Thumbs up to the Town of Wells and Town Manager Jonathan Carter for being proactive on budget preparations. At the selectmen’s last meeting of 2013, Carter presented a budget for the next fiscal year of $17.5 million, which would likely result in an increase the tax rate by 7 cents per $1,000 of property valuation. Although tax increases are not typically welcome, the town has been working its way through long-range paving and capital improvement plans since Carter took the reins as town manager. While this is just the first draft, we’re pleased to see town officials are getting a head start on the budget, which will ensure plenty of time for residents to become familiar with and comment on budgetary items before it goes to the ballot box for a vote.
Thumbs down to the damage at the vacant Emerson School in Sanford. During the recent cold snap, city officials said the boiler failed in the building and water pipes burst. It’s unfortunate this happened, as this will cost the already cash-strapped City of Sanford money to fix it. Thankfully, the city has insurance, and an adjuster was scheduled to view the damage last week. As many people who have made insurance claims know, however, the actual cost of repairs or replacement for insured items and buildings is not always in agreement with insurance company’s assessments. We hope the city does not lose a lot of money for repairs and that someone on the city staff does regular checks of this building and its systems in the future to make sure these types of situations can be avoided for as long as the city continues to own the building.
Thumbs up to photographer Trent Bell and the other artists whose work is featured at the most recent exhibit on display at the Biddeford art gallery Engine. The exhibit, entitled “REFLECT: Convict’s Letters to Their Younger Selves,” is a series of portraits of 12 people serving varied sentences at the Maine State Prison in Warren. Included in the portraits are the letters the convicts wrote, advising their younger selves how to avoid the future life decisions that led them to a prison cell. Bell said while the exhibit gives viewers a glimpse inside the minds of these prisoners, it also gave the prisoners an opportunity to reflect on their lives and how they got to where they are now. The exhibit is on display through Feb. 22.
Thumbs down to the proposed rate hikes for the Sanford Sewerage District. The board of trustees in February will consider proposed rate increases of 11.3 percent for 2014, 4.9 percent in 2015 and 2.6 percent for 2016. Although the district hasn’t levied a rate hike since 2007, we agree with former Sanford mayor Maura Herlihy who said last week that she would prefer a formula that provides for smaller, more regular increases, rather than big jumps in rates every six or seven years. Planning for the smaller, incremental increases would allow families to ease into the change, rather than sending them bills with major increases over longer intervals of time. The district should have a long-range plan in place to avoid major hikes in the future, and instead opt for smaller increases year to year.
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Thumbnails is a Monday feature of the Journal Tribune’s opinion pages. If you want to respond, feel free to write to the Readers’ Forum via email at jtcommunity@journaltribune.com or by dropping your letter off at our Biddeford office.
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