SCARBOROUGH — Voters on Nov. 4 will decide bond referendums to fund revaluation of the town and acquisition of a new fire truck.

Town councilors voted unanimously in favor of putting both items on the ballot in their meeting Wednesday.

The fire truck would require borrowing $585,000 to replace a nearly 25-year-old truck at the Pleasant Hill Fire Station. 

The town revaluation, with interior inspections, requires an authorization of $479,000 to fund a third-party company to conduct the survey, and updated software.

Town Manager Tom Hall said the last town valuation was in 2005, and councilors agreed a revaluation is overdue.

“I dont expect wide changes in value, but we’ll see,” Hall said. “This will certainly, I hope, address some concerns with assessment practices.”

The new town values would be effective for 2016.

Canine committee

Also Wednesday, the ad-hoc Canine Education and Enforcement Committee delivered its recommendations for how to better enforce leash laws and protect endangered piping plovers on town beaches.

The committee suggested the town de-list Ferry Beach as an essential habitat for piping plovers, add parts of Scarborough Beach to the habitat listing, and remove the new restricted areas from town beaches.

The council will take up the committee’s recommendations sometime this winter.

The CEEC presentation and councilors both praised volunteer beach monitors and piping plover coordinator Ryan Wynne for their work this summer, when there were few violations of the new laws and piping plovers had a record-setting year on town beaches.

Councilor Bill Donovan said the volunteers, present on town beaches in mornings and evenings to monitor piping plover areas, made the summer successful because they offered “not a police presence, but a gentler, kinder, more educational approach.” 

“It’s been a wonderful contribution to the public,” he said. 

Shelby Carignan can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 106 or scarignan@theforecaster.net. Follow her on Twitter: @shelbycarignan.