FARMINGTON – Budget requests for the town totaling $3,767,379 will be discussed at two meetings this week. Department heads will defend their budget requests for 2005 before selectmen Monday and the Budget Committee on Wednesday.

In a year when municipalities “dodged the Palesky bullet,” as Budget Committee member William Crandall put it Friday, town officials should attempt to keep costs as low as possible, he said. Though the budget as it stands reduces spending by one tenth of 1 percent, Crandall feels the town should do more.

The committee had discussed the possibility of reducing the budget 1 percent, but Crandall thinks that isn’t enough.

Selectmen and department heads should keep in mind that Palesky didn’t pass for a variety of reasons including the way it was written, he said. Perhaps there are too many services, he added.

Committee member Nancy Twitchell agreed.

“We should strive to do more,” she said.

Crandall said he was frustrated when selectmen voted Tuesday to hire a full-time secretary for the Police Department after they had asked the chief to hire someone part time to save benefit costs.

“We had an opportunity to cut the budget” with that position, he said. “As much as they were looking at a 50 percent cut (if the Palesky tax-cap referendum had passed), (this decision) was a slap in the face to taxpayers.”

Twitchell agreed, though she said she understood the need for consistency in the position.

“The benefit package hurts all the town’s departments,” she said. “It’s just astounding.”

Medical insurance costs for an employee runs between $6,300 and $10,000 annually. The town also offers a retirement benefit to full-time employees.

Since 1997, the overall budget for municipal operations has increased nearly 36 percent, according to Crandall.

Despite his frustration, he said he thought Town Manager Richard Davis was doing a good job, having cut the municipal operations budget request for 2005 by 1.74 percent.

“I feel like I speak for a lot of people,” Crandall said. “I feel it’s my duty to represent the people who don’t come to Budget Committee and selectmen’s meetings.”