BUCKLAND – By a 9-vote margin, special town election voters narrowly backed a plan to build a new town highway garage, raising the money for it through a $2.8 million debt exclusion tax levy-limit override.
The vote was 151 in favor of the plan, with 142 opposed, according to Town Clerk Janice Purington. That’s roughly 25 percent of the town’s registered voters who cast their ballots.
The proposal calls for partial demolition of the old Mayhew Steel plant, to be replaced by a 5,000-square-foot, four-bay garage and a 5,000 square-foot, unheated pole barn for additional equipment storage.
The plan is to secure a 30-year loan, which will be repaid by a temporary tax hike, adding about $1.35 per $1,000 valuation until the loan is paid off, in 2049. However, tax payers may not see that big a jump in taxes, since other expenditures paid for by past debt-exclusion tax hikes are being paid off.