NORWAY — A special town meeting will be held on Thursday, Aug. 19, to address just over $100,000 in overdrafts from the previous fiscal year.
Town Manager David Holt told selectmen at their Thursday night meeting that the majority of the requested $103,844 is for General Assistance.
“The real driving force is the General Assistance,” said Holt of the $64,590 that is needed to make up a deficiency in the fiscal 2010 budget that ended on June 30. Holt said “tough times” are largely to blame for the overdraft, but the good news is that the state has started to once again reimburse towns 50 percent of the General Assistance budgets.
Voters will meet at the Norway Municipal Building to act on the money requests included in the four-article warrant beginning at 7 p.m. on Aug. 19.
In addition to the $64,590 that is needed to pay the General Assistance requests, voters will also be asked to approve about $9,000 for the administration budget; $20,657 for the police department, $166 for the animal control officer, $1,422 for the solid waste budget and $8,018 for Community Development budget .
Holt said the money for the administration’s budget is primarily for an overdraft in legal fees. The police budget overdraft is to pay Bethel for the officer Norway hired who was trained at Bethel’s expense. The Community Development money is for legal expenses at the Opera House, which came in higher than budgeted.
The overdraft money will be coming out of the surplus fund.
Voters will also be asked to discontinue winter maintenance on the Damon Road and repeal article 34, of the annual town meeting on June 14, which appropriated money for several departments, and replace it with new a new article. Holt said the money has been appropriated, but because of concern by a local official about the wording, the new article to be voted on simply puts all the specific money requests that come from various funds such as snowmobile registrations and program registrations into one article for passage. The vote will not affect any budgeting.
Comments are no longer available on this story