MADISON -- If voters agree, the town will use $17 million once dedicated to tax-increment financing for Backyard Farms for its own economic development.

Town Manager Norman Dean said this week that the Board of Selectmen voted Monday night to amend the town's ordinance. Residents will consider the amendment during a special town meeting Feb. 11.

The town's tax increment financing deal with the mega-greenhouse called for the town and Backyard Farms to share proceeds from taxes. But the state Legislature repealed taxes on business equipment and personal property earlier this year.

Backyard Farms will continue to be taxed for their current personal property, Dean said.

Dean explained that the TIF money would have gone to Backyard Farms over a 20-year period, but the tomato grower instead will benefit from the new law.

"The thing is, that TIF money needs to be spent for economic development," Dean said. "We may be in a position to hire an economic-development director, and some of those funds would go for that."

Madison has not had an economic-development director since Perley Beane retired three years ago.

Since then, Backyard Farms has located its huge tomato-growing operation on River Road. But the town needs an economic boost in its downtown, Dean said.

"Some towns in southern Maine don't want economic development," Dean said. "But here in Somerset County, we've lost a lot of jobs."

Dean said town officials already have economic development projects in mind. A renovation of Pine Street, which leads to Madison Paper Industries, repairs on River Road and a sewer line on U.S. Route 201 to the Skowhegan line are among them, he said.

The special town meeting at Madison Junior High School begins at 7 p.m.

"I can't think of any reason they would oppose it," Dean said. "It doesn't affect Backyard Farms at all."

Also on Monday night, selectmen discussed the reconstruction of Pine Street. Dean said the plan is to dovetail the project next summer with the sanitary district, which will be replacing pipes there.

The town would spend $200,000 on a new sidewalk and wider travel lanes, Dean said. It would use some creative financing as well as former TIF money for the project, he said.

The board also granted the fire department permission to study an addition to its fire hall, Dean said. The fire station is cramped, he said.

Larry Grard -- 474-9534, Ext. 343

lgrard@centralmaine.com