STOCKTON SPRINGS – Residents at the annual town meeting Saturday voted 82-19 to keep their police department. The decision went against the recommendation of the town's budget committee, which had proposed eliminating the force in response to a loss of state revenue sharing.

The department, composed of three Waldo County Sheriff's Office deputies and a department supervisor working a rotating 40-hour-per-week schedule, typically costs the town $35,000 - $40,000 according to Town Manager Rich Couch. This year, the cost was $73,958 due to the added expense of replacing the town's lone police cruiser.

Voters approved all the articles on Saturday's warrant, for a bottom line of $973,034. Couch said the municipal budget figure is down more than $85,000 from last year. The portion of the budget coming from property taxes did not change from last year, but Couch said a number of services were cut back to keep costs level.

Residents can expect to see fewer roads repaved this year, he said. Additionally, a grounds position was cut, the hours of the deputy town clerk were reduced from 25 to 16 per week, and the town office will be open less with a new schedule of Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

The mill rate for next year, currently 14.25 (dollars per $1,000 of property value, will largely hinge on the town's portion of the Regional School Unit 20 budget.

After failing at the polls on June 11, the budget is slated for revision over the next month. School funding accounted for 71-percent of the property tax rate in Stockton Springs last year. Couch said the RSU 20 budget that went before voters last Tuesday would have bumped that figure to almost 75-percent.

State revenue sharing receipts also present a lingering uncertainty, Couch said. The town budget that passed on Saturday includes $141,904 from the general fund, of which roughly $108,000 was revenue sharing received during the current fiscal year. The fund also includes unspent money from previous years. Couch said the town may have some additional carryover this year, which could be used to offset next year's taxes. 

Either way, he's anticipating a drop in state aid and a hike in the school district levy.

"What I'm hearing out of Augusta is that we'll get two-thirds of what we got last year," he said.

If that happens, Couch said, the town will be in a similar position of weighing which services residents are willing to cut or to what extent they're willing to pay more. This year, signs suggest it will be both.

Peep shows, covered

Stockton Springs voters on Saturday also passed a new Adult Entertainment Ordinance. Couch said there is no current proposal for an adult entertainment business, but he commended the Planning Board for putting rules in place ahead of demand.

"Creating an ordinance when somebody's asking to establish such an establishment. It's really too late at that point," he said. "This time we were proactive ... It's not personal. It's not like we don't like John Doe, so we don't want him to put his business in."

Under the new ordinance, which replaces the 1996 Obscenity Ordinance, a range of businesses from topless venues and escort services to "non-medical massage parlors" would be prohibited from all properties except those zoned for commercial use and would be subject to Planning Board review.

"It's not exactly excitng reading," Couch said, describing the ordinance. "But it's well written and well defined. They did a nice job on it."

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Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com