By Paul Sylvain

As the saying goes, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And for some residents at the Machias annual town meeting on Sept. 25, it was -- especially after reports of the town’s generous budget proposal surfaced last week. 

For the 55 Machias residents who attended the more than 90-minute meeting prepared to voice their concerns over a hefty tax increase arising mainly from projects and planned expenditures in three separate but related warrant articles, amending two of those articles to zero and reducing another from $175,700 to $34,700, sounded too good to be true, indeed.

But in what one resident referred to online after the meeting as a “shell game” – a reference to a popular carnival game where a wily operator would try to deceive unwitting participants by deftly moving a marble around while the player tried to guess which shell the marble was under – one of those amendments reducing the amount to be raised and appropriated to zero, also added language authorizing the selectboard to secure a $250,000 loan to be repaid over five years to fully fund those same projects.

In all fairness, selectboard member Ben Edwards made it clear from the beginning of the discussion of the first of these three articles — Article 12 — that there was no sleight of hand involved, but that the board’s intent behind the amendments was to spread the cost over five years, instead of all at once, and possibly less if the town can secure grants or raise the money in other ways.

However, that fact was apparently missed by some residents in attendance until the selectboard’s chairman, Jake Patryn, was amending the last of those three specific warrant articles — Article 30 — from $20,000 to zero for website design.

“Within this article,” said Patryn, “we should include the approval of this note we’re talking about. So, if we take it to zero and approve the note for a $250,000 loan [for all three articles], then we remove the burden of having to have all of this in our budget right now as one big, one-time, up-front cost … if we wrap this up with this note over five years.”

During the discussion that followed, Washington County Jail Administrator and Machias resident Rich Rolfe asked Patryn directly, “So, you’ve removed several things from the budget, which is amazing, but it seems like you’re putting them back in in another place. Am I correct in that?” 

“Yes. Absolutely,” acknowledged Patryn, prompting Rolfe to add, “So we’re taking a one-time expense and kicking it down the road, and we’ll be stuck with it for five years?”

As Edwards later noted, “We are confident — with what has come on the radar lately as far as grants, some fundraising opportunities, some donations, and things like that — we can knock out a significant portion of this note before it reaches the life of the loan, anyway. We don’t need to sideline any of these projects. We can see all of these things through. We don’t go up 7.95 percent, it goes down to 2.2 percent.”

“I appreciate the selectmen looking out for the taxpayers,” began former budget committee member and retired UMM business professor Richard Larson, “but I wish these amendments could have been done before the town report was printed.” Larson said the amendments amounted to “appropriating the money, without raising the money,” and created an “awkward” situation going forward.

“Some people might think we’re completely knocking it out, but we’re not,” said Larson. “When you put it down to a zero amount, it’s a little confusing.”

“The appropriations were within the articles previously amended for those projects, as projected by the former manager,” interim Town Manager Christina Therrien replied, “And rather than have the impact of doing all of those in one year, the idea was to take the $250,000, spread it over five years, but seek the grants and reduce the amount we pay back by the grants that come in.”  

The first of those articles to be amended was Article 12, which originally sought a total of $175,700 under Town Activities and Facilities. This was up drastically from $23,125 approved last year. The biggest increase within that article was for the playground off Grove Street, which jumped from $2,000 last year to a request for $100,600 in this year’s warrant.

In his motion to amend Article 12 from $175,700 down to $34,700, Edwards explained, “The plan here is not to displace any of these projects, but to do everything that we just discussed.” Edwards said the board heard “some concern about the 7.95 percent net to taxation increase,” but also became aware that some significant grant funding was available to cover at least part of the cost of the projects and plans contained in Articles 12, 29, and 30.

Continuing, Edwards again stated, “The idea is not to remove any of this. We still want to go forward with all of these projects. We want to get them done, but in light of some recent developments in grant activity and in just the environment of stress that people are under with inflation, we just think it’s important to give us some time to find other funding sources to hopefully cover the bulk of the cost.”

Article 29, meanwhile, sought to raise and appropriate $33,200 for marketing and economic development. Patryn entered the motion to reduce the amount to zero, and as Edwards explained, “These (Articles 29 and 30) were an approximation of what our match will be to complete our comprehensive plan and for the town.” 

Patryn admitted that if the town strikes out with getting funding through grants and other sources, the town will be on the hook for the next five years.

Continuing, the board’s chairman said, “But with the encouragement that we’ve seen through some fundraising opportunities in honor of, you know, fundraising things and straight-up grants, we are confident we can avoid kicking this down the road and wiping out a significant portion of it or possibly all of it.”

While stopping short of saying who such fundraising would be “in honor of,” Patryn’s comment suggests the memory of late town manager Bill Kitchen, who died suddenly on Sept. 9, might play a role in raising money for some of the projects Kitchen put forward.

While $190,000 was removed from the immediate budget by amending Articles 12, 29, and 30, the $250,000 loan includes the estimated first year loan payment of $60,000, Edwards said.

One of the largest amounts of money included in the budget involved $237,670.64 in Article 55 — the final article — in the annual town meeting warrant. 

AOS 96 Superintendent Scott Porter was called on to explain the article which asked voters to authorize the selectboard to issue bonds and notes not to exceed seven years for an amount up to $237,670.64 to purchase a 2024 International LT625 Class A truck and a 2025 International MV607 truck for the Coastal Washington County Institute of Technology for vocational education students to train and obtain Class A and/or Class B commercial driver’s licenses.

Porter explained that the amount requested “is actually a Maine Department of Education grant, so it will be at no cost to the town of Machias. An 18-wheeler-based truck to get a Class A license and a smaller truck — a Class B — will actually be housed at the Columbia facility. Machias students do actually utilize those programs. It’s actually the Machias School Committee that’s in charge of all programs in western Washington County. That’s why it has to be voted on by the citizens of Machias.”

Porter further explained, “Like most grants, the money is sometimes up-fronted and then gets reimbursed. This money is going to come through. We’ve been promised by the Maine Department of Education that there will be no cost for these vehicles.”

Most of the evening’s discussion centered on the above articles with the majority of the warrant’s 55 articles receiving little or no discussion.

Some of the 55 residents who attended the Machias annual town meeting at the Machias Memorial High School gymnasium on Sept. 25. (Photo courtesy Paul Sylvain)

Interim Town Manager Christina Therrien. (Photo courtesy Paul Sylvain)

Former Machias budget committee member and University of Maine at Machias retired business professor Richard Larson told town officials that amendments to Articles 12, 29, and 30 in the town meeting warrant amounted to “appropriating the money, without raising the money.” (Photo courtesy Paul Sylvain)

AOS 96 Superintendent Scott Porter explaining a vocational education-related funding article. (Photo courtesy Paul Sylvain)

Machias Selectboard Vice Chair Ben Edwards responds to a question during the annual town meeting on Sept. 25. (Photo courtesy Paul Sylvain)