SKOWHEGAN — A $19 million annual spending plan and a new ordinance on homeless shelters and public camping are set to go before voters at the annual town meeting next week.

The meeting will also decide a moratorium on new cannabis establishments and an updated 10-year comprehensive plan.

Skowhegan’s annual town meeting, often an hourslong affair, is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday at the Skowhegan Opera House, upstairs at the municipal building at 225 Water St.

Municipal elections, along with primaries for state and national races, follow the next day, with polls open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the municipal building meeting room on the main floor.

Here is an overview of the wide variety of town business voters will be addressing as they navigate the 65-article warrant.

ANNUAL BUDGET

The budget the select board is proposing totals $19,063,397 in expenses.

That is an increase of less than 0.4% over the current year’s spending plan.

“I’m really proud of that budget,” said interim Town Manager Donnie Zaluski, who added that town officials scrambled to prepare the budget in just a few weeks following the March suicide of former Town Manager Nicholas Nadeau. 

An additional full-time firefighter is the only new position in the proposals from both the select board and budget committee, Zaluski said. Fire Chief Ryan Johnston had requested two new positions. The department is currently staffed by a chief, deputy chief, four captains and eight firefighters, along with a call force of about a dozen, according to budget documents.

Department spending recommendations include $2.90 million for general government; $2.92 million for police; $1.93 million for fire; $1.09 million for wastewater treatment; $1.06 million for solid waste and recycling; and $2.31 million for public works.

The budget proposal also includes raising $1.90 million for debt service and $2.82 million in capital reserve funds.

Operating revenues that offset taxation are forecasted to total $2.98 million, up from an expected $2.71 million this year.

TIF FUNDING

Part of the reason the budget proposal is relatively flat is that town officials have proposed funding community and human services organizations through Skowhegan’s downtown tax increment financing, or TIF, account, instead of general taxation.

The expenditures proposed to be supported by the TIF are not included in the $19 million spending plan. 

A TIF designates an area where a municipality captures increases in property tax revenue as a result of commercial investment over a specific period of time.

The taxes on the original assessed value continue to go into the municipality’s general fund as with any other property. The taxes on the increase in valuation — the tax increment — are set aside for specific projects, which must be established when the municipality creates the TIF.

Town officials decided to shift some funding to the downtown TIF after some select board members opposed the recent practice of using the account to award grants to businesses and other organizations in the downtown area. Officials determined some community organizations would meet the eligibility for TIF funding, which both voters and the state Department of Economic and Community Development have approved. 

Officials agreed the move was likely a one-time decision that will need to be revisited in future budget years.

The select board recommended the following funding allocations. The budget committee recommended lower amounts for some organizations based on what voters approved in 2025.

• Skowhegan Free Public Library: $208,000 from general taxation

• Coburn Park: $15,000 from TIF

• Skowhegan History House: $15,000 from TIF

• Main Street Skowhegan: $85,000 from TIF

• Skowhegan Regional Chamber of Commerce: $10,000 from general taxation and $25,000 from TIF

• Lake George Regional Park: $20,000 from TIF

• Family Violence Project: $6,000 from general taxation

• Hospice Volunteers of Somerset County: $35,000 from general taxation

• Skowhegan Community Food Cupboard: $20,000 from general taxation

• KVCAP Transportation Services: $15,000 from general taxation

• Spectrum Generations: $10,151 from general taxation

• Sexual Assault Crisis & Support Center: $3,017 from general taxation

• Lights Up Productions: $20,000 from general taxation and $30,000 from TIF

TRASH DISPOSAL

The budget proposal also includes a $250,000 spending reduction in the solid waste and recycling department, but officials are asking voters whether they want to make up for that cut by using available surplus funds.

The select board and budget committee each cut about 37% of projected waste disposal fees to allow a phasing out of the town’s payment for disposal of commercial waste with several months’ notice.

The select board, however, largely agreed while finalizing the town meeting warrant in May that the cut may have been premature.

To effectively put the option before voters on whether to continue paying for haulers’ tipping fees, the select board now recommends using $750,000 from surplus funds to offset taxation and $250,000 to go toward what was cut from the solid waste budget proposal.

The budget committee, meanwhile, recommends using $1 million in surplus funds to offset taxation, with no designation for solid waste disposal, or anything else.

COMPREHENSIVE PLAN

Voters are being asked to approve a 10-year Comprehensive Plan years in the making.

The 251-page plan surveys current data, conditions, issues and policies in the town and maps out strategies for the town to achieve its goals for growth and development.

“This is the blueprint for the town’s planning for the next 10 years,” said Bryan Belliveau, Skowhegan’s director of economic and community development, at a public hearing May 26.

The state does not mandate municipalities produce a comprehensive plan, but it provides some legal protections and makes the town eligible for some state grants.

CANNABIS MORATORIUM

A proposed moratorium would prohibit new cannabis establishments, expansion of existing cannabis establishments, changes of use to cannabis establishments and increases in operational intensity of existing establishments for 180 days after town meeting.

Belliveau said the proposal came in light of a site plan review application earlier this year for a medical cannabis growing facility on Waterville Road. The Staff Review Committee initially denied the application, but the Planning Board reversed that decision and approved the project.

Meanwhile, there have been several updates to state cannabis law and the town’s ordinances may be out of date, Belliveau said. The moratorium would give town officials time to develop an ordinance, he said.

The town, through a 2017 ordinance, already prohibits all nonmedical retail cannabis establishments. 

HOMELESS SHELTER ORDINANCE

A proposed ordinance would outline requirements for homeless shelters that operate in Skowhegan, including the application process to obtain a license.

Requirements would include background checks on all employees and volunteers, documented safety and security procedures, and detailed floor plans. Licensed shelters would also be obligated to provide adequate exterior lighting, off-street parking for staff and operations, emergency vehicle access, reasonable security measures, clean exterior conditions, trash and recycling containers and operational procedures for outdoor activity that does not create a nuisance.

Shelters would be required to provide one toilet per 10 occupants, one sink per 10 occupants and one shower per 15 occupants, along with laundry facilities. They would also be required to conduct monthly bed bug inspections and submit reports to the town.

Under the proposed ordinance, shelters would not be allowed within 1,000 feet of a school or designated safe zones around recreational facilities. A shelter would also not be allowed within 1,000 feet of another shelter, unless the select board determines that proximity will not impact public health, safety or welfare.

The ordinance also explicitly prohibits sleeping and camping on municipal property when adequate shelter in town is available.

SITE PLAN REVIEW ORDINANCE

Revisions to the site plan review ordinance are aimed at making Skowhegan more developer-friendly, Belliveau said.

A major change would be the dissolution of the Staff Review Committee, a group of department heads that under the current ordinance has authority over reviews of minor projects and weighs in on major projects before the Planning Board does.

“We’re streamlining the process and eliminating some red tape,” he said at the May public hearing.

The proposed revisions would instead require applicants to get letters of support for their projects from the town’s fire chief, police chief, road commissioner, pollution control supervisor and solid waste supervisor, as well as the public water utility company.

The updated ordinance would also allow the Planning Board to reduce required parking spaces if an applicant makes arrangements with private entities or the town to use parking spaces in other lots or if an applicant provides a parking demand analysis showing fewer spaces would be sufficient.

Town officials have discussed parking requirements for years now after a study completed in 2024 concluded downtown Skowhegan had capacity for the spaces necessary for new development.

“This is basically geared toward getting our downtown fully developed,” Belliveau said.

SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT ORDINANCE

The ordinance that outlines how the town disposes of its waste and operates its transfer station was last updated in 2002.

A lot has since changed, said Cynthia Kirk, the town’s waste manager and recycling supervisor.

The revised ordinance would remove a list of recyclable items, and instead defer to a list made publicly available online, at the transfer station and at the town office. It would also remove a fee schedule and defer to the one set by the select board through a public process. 

It would also make minor changes, like reflecting the current hours of the transfer station and clarifying the town manager has authority to issue commercial trash hauler licenses.