By Terry Karkos,Staff Writer

RUMFORD – Town Manager Steve Eldridge was busy crunching budget numbers from 8 a.m. into the afternoon Tuesday in his Rumford municipal building office.

Because a majority of voters at Monday night’s special town meeting shot down an article that would have allowed the town to spend more than the state approved, the town must now cut $120,000 from its 2005-06 budget.

That $7.02 million budget was approved by annual town meeting voters in June. However, voters improperly approved raising $120,000 more than the state said the town should raise under the formula established by L.D. 1, which aims to reduce property taxes.

The June vote was by a show of hands rather than by the required secret ballot.

That prompted Monday night’s special town meeting.

Article 1 of that warrant asked voters to increase the property tax levy limit of $4,837,594 established for Rumford by the state, because the June town meeting budget approved by voters resulted in a tax commitment greater than the established property tax levy limit.

The article failed by a tally of 51 to 41.

That means, Eldridge said, that the Board of Selectmen and Budget Committee must now meet and make recommendations on where to cut $120,000.

Another special town meeting for voters to approve their recommended $120,000 cuts must be held, he said, probably in August.

That’s why Eldridge was poring over the budget Tuesday, to provide recommendations to both municipal groups.

“The budget was approved, so we can continue to operate,” he said.

“This has to do with our commitment dollars. My recommendation to selectmen will be to not cut the operating budget. I have no plans to cut services,” Eldridge said.

He said about 90 residents attended Monday night’s meeting in the Municipal Building and discussed the article for more than an hour.

He said he explained where the cost increases were, that health insurance had risen 8.78 percent over last year, and that fuel and salt costs were also up.

“We also had contractual obligations to fulfill, and those we couldn’t control,” Eldridge said.

“Each department head was requested to cut their budget by 2 percent, and many did. Overall, the department heads, selectmen, the Budget and Finance committees all did a great job,” he added.

But now, after Monday night’s vote, “we will look at how to do business down the road and who we fund. Maybe it’s time that specialty groups don’t get funded,” Eldridge said.

He said Rumford’s former town manager, Robbie Welch, who retired late last year, “historically kept a tight budget, and we didn’t change much of it.”