All three Alna selectmen oppose the 100-percent raises Fire Chief Mike Trask wants for fire officials. Voters will decide on the pay, and the rest of the town budget, at the annual town meeting Saturday, March 16.

The meeting starts at the fire station at 10 a.m. If everything passes as proposed, the municipal budget will come in at $610,026, a $3,996 drop from last year. That wouldn't ensure a flat tax rate, though.

The county and school tabs come later, as does the Legislature's decision on Gov. Paul LePage's proposed cuts in state funding to towns; solid waste and snow plowing contracts will also be factors. The board plugged in last year's figures for both deals because this year's aren't yet known.

If Hanley Construction asks for more money for snow removal, selectmen said they'll put that contract out to bid.

Doubling the annual pay for the fire chief, assistant chief, three captains and the first responders director is too much of a jump in one year, First Selectman David Abbott said at the board's March 7 meeting.

He'd support raises of 20 or 25 percent, Abbott said. “But the doubling sets a bad precedent,” he said.

Second Selectman Jonathan Villeneuve favored keeping the pay flat this year.

If figured by the hours the officials put in per year, the pay is probably  much less than the minimum wage, Villeneuve said. But the department has been able to fill the positions under the current pay, he said.

Trask has proposed the chief's pay go from $1,500 a year to $3,000; the assistant fire chief and first responders director each rise from $1,000 a year to $2,000; and that the three fire captains' stipends go from $250 each to $500 each.

Trask is also proposing firefighters' call and training pay go from $11 to $12 an hour. Selectmen did not address that increase, which voters are scheduled to decide separately from the officials' raises.

Trask was not at the March 7 meeting. In an interview March 8, he said that to do the work the federal government requires, he and the other officials put in many more hours than their positions pay.

“I don't even want to know the actual hours I donate,” he said. “And all these firefighters have families that they're taking time away from to do this.”

“I think the board is being a little short-sighted in what these jobs entail,” Trask said. “I don't think we've asked for anything outrageous,” he said of the proposed raises.

Roof work proposed

Town meeting voters have no new big-ticket projects or loans to consider this year.

The Committee for Alna History is asking for $7,000 to repair or replace the Alna Meetinghouse roof. The cost washes out to just $800 more than usually raised for the town's historic buildings, Town Clerk Amy Warner, the committee's chairman, said.

The committee usually requests $700, and another $5,500 usually proposed for a reserve account has been left out this year.

Concern about the roof's condition stepped up this winter, after a wind storm tore off some shingles and part of the topline on the 224-year-old building.

The committee has discussed replacing the current wooden shingles with asphalt ones.

Selectmen roll back revaluation funding proposal

Based on new information Villeneuve gathered, the board reversed its February 21 decision to propose raising $30,000 toward the next town-wide property revaluation.

Instead, selectmen are proposing raising the same amount as last year, $5,000.

Villeneuve said Maine Revenue Services field representative Nancy Weeks told him, the state hasn't been enforcing the Maine Constitution's requirement that towns do a revaluation every 10 years. She didn't know of any towns that follow it, either, he said.

Villeneuve added that Weeks said Alna's total valuation is within the range the state says it should be.

The town has had some sales in recent years that varied markedly from the properties' assessed value, including one assessed for $171,000 that sold for $310,000 and another that sold for well less than it was assessed at;  however, Villeneuve said Weeks told him Alna is tougher than some towns are for the state to gauge.

The town has relatively few sales to go by, and buyers are sometimes willing to pay more for a modest property there.

People who feel their valuations are off should seek abatements, Villeneuve said.

The town currently has about $30,000 on reserve for a revaluation.

Susan Johns can be reached at 207-844-4633 or sjohns@wiscassetnewspaper.com.