PITTSTON — At this year’s town meeting, Pittston residents are set to vote on an 18-month budget as the town switches its budget to a July 1 fiscal year. 

The annual town meeting is set for 9:45 a.m. March 15 at Pittston-Randolph Consolidated School at 1023 School Drive, followed by the municipal election on Tuesday at the Town Office.

If voters approve the warrant articles as presented, the proposed town budget for 18 months is $3,044,759, not including the school or county budget. If the town prorated last year’s proposed budget to an 18-month fiscal year, the proposed budget is a 4.2% increase.

Pittston’s current property tax rate is $10.60 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. It’s too soon to know what the property tax rate will be for the upcoming budget year because the Kennebec County budget and the spending plan for the Gardiner-area school district have not been finalized yet.

Switching to a fiscal year in line with state agencies will allow the select board and budget committee to put together a more accurate budget, Chairperson Jane Hubert said. 

“It would be better for the town because we go to the town meeting in a week and we don’t even know the school or county budget and with (the change to) the fiscal year, we will have all of those figures better figured out,” Hubert said.

Hubert said that although the budget is stretched out until July 1, 2026, it will not affect resident’s tax dollars or require homeowners to pay more than needed.  

It will, however, change the month taxes are due. On a July to June fiscal year, tax payments are due in October and April. Currently, Pittston runs on a January to December calendar year.

“When you look at an 18-month budget, it seems like a lot of money, but it’s a year and a half of a budget that voters will be approving. So, they have to realize, they are raising money for salaries, or the fire department. Everything is 18 months, but then after that, it will be a regular year budget. The figure’s look big but taxpayers will still only pay their taxes twice a year,” Hubert said.  

Town Treasurer Christian Jensen said the town’s select board voted in 1997 to change its fiscal year, but never went through with it. If every warrant article passes at Town Meeting on Saturday, the budget will automatically be prorated to an 18-month span.

Along with voting on the budget, residents will have the option of funding the Blodgett Road culvert repair for $350,000 or of taking out a loan to pay for it.

Town election on Tuesday

Voting for the municipal election is planned from noon to 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Pittston Town Office at 38 Whitefield Road.

Todd Lindstrom and Christine Holzinger are running for Hubert’s spot on the Selectboard.

Hubert decided not to run for reelection after serving for 16 years, on and off and at 79, she said she wants to do something else.

“I really want to join a book club and not read the Department of Transportation manual,” she joked.

Christine Holzinger is one of two candidates running for the open seat on the Pittston Board of Selectmen. Photo courtesy of Christine Holzinger

Holzinger moved to Pittston with her husband 40 years ago and together they ran a farm and raised four children who went through the Gardiner schools. After her husband’s death in 2022 and her retirement, she found herself with free time and wanted to find a way to dedicate it to the town she loves. She is concerned about the taxpayers and the divisiveness in town and wants to unite people rather than divide them.

Pittston residents are divided on a number of issues, including the RiverWalk, which is 60 acres of town-owned land set aside for recreation that the select board has temporarily limited access to until the area can be cleaned up, either by professionals or volunteers. Because the area is the site of a former gravel pit, the discovery of a leaky drum in 2023 lead the select board to order testing that found low levels of arsenic.

People are also concerned that Jewett Road is estimated to cost the town more than $2 million to repair. Road Commissioner Sam Snow repaired the road in 2019, but after the road showed signs of distress nearly a year later, an engineering firm said the job was poor quality and the roadway requires yet another repair.

Holzinger wants to choose town projects wisely. She said she doesn’t want to put money into fixing up the RiverWalk until the town decides how to move forward on fixing the roads.

“There are so many financial demands on roads, and I’m not sure how Jewett Road is going, but that’s big money and we have culverts failing and that is a priority in my mind,” she said. “That’s got to come before recreation. It means the difference between citizens being able to get in and out of their roads to go to work. Their mobility is dependent on the roads.”

Lindstorm declined an interview with the Kennebec Journal. He said he is a private person and that it is nothing against the newspaper.

He provided a flyer that gives a short biography and his goals if he is elected to the select board. He is currently a member of the town’s RiverWalk committee.

The flyer states Lindstorm has lived in Pittston for 21 years after moving with his wife and daughter from Ohio to work at Time Warner Cable Co., which he retired from after 30 years. He attends select board meetings on a regular basis and wants to help the community become more involved with the day-to-day operations of the town.

“Todd is very concerned about fiscal restraint. It’s important that the taxpayer’s money be spent wisely and conservatively. The ability of the Selectboard to manage spending and operate within its means is vital to the town’s future,” Lindstorm wrote in his flyer.

The other races on Tuesday’s ballot are uncontested: Peter Kelley and James Lotheridge are running for the two spots on the Planning Board and Linda Caputo, Sharon Gleason and Cheryl Peaslee are running for the Budget Committee, which has four open seats.