LITTLETON, Maine — A small group of 18 residents, including selectmen, turned out for Littleton’s annual town meeting Monday evening to approve warrant articles for municipal spending.
In the session that lasted just under 30 minutes, residents approved a municipal budget of about $614,000. That budget represents an increase of about $68,236. The figure does not include the town’s share of the RSU 29 budget or county tax.
“Looking at the preliminary figures for the school and county, I think we are looking at least at a one-mill increase (in the tax rate), maybe 1.5,” Town Manager Lorie Schools said. “So we are looking at a tax rate of about 18.5 mills.”
The main reason for the increased budget is the massive increase in the town’s ambulance contract with the Houlton Ambulance Service. That topic drew the greatest amount of discussion by selectmen and residents at the meeting.
Because the town of Houlton altered its fee structure for those towns it provides contract services, Littleton residents will pay $77,108 for ambulance service in 2021. Last year, the town’s fee was just $17,442.
“Right now, the only choice we have is to go with Houlton,” board chairman Gordon Hagerman said. “We are working on alternatives. Once we have some figures, we will come back to the town.”
Littleton resident Gerry Miller reads through the annual report at Monday night’s annual town meeting. (Joseph Cyr | Houlton Pioneer Times)
One of those alternatives would involve all 13 communities that currently contract for ambulance service with Houlton forming their own regional service, complete with a board of directors including representatives from each community. That plan, however, will take a lengthy time to formulate.
One resident asked if there was any legal recourse Littleon could pursue due to the lack of advance notice of the increase. Schools said she looked into that matter and stated Houlton was not required to provide any greater advance notice of the rate hike.
“Pretty much all of the town managers called (Houlton) and the results they got were zero,” Hagerman added. “They just don’t care. It’s taxation without representation.”
Southern Aroostook towns initially raised concerns after Houlton told them that the ambulance service rates would be increased from $16.47 per capita to $74 per capita. The rate hike left some towns paying an estimated five times as much as they had the previous year.
The massive hike is something all 13 communities served by Houlton are wrangling with. Houlton provides contracted ambulance services to Amity, Cary, Dyer Brook, Hammond, Hodgdon, Linneus, Littleton, Ludlow, Merrill, Monticello, New Limerick, Oakfield and Smyrna.
In January, Houlton informed all of those communities that they would be charged significantly more for that service in 2021, citing a need to purchase four new ambulances with the contract communities absorbing 50 percent of that expense.
Houlton was just the latest service community to raise its ambulance rates for surrounding towns. In January, 2020, the city of Caribou massively raised its contract fees to $100 per capita as a way to balance its budget.
In other warrant articles, the town accepted a 3.12-acre parcel of land from Gregory F. Schools on the Ingraham Road to be used as the future site of a new town garage. Residents also agreed to place $10,000 into a reserve account for the purpose of building a new town garage and for maintenance of the town’s municipal building.
The remaining warrant articles passed as written with little to no discussion during Monday night’s meeting.
Selectmen also thanked Fire Chief Dwight Cowperthwaite for his service to the community. Cowperthwaite is retiring from the department at the end of 2021, ending a 40-year career with the town.
Earlier in the day, Littleton residents were able to go to the polls to cast ballots for selectmen and school board candidates. Paul Jacques was re-elected to the board of selectmen with 27 votes. He ran unopposed.
Two individuals — Sara Deveau and Christopher Cain — were elected as representatives to the RSU 29 school board as write-in candidates.
