MECHANIC FALLS — In a joint meeting with the Budget Committee, the Town Council has approved a $3.02 million budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year.

The amount is $133,000, or 4.4%, less than this fiscal year, which ends June 3o.

The council will hold a public hearing April 5 to get reaction to the spending plan.

The budget includes county taxes but not the town’s share for Regional School Union 16, which also includes Poland and Minot.

The only difference between the council’s and Budget Committee’s budgets is $8,000 for the recreation department’s capital improvement program. The money would go toward a 1,000-foot fence to protect the fields.

Councilors Rose Aikman, John Emery and Raymond Lavoie all said they wanted to first see the plan on paper to know exactly where the fence would go. They also wanted to see the department’s operational expenses. Emery was concerned about money being left in the account from the past couple of years for a planned snack shack that has not been spent.

Justin Starbird of the Recreation Committee explained that the snack shack has been a priority for the past few years, but with no program last year due to the pandemic, it was not a high priority for the contractors, who were busy with residential construction.

“We didn’t feel comfortable doing the work without having a contractor actually doing it,” Starbird said. “That’s one reason for the carryover.”

He added that the fence would protect the fields and prevent people from cutting across or urinating on private property beyond the woods on the other side of the fence.

Until they saw a map of the field showing the location of the fence and the details of the type of fence, the council could not support the extra $8,000.

The other late change to the budget was raising the minimum pay for all employees to $13 per hour, which would affect the library staff and part-time employees. Raising the minimum wage would add $503 to the budget, Town Manager Zakk Maher calculated.

During discussion, Aikman said she opposed the minimum wage change, but ended up supporting the budget with the higher wage in place.

Every line in the new budget passed unanimously by the Budget Committee and the council.

The top budget lines include $515,135 for pensions and insurance, $414,536 for police, $342,500 for capital improvement programs and $383,784 for public works.

The budget is scheduled to go to referendum June 6.

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