A Few Thousand Here, A Few Thousand There

Last night the Peru Selectmen got an update on plans for a new home base for the Northern Oxford Regional Ambulance Service (known as Med-Care by the locals). Jim Pulsifer, a former selectman himself and long-time member of the NORAS Board of Directors, explained that the new facility would be located on a 3-to-4-acre parcel on River Road in Mexico, adjacent to the Oxford Federal Credit Union. Here are some bullet points:

• total cost of project: $1.8 million
• four double-bays, with doors front and back
• 30-year mortgage
• debt service not to exceed $115,000 annually
• local assessments to increase by $2 per capita per annum
  

Pulsifer described the $1.8 million as a cautious estimate to eliminate any upside surprises. The final cost of the project could well come in under that amount and would be reduced by the proceeds of the sale of the current facility. Pulsifer said that he would be satisfied if the sale price for the old site ended up offsetting the cost of the land at the new site ($100,000).

The proposed construction comes three years after an earlier attempt by Med-Care to expand generated considerable controversy in the River Valley (refresh your memory here). The increase in Peru's subsidy to Med-Care will come to about $3,100 annually. NORAS hopes to finance the project through the Maine Bond Bank, which consolidates public-sector borrowings into tax-advantaged bonds. The only thing that could stop the project now, Pulsifer said, would be an excessively high interest rate approaching, say, five percent. A favorable interest rate, it must be recognized, is not a given in today's municipal bond market. Fears of defaults by states and/or cities have cratered the muni bond market, as can be seen in the chart below (lower bond prices, remember, mean higher yields):

price of iShares S&P National Municipal Bond Fund

In other business, the Selectmen decided to delay restructuring health benefits for town employees until the beginning of the next fiscal year on July 1. Keeping the "Cadillac" plan now in place will cost the Town an extra $100 per month per employee, or about $2,400 for the January-to-June period. After July 1, employees will have the option to keep their current coverage by paying the $100 difference in monthly premiums out of pocket. Interestingly, the plan administrator is of the opinion that employees would not likely take the bait, as the marginal benefits received would not be worth the added cost.

Think about that for a minute. The Town, at least until July 1, is picking up an option that would make no sense to an individual shopping on his own. For the record, Selectman Tim Holland favored an immediate changeover, while Laurieann Milligan and Ed Ferland voted to delay. Rick Vaughn and Kathy Hussey, as town employees, abstained from the voting.

MORE SLIPPAGE: Peru's Municipal Revenue Sharing distribution for January was $8,745, or $300 less than January 2010. This reversed a trend over the prior four months in which MRS payments were up year-over-year. Year-to-date the Town has received almost $1,000 less than last year. If we extrapolate the January shortfall over the final five months of the fiscal year, Peru's total distribution for the year will end up down $2,500 from FY2010 and over $4,000 below the State's projection.

Peru To Tackle Wind-Power Ordinance

The Peru Selectmen last night met with the Planning Board to discuss steps toward developing a local ordinance for regulating wind-power development. Although the Town has not been approached with any proposal for a wind-power project to date, both boards feel that putting a local ordinance in place will give Peru citizens a better opportunity to have a say as to whether, where, and how such development would be allowed. The nearby towns of Woodstock, Buckfield, Sumner, Rumford, Roxbury, Carthage, Dixfield, and Canton are all being considered as possible host communities for wind-power projects. It is reasonable to believe that Peru may be next.

Last month Peru joined a consortium of towns working on ordinance provisions that could be shared by all. The Bethel Area Wind Power Committee (with representatives from Bethel, Newry, Hanover, Greenwood, and Woodstock) came up with a work product (view here) that Peru intends to use as a starting point for its own ordinance. The regional committee was seeking a balanced set of guidelines that would be construed as neither pro-wind nor anti-wind.

Peru residents who wish to volunteer to serve on an ad hoc committee to help develop a local wind-power ordinance are invited to attend a meeting of the Planning Board on Tuesday, January 25, at 6 p.m. at the Peru Town Office.