Greenfield select board members walked through its proposed budget during an annual public hearing on Tuesday night.
“We (select board members) looked at each other at the end of the hearing and said if Town Meeting goes anything like that we’ll be in and out in an hour or so,” chair Margaret Charig Bliss said in an interview on Wednesday.
Some conversation at the hearing revolved around not enough money going into two departments capital reserve funds, including at the recycling center and the library. Both reserve funds are only proposed to receive $500.
Town Administrator Aaron Patt said there are several projects that are sucking a lot of oxygen out of the room, and said keeping some of its capital reserve funds small was a decision made in order to stabilize the town’s overall budget.
He said the town is working slowly to build up the recycling center’s capital reserve fund.
As for the library, Charig Bliss said, the department is largely depleting its current capital reserve fund in order to repair the structure’s foundation.
The town is asking taxpayers to appropriate $52,000 for the project this year.
Charig Bliss said because the project is so expensive, the board has essentially put a placeholder in the department’s capital reserve fund.
There was also some discussion at the meeting about a $10,000 bump to the Department of Public Works Building and Grounds Manager salary.
Charig Bliss said some of that increase is a result of a federal mandate that pushed the position’s wage up, or else would have required a change in title that would shifted the employee from a salary to an hourly wage.
The line item in the town’s proposed budget is $47,476. Last year, the town appropriated $37,440 for the position.
Charig Bliss said the DPW building and grounds manager works so many hours that the increase would likely be more expensive for the town if the position was changed to an hourly gig.
She said part of the spike also occurred because last year the town only had to pay the director from May through December. This year the town has to budget for the entire year.
The budget will be discussed and voted on at Town Meeting in March. The select board will meet again on Tuesday, Feb. 21 at 5:30 p.m.
Abby Kessler can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 234 or akessler@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter at akesslerMLT.