19 May WCME Midcoast News May 19, 2015

Decision Day Nears

In Brunswick, we’re approaching a decisive hour, with the town council due to approve a new budget plan a week from Thursday, and a consensus developing among councilors that there will be a tax rate increase in the range of three to four percent, with council chair Sarah Brayman asking town manager John Eldridge to formulate several scenarios for future cuts that would trim the budget from a currently projected hike of nearly five percent.

No Parade

In Bath, Smith-Tobey American Legion Post 21, which for years has organized the city’s annual Memorial Day parade, says it can’t afford to do so this year., and city manager Bill Giroux says the parade has been cancelled. The post has pleaded guilty to felony charges of conducting an illegal gambling operation, an video poker operation that according to a prosecutor involved hundreds of thousands of cash payouts over a period of years. The video machines weren’t illegal, but cash payouts are forbidden by state law.

Hyde Pulls Away

The Hyde School, the private boarding school in Bath, is pulling its boys’ basketball team from competitive play with other Maine high schools after school officials say their students were subjected to racial taunting and questionable officiating in February’s Western Class D championship game in Augusta. Hyde will compete instead in the New England Prep School Athletic Council.