By Timothy Churchill,Staff Writer

BETHEL – Voters will be asked to approve a slightly higher budget at the annual town meeting on June 15. The total package this year is $2,585,369, a $120,523 increase from 2004-2006.

Town Manager Scott Cole said Monday that a “general push upwards” on the part of all departments this year contributed to the increase.

Cole said a large reason for the increase was that wages for employees rose more than $35,000 over nearly a dozen different departments.

Another big increase this year, Cole said, is in solid waste management, which jumped $38,760, to $406,445.

In addition, Cole said, debt service for the new fire station accounts for roughly $35,000 of the budget’s total increase of $120,523.

The town meeting will begin at 7 p.m. on Wednesday in the auditorium of the Crescent Park School.

At the town elections today – from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in Crescent Park’s auditorium – residents will vote for two members of the Board of Selectmen, two assessors and two school board members.

Incumbents Jack L. Cross and Dutch Dresser, Dennis Doyon, Robert A. Everett and Waltraud Hannigan are vying for two open selectmen seats. Incumbents Robert Blake and John Head are running uncontested for the two available assessor positions.

And incumbents Cheryl Thurston, Erika Dresser Penczer, Carol Everett and Kim Patnode are contending for two vacant SAD 44 director positions.

Also today, residents will be asked to approve a SAD 44 budget of $9,339,349, just $490 less than last year’s budget.

“Taxpayers will be appreciative that the school board worked hard to keep the line,” Superintendent Dave Murphy said Monday morning. We “tried to make it happen without cutting into the quality of education,” he added.