Dresden selectmen on Sept. 3 reviewed a letter from Wiscasset Ambulance Service on liability for uncollectable bills from the previous two years. The board had previously requested a meeting with the service to sort out the current contract regarding the unpaid bills.

Dresden Town Administrator Michael Henderson summed up the service’s position this way: “If you re-up (the contract) it will go away. If you don’t you will have to pay up,” he said.

Selectman Allan Moeller Sr. said the current amount of uncollectables is $6,000 for the first two years of the contract. 

Selectman Gerald Lilly said the problem occurs when the ambulance responds to injuries sustained in an accident on the highway not involving a Dresden resident. If the driver is uninsured, the bill is added to the list of uncollectables.

“The wording was murky,” said Henderson. Moeller said the board will be sure to have an attorney review the next proposed contract’s wording, and he expressed hope Wiscasset would also.

“If we sign another contract it will be written more clearly,” said Selectman Trudy Foss.

In other business, the board set the tax rate at $18.80 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. Last year’s was $18.10, Foss said. 

The board reviewed a draft proposal seeking a licensed assessor to take over the assessment of properties beginning next year. Foss did it for many years when she was administrative assistant. The assesor will review assessments for 10 percent of the resident properties each year and reassess valuations for new construction, said Foss.

Selectmen agreed to pay for a business phone for Lilly.

The board agreed to pay a $557 fine to the Internal Revenue Service for late filings in the last fiscal year. Henderson said the error happened before he became treasurer and that all current filings are up to date.

The board met with the town’s attorney Jessica Avery in executive session to discuss a remediation proposal from gravel pit owner Heather Beasley. When the meeting resumed, Foss said that, to consider the proposal, the board needed Beasley to submit more details and proof of ownership of the section of Ballard Road under dispute. Beasley complained that the stop work order should not apply to her second pit.