Alna property owners will pay $17.75 in taxes for every $1,000 of assessed valuation, in their first tax bills since the town-wide revaluation. Selectmen set the rate Sept. 19. They said bills would go out Sept. 22 and be due in 45 days.

The 13 percent drop from 2017’s rate of $20.45 reflects the revaluation, Third Selectman Doug Baston explained later. He said those drop a town’s rate and neither the town nor Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12 saw big budget changes this year.

The new town office is being financed over 20 years, so that's a blip, Baston added. So if an owner’s taxes went up, down or stayed about the same, it’s because their valuations did, he said. In the meeting, he noted he knew of one owner who plans to formally appeal their property’s valuation.

Most owners who questioned theirs are now satisfied and some have reached compromises with John E. O’Donnell & Associates, the New Gloucester firm that did the revaluation, selectmen said. The bills will tell taxpayers about informal and formal appeal options that remain, members said.

Also Sept. 19, the board and residents weighed in anew on Central Maine Power’s planned transmission lines project the board supported last fall after hearing from CMP. Resident Cathy Johnson asked the board to retract its letter of support. She said it now appears the project has no net environmental benefit, and the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has raised concerns about the Sheepscot River’s western branch, upstream from Alna.

Selectmen raised economic issues. Members said the project will help Massachusetts ratepayers and help that state reach its renewable energy goal of 30 percent, but not help Maine ratepayers. Massachusetts will look green and not have the environmental disturbance Maine will, Baston said. Selectman Ed Pentaleri called it “green-washing.”

The board will draft a new letter and consider it Oct. 3 if it's ready by then, Baston said. “I don’t think there’s any question we’ll retract it,” Baston told Johnson about last year’s. “Thank you,” she said.

Then resident Ralph Hilton asked to speak. The lines CMP would add to cut through his property. He said the project would put people to work and increase the taxes CMP pays the town, lowering everyone else’s. “I think we’re jumping into something,” he said about a new stance.

Baston told Hilton there will be a chance for “another bite of the apple” when the board considers the letter.

In the meeting and a phone interview Sept. 20, Baston said he abstained from last year’s vote because he didn't think the project would happen and he views the company as aggressive based on his experience in the energy field. But this time he plans to vote to rescind last year’s letter, he said.

In a phone interview Sept. 20, CMP’s spokesman on the project, John Carroll, said he plans to ask the town if he can meet with selectmen before they vote. He said power generators fearful of losing sales have been trying to spark concern about the project. Carroll said the project will cost Maine ratepayers nothing and over 10 years will bring $1 billion into Maine’s economy, including wages and local taxes. After the new line goes into service, projected for December 2022, Alna will start getting another $390,000 a year in taxes, Carroll said.

As for environmental points Johnson raised, Carroll said IFAW’s concerns are part of the environmental review that calls on the company to demonstrate to the state the project can be done. He said the project has a net environmental benefit for all of New England, adding,  “Everyone who breaths air will benefit from this project,” because that air will be cleaner. 

Selectmen picked ReVision Energy's $4,566 offer for a heat pump for the new, modular town office over Midcoast Energy Systems’ $13,677 offer; said the modular should arrive mid-November; suggested resident David Reingardt call the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office again with his safety concern for his children and other people, about a dog; and announced Maine Municipal Association has awarded the annual town report second place in its population group, MMA has paid Alna a $1,178 insurance dividend, and at 2 p.m. Oct. 16 at the Lincoln County Communications/911 Building in Wiscasset, Juniper Hill School and founder Anne Stires will get Alna’s Spirit of America award. Selectmen picked them for it Jan. 31.