477 voters in Boothbay Harbor turned out to vote in the 2013 municipal election on May 3.

83 percent voted in favor of St. Andrews Hospital retaining its designation as a critical access hospital.

The last vote, the revote on whether to allow members of municipal boards to serve as trustees of the water district, passed with 62 percent in favor.

Voters also elected several unopposed candidates, including Merlin Gray as Cemetery District Trustee(424 votes), Harry Pinkham as Water District Trustee (427 votes), Sandra Paxson as Superintendent School Committee (413 votes), Cameron Mitchell as Trustee of the Rocky Channels School System (399 votes) and Deryl Kipp as Sewer District Trustee (401 votes).

The 55 voters who attended the annual town meeting the next morning in the Boothbay Region Elementary School gym made quick work of the majority of the town warrant, approving most of the budget items and ordinance changes with little discussion. Click here for full election results.

Town Manager Tom Woodin reported that the increase to the budget from last year was only 1 percent, or $48,536. He expressed his appreciation for the service of former selectmen Valerie Young, whose resignation had taken effect that morning.

Woodin also spoke about the town report cover being blank, a tribute to artist Jim Taliana, who had died in 2012. One the cover read the words “the artwork is gone because the artist has passed… James Taliana, 1941 – 2012.”

The newly elected and reelected members of the board of selectmen were sworn in, including Chairman Bill Hamblen, Denise Griffin and Russell Hoffman.

Only a few items in the budget raised discussion.

During discussion of Article 19, local resident Linc Sample stood and asked why the Boothbay Region Refuse Disposal District’s budget hadn’t gone down. He said that he expected their budget to drop since the district was losing money from people salvaging from the metal pile.

Palmer Payne, chairman of the budget committee and a member of the BRRDD board, said it was not a loss of money that caused the district to ban salvage, but the danger to the community of picking through metal.

Sample asked why that issue wasn’t addressed instead of banning salvage, as people also pick the wood pile. Payne said it had all been addressed already at the district’s meeting, and that he hadn’t seen Sample there asking questions when the decision was made.

Sample replied that he would certainly be there next time and sat down. The article passed, with Sample being the lone ‘nay’ vote.

On Article 21, Sample again stood and asked why the town was giving up to $181,906 to the ambulance service. He said that since 85 percent of voters had voted in favor of keeping the hospital in the vote the day before, and the increase in the ambulance budget was due to St. Andrews upcoming closure, they should not give that much to the service.

Palmer Payne again responded, saying that since the money would be given in four segments quarterly in response to audits of the service’s costs, it was possible the town would spend a great deal less than to $181,906. The budget for Boothbay Region Ambulance Service was approved.

The code changes were all approved, with the exception of Article 39, which was withdrawn by vote after Anthony O’Neill, Chairman of the Board of Appeals, requested it be reconsidered. 

The article read: “Shall the voters of Boothbay Harbor vote to amend Chapter 170, Section 108. D (2) (a), by replacing the words, “This may include enforcement action,” with the words, “The Board of Appeals does not have jurisdiction to review any enforcement action undertaken pursuant to Section 170-20 of this Code.”  

O'Neill cited concerns that the article removed jurisdiction of the Board of Appeals from decisions made by Boothbay Harbor’s Code Enforcement Officer.

“Under this change, any action by the CEO could be considered enforcement action,” O’Neill said. The voters agreed and withdrew the article from the warrant.