Somerville residents vote during the annual town meeting on Saturday, June 21. Residents approved a $760,000 municipal budget and extended the road commissioner’s term from one to three-years. (Molly Rains photo)
Somerville voters elected Andrew Holmes to the select board, C.J. Rideout to the office of road commissioner, and passed a municipal budget of $759,864 at their 2025 annual town meeting.
Both Holmes and Rideout ran uncontested. During the secret ballot portion of the town meeting on Tuesday, June 17, Holmes received 66 votes for the office of second selectman, while three ballots were left blank and 11 write-in votes were cast. Rideout received 68 votes, with four ballots left blank and eight write-in votes.
Residents reconvened at Somerville Elementary School on Saturday, June 21 to hold the open portion of the annual town meeting, where they approved the budget as proposed.
The total budget of $759,864 marks a decrease of $42,453 or 5.29% from 2024. The amount to be funded by taxpayers totals $697,184, a decrease of $42,453 or 5.7% from last year.
Somerville Select Board Chair Willard Pierpont addressed the crowd of approximately 36 residents who gathered at the school before voting commenced.
“We did the best with what we had,” Pierpont said about the budget, adding that the town has not had an audit completed since fiscal year 2021. “We had a couple typos. Everybody’s new. I think we’ll be all right, but it’s going to be kind of a roll of the dice.” he said.
The first warrant article voters considered on Saturday, June 21, was article three, administration costs. This line, totaling $34,775.00, passed without discussion. The next warrant article, for contracted services, also passed without discussion, totaling $45,345.00.
However, the next warrant article generated discussion. Article five, totaling $102,047, included the salaries and stipends of town officers and officials.
The portion of this cost center that drew the most discussion was the allocation of $2,000 for select board member stipends. This is a reduction of $4,500 or 75% from last year’s allocated total of $6,000, which included $2,000 per select board member and an additional $500 stipend for the select board chair.
This year’s budget committee recommended $500 per select board member, plus the additional $500 for the chair.
Resident Roy Miller proposed amending that total to $1500 per select board member.
“It’s a wonderful gesture to cut the salary to $500, but that’s not a good long-term plan,” Miller said.
He said the post required extensive training and a significant time commitment, and reducing the salary might make it more difficult to recruit new select board members in the future.
Other residents said the office required expenditures, such as gas and mileage to attend meetings, that could prevent some residents from being able to serve on the board without a stipend.
Select board member Kathryn Jennings said she and Pierpont had supported the salary cut out of a desire to keep the budget low.
“My feeling about it is that, from what I’ve experienced in six months, that $2,000 even would be too little for what we have to do,” Jennings said. “However, it’s a position you don’t take for the money,” she said. “…I think if you have expenses, I think you probably would know that before you decide to do it,” she added.
Residents ultimately defeated Miller’s proposed amendment, approving warrant article five as written.
The next warrant article concerned appropriating $18,000 in reserve funds for financial consulting services by Christopher Backman, a former municipal auditor and the current town manager of Orrington.
Resident and planning board member Jim Grenier asked whether it was appropriate for the article to be on the warrant considering no formal request for proposals had been issued. Pierpont said he had gotten another estimate, and Backman’s proposal had been the lower quote.
In a Tuesday, June 24 phone interview Pierpont said he had researched whether Somerville had a purchasing policy that would restrict the town’s ability to award a contract without a formal bidding process. He said he had not been able to locate such a policy.
Backman has offered to organize the town’s financial documents over the course of the next two years in order to prepare Somerville for a fiscal audit, which the town has not had completed since 2021, said Pierpont.
Backman has proposed charging $36,000 over two years for his services, Pierpont said. Residents approved the expenditure of $18,000 for the first installment.
They also approved extending the term of Somerville’s road commissioner to three years from one year with no discussion.
Elsewhere on the warrant, voters approved allocating $74,850 to the Somerville Volunteer Fire Department for operations. This is the same amount that voters raised for the department last year.
Voters also approved an additional $15,000 allocation to a fire department reserve account. This amount will help the fire department attain their first brand-new fire truck in the department’s history. The department won a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cover $470,000 toward the cost of the truck in September 2024. However, the cost of the truck has risen, and the department needed additional funds to bridge the gap, according to Somerville Volunteer Fire Department Chief Michael Dostie.
Residents approved the additional funds with no further comments.
They also approved a warrant article describing how any future sale of Somerville’s town-owned broadband network, or any of its assets, must be conducted. The article requires approval by the majority of Somerville voters at a town meeting in order for the network or its assets to be sold. Voters had approved the same article at last year’s town meeting.
The last article on the warrant concerned fees from snowmobile registrations. Voters approved the article, clearing the Somerville snowmobile club to receive funds from snowmobile registrations completed in town. The funds are to be used for trail maintenance, according to the article.
Dostie and Holmes spoke about the Somerville Snowmobile Club, which they said had recently re-started after a period of inactivity.
“I personally left my house this year and went all the way to China (Maine) on perfectly groomed trails,” said Holmes. “It’s actually really awesome to be able to explore Somerville. There’s a lot out there.”
The club has their own trail grooming equipment and is working on creating a Facebook page to help them reach more potential members, Holmes said.
The next meeting of the Somerville Select Board will be held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, July 2 at the town office. For more information, go to somervillemaine.org or call 549-3828.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
