Fifty Warrant Articles in Fifty-One Minutes
Tremont makes quick work of its annual town meeting and how you can get involved
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Paradis Ace Hardware.
TREMONT—On Tuesday, May 13, the Town of Tremont held its annual town meeting, approving 50 warrant articles that included the school budget, municipal budget, and miscellaneous municipal articles including land use ordinance amendments with little opposition and few questions.
There were approximately 53 people in attendance.
The day prior, Monday, May 12, had been the town’s secret ballot vote and there were 83 total votes cast for the three uncontested seats on the ballot.
Current select board chair James “Jamie” Thurlow was reelected for a three-year term after receiving 77 votes with two write-ins and four blanks amongst his total count.
Current school committee vice chair Jessica Bass was reelected for a three-year term after receiving 71 votes with four write-ins and eight blanks amongst her total count.
Lawrence W. Albee was elected to the MDI High School Board of Trustees for a three-year term after receiving 80 votes with zero write-ins and three blanks amongst his total count.
ANNUAL TOWN MEETING - SCHOOL BUDGET
With Pete Madeira as moderator, the Tremont Consolidated budget made up the first 16 articles, all of which passed.
Article 12 asked voters to approve the town’s appropriation for the cost of funding public education as described in the state’s “essential programs and services funding act” in the amount of $2,347,999. There was a second amount listed in this article of $1,907,591 and an audience member asked what the difference between the two amounts was.
School Superintendent Mike Zboray responded that the larger amount was the total but the school was expecting approximately $440,000 in funding from the state, so $1,907,591 is the amount that the town will have to appropriate.
Article 15 asked voters to approve the total amount that the school would expend with a total budget of $5,359,808. An audience member asked how many students were in the Tremont school currently and Principal Jandrea True responded that there are approximately 125 students in the school currently.
Madeira then asked the audience member if he wanted to know the total number of students from Tremont, including high school students and he said yes. AOS Business Manager Nancy Thurlow responded that the total number of Tremont students including high school students is approximately 160.
A second audience member then asked what year pre-K would be started at the Tremont Consolidated School, and True responded that the pre-K program is already occurring.
The total school budget that was voted on is $5,359,808 with a town appropriation amount of $4,587,820.
ANNUAL TOWN MEETING - MUNICIPAL BUDGET
Articles 17-30 were town budget articles and all passed with no discussion.
According to Town Manager Jesse Dunbar, the total tax based appropriations for the town budget are as follows.
Municipal budget $1,525,237
Tremont Consolidated School budget - $4,587,820
High School assessment budget - $1,349,848
County Budget assessment budget - $366,426
Assessor Overlay budget - $27,000
This makes the total amount of appropriation from property taxes for the town’s budget $7,856,331.
ANNUAL TOWN MEETING - OTHER MUNICIPAL ARTICLES
Articles 31-50 were miscellaneous town articles and land use amendments. A couple of articles garnered questions or discussion, but all passed.
Article 40 is the town’s alewife lease which is the town’s right to lease the fishway at the outlet of Seal Cove Pond and gives the town the responsibility of management of the fishery and the right to set the terms of any lease.
“Who will oversee that? Just from an environmental point of view, is there any organization that is weighing in on the sustainability of the alewife population?” asked a resident.
Town Manager Jesse Dunbar replied that at the moment, this is a required question because if the town doesn’t approve and maintain the right to this lease every year the town will lose its right to the lease and the state will take it over.
Dunbar then added that “at the moment, the town can not lease it because the Department of Marine Resources will not let us because the number of alewifes is not sustainable to harvest. There is a long multi-year process to build it back up to where, it may be in the future, but we have to continue to ask the question” every year.
The audience member then clarified, “But it ensures that you will be monitoring the sustainability of that population?”
Dunbar replied, “Yes.”
Article 42 dealt with Pacific Hall, a building located at 735 Tremont Road that had been gifted to the town in 2020.
An audience member asked for further explanation regarding what the article is about.
Dunbar said, “The town voted to accept the gift in 2020 and since then, the select board has had numerous, numerous conversations and ideas about what the town could do with the property and has not been able to come up with a use for the town that our own ordinance would allow.”
The original donor, W. Morgan Churchman, asked the town if it wanted to give the property back to him if they did not have a use for it and the select board agreed to put it before the voters.
Another audience member made the comment that one of the biggest issues with the property is that there is no land available to make a parking lot sufficient for community events.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
May 2025 ordinance amendments explained
HOW TO GET INVOLVED IN THE TOWN OF TREMONT
Listed below are all of Tremont’s town boards and committees listed on its website.
All photos: Shaun Farrar/Bar Harbor Story
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