Edgecomb selectmen don't plan to ask residents for a raise this year, despite the chairman's argument that the board's pay should go up again along with other elected officials' pay.

Chairman Jessica Chubbuck proposed 1 percent raises for each of the three board seats, as well as town clerk, treasurer and tax collector. Annual, small hikes will prevent the need to ask for bigger jumps years later, Chubbuck said at the board's March 4 meeting.

“I just think it's clean, it's neat. It's a fair way of doing it,” Chubbuck said of her proposal.

Fellow selectmen Stuart Smith and Jack Sarmanian agreed to propose the raises for the other positions discussed, which currently each pay $7,000 a year. But the two men both opposed raises for the board seats, one year after their pay went up by $1,000 each. The chairman now gets $5,000; the other two seats, $4,000 each.

“I look at ours as different from the other positions. We're the representatives for the town,” Smith said. If residents want to pay selectmen more, they could submit a petition, he said.

Chubbuck went on to propose a stipend for the selectman who serves as the town's general assistance officer. It could either be an additional $1,000, or, at no new cost to the town, half of the chairman's extra $1,000 could instead go to the general assistance officer, she suggested.

Chubbuck said general assistance involves a lot of time, and that Sarmanian, the current officer, has done a tremendous job with it.

However, the rest of the board rejected the proposed pay. Sarmanian said he didn't need it. When someone else is doing the job, maybe the idea could be revisited, he said.

Next chapter begins on library funding issue

Library funding could again be a bone of contention at town meeting this year. Selectmen decided to tell the budget committee they favor funding $2,000 of the Wiscasset Public Library's $8,900 request and $2,000 of the Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library's $4,000 request.

“I like libraries. I really do,” Chubbuck said. “But I have a problem asking everyone else who may not use libraries to pay for libraries.”

Edgecomb resident and Wiscasset library trustee Tom Boudin has made several efforts toward full funding in recent years.

Last November, Boudin made his case again to selectmen, with the results of a survey he took at the polls in Edgecomb. Most people who signed it supported full funding for both libraries, he said.

Boudin called it a petition, but said its only purpose was to show the board the support is there.

In 2012, a Boothbay Register reader's anonymous $7,000 donation to the Wiscasset library bridged the gap between Edgecomb's $2,000 contribution and the nearly $9,000 the library requested.

In 2011, the library charged Edgcomb residents a pro-rated, non-residents' fee, as a result of the town's partial funding that year.

In opposing full funding Monday night, Chubbuck noted she offered last year to help get some local fundraising going for the Wiscasset library, but that Boudin did not take her up on it.

Smith and Sarmanian agreed with the $2,000 amount for each library. Selectmen plan to meet with the budget committee later this month. The annual town meeting is May 11.

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