Milford Board of Selectmen approve school, town issues during July meeting

MILFORD, Maine — The Milford Board of Selectmen approved 41 different educational and town budget issues for the 2020-21 school and fiscal year during its meeting on July 21. 

The board approved approximately $2.4 million for the school budget to cover educational costs. It also approved a roughly $2.7 million town budget for general governance. 

The board passed an article to spend approximately $3,147,481.55 for regular instruction in the upcoming school year and approved to spend a total of $1,705,673.80 for special education and other instruction costs. 

Another $517,396.00 was approved for facilities maintenance and $143,282.00 for student and faculty support services. 

The board also passed 21 issues relating to town matters, including appropriating $438,150 for general governance with the biggest expense being administration at $237,150. More than $111,000 was allocated for municipal building expenses. 

The board approved an issue to appropriate $277,457 for county tax and $265,034 for debt services. 

It passed a nearly $700,000 budget for public services, with $188,726 to go towards the sheriff’s contract and $281,089 for the fire department — the two largest expenditures in that article. 

A total of $835,200 will be allocated to public works, with the bulk going toward repairing roads and bridges. 

Money totaling $45,000 previously budgeted for roads and bridges will be carried over from the previous fiscal year and put toward the Pine Street repairs. 

Nearly $40,000 was passed for cultural and recreational activities, with $8,000 dedicated to the Old Town Library Reimbursement Program.

The article also allocated $21,800 to parks, playgrounds, Chaisson Field, and cemeteries, along with $8,430 to the recreation program including the snowmobile club and public and grant-matching funds. 

The board approved the continuation of the Municipal Grant-in-Aid Program for Snowmobile Trails in cooperation with theMaine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry. The total amount of the program requested was $13,100 — 70 percent of which will be covered by the state. 

The board will pay for the remaining 30 percent of the funding, approximately $3,930. It also voted to appropriate $1,200 from “unappropriated surplus” for the town’s share of snowmobile registrations for the Pine Tree Snowmobile Club for recreational purposes. 

A complete list of the articles passed can be found here.