ROCKLAND – Knox County Commissioners and members of the Knox County Budget Committee met in commission chambers at the Knox County Courthouse on Thursday, December 7, to hold a public hearing and vote to approve the Knox County Budget for 2018.

Members of the budget committee include Robert Duke Jr. (Chair) Roger Peabody, Dorothy Meriwether, Lawrence Nash, Randy Stearns, Shawn Levasseur, Nickolas Lapham, Gerald Zwick and Terry Pinto.

Though both the committee and commissioners voted unanimously to approve the budget there was some criticism of it.

At the beginning of the process the county was looking at a nine percent increase and in the end it was held to 4.4 percent with nearly all Knox County communities seeing increased costs.

Click here to read the entire budget.

Budget Committee Bob Duke said one factor contributing to a budget increase was the replacement of the courthouse's heating and cooling system. Its cost was estimated at $2.3 million.

County Administrator Andrew Hart said the cost was an estimate and it could very well come in under that figure once the job is put out to bid. He also said payments on the new system could run between $100,000 to $175,000 annually.

Also adding to the budget was the inclusion of a new position, that of a deputy communications director for the Knox County Regional Communications Center, the county’s 911 dispatch service.

Randy Stearns, who represented Camden, said he was not happy with the budget though he did vote for its approval.

"I will vote for this budget," he said, "but I will be holding my nose."

Dorothy Meriwether announced that after serving ten years she would be retiring from the Knox Budget Committee.

The 2018 budget was approved at $10,882,258. The vote was unanimous.