its funding be used for the enhancement of Kingfield’s downtown village.
In 2011, the committee, after holding a community workshop, developed seven projects that it believed would enhance downtown. The projects would be funded through the TIF, which presently has $103,000 available, according to the town’s administrative assistant, Leanna Ross Targett. The TIF was established when Poland Spring built its bottling plant in town in 2009, and the money is earmarked for downtown and economic improvement.
If residents at Town Meeting approve securing a loan, the town warrant states that the loan would be paid back over 10 years using money from the TIF.
Targett expects the village green articles to be the most debated at Saturday’s meeting.
Voters at Town Meeting will be presented three 2016-2017 budget figures. They will vote to accept either the requests of the municipal department heads and committees, those recommended by the Board of Selectmen or those recommended by the Budget Committee. In total, a $843,710 budget was requested by town department heads and committees; this figure represents in $8,823 increase over last year’s budget. Selectmen recommend a $839,110, budget, a $4,223 increase over last year. The budget committee recommends a $834,190, which is in line with last year’s budget.
Elections also will be held at Town Meeting. Heather Moody and Raymond Meldrum are running uncontested for re-election to the Board of Selectmen. Competing in the race for the open School Administrative District 58 School Board seat are Johanna Prince and Peter Manning.
Following Town Meeting, another event in Kingfield’s yearlong bicentennial celebration will kick off. At 2 p.m., residents are invited for a group photo on the Centennial Bridge downtown, followed by a photo in front of the Grand Herbert Hotel. The event is to recreate photos taken at those spots at a 1886 Kingfield July 4 celebration.
Lauren Abbate — 861-9252
Twitter: @Lauren_M_Abbate
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