Edgecomb voters took more than 3.5 hours approving a small increase to the combined $3,893,845 fiscal year 2018 municipal and school budget. Seventy-nine voters approved all 54 articles during the May 13 town meeting held in the town hall. The budget increased by $22,689 over fiscal year 2017’s.

Town officials hoped to see an overall budget reduction. In March, selectmen sent a letter requesting department heads reduce spending by 5 percent. The selectmen and budget committee promoted reduced spending in response to property owners’ concerns about large tax increases in recent years. In fiscal year 2017, Edgecomb’s property tax rate rose from $15.20 to $16.55 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation.

Property owners still smarting from an 8 percent tax increase last year lobbied town officials to rein in municipal and education spending.

This year, municipal department heads had more success reining in spending than the school committee did. Two municipal departments reduced spending and two remained flat. Voters approved selectmen’s and budget committee recommendations reducing general government spending from $157,465 to $145,665 and public safety from $123,612 to $109,682. In other municipal budget items, voters approved $523,179 for highways and bridges and $112,649 for health and sanitation.

Both the school budget and county tax bills increased.  The school budget accounts for 68.42 percent of the budget and county taxes account for 7.29 percent.

Voters unanimously approved all 12 articles dealing with education spending. Voters approved a $2,664,336 school budget which is a $24,600 increase. During the May 9 school budget hearing, school committee members reported a five percent reduction would mean cutting $112,000. School committee members feared that would unfairly impact the town’s kindergarten through grade six population. The committee isn’t able to reduce state-mandated spending for special education or grade 7-12 tuition rates leaving the vast majority of all spending reductions at Edgecomb Eddy School.

Voters also approved the state-mandated county bill which increased from $275,045 to $283,804.

The most controversial article was No. 21 requesting $8,200 for the Wiscasset Public Library and $4,000 for the Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library. In recent years, voters approved less than half of both requested amounts. Resident Tom Boudin is the Wiscasset library’s treasurer. Each year, the library asks Edgecomb, Alna and Westport Island for donations based on population.

“Alna and Westport (Island) always come up with the money, no questions asked, and Edgecomb always comes up short. I just don’t know how to explain that to the board. I don’t know why we can’t pay our own way and give what they ask for,” Boudin said.

Budget Committee Chairman Jack Brennan explained there was no concrete information about which local library residents preferred which resulted in splitting funds between Wiscasset and Boothbay Harbor.

“We asked for more concrete information about how residents regularly used the Wiscasset library, but they didn’t have those figures,” he said.

Voters rejected funding $8,200 for WPL and $5,000 for BHML 29-40. A second motion was made to fund the two libraries at last year’s levels which passed unanimously. Voters approved $4,000 for WPL and $2,000 for BHML.

On May 12, 34 residents voted in the municipal elections. All five candidates ran unopposed. The winning candidates were Jack Sarmanian, selectman, three-year term; David Nutt, planning board, three-year term; Heather Sinclair, school committee, three-year term; Claudia Coffin, treasurer and town clerk, one-year terms; Scott Griffin, road commissioner, one-year term; and Deb Boucher, tax collector, one-year term.

Prior to the meeting, town officials  honored two residents for their past service to the community. Selectman Mike Smith presented Don Kroitzcsh with the Spirit of America Award. Selectmen credited Kroitzsch with providing valuable technical aid in creating the town’s new website. Kroitzsch joined the three-person website committee last year and provided hundreds of hours creating the website’s new design.

Smith also presented former Fire Chief Tom Trowbridge with a long overdue payment for the Edgecomb Fire Company. The town purchased the EFC in 1989 for a dollar and made it a municipal department. But the town never paid the dollar. Smith presented Trowbridge, who spent 41 years as an Edgecomb firefighter and last chief of EFC, with a framed $2 bill as final payment for the department.

“I’ve known Tom for years and he always says Edgecomb always has a good idea, but it takes too long to develop and costs twice as much. So in that spirit, I present this two dollar bill as payment,” Smith said.

Prior to the school budget vote, School Committee Chairman Tom Abello presented outgoing member and former chairman Sarah Clifford with flowers for her past service.