The week of Aug. 13, Alna property owners will learn the values the town proposes putting on their buildings and land, selectmen said Aug. 8. Owners can meet with John  E. O’Donnell & Associates if they want, before the new values become final, board members said.

For $58,000, the New Gloucester-based assessing firm has worked a year on the first town-wide revaluation in 17 years, First Selectman Melissa Spinney said. Residents agreed to the project in March 2017. They’d been putting money away for it for years.

Second Selectman Ed Pentaleri said the firm figures 15 minutes per owner on the meetings, with three meetings going on at once in the fire station’s meeting room. Pending confirmation from the firm and the fire department, the first block of meetings will run 2 to 7 p.m. Aug. 27 and 9 a.m .to 2 p.m. Aug. 28, he said.

In an interview Aug. 9, Spinney said the revaluation went well, getting values to where they should be, and finding some properties she said were overvalued. “They’d been paying their taxes,” so it took the revaluation to discover those, she explained. About half the town’s property values stayed about the same and about 25 percent each went up or down, Spinney said.

So far, the town's new valuation comes to $84,935,160, up from last year's $69,564,783, according to Spinney and documents she provided at the Wiscasset Newspaper's request. The new number is an estimate and will change, she added. Spinney said the next tax rate is projected at $18.50 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation, or $1,850 on a $100,000 property, but she said the rate could drop further, to about $18.30. It's been $20.45 two years straight.

Per the payment schedule the firm gave the town, the town has $16,000 left to pay on the $58,000, she said.

Former selectman Chris Cooper suggested a list to show owners all the values from greatest to least. Doing that in the second of two prior revaluations cut the number of people raising issues to about a dozen, he recalled.

Also Aug. 8, Alna Emergency Management Agency Director Tom McKenzie said the federal and state governments, mostly the federal, will cover 80 percent of the town’s $13,000 in eligible costs for the October 2017 windstorm. Emergency shelter costs fell short of a $3,140 threshold for reimbursement, he and Pentaleri said. Some towns have already gotten their federal money, McKenzie added.

Selectmen thanked resident Tom Albee for his volunteer work mowing the site of the new, modular town office. The board agreed to pay Maine Conservation Corps nearly $300 to gather information the town will use to seek a grant for the planned walking trail loop; renewed the contract with Lincoln County for animal control; and discussed possibly making a parking area at Pinkham Pond due to its popularity. Cars have been parking along the road, Spinney said. “Now it’s a public safety issue.”

Cooper said 40 people have been there at once. “And they’re parking in front of the hydrant, too,” he told the board.

The board mulled possible crack-filling and other work on Cross Road from West Alna Road to Route 218. Members said it's getting used more. Hagar Enterprises co-owner Seth Hagar roughly estimated reclaiming or "rototilling" the asphalt would run about $280,000; or doing a shim and overlay, about $210,000.

Fire Chief and former road commissioner Mike Trask said the town is still paying off a $500,000 roads project and needs to plan roads' care and follow those plans.

"We can't keep doing this," he said.

Selectmen said they agreed with Trask the town needs to fill roads' cracks.