By Devon Cormier
Staff Writer

This year, Auburn residents will discuss hiring a full-time town administrator and two fulltime firefighters at the annual Town Meeting on Saturday, March 12. There will be six warrant articles up for discussion this year.

Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, Harland Eaton, said it is important to hire a town administrator to manage the town’s day-to-day business.

“The town is growing and there is just a tremendous amount of work to be done,” Eaton said. “We spend about 35 hours a week just in meetings.”

The selectmen are asking for $45,000 for the first six months of pay and benefits for a fulltime town administrator to begin on July 1. The amount of $90,000 per year would then be put in the selectmen’s annual budget.

Firefighters
Two full-time firefighters will also be added to the fire department’s budget if approved at Town Meeting as well. Fire Chief Bruce Phillips said he has been avoiding hiring full-time help for years, but the time has come when public safety will be at risk if something doesn’t change.

In the daytime when people are at work – most of time out of town – the response time to calls has been less than sufficient. In addition, Auburn isn’t so small anymore. The fire department, made up of about 45 volunteers, has had upwards of 400 calls each year recently.

With the full support of the selectmen and the budget committee, Phillips will ask for about $57,000 this year to fund two positions during the day. The number will reach about $127,000 next year for salary and benefits for the firefighters. The number more than doubles because firefighters need to work for three months with the town before receiving benefits; so the town will only fund about three months of insurance in the first budget year.

More parking at town hall
The town will also ask for $69,171 to pave the lot to the left of the town hall for a parking area. The town hall only has a few parking spaces around the building, leaving people to park on the streets during meetings and busy hours.

The land was taken by eminent domain from Brenda Trott, who became the owner of the land after a fire destroyed the home of her sister. Her sister died in the blaze. Trott had problems coming to a price agreement with selectmen, but eventually agreed to give the land to the town. The lot will give the town about an additional 40 spaces according to Eaton.

Operating budget down
The town operating budget is actually about $40,000 less than last year, thanks to what Eaton calls a good job by the selectmen. Eaton said nothing in particular caused the drop, but good, conservative budgeting kept costs down. The proposed town budget is $2,755,586.

Budget and Finance Coordinator Linda Small said that if all the warrant articles, including the operating budget pass, taxes are projected to go up about 28 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value.

The town portion of the tax rate decreased last year. However, the tax rate as a whole was $15.36, up from the previous year due to a substantial increase in the school portion of the tax rate. With the projected increase for next year, the owner of a $300,000 house would be paying $4,692 in property tax per year. However, the school portion of the tax rate may also rise.

Police
The other two warrant articles address police issues. The first asks for $125,000 for police outside detail work. Police Chief Edward Picard said that money is completely refunded to the town. Different companies pay officers for outside detail work but the town must have the money to give to officers beforehand.

Also, the police department is looking for $14,000 for the purchase of a speed monitoring trailer. However, 50 percent of that will be paid by a state grant, leaving taxpayers with about $7,000.

Town Meeting is at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 12, at the Auburn Village School.