RANDOLPH – In the last central Maine Town Meeting of the year, residents of Randolph are to gather Wednesday at the town office to vote on 46 warrant articles that make up a combined $2.8 million budget. 

The town’s proposed municipal budget for the fiscal year that started July 1 is $1,300,537, a 12% increase from last year’s $1,160,530 spending plan.  

Increases to the budget are mostly from contracted services such as snow plowing, utilities and a culvert repair project with Pittston.

The property tax rate of $18 per $1,000 of assessed value is not expected to increase from last year, officials said.

In addition to the municipal portion of the budget, voters are being asked to approve Article 17, which Wednesday includes the town’s contribution to the Kennebec County budget, approved by commissioners, or Maine School Administrative District 11 budget.

Randolph Selectman Matt Drost said Randolph has always held its annual Town Meeting during July so the town can budget the correct municipal amount alongside the county and school budgets. Most municipalities have town meetings in March or June. 

Randolph’s share of the county budget is $111,414 and its share of the school district budget is $1,189,123, bringing the total budget for Randolph to $2,866,156, up slightly from last year’s $2,613,464.

Last year’s budget came in at $2.8 million, but officials asked voters to reject $250,000 of funding for the fire station after a bid came in higher than expected. A month ago, the town received news from the federal government that it is on track to receive $2.6 million for a new fire station at 104 Kinderhook St. The town should hear by the end of the federal fiscal year in October if it will receive the money.

Drost said “most things stayed the same” in Randolph’s budget, with the cost of utilities and electricity as the root of most of the increases alongside a few increases in contracted services, such as the Gardiner Ambulance Service and snow plowing. 

“The increases in the budget amount are mostly utilities, both electric and heating. We have budgeted quite a bit, expecting the utilities to increase over the past year and they have been,” Drost said. “It’s a bit of a guessing game.” 

Last year the town budget $12,985 for utilities and this year the proposed budget for utilities is $33,730. Heating cost the town $5,000 last year and this year officials propose budgeting $10,000.  The cost of electricity also increased, with the town budgeting $17,000 this year, compared to $4,114 last year. Drost said the town saves around $35,000 in utilities each year from using LED lightbulbs in the town lights. 

The general fund for contracted services is $437,609, up nearly $100,000 from last year’s $339,010.  

The cost forEllis Construction Inc. in Farmingdale to plow snow went up from last year’s $70,000 to this year’s budgeted amount of $134,700 and the price of the ambulance services through Gardiner went up from last year’s $37,659 to this year’s $47,959.  

Article 34 is for a culvert replacement project the town plans to split with Pittston, each raising $50,000 to repair the culvert that allows Togus Stream to pass under the pavement where Barber Road becomes Pinkham Road. The money is to start the engineering and preliminary engagement.  The culvert is starting to show signs of erosion, Drost said, but the DOT does not consider the culvert to be dangerous at this time. 

“We have started to explore this because the Maine Department of Transportation does culvert and bridge inspections every two years and reports deficiencies in the structure. The Pittston Board of Selectmen joined us at our Select Board meeting about a month ago and started a conversation about a 50-50 split.” 

Administrative services have a slight increase due to additional money for salaries budgeted at $113,000 compared to last year’s $102,175.

The annual town meeting is Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Randolph Town Office.  

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