Town meeting moves police raise, fire station forward

Milton Selectman Mike Beaulieu points out a spot where undesirable "visitors" to the town Highway Garage are setting up shop during a presentation he made on needed repairs at the complex. (Harrison Thorp photos)

MILTON - Milton voters will get another shot at approving a new fire station on March 11 after a $2.8 million warrant article for the project along with 25 other warrant articles easily passed muster at the town’s Deliberative Session held Saturday in the Nute High Middle School cafeteria.

Some 60 or so registered town residents showed up for the four-hour meeting, but by 5 p.m. only about 40 were left.

One of the few changes adopted during the session was the adding of about $10,000 back into the town’s operating budget to pay for a contracted economic development director and $10,000 toward the Fire Department’s budget that the Budget Committee had taken out, said Milton Selectmen Chairman Tom Gray.

All of the other articles passed as is, including one that provides for an increase in Milton Police Officers pay to bring them more in line with surrounding communities, said Milton Police Chief Richard Krauss.

Residents raise their voter cards in affirmation of a motion during the Deliberative Session held on Saturday in the Nute Senior Middle School cafeteria.

Krauss said an officer who recently left after working four years as a Milton police officer was just making $18.23 an hour, less than a first-year officer in other area towns.

It was also noted that the town spends about $24,000 to train an officer and that these officers leave the town’s employ soon after completing their three-year obligation, some even leaving before when other police departments buy out their contracted repayment to the town.

Currently the force is down by two offices while replacements are being trained.

An article to raise and appropriate $40,000 to be placed in the Milton Bridge Fund also moved forward, which bodes well for the possible replacement of the Old Bridge Road bridge that formerly connected Milton and Lebanon over Northeast Pond channel. The $40,000 would easily take care of the $15,000 Milton needs to pony up to pay its share of the engineering costs to replace the bridge and would allow state planners to place it on their Bridge Replacement list. The bridge’s replacement could end up costing Milton taxpayers about $140,000 in all.

Other big-ticket items on the warrant include the town’s operating budget of almost $3.7 million, a $426,000 lease/purchase agreement to buy three six-wheel dump trucks with snowplows and sanders and another lease/purchase agreement to buy a $240,000 highway grader.

Another $35,000 was proposed to be set aside for repairs to the Public Works Garage, which is gravely in need of attention, according to a slide show presentation by Selectman Mike Beaulieu.

Several other articles dealt with the ongoing funding of capital reserve funds used to help departments like highway and rec purchase big-ticket items as they become needed.