PITTSTON — After making a $250,000 spending cut, Pittston residents approved a $1.7 million municipal budget at Saturday’s annual town meeting.

The 151 voters who gathered Saturday morning at Pittston-Randolph Consolidated School carefully voted on the 19 warrant articles to reach a final town budget of $1,702,755, down $250,000 from what had been approved by the Select Board and Budget Committee.

The final amount to be raised by the town is $955,405, plus $747,350 in excise tax revenue for the highway and road budget.

Residents passed a budget that does not require town surplus money. Last year, voters passed a $1,712,159 budget, which included $100,000 in surplus money.

The newly approved municipal budget represents a 3.5% increase, but the total impact on taxpayers will not be known until the school and county budget are passed. The town’s property tax rate is now $9.25 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.

A resident proposed an amendment Saturday to reduce from $300,000 to $50,000 the amount to be raised and appropriated for the culvert replacement savings account. The resident proposed the amendment after hearing Road Commissioner Sam Snow explain the timeline for two culvert replacement projects scheduled for over the next year.

“First of all, we have no bids on Pinkham Road yet, and if we want to get it done this year, we can,” Snow said. “We have another with Blodgett Road, but we still have to go through engineers. The Blodgett Road will not get done this year.”

The two culvert projects are expected to cost the town $1 million, and the $300,000 originally proposed for the culvert replacement savings account was to put money toward the projects, rather than having the town appropriate all of the money at once.

Voters narrowly passed the motion to reduce the amount raised for the culvert replacement savings account.

The adjustment to the amount raised for the culvert replacement savings account was the only change during the town meeting that reduced the budget.

Voters made other attempts to cut spending, including the road budget and trash pickup, but none was successful.

Snow also endorsed a motion to have Pittston pay up to state wages for the summer maintenance construction rate in the road portion of the budget, but the motion failed. The summer maintenance portion of the budget includes repairs that need not go out to bid — projects of less than $5,000.

After about two hours Saturday, some voters began to leave the meeting following discussions on road matters.

Discussion on Article 2 — to raise raise and appropriate $26,660, the same amount as last year, for Hatch Hill solid waste disposal — required resident Ann Pistell to explain to the audience how the town’s money would be used. Pistell said that of the eight municipalities that pay for their waste to go to the site, 30 other municipalities bring their trash there without paying.

Pistell said it could be about three years before the town needs to consider other options for waste management.

“I voted against this because we are one of eight towns who pay for it and 38 towns that use it,” Selectperson Jane Hubert said. “We are selected to pay. If funding and billing was on a level plan, I would have voted for it.”

The annual town meeting is held in March each year and followed by a municipal election Monday. Voters at Saturday’s meeting passed a warrant article to move next year’s municipal election to a Tuesday to remain in line with federal voting days.

Monday’s vote is to elect a Select Board member, a representative to the Maine School Administrative District 11 school board and candidates to fill uncontested town positions. Residents are also to vote on whether to recall Select Board member Joseph Caputo.

Voting is scheduled for noon to 7 p.m. at the Town Office at 38 Whitefield Road.

In other matters Saturday, Richard McArthur, a custodian for 25 years at Pittston-Randolph Consolidated School, was awarded the 2024 Spirit of America Award.

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