The town of Newcastle met to consider 26 warrant articles on Monday, June 20 at Lincoln Academy.

Brian Foote was reelected to the Board of Selectmen, where he currently serves as chairman, for another three-year term. Stephanie Nelson was elected to the School Committee, and Clayton Hutley was written in for the Great Salt Bay Sanitary District at the election on Tuesday, June 14. Both the secondary and Great Salt Bay School budgets also passed.  Don Means was elected to be moderator for the town meeting.

Before Monday’s meeting got under way, Senator Chris Johnson and House member Michael Devin presented a Legislative Sentiment to Arlene Cole, who had been honored by having the town report dedicated to her this year. She is the local historian and curator of the historical society, and has counted ballots at Newcastle’s elections for 50 consecutive years.

The town approved two new ordinances. The first involved changes to the Finance Committee process, which would make it easier to see the costs associated with each department. It passed 43-4. The second was an ordinance involving food trucks and carts. It passed 44-14.

Article 8, the Administrative and Operations Appropriations, contained a provision to increase the amount Selectmen are each compensated from $1,500 annually to $3,000 annually. An amendment was floated to attempt to roll back the increase. A discussion about the role of the town administrator ensued, with several indicating that the town administrator was expected to take over more of the day-to-day functions for the Selectmen. Other individuals believed that those who are taking on the role should be compensated fairly. One woman called on others to perform public service, and a man countered that he was working too many hours to serve on town committees. Finally, the question was called, and the amendment failed. Article 8 passed, 36-25.

In Article 11, an amendment was raised to cut funding to the Skidompha Public Library by $8,641, but failed after someone else said that the cost of all the services Skidompha offers is $7.50 per resident. The whole public services package passed, 41-16.

An attempt was also made to cut the salary of the part-time road commissioner from $30,000 per year to $8,000 per year. That amendment also failed. Selectman Benjamin Frey made a motion to reduce the amount of the Roads Capital budget by $55,000, since there was that amount left unspent in the interlocal account, from when Newcastle and Damariscotta were jointly funding some public works programs, from the last fiscal year. But the town’s attorney, Peter Drum, said the funds couldn’t be moved like that and would have to be moved to a reserve account instead. Frey withdrew his amendment. The public works article, Article 12, passed 45-15.

The only other amendment offered was a change to the percentage charged to delinquent taxpayers. The Select Board increased the amount from two percent to 3 1/2 percent in Article 19. An amendment was offered to increase the penalty to seven percent, but the amendment failed, and Article 19 passed, 34-10.