Ripley spending plan up only slightly from last year

Morning Sentinel, February 28, 2008

(excerpt) Ripley voters will consider a spending plan slightly more than last year's $532,500 -- about $232,000 of which is for the municipal budget -- when they assemble at 10 a.m. Saturday for a town meeting at the Ripley Grange Hall.

"It may go slightly over," said Town Clerk Vernal Sinclair. "The new middle school in Dexter is going to hit us. They have started the ground work."

Sinclair said the mill rate is expected to climb from $11.45 per thousand dollars of valuation to as high as $14 per thousand, when the town adds the school work and the cost to maintain 26 miles of road.

Voters raised $95,000 last year for roads. It's expected that costs will run over because of the increase in fuel and surcharges, according to Sinclair.