LIVERMORE FALLS – Need to pay your taxes, take trash to the dump, or get your kid a book at library? Sorry, no can do.
As a result of a budget disagreement gone awry, nearly all town departments are preparing to close sometime on Friday, not to reopen until at least July 11, and then only if voters approve money to pay for municipal operations.
On Tuesday, the already-lengthy list of closures grew longer with the announcement that the Recreation Department summer program will be closed until at least July 12.
“I just sent a letter home with the kids today,” said Brenda Bryant, who was notified last Friday of the town-mandated closure of every department except those dealing with emergencies.
Police, fire and dispatch services will remain open on an as-needed basis. Employees in those departments have been advised they are working on a volunteer-basis only, with no guarantee of compensation.
Town workers – all of them – will go without pay until at least July 11, whether they are able to work or not. Many say they will be ok until the July 10 special town meeting – when operating funds could be approved – but some are worried about how they’ll make it two weeks or more without pay.
Parents who don’t work for the town may have to worry, too. Bryant said her six-week program, which serves over 160 kids, is often used by parents who need child care while they’re working. “Now they have to look for other means until we’re up and running,” she said.
The program provides free breakfast and lunch to the kids, according to Bryant, so parents will also have to budget more money for food into their summer schedule.
Her 16 counselors, assistant director and arts director will also all be going without pay.
“I guess I just feel, I don’t know, as if somebody should have thought it out better,” Bryant said. She explained at first she thought the program would be able to go on as planned, since taxpayers had voted to fund it at the June 13 town meeting.
“I didn’t think it was going to hurt me until Friday,” she said, when she received the notification from Town Manager Martin Puckett that all departments would close.
Bryant told summer program-goers about the shut-down on Tuesday, she said. “I explained it to them as simple as possible,” she said. “They don’t understand.”
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