Challenger ousts

Proctor selectman

PROCTOR — The town’s Select Board chairman, Eric “Rick” Anderson, was defeated by a 2-1 margin Tuesday by challenger Richard Horner.

Anderson, who has held the two-year seat since 2009, was defeated by Horner — a former selectman — by a vote of 200-95.

In another contested race for an empty three-year seat on the School Board, Preston Garcia prevailed over Lisa Miser, 151-136.

Monday night, voters approved all spending items for the town and school district.

By unanimous decisions, voters approved a general fund budget of $748,835 and a highway budget of $409,187. The proposed $63,846 library budget received one “nay” vote and more than 100 “yea” votes.

Those spending articles combined represent a $15,472 decrease from the budgets approved by voters last year.

But despite the decreased spending, town officials projected a new tax rate of 0.9016 per $100 of assessed value — a slight increase over this year’s tax rate of 0.8980.

The proposed $5,362,240 school budget passed Monday by a vote of 82-47. The new school spending plan represents a $254,924 or 5 percent increase over last year’s $5,107,316 budget.