The latest news about Maine lakes and ponds.

Casco Residents to Decide About Community Center and Property Revaluation

October 22, 2008 - CASCO -- It was a busy season for citizens' groups in Casco, one that resulted in enough signatures collected to add referendum questions to the November ballot to tear down the Casco Community Center, redo the 2007 property revaluation and allow for recall of town officials.

A fourth referendum question, placed on the ballot by the selectmen, will ask residents to allow School Administrative District 61 to close the Casco Memorial School.

There will be a public hearing to discuss the referendum questions at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 22, at the Central Fire Station on Route 121 before residents vote Nov. 4.

The ordinance for recall of elected town officials would allow citizens to petition for a vote to recall selectmen without requiring a stated reason.

According to the ordinance submitted with the referendum question, the petition to call for a vote to recall town officials would require signatures from 10 percent of the number of local voters who cast ballots in the last gubernatorial election.

After the town clerk certified the petition and submitted it to the board of selectmen, selectmen would have 10 days to order an election by secret ballot to be held between 45-60 days afterwards, unless a regular election was coming up within 90 days. If successful, the recall of public officials would take effect immediately.

The ordinance does not specify how the town would replace a recalled official, but Town Manager David Morton said the town would have to hold another election. Morton called the proposal a “very expensive process.”

The referendum question proposing to remove the community center comes as part of an ongoing debate over what to do with the community center and where to house town offices.

Previously housing the recreation department and town offices, the community center building was deemed structurally unsound and found to have a mold problem in 2006, leading recreation programs to move to the Crooked River Elementary School and town offices to move to a building behind the fire station on Route 121.

The referendum question proposes dedicating more than $122,000 from the undesignated fund balance to remove the old town office and gym at 940 Meadow Road, leaving the post office intact. The board of selectmen voted to recommend the warrant article.

At the June 11 town meeting residents approved by 65-54 borrowing $750,000 to complete the minimum repairs needed to re-open the community center in Casco village to residents. They also approved allowing the town to borrow up to $175,000 for the conversion of Casco Memorial School for use as town offices.

But the town meeting warrant lacked a signature from Morton, who is also the town's treasurer, and so town officials had to schedule a special town meeting to approve the 10-year bond to pay for renovations to the community center and the Casco Memorial School. Residents voted 92-75 against the more than $1.2 million bond, including interest, at the Aug. 19 special town meeting.

After the August special town meeting, Morton said the next steps were unclear. The most recent referendum question submitted by Casco resident Wayne Ward asks voters to approve tearing down the community center.

After the town’s 2007 property revaluation, some waterfront property owners thought their values and taxes were raised unfairly. Bob Levesque, who owns two houses on Sebago Lake, founded the Casco Tax Fairness Association to protest the revaluation.

“It was a hit or miss revaluation,” Levesque said, adding that all waterfront properties saw big increases in value.

The referendum question asks residents to spend no more than $290,000 from the undesignated fund balance to conduct a complete revaluation of all property in Casco. On the ballot is also a statement from the finance committee saying the proposal is a "waste of taxpayer money."

Many members of the association own second homes in Casco, which means only 40 families out of more than 200 in the association are registered to vote in the town, Levesque said.

“The percentage is very low," Levesque said. "It’s very hard to be a force this way.”

Acting for other property owners, Levesque filed 233 abatement applications in April, all requesting lower property values and claiming discrimination due to the fact that their property was on the water. The abatement requests averaged more than $104,000 in reduction of value and totaled more than $24 million.

All but about six of the abatement applications filed had been reviewed by the end of July and of those all but 12 were denied by the town, according to John O'Donnell, the town's assessor and owner of John E. O'Donnell & Associates Inc., the company hired to submit the revaluation.

In the 12 cases the applications were accepted, annual tax bills were lowered by only a modest amount, generally around $30 to $90, O’Donnell said, adding that researching the abatement requests took almost 200 hours.

The idea of a property revaluation is to redistribute the tax burden. The state law says that taxes must be assessed equitably and in accordance to just value. When town property tax assessments drop below 70 percent of the market value, a town must revalue all properties.

An appeal of O’Donnell’s decisions is currently pending review by the Cumberland County Commissioners.

By state mandate, Casco residents must vote to allow SAD 61 to close Casco Memorial School before the district can follow through. After closing the school, the district will offer the building and land back to the town.

A previous proposal to convert the school for use as town office space passed at town meeting in June, but funding for the proposal failed at the special town meeting in August.

October 17, 2008
By Julia Davis
Reporter - Lakes Region Weekly


Lakes:
Regions: Sebago


Print this story

Email this story

return to Lake News