Carpeting, purchasing a loader and a used pickup truck for the highway department, and supporting the DubHub were on the minds of Dublin voters on Tuesday night.
Approximately 50 people attended Dublin’s pre-Town Meeting, a tradition that allows residents to ask questions about warrant articles leading up to town meeting.
Much discussion surrounded a petition article to raise $8,000 to support the Dublin Community Center – 44 percent of the program coordinator’s salary.
“We think you do a great job, we just don’t think a nonprofit should be supported by tax dollars,” Budget Committee chair Charlie Champagne said.
Many stood up in support of the DubHub including May Clark, who asked “what’s a better thing to do with the town’s money than to support the town’s community center?”
Resident John Morris spoke against an article that if passed would raise the property tax exemption for solar systems to 100 percent of the value of the installed equipment.
Morris questioned the full exemption, given Dublin School’s and Yankee Publishing’s large solar systems.
Two pieces of highway equipment – a $10,000 used pickup truck for the highway department and a $148,615 loader – received questions and discussion.
Budget Committee member Steve Baldwin said the town could spend significantly less money – he was quoted $8,528.17 for parts alone – to fix the current loader.
“It’s just smart spending,” Baldwin said.
One article requests $10,000 from a capital reserve fund to purchase a pickup truck for the road agent to use.
The town’s previous road agent used his full-size truck for town purposes – selectmen said he was paid mileage – but the new road agent doesn’t have such a truck.
If passed, the town will get a truck from a government auction.
Two articles ask the town to pull money from capital reserve funds to replace carpeting in the police station and library, something the Budget Committee doesn’t recommend because the town raised an additional $225,000 in taxes to pay off road repairs caused by August’s flood damage.
Both carpets will be replaced with commercial grade tile carpeting if passed, so the town could replace sections of carpet at a time.