Kennebunkport boards OK $10.4M budget proposal for FY22 town expenses

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine – The town’s budget board has given its stamp of approval on nearly $10.4 million in municipal operating expenses proposed for Fiscal Year 2022.

The vote on April 1 followed the selectmen’s approval of the proposed figure during their meeting a week earlier.

Town Manager Laurie Smith said the board of selectmen and the budget board were set to meet jointly Thursday, April 8, to review the draft warrant for the annual town meeting in June and vote on each of its articles.

The proposed operating expenses consists of about $2.1 million for general government, $3.0 million for public safety, $820,000 for health and welfare, $1.3 million for public works, $700,000 for recreation and culture, and $2.5 million for capital outlay.

That final tally of nearly $10.4 million is $100,000 more than previously proposed, Smith noted. She told budget board members that selectmen on March 25 approved $90,000 from the town’s Pier Reserve Fund to cover emergency repairs to the Cape Porpoise Pier.

More:Kennebunkport funds $90K emergency repair at Cape Porpoise Pier

Public Works Director Mike Claus explained that some granite blocks that were underneath the bait shed had collapsed and are now leaning against the pier. Prock Marine, of Rockland, will drive sheet piling along the corners of the wood pier and put granite and stone fill behind it to stabilize the blocks.

In an estimate sent to Claus, Project Manager Shawn Toohey broke down the $90,000 in Prock Marine’s proposal: $55,000 to provide and install the sheet pilings; $13,000 to provide and place the stone; and $22,000 to mobilize and then demobilize a barge from Rockland.

Smith explained that the funding in the reserve account needs to be replenished because the town has a certain cost share in the grants for which it is applying for the planned reconstruction of the pier. Therefore, Smith added, she recommended to selectmen that $100,000 be added to the amount originally proposed for the account in the FY22 budget. Selectmen voted to move the new amount, $300,000, forward.

The move will have “zero impact” on the budget and on taxes because the FY22 proposal also calls for a $100,000 increase from the town’s capital projects fund to balance revenues, Smith said.

Claus said the materials to be used in the emergency repair can be reused when the town pursues its larger project of replacing and reconstructing the pier.

Prock Marine is looking to complete the project in four or five days this month, according to Smith.

Board member Jon Dykstra said it was “interesting” that the board was about to vote on expenses without knowing their impact on the tax rate. Smith replied that such estimates will be available in the warrant to be addressed on April 8. Revenue projections also will be presented.

Smith added, however, that it’s up to the town’s assessors, not the budget board, to commit taxes, based on the valuation that is available. County and school system taxes also impact the town’s tax commitment, she said. Until those factors are determined, the town can only provide estimates when it comes to its expenses, according to Smith.

“What we do is we vote on a warrant article that authorizes us to use those revenues against the tax commitment,” Smith said.

Withdrawing the proposed additional funds from the town’s capital reserve fund to replenish the pier money would leave about $150,000 in the account, according to Smith. Board member Steven Turner asked Smith if she was confident that balance would be sufficient.

“I always think it’s better to have more in there, in case something else happens, but this was such an unexpected expense this late in the budget process that that was my proposal to the board,” she said, referring to the pier damage and the funds she proposed for repairing it.

The board voted unanimously, 10-0, to approve five of the six departmental budgets. Member Grace Adams abstained from the otherwise unanimous vote to approve the general government expenses, given that she is a relative of an employee of the planning department.

The proposed budget also calls for about $115,000 in overlay and estimates $11.9 million for the town’s share of the RSU 21 budget and $1.2 million in county taxes. Added up, the proposed and estimated expenses for FY22 come in at about $23.6 million, for an increase of a little more than $1.3 million, or 5.9%, over the current year.