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Rangeley budget committee approves most department recommendations, adopts 2.8% COLA and taps undesignated funds for infrastructure
Summary
On March 5 the Rangeley Budget Committee recommended final totals for most departments, approved a 2.8% wage adjustment (excluding finance and animal control) and approved using $165,000 from undesignated funds for infrastructure.
Rangeley — The Rangeley Budget Committee on March 5 recommended budgets for most town departments, approved a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment (CPI‑W) for pay lines with limited exclusions, and voted to use $165,000 from undesignated funds for infrastructure projects.
After discussion about the town’s forthcoming revaluation and the aim of avoiding mill‑rate spikes, the committee voted 4–2 to pay $165,000 for infrastructure from undesignated funds rather than raise and appropriate the amount. Shelley promoted using undesignated funds to avoid a single large increase in a year when property values are changing, while others warned about maintaining fund-balance policy compliance.
The committee also finalized a payroll recommendation. Following multiple motions and a series of roll calls on subsidiary proposals, members approved a 2.8% wage increase tied to the CPI‑W across departments with exclusions for the finance line and animal control (motion carried 4–2). Several earlier proposals — including a flat 83-cent-per-hour raise and a 3.0% compromise — were considered and defeated before the CPI‑W motion passed.
On personnel lines, the committee declined to fund a proposed public services director position: a motion to set the new position’s allocation to zero passed after members discussed workload distribution, union contract constraints, comprehensive-plan implementation and whether duties could be assigned to existing staff or contracted.
Key departmental recommendations recorded during the meeting included administration at $326,086 (after line-item edits), fire and rescue at $474,127 (including a $7,100 overtime adjustment), police at $713,610, airport at roughly $63,969, parks at $261,126, planning at $231,518 and finance at $138,444. The animal control line was recommended at about $7,521. The committee scheduled a public hearing for March 10 and will finalize remaining debt and transfer items afterward.
The committee’s votes were advisory recommendations to be presented to the board of selectmen on March 17.
