RANGELEY — A single warrant article at Tuesday’s sparsely attended special town meeting passed easily, giving the town authority to spend from its reserve accounts both retroactively and through June 30.
The special town meeting was scheduled after Town Manager Joe Roach discovered that a routine warrant article authorizing the Board of Selectmen to spend from the town’s reserve accounts had been left off last year’s printed annual town meeting ballot.
Approval is necessary for selectmen to spend money in reserve accounts, including for town departments, such as fire, highway and police. It was also needed to authorize $290,882 in loan payments from the road projects reserve account for fiscal 2026, which runs from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026.
At Tuesday’s meeting, voters were asked to authorize selectmen to spend money from 24 reserve accounts for projects and payments that had already been approved.
The standard article on reserve spending, which appears annually before voters, was included on the 2025 warrant and on the ballot approved by selectmen, but was accidentally omitted from the printed ballots later presented to voters.
Roach said he discovered the error about a month ago, prompting the special town meeting to ratify spending that has already occurred and funding that is budgeted for the next five months.
The town has already spent more than $609,963, including $25,214 for a boat from the Fire Department’s reserve account, $28,500 from the general reserve for revaluation expenses, $33,992 from the airport account, $7,909 for banners from the Downtown Revitalization account and $8,864 for computers from the technology account.
