HARPSWELL — The town is proposing a fiscal year 2019 budget of $5.6 million, a 7.8 percent increase over current spending.

Those numbers are subject to change in the weeks leading to the March 9 annual Town Meeting, where residents will vote on the budget by line item.

The Board of Selectmen on Jan. 17 added $2,000 to the road maintenance budget under Public Works, to fund electronic signs in the center of town, Town Administrator Kristi Eiane said the following day. The signs would address complaints about motorists not obeying the 30 mph speed limit through the area.

“Our experience in a couple other locations has shown that when we’ve used the flashing type of signage, it does seem to effect change,” Eiane said.

The tax impact has yet to be calculated, and the town is waiting for an approximate tax assessment from School Administrative District 75, she added. That should be available by late February, in time for Town Meeting; SAD 75 voters will decide on the school budget this spring.

Harpswell’s expenditures are split into operational costs ($4.5 million, up 7.9 percent) and capital expenses ($1.1 million, up 7.8 percent).

Operational increases include a 2.5 percent across-the-board hike in wages and salaries – about $25,000 added to nearly a $1 million payroll, Eiane said. Contingency is up by $25,000, to cover funds used for overages in fiscal year 2019.

The town could add $46,000 for a new winter road maintenance contract, as well as $20,000 toward its heating assistance program, which hasn’t received any tax revenue since 2014, Eiane said.

“It’s been existing on donations and fundraisers, and we feel like we need to put some more money in the coffers,” she said.

Other increases to the operations budget could include $16,000 to cover a 4 percent health insurance cost increase and two part-time firefighters; $15,000 for cellular and emergency communications consulting; about $12,000 for a part-time Recreation Department youth program coordinator; $12,000 for harbor management software, and $10,000 for a marine hazards reserve.

Proposed capital expenditure increases include $50,000 to the existing $200,000 road budget.

“We want to wrap that money into a capital road project that would include Laurel Cove Road, part of Oak Ledge Road, and then we’re adding Oakhurst Island Road,” all in Harpswell’s Cundy’s Harbor area, Eiane said.

The total project could cost roughly $400,000, for which some money has already been set aside.

Another $50,000 is proposed toward a future boat launch reserve at Mitchell Field. Also, $60,000 could go toward a land acquisition and improvement reserve, to cover reconstruction this year of the boat launch and creation of parking at Pott’s Point and work at a public access point at Tide Mill Cove.

The facilities reserve could grow by $115,000, to fund an upgrade to the ventilation system at the Town Office. “We’re still developing some details around what that project might look like,” Eiane said.

Debt service is expected to decline 11.7 percent, from the $470,000 paid in fiscal 2019 to $415,000. But repayment of the Mitchell Field pier removal bond will push that cost up again in the future, probably around 2021, Eiane said.

Alex Lear can be reached at 780-9085 or alear@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @learics.