MONMOUTH — Voters at Tuesday’s Town Meeting will decide whether to break the town’s relationship with the school district, recommit to its relationship with its trash handler and form a new commitment with a commission aimed at making best use of town-owned property.

The “meeting,” acually a secret-ballot referendum, is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday in the lower library at Cumston Hall.

Voters will be asked to approve a $4,843,725 town budget, which is up $20,000 from this year’s because of insurance and general inflation increases.

“There’s nothing new in there,” Town Manager Curtis Lunt said. “We used (this year’s) budget and essentially warmed it over.”

The town is expected to receive an additional $25,000 in taxes thanks to new construction, which more than compensates for the budget increase, Lunt said.

However, residents still will be asked to approve an 11 percent tax increase because of a Regional School Unit 2 budget, which will increase to $24,439,751 this year. That total is split by every town in the RSU, which also includes Dresden, Farmingdale, Hallowell and Richmond. Monmouth’s portion, $4.05 million, is up $580,000 this year, Lunt said.

School officials claim much of the increase in local property taxes is a result of less funding from the state and increases in insurance costs.

“We kept our budget as flat as a pancake — we even cut paving — but they can’t do much about that school issue,” Lunt said.

Voters will be given a separate ballot asking whether they wish to withdraw from the RSU and form an independent school district. The same ballot will ask voters if they wish to form a new town school board. At least 960 voters, a percentage of voters who took part in the last gubernatorial election, are required to validate the school withdrawal question.

The main warrant has 25 questions, which Lunt described as fairly mundane.

“There aren’t any controversial articles to speak of,” he said.

Voters will be asked to approve an amendment to the agreement with Mid-Maine Waste Action Corp., in Auburn, to continue handling Monmouth’s waste through 2035. The agreement, originally established in 1986, could be ended with one year’s notice.

Residents also will decide whether the town should borrow $60,000 to replace the floor in the middle school gymnasium. School officials have said RSU 2 will reimburse the town if voters decide to remain with the union.

Among the nonmonetary articles is a request to amend the fireworks ordinance passed last year, which limits use of all fireworks to only a few days each year. The amendment would allow fireworks that have a “negligible sound effect.” The sound could not exceed 45 decibels.

Voters also will be asked to form a conservation commission to advise selectmen on the protection, development and use of the town’s natural resources and coordinating its activities with other towns and agencies. The commission would have not authority beyond making recommendations.

Craig Crosby — 621-5642
ccrosby@centralmaine.com