KINGFIELD — A change from an annual town meeting in March to one in June requires Kingfield voters to consider a six-month budget when they meet for a town meeting at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Kingfield Elementary School.

There can only be one annual town meeting with election of officers so the six-month budget under consideration Saturday “we’ll get us through to the annual town meeting in June,” said Administrative Assistant Douglas Marble. “Saturday will be a town meeting but not the annual town meeting.”

Voters will consider a half-year “bare bone” proposed budget of $390,634, he said. The full year budget for 2009 was $709,180.

Two items coming in above their department’s half-year requests come from the town’s Public Works Department and the Kingfield Waste Water District.

More overtime and equipment repair is needed during the months of January through April bringing the Public Works budget in at a little more than half, he said.

The Waste Water District needs to repair equipment and with their season starting in June, it wants to be ready for the new season, he said. The department is requesting funding to modify the pump station, to allow a generator hookup, an approximate $10,000 project.

Along with other budget decisions, voters will also consider funding for the town cemeteries. The Kingfield Cemetery Association has requested $9,500, something the budget committee is not recommending, he said.  While the association cannot take care of the cemeteries with the interest on trust funds, it is asking the town to take on the full costs for the town’s two cemeteries, Riverside and Sunnyside, but without knowing or access to the association’s books. 

While the town has increased expenditures for the cemeteries over the years to take care of mowing and other extra items, the town could be at the point of making cemetery care into a town department, making the cemetery caretaker a town employee, he said.

abryant@sunjournal.com