The voters of Boothbay filled the Town Hall at Boothbay Railway Village on Monday, May 5 for the annual town meeting at 7:30 p.m. after electing two new selectmen and other public officials throughout the day.

Elected on Monday for the three-year term selectman positions were Dale C. Harmon (250 votes) and Stephen W. Ham (248). Incumbent Ross Edwards received 216 votes and 160 ballots were left blank for this race.

In the race for the unexpired one-year term, left by the unexpected passing of Eric Hodgdon, the victor was Steven C. Lewis (262 votes). His opponent, Nicholas Barth received 146 votes and 29 ballots were left blank.

The winner of the three-way race for the seat on the Boothbay-Boothbay Harbor School Committee was Brian C. Blethen with 215 votes. Fred Lewis received 130 votes and Christina B. Stevens received 85 votes. Nine ballots were left blank.

Tyler Hodgdon ran unopposed for the Boothbay- Boothbay Harbor School District Trustees seat. Hodgdon received 397 votes, 42 ballots were left blank.

Lorraine E. Hodgdon was re-elected to another term as a Boothbay-Boothbay Harbor Cemetery District with 400 votes (no blank ballots).

Mark E. Carter was re-elected to the Boothbay Region Water District trustees with 266 votes. His opponent, Patricia O. Seaward, received 148 votes; 25 ballots were left blank.

At 7:30 p.m., Moderator Al Roberts welcomed the audience of approximately 100 to "… Boothbay's biggest showdown," and asked The Reverend Mary Jo Zimmerli to deliver the Invocation.

Town Manager John Anderson explained that, for the first time since LD1's passage, the proposed budget exceeded LD1.

Anderson noted that the two biggest items on the 2009 budget were fuel costs (despite the town's experimentation with a fuel additive that yielded between 10 and 25 percent increased mileage depending on the vehicle).

And, the public works department was up $61,000, and another contributing factor was the final payment to the water district on the Kenniston Hill project.

Article 8 represented the municipal request of $1,887,137. The items comprising this article, while not listed separately, could be voted on individually just like line items.

The appearance of the categories raised a bit of contention from some voters who initially believed that they would have to approve this budget in its entirety.

Once over this hurdle, Anderson asked the voters to refer to Article 8, Attachment A, the handout they received upon arrival.

This led to the discovery that some people had not been given an attachment or that no two people had the same number of pages to their copy of the attachment.

Resident Larz Neilsen questioned whether it was possible for the community to vote on the requested amounts without full knowledge of how the figures broke down.

Neilson asked whether someone would have to go to the town office to make the copies correctly and then resume town meeting.

Resident Linda Redman suggested that Anderson could be called on to present a breakdown for each category within the article. She then suggested that each category be voted on immediately following his explanation.

The voters agreed this was the best solution to a human error and pressed on.

Moderator Roberts assured the assembly that although the miscopied attachments made for an unusual situation, there was nothing illegal about it.

The administration account, $266,846 created a stir because of the discrepancy in the percentage of salary increases that ranged from three percent to 54 percent.

Resident Nicholas Barth: "I think this is a huge amount of money for a town the size of Boothbay. I am prepared to propose an amendment regarding the difference between full and part time salaries and bring them closer to fiscal reality."

Anderson explained that the salary increases were three percent - across the board. The 54 percent was due to the building and code enforcement account. Last year the position was part time, but has been returned to full time. Anderson said that 52.3 percent of the salary is paid by the water district who utilize the individual two-thirds of the time.

Other instances that affected the wide range in the raises involved increases in steps (specific levels of years worked that are rewarded with a "step" raise), to bring employees in line with the pay rates of other employees in surrounding towns.

Approved: the administration account for the full amount; $6,606 for Animal Control, $57,754 for the assessor account, $131,701 for the building inspector/code enforcement department, $7,500 for the Boothbay General Assistance Fund. $1,000 for the landfill monitoring account (testing of up to eight wells because of the former open-faced landfill location), $37,000 for legal services, $356,710 for public safety, $784,710 for public works, $24,000 for the service account (phone, postage, public hearing notices, etc.), $34,000 for the selectmen's account, $95,000 for the tax collector/treasurer, $4,765 town meeting department, $19,823 for waters and navigation, $50,000 for the unclassified account (unemployment and worker's compensation and insurance), and $9,000 for the recreation account.

Article 9 asked the voters to raise and appropriate the sum of $442,659. All the items in this article passed with no issues: $37,381 for the Boothbay Region Ambulance Service, $14,000 for the Boothbay Cemetery District, $35,000 for the Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library, $316,658 for the Boothbay Region Refuse Disposal District account.

The sum of $39,620 was raised to support outside organizations: the district nurse, Meals on Wheels, St. Andrews Home Health, the Boothbay Region Historical Society, New Hope for Women, Red Cross/EMA, American Legion, BRCTV, and Senior Citizens.

The town voted to approve the sum of $840,000 from estimated revenues to reduce the property tax assessment.

Voters approved the expenditure of $20,000 from the undesignated fund, for the next three years, to rebuild the sidewalks in East Boothbay Village for a grand total of $60,000

The new zoning ordinance changes passed with a few dissenters on each of the three.

When all was said and done it was apparent that the secret ballot vote to increase the property tax levy limit was unavoidable.

Almost all the voters left after dropping their ballots into the box. Fortunately, 69 voted to exceed the limit and only 21 voted no; there would not have been very many voters left to bring the budget into compliance with half the voters already in the parking lot.

Article three, the non-binding referendum question that asked whether the open town meeting should be relocated to the Boothbay Region Elementary School auditorium for future meetings, found 248 residents in favor of the move and 163 against.

The new officials were sworn in and then Selectman and Chair Chuck Cunningham asked Libby Hodgdon to come forward. Said Cunningham, "This last December we lost one of our board members, Eric Hodgdon. Eric was a valuable member of the board of selectmen and friend to the town of Boothbay. On behalf of the board, I have to say that we miss his sense of fun and excitement and his expertise.

"Libby, I understand that the man was the mayor of Barters Island … I give you this town report, which is dedicated to him, and I thank you very much."

Cunningham then called Martha Reed to the front, commending her on her 18 years as deputy tax collector and town clerk.

Although he was not present, Cunningham acknowledged the relentless energy and focus Ken Hanson devoted to the new zoning ordinance.

"Ken saved this town thousands of dollars and we want to thank him for his dedication and all of the time he put into it, I know when I was on the planning board, I would get e-mails from him date stamped three and four in the morning. He was an extremely dedicated member of the planning board and we thank him," said Cunningham.

At 9:45, the Town Meeting to vote on the 2009 budget was adjourned. In just two and one-half hours after questioning a bit, disagreeing a bit, while still sharing a laugh or two, Boothbay got the job done - and went home.