By Suzanne Hodgson

Staff Writer

Outside agencies requested approximately $270,000 in funding during Kennebunkport budget discussions last week. 

The requests from 27 agencies, ranging from social services to Kennebunkport Emergency Medical Services, were reviewed March 18 during a meeting of the budget board and board of selectmen.

The anticipated $6.34 million town budget has an 8 percent increase or $492,000 more than last year’s budget. The increase includes $250,000 more for legal fees and capital spending. 

Residents will vote June 12 on not only the budget but to deviate from a state law that mandates how much a town can increase its spending each year to keep them from growing too quickly. 

This is not the first time Kennebunkport has gone over the LD 1 cap. 

“We’ve gone over a couple of times previously, and been under several times previously,” said Town Manager Larry Mead. “It’s a funny measurement.”

The LD 1 cap changes year to year depending on inflation and growth in a town.  This year Kennebunkport is proposing going approximately $300,000 over the cap.

Built on assumptions of the school budget and town budget, residents face an estimated increase of 14 cents on every $1,000 of valuation, or a 2.3 percent tax increase.  

Mead proposed keeping tax increase down by using $300,000 from a reserve fund balance, as the town does every year. Money in the account includes three months of Kennebunkport’s operating costs.

“It’s like taking money out of the bank,” Mead said. However, Mead said he thinks Kennebunkport eventually will need to pay more taxes without depleting the fund balance, currently at $3.7 million.

Fourteen different social services agencies that work with people from Kennebunkport requested funds from the town.  

York County Community Action, Day One, Caring Unlimited, Counseling Services, Child Abuse Services, Southern Maine Agency and Aging, Senior Center Lower Village, Biddeford Free Clinic, American Red Cross, York County Shelters, Southern Maine Parent Awareness, Southern Maine Medical Center Visiting Nurses, SARS and York County Food Rescue Program requested a total of $21,196. Mead suggested maintaining the existing funding of $18,194.

Some members of the seven recreation and other agencies that requested town funding addressed selectmen and budget board members at the meeting. 

Connie Garber, transportation director of York County Community Action requested $8,000, although Mead suggested flat-funding of $6,000. 

The organization runs Shoreline Explorer, the public transportation network from York to downtown Kennebunk. 

Garber’s presentation showed declining ridership last summer over the previous year for the Kennebunkport area. The Intown trolley and Kennebunk Shuttle that runs through Kennebunk and Kennebunkport started to charge a dollar for adult riders and Garber said that may have been why the ridership had declined among adults.

Budget board member Chris Perry suggested no funding for either the shuttle or visiting nurses program, and proposed using those funds for the 13 other social services programs.

Perry said the shuttle was facing a “failure of ridership” and the visiting nurses program was redundant because Kennebunkport already has a public health care program in place.

Garber said the trolley kept traffic and parking issues in Kennebunkport down and many area children were avid trolley riders to the beach. 

Kennebunkport Emergency Medical Services requested $2,800 less funding in the new budget, asking for $109,000 from the town.

Mead said in past years selectmen and budget board members had many discussions of how much money was going to Kennebunkport Emergency Medical Services, so he, members of the community and both boards created a group last summer to learn more about the medical service.

“We have a much better understanding now. We’ve identified some options on how to structure in the future to keep the cost under control,” Mead said. 

Chip Howarth, president of Kennebunkport Emergency Medical Services said many times it can’t bill for services because a person does not want assistance or to be taken to the hospital in the ambulance.

Howarth and Mead said meetings to discuss how to keep the cost of services down will likely continue this summer. 

A $3,000 increase in spending was proposed for the town’s Memorial Day event.  Mead said every year residents tell they can’t hear what was happening because of the sound system. 

General government committee and    requests from the zoning board of appeals, conservation commission and growth planning committee of $75,000 was nearly unchanged from the previous year.

Town departments have presented proposed budgets to the boards and selectmen were expected to vote on each warrant article Thursday, March 25, after Post deadline.

The budget board will meet to go over the budget again April 1. Both boards will meet again April 8 to finalize the budget before it goes to residents for a June 12 vote. 

Staff Writer Suzanne Hodgson can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 233.