WINTHROP — If the town takes care of all its capital improvement needs during the next fiscal year, it will cost $887,207.

Outgoing Town Manager Ryan Frost presented the first draft of the 2019-20 fiscal year budget to councilors Monday night, a spending plan that included total expenses of $8,713,269, a $1,205,072 — or 16 percent — increase from the current budget’s $7,508,197.

The capital improvement expenses present the big driver to that spending increase. If all capital improvements are included in the final budget, they would total $1,144,766, an $887,207 — or 344 percent — increase from the current year’s $257,559.

Frost was clear in pointing out that the proposal was far from a finished product. In fact, the budget was so preliminary, only the spending portion was presented, and not the revenue side of the plan.

“Your first look is going to be a high number with full expectations that we’re going to manage that with where you want to be,” he said. “What we’ve done is create a needs list. We had staff go through what they need for their departments.”

Before developing the first draft, Frost had the town’s department heads include all immediate and long-term needs in their budget requests, to highlight future expenses for councilors and new Town Manager Jeffrey Kobrock. Monday was Kobrock’s first day on the job, after being hired for the position in March.

Advertisement

Councilors expect to begin discussing the proposal at 6 p.m. Monday, when they conduct their first budget meeting. That’s when they will discuss what capital improvements should be included in the next budget and what needs to wait for future years.

“Given what we’ve gone through and holding off on a lot of capital improvements, this gives us a fuller picture of what’s on the agenda this year and coming years so we can figure out how to prioritize those those,” Council Chairwoman Sarah Fuller said. “They are things that will need to be dealt with.”

The town still is recovering from a $1.5 million deficit caused by a mistake in 2015 involving a revenue item in the school budget that accidentally was counted twice, and the town did not raise enough money to cover expenditures.

Among the capital projects noted in the proposed spending plan is $120,000 for a firetruck, which Kobrock said would replace two old pieces of fire equipment.

“It has been 10 years since the town has purchased a fire engine,” he said.

Another capital improvement is $100,000 for town security updates.

Advertisement

“These funds would be used to assist with updating yet to be determined town buildings,” Kobrock said.

Other capital improvement items include a street sweeper for $45,615 and two plow trucks that would cost $36,549 each.

A second budget meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. April 22, Fuller said, with more meetings to be scheduled if needed.

A former city manager of Gardiner, Kobrock worked most recently as the executive director of the Midcoast Council of Governments and Midcoast Economic Development District, a pair of economic and community development organizations.

Frost was the town’s manager for almost two years, as well as its police chief; he will remain Winthrop’s police chief.

 

Advertisement

Abigail Austin — 621-5631

aaustin@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @AbigailAustinKJ

 

Related Headlines


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.

filed under: