JAY – Selectmen and Budget Committee members trimmed $34,550 from the sewer budget and added $28,000 to the highway budget but left the library and waste disposal budgets as proposed Monday.
It was the first of two nights of budget review for the proposed $6 million spending plan for municipal operations for 2006-07, which doesn’t include school or county costs.
The budget review continues at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 18, at the Jay Middle School.
Selectmen, with Budget Committee members going along, took $30,400 for a generator out of the proposed $446,500 sewer budget to be paid for from the capital reserve account as suggested by Town Manager Ruth Marden.
The two panels also agreed to reduce the sewer’s fuel budget by $750,000 bringing it down to $11,950. Another reduction came from an error in adding for the health insurance line.
Sewer Superintendent Mark Holt said he proposes to ask selectmen to increase the annual $185 sewer-user fees per unit to $200 per unit in the near future to help bring in more revenue to cut back on what taxpayers have to pay to supplement the sewer system.
In the highway budget, $18,000 was added to the sand and salt line bringing it to $138,000 and $10,000 was added to fuel to bring the proposed amount to $90,000. Those figures increased the proposed budget to $1.4 million.
Highway Foreman John Johnson said he budgeted $50,000 last year and has spent nearly all of it and they’re only halfway through the year.
He budgeted $80,000 this year, but Selectman Rick Simoneau said he was concerned it wasn’t enough.
Everything has increased, Johnson said Monday, but it’s a “crapshoot” to try and predict what the cost of fuel will be in 18 months.
He also said the department doesn’t have a “no idle policy” it has a “no start ’em policy” unless it snows.
The crew is doing other jobs around the highway buildings to try and save money on fuel, he said.
Several budget committee members questioned the proposed $153,326 library budget, in particular the increase in paying the new librarian, who has a master’s degree, $30,000 when she comes on board after the current librarian retires. They also questioned the library being open only 24 hours a week.
Both the selectmen and the committee agreed with the $1.04 million waste disposal budget.
Marden and selectmen commended recycling coordinator, Bob Sanders for keeping his budget at a 1.37 percent increase over the current $1.03 million.
Sanders even decreased the amount to be raised for fuel/heating oil from $26,000 this year to $22,100 for 2006-07.
Budget Committee member Tom Fortier told selectmen they need to be looking at what the town needs and must have instead of what is nice to have during the budget process. Curbside pickup is nice to have, he said, but is not a must-have.
Committee member Al Landry also recommended that selectmen be looking at having town employees pay some of their health insurance costs during negotiations. Currently town employees’ health insurance for themselves is picked up by the town, but employees are responsible for 20 percent of their dependents’ insurance costs.
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