CASTLE HILL, Maine — Castle Hill, a town of approximately 400 people, saw 16 residents attend its annual town meeting on Tuesday.
The town spent the meeting approving articles in the annual warrant, recognizing the oldest citizen and tallying election results.
The meeting began with the town selectmen awarding Dana Allison, 90, with the Boston Post Cane award for being the oldest citizen in Castle Hill. Allsion served on the SAD 1 school board for 25 years from 1983 to 2005. She also served as the moderator at town meetings for more than 40 years.
The selectmen voted to have Lynelle Foster as this year’s meeting moderator.
All articles in this year’s warrant passed unanimously. Castle Hill’s expense budget for 2022 is $341,009, an increase from the expense budget in 2021, which was $337,713. The total increase was $3,296. The departments that increased their expenses were highway, fire, property services and reserve accounts. The departments that decreased expenses were general government, recreation, public safety and community services.
Castle Hill’s revenue budget for 2022 is $256,485, which when compared to the 2021 budget of $215,185, saw an overall increase of $41,300. By increasing revenues and keeping expenses relatively flat, the town was able to drop the mill rate from 17.00 to 16.90 in 2022.
In this year’s election, 23 residents voted. Hermon Condon and Maylen Kenny were elected to the select board on three-year terms with 21 and 19 votes, respectively. Tracy Williams received two write-in votes and Russ Woodman received one.
For the one-year term on the select board, Gerald McGlinn was elected with eight write-in votes. Tracy Williams received four write-in votes, with Hermon Condon, Orpheus Allison and Rick Morton each receiving one write-in vote.
For the three-year assessor term, Gerald McGlinn won with three write-in votes. Robert Vigue, Tracy Williams, Lynelle Foster and Joyce Boynton each received one vote.
For the one-year assessor term, Maylen Kenney won with 17 votes. Tracy Williams received two write-in votes and Preston Kenney received one.
CASTLE HILL, Maine — March 15, 2022 — Lynelle Foster (left) moderates the annual town meeting while Town Clerk Christina Kidney (center) and Town Manager Sandra Fournier (right) mark passed articles and take minutes. (David DiMinno | The Star-Herald)
