POWNAL – Pownal residents approved a $3,106,292 fiscal year 2013-2014 budget during their annual town meeting June 17.

According to Pownal Administrative Assistant Scott Seaver, the new budget will result in a 6.58 percent increase in property taxes for the roughly 1,500 residents of the town. The amount approved is an $183,652 increase from this year’s municipal spending plan of $2,922,640.

All 26 articles on the warrant were passed by the roughly 90 residents who turned out, said Seaver. Article 4 asked Pownal residents to formally adopt and enforce the Maine Uniform and Energy Code. According to Pownal Selectman Alfred Fauvrer, because of legislation three years ago, Pownal no longer had a building code.

“In a nutshell, the Legislature decreed that if there was going to be a building code, then it would have to be uniform,” said Fauvrer. “The Legislature mandated that towns over 4,000 residents had to adopt and enforce it. Towns under that threshold could decide if they wanted to adopt it or not. We’re not required to or else we wouldn’t have to adopt it. There’s no such thing as a homegrown building code in Maine anymore. Either you adopt it or you don’t have one.”

According to state information, the rule involves four codes, the International Residential Code, the International Building Code, the International Existing Building Code and the International Energy Conservation Code. Building codes are a set of standards established and enforced by local government for the structural safety of buildings, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, one of myriad government agencies that can enforce building codes.

The approved budget includes a $15,324 increase in funding for general government and $67,000 increase in the capital accounts from the 2012-2013 budget.

The cost of the town’s Public Works Department is down $20,073, due to an agreement between Durham and Pownal to share the cost of a road commissioner, Shawn Bennett, said Seaver. Durham residents recently approved the creation of a town-run Public Works department, but Bennett is expected to maintain his dual role in the coming fiscal year.

“We are netting out the contribution Durham is giving us back,” said Seaver. “We’re budgeting for a salary amount and Durham is picking up 60 percent of that, so we’ve only got 40 percent of it in here, which is a big difference the way we budgeted last year,” said Seaver, referring to the 2012-2013 Public Works cost of $601,432.

Per the charter that governs the town, the annual town meeting began on June 11 with a municipal election to elect one selectman to a three -year term, a director for the Regional School Unit 5 Board, and a cemetery commissioner.

Tim Giddinge, a two-term selectman who did not formally take out papers to run, was elected with 112 write-in votes and will serve another three-year term. Naomi Ledbetter, another write-in who received a scant 18 votes, will replace Ruth Broene on the school board. The position of cemetery commissioner will be served by Craig Vosmus, who received 542 write-in votes.

In addition to choosing municipal officials, Pownal residents voted 395-182 against a $25.8 million Regional School Unit 5 budget and 472-118 against a $16.9 million bond to renovate and expand Freeport High School. The school budget passed in the district, though the bond did not.

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