The Department of Public Works budget is expected to increase sharply in the coming year, with rising costs in several areas causing large increases to budget items.
On Tuesday, the Select Board met with Public Works Director Peter Goewey to discuss the initial proposed budget for the DPW. At the start of the discussion, Goewey presented a budget for operational costs that increased from $643,000 to $872,000, a $142,000 hike.
Major increases in the budget include salaries and their associated costs, vehicle repair and the rising cost of materials. Salaries were proposed to rise by at least $40,000, which did not include additional increases to other employee costs, such as health insurance, which went up by an additional $11,000.
Another large increase was to highway vehicles, which is proposed to rise by about $20,000. Gas, fuel and salt costs are also up significantly. Salt is up by about $24,000, while gas and fuel are up by about $23,000.
The budget for signs and markers is also increasing by about $4,500, which Goewey said is in part to an ongoing issue with the town’s signs being stolen. Goewey said the problem has been increasing in the past year, to the point that there was a time he put up a sign, only for it to be gone within a day.
Despite the large jump, Select Board Chair Shawn Talbot noted there wasn’t much room to trim fat from the operations budget.
“It doesn’t look like there’s much that can be done,” Talbot said.
Goewey said that if there were any cuts to the operational budget, it would likely affect services, noting that the town had recently added road mileage, which also increased costs to maintain them.
“I think most people understand that the town is not able to operate under different circumstances than the rest of us. We all experience supply shortages, and employee shortages – we’re all experiencing this,” said Selectman Jason Somero.
When discussing separate budgets for departments overseen by Goewey, Somero questioned whether the town would have included items for improvements at the town’s transfer station.
The board recently discussed changes to the station, including changing the location of dropoff points for certain materials for better traffic flow, and having a check-in point at the entrance where residents will be expected to pay their fees for large items or bags of household trash.
The proposal includes building a new overhang for the disposal area, among other improvements.
Goewey said those costs are not accounted for in the coming budget, as the town has not received all information regarding the costs of some of the improvements, but said the cost could be accounted for through general building maintenance capital reserves.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244, or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.