Portland Adjusts Mill Rate After Special Town Meeting

A special town meeting was held at the Portland High School auditorium on Wednesday and residents voted to authorize the first selectmen to sign papers so the town can enter into a five-year $895,000 lease agreement for new equipment and a roof for the Portland Library. Town officials will start looking for a financing company in July. 

The meeting saw residents, including many firemen and police officers who live in town, showing up. The vote was 55 to 3 in favor, with two votes disqualified because one ballot was blank, and one had a mark in one box and a partial mark in the second. The meeting was moderated by selectman Mark Finkelstein, and the balloting supervised by town clerk Bernadette Dillon. 

The five-year lease plan was part of the $29.8 million budget approved by town voters in a referendum on May 9. Finance director Tom Robinson answered the only question posed, which was the amount of interest the town was likely to pay. Robinson said it would be about 3 percent, but they would find the best rate. 

Volunteer fireman Todd Ghent, who has been recovering from burns he suffered in a propane blast, was among those attending the meeting, getting some well wishes from colleagues. Ghent was injured when he was investigating a propane leak at a Summer Street duplex on Jan. 28.

After the town meeting was adjourned, members of board of selectmen then moved across the hall to the high school cafeteria to convene it's regular meeting. Members agreed to offically set the mill rate at 28.15 mills, an increase of 0.35 mills. First selectman Susan Bransfield said the rate proposed for the budget approved on May 9 was allowed to go forward because the town has been assured it will get state grants in the coming year, most of it for public schools. She said if the grants were canceled or cut from the state budget because of an impasse at the capitol, the town would have been forced to raise the tax rate above 30 mills.  

There was more discussion about the details of the lease agreement.

The agreement wlll enable the town to secure new public safety equipment, including police cruisers and several new heavy dump trucks. Perhaps the highest priority will be a new roof for the Portland Library. Bransfield and Robinson  said the search for a leasing company will begin July 1, which is the first day of the new budget. They hope to secure an agreement in time to begin the roof project while the weather is still good, perhaps late summer or early fall. Some homework is needed, Robinson says, before they shop for a company, such as finalizing the necessary equipment needed for police and public works vehicles. He says they will be looking at companies that provide leases to municipalities, which are different than conventional banks.

Some aging vehicles that will be replaced in the lease will be sold at auction to help offset the payments of the lease. 

Bransfield says they hope to have the library roof, estimated to cost $300,000, paid off with the first year's payment and part of the second-year payment of the lease. Portland Library Director Janet Nocek was on hand to hear the discussion and afterwards said she "was very happy with the outcome." In the past, Bransfield called the roof a matter of urgency given the existing roof's condition.

The selectmen also endorsed a wage increase for many town employees, but not teachers. The employees had a zero increase and then a wage freeze the past two years, Bransfield said, but for the new year there will be an increase averaging 2.5 percent. She says it helps offset an increase in the cost of medical coverage, which will go up another one percent. Teachers agreed to concessions including a zero increase in wages in the new budget.

The selectmen also approved a public hearing next Wednesday on a federal Block Grant application to install a new fire alarm system at the Quarry Heights housing complex on Main Street. Bransfield says they need $185, 000 to do that.

She hopes the governing board of the housing authority will also study improvements for disabled residents and parking. She notes only two units are fully accessible for residents with severe disabilities. Quarry Heights is a town-fun facility that provides housing for the elderly and disabled.

There was some discussion about the economic impact of the Arrigoni Bridge repairs and construction that will replace the deck of the span. Some members were not aware it would now start by the end of June. Finkelstein said he had a tenant who is leaving because "she doesn't want to deal with the bridge." Finkelstein is afraid it's "a small piece of how the town may be affected." He said he expects that businesses "are going to suffer in town." Several other selectmen and Bransfield said they expect an impact on businesses on Main Street as well, and they'll be listening for feedback.  

In other matters, the board authorized a preliminary agreement to look into a STEAP grant for the Nelson Goodrich property that the town is purchasing in a 10-year agreement. Bransfield told the board they might request some $200,000 for engineerng reports, drilling to assess any pesticides, and conducting the first full survey of the property, which is roughly 20 acres. The hope is that eventually the land might be graded or filled to make it suitable for public use, such as ball fields and nature walks. It goes from Strickland Street to Route 17 and then Cox Road.  Part of it is wetlands.

About 10 acres is rented out to Gotta's Farm, which grows pumpkins and corn and where they set up a corn maze each fall. The motion passed after Finkelstein got assurance there would be no financial obligation to the town in the process.

Bransfield also briefed members about complaints in Portland about odors, smoke and noise from the Kleen Energy plant in Middletown. Part of the issue, she said, is that the plant is testing or "tuning" it's turbines and using a type of oil as part of the process. She says she spoke to Middltown officials and was told public safety officials there and the state Department of Environmental Protection were monitoring the process. She said local residents had told her they spotted black smoke and white smoke in recent days, and report the odor and noise are disturbing.