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A Waterville ambulance pulls away from the Waterville Fire Department in March on its way to transport a patient in the city. (Rich Abrahamson/Staff Photographer)

WATERVILLE — Residents who urged councilors to forego staffing a third ambulance because their taxes are already too high got sort of a reprieve this week when the City Council decided to increase the tax rate by only 14 cents per $1,000 worth of property valuation.

That means the tax rate is now $20.14 per $1,000 of assessed valuation instead of the $20 rate established in 2024. A homeowner whose property is valued at $200,000, for example, would pay $4,028 in taxes this year, where last year they paid $4,000 — for an increase of $28.

But there’s a hitch in the mix. The city this year underwent a statistical revaluation, which means real estate property values were updated to reflect their current market rate, Mayor Mike Morris said. Once the total valuation is determined, he said the tax rate of $20.14 is expected to decrease.

An increase in a property valuation doesn’t necessarily mean taxes will increase for that property. A full revaluation, expected to be done in the future, would involve hiring a firm to go to people’s homes if they allow it, to determine the assessed value.

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City Assessor Allison Brochu said Wednesday that with the revaluation, she is telling people she expects the tax rate to decrease to $17 per $1,000 worth of valuation, or less.

At $17 per $1,000, a homeowner with property valued at $200,000 would get a tax bill for $3,400, a decrease of $600 over last year’s bill, if their property value hasn’t changed.

Residents recently received notification of the new valuations by mail, but tax bills aren’t expected to be mailed out until August, and that is when they will be notified of the new tax rate and get their tax bills.

The council took a second and final vote Tuesday to approve a $64.37 million municipal and school budget for 2025-26, which represents a .06% increase from the 2024-25 budget.

City officials have been grappling with whether to fund the cost of putting a third ambulance in service and hiring eight paramedics to staff it to meet the rising demand of emergency medical care and the need to take people to hospitals outside Waterville with the closure of Northern Light Inland Hospital earlier this month.

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Some residents, including Debbie Berthiaume, urged councilors not to fund staffing the ambulance until more data is gathered. She said she is 70 and works part time to make ends meet and is considering going to full time.

“Something has to give because this is not sustainable — it’s just not,” Berthiaume said.

Joe Roy, a 25-year retired Waterville firefighter, emergency medical technician and paramedic, said that before the fire department decided several years ago to become licensed to transport patients to hospitals, Delta Ambulance was always there to do that and still is.

“Give it back to Delta, lower our taxes,” he said. “Otherwise we’re going to be in The Concourse, asking for handouts.”

Fire Chief Jason Frost several weeks ago asked the city to fund eight emergency medical personnel to staff a third ambulance the city owns — it now runs two ambulances and calls Delta or Winslow Fire Department to help when needed.

With the closure of Inland Hospital, fire officials are having to run ambulances more often to MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta and Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan. Frost has said the city’s two ambulances are often on the road at the same time. His staff is burning out, he said,  and the department needs more help, both for the well-being of his crew and the safety of patients. In previous meetings, councilors considered funding only four new ambulance staff but decided against it. Frost told councilors it would be less costly to have the city staff another ambulance than to pay Delta to pick up runs.

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But on Tuesday, they voted 5-1 to approve a budget that represents an increase of $207,000, not to immediately hire more staff, but to help with ambulance needs for the next year, whether that means adding some ambulance staff or paying for ambulance transports by either the fire department or Delta, which charges the city for its services. City officials decided to gather data over the next several months that would include how many times ambulances are called, how many trips are made to hospitals in Augusta, Skowhegan or elsewhere and what time of day more staff  is needed for that.

Frost said the number of calls can vary according to time of year and other factors.

Councilor Cathy Herard, D-Ward 7, was the lone dissenter in the vote, maintaining as she has all along that the city needs to staff the third ambulance, and delaying that puts the fire department and patients at risk.

“I don’t understand why we will not invest in them as opposed to waiting,” she said.

Council Chairwoman Rebecca Green, D-Ward 4, and others urged the city to start taking baby steps to explore regionalizing transport service, although Frost has said regionalization could not happen now because the resources from other municipalities for ambulance transport are not available.

Before the vote, interim City Manager Cornell Knight said when the city’s finance director double-checked the budget totals before Tuesday’s meeting, she discovered that tax increment financing costs were included twice in the expense projection, at $700,000 each. Knight recommended councilors reduce the amount of unassigned fund balance, or surplus, proposed to be used in the budget. That would decrease the fund balance request from $2.45 million to $1.75 million. He also recommended $200,000 be budgeted for the ambulance service. The council voted to approve both recommendations and added $7,000 more to the $200,000 for ambulance money.

Morris said Wednesday morning that in addition to the city’s gathering data that will help determine what is needed to adequately provide ambulance service, Kennebec County also is doing a study.

“I think that study is going to be very important to whatever decision we make,” he said.

Morris said he spent the better part of three hours at the fire station Monday with Frost and Battalion Chief Ryan Cote to talk about what data is needed and help determine the best plan to reduce the number of calls and staff them at the right price for taxpayers. Morris said his priority is to provide relief to emergency medical personnel who are overworked and give taxpayers what they need.

Amy Calder covers Waterville, including city government, for the Morning Sentinel and writes a column, “Reporting Aside,” which appears Sundays in both the Sentinel and Kennebec Journal. She has worked...

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