PHILLIPS — Residents will consider a proposed $970,746 municipal budget for 2009-10 during the annual town meeting Saturday.
The selectmen’s proposal represents a $4,055 increase over the current budget, Town Manager Jim Collins said Monday.
That amount does not factor in the town’s share of education subsidy for SAD 58, which is $641,801.
The meeting begins at 9 a.m. June 27 at the Phillips Elementary School.
Town and school officials will be elected from the floor at that time. A selectman’s seat currently held by Eric Kinney and a SAD 58 board seat held by Mary Jane Thorndike are up for election.
Voters will be asked to consider buying a new plow truck to replace one of three 1991 trucks that are getting tired, Collins said Monday. The frames of the 18-year-old trucks are getting thin and the rear-ends of two of them have been replaced with used parts, he said.
The bodies of the trucks are very rusty.
Two of them were bought used from a state equipment auction, he said.
Residents will be asked to authorize selectmen to enter into a lease/purchase agreement for the truck equipped with a body, plow, wing and sander not to exceed $135,000 and finance it over 10 years.
If that article passes, voters will be asked to raise and appropriate $16,850 for the first payment.
The select board and Budget Committee are both in agreement on the truck, Collins said.
The Budget Committee’s proposal is $967,246, which is $555 more than the current budget.
The $3,500 difference between the two panels’ recommendations comes under community services recommendations. Selectmen are recommending raising up to $500 with a match for operating expenses of the American Legion while the Budget Committee recommends no money.
Selectmen also recommended raising up to $2,500 if matched to contribute to operating expenses of each of the Phillips Area Community Center and The Phillips Historical Society. The Budget Committee suggests up to $1,000 to be raised if matched for each of them.
Center representatives requested $10,000 and society members had requested $5,000.
With the town’s anticipated revenues down nearly $72,000, which equals about $1 per $1,000 of valuation on the tax rate, the town had to prioritize spending in this year’s budget process.
The budget also covers only three days of having the transfer station open instead of the current four, Collins said.
“We felt we had to make cuts wherever we could,” Collins said.
The hours the transfer station will be open have not been determined but they’ll definitely maintain the weekend hours, he said.
dperry@sunjournal.com