Hiram budget rises, but tax rate likely to hold

First Published: 1999-03-07

It took just three hours to approve all 74 articles on the warrant before town meeting voters Saturday.

Although the tax rate won't be set until May, when the School Administrative District 55 budget is voted on, Town Clerk Donna Hammond said the 1999-2000 budget figures looked promising.

"The town's operating budget went up a little over last year's," she said. "But we have enough in revenues so that taxes should be lower or remain about the same depending on how the school budget comes out.

The Hiram budget totaled $484,171 by the end of the meeting. The current tax rate is $15.50.

Hammond described both the meeting and Friday's elections as uneventful. There was no broad opposition to any of the articles, and three out of the four newly elected town officials won office without opposition.

William T. Rankin was re-elected to his selectman's seat, Virginia Day was elected to a three-year term on the SAD 55 School Board, and Cynthia Odin won the available library trustee's seat.

Mary Lou Stacey captured the fourth elected position a one-year term on the SAD 55 School Board -in a write-in campaign, outpolling eight other write-in candidates. Stacey tallied 26 votes.

Clips