The Finance Committee and Select Board went over the FY2010 budget last night and looked at funding targets for town departments.
The first change discussed was to increase the Snow and Ice Removal budget which has been set at $45,000 for some years now. Dartmouth typically spends well over $100,000 on this item. The reason that the amount has not increased in the budget is that this line item cannot be reduced, but can be overspent without any appropriation. So we have been setting aside a separate reserve for the item to cover the difference. The decision was to budget that line item at $100,000 for FY 2010.
Most departments are looking at a substantial reduction in funding. The police budget was level funded...
...with no cuts to personnel.
The DPW, Library and Parks budgets will be cut 15%.
It was proposed that the Conservation Department will take over the functions of the Soil Conservation department and the Harbormaster and volunteers take over for the Natural Resources (shellfish warden). Those two departments, Soil Conservation and Natural Resources, will not be funded.
The Recreation department will not be funded and will sustain itself from fees. This department was been fee funded for some time but the appropriation was made and then the funds returned as the fees were paid. This budget changes that arrangement. Finally, the Youth Commission and school crossing guards will not be funded in the FY2010 budget.
To get more information on the funding for particular departments, look at the Finance Committee MOB file here and open the priorities tab at the bottom. Not listed is about $71,000 for crossing guards which, in any case, had the funding zeroed out.
I would like to see the funds from the Youth Commission and crossing guards used to restore some of the cuts to the DPW budget. The 15% reduction to their budget is crippling to a few of their functions.
As always, leave your comments below.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Finance Committee budget priority update
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
12 comments:
Let's hope the Library Director has an AHA monet of selflessness takes this from her pay along with other top earners so we can keep other great employees! Don't reduce it from just books! Citizens won't pay for Denise to get 80,000 in thios economy with a medium collection and one main building it is absurd!
Who can call the trustees to get them to change Denise's Salary? When does her sweet contract and that of her 61,000 secretary expire. These two jobs could fold into one!
Which member of the Select Board or FinCom is going to go to the wake of dead child and tell the parents that their child's life was worth the reduction of .001% of the budget?
It certainly will be refreshing seeing the select board members out directing traffic at the schools next year in their cute traffic costumes.
Why is it other cities and towns use volunteers as crossing guards but Dartmouth can't or won't? The taxpayers should pay for this expense because why???
volunteers DO NOT have the authority to stop traffic.Its that simple. Just like volunteers do not have the authority to ticket illegally parked cars or handicapp violators.
Taxpayers should pay for this because its a safety issue for students and drivers alike. Sure get some volunteers out there, maybe we should expand the volunteer base some more and have volunteers ticket speeders, red light dodgers and the like. Yeah that's it more volunteers. Its just the kids after all, screw 'em. 'nother .002 in my back pocket. Next!
It's about the money. Where do you want to take it from? DPW? How are cars going to stop for the guards on the icy roads which we can't plow? Libraries? COA? Police? Where do you want to take the money from?
We had a child hit today by a car passing a stopped school bus. isnt one childs life worth $71,000?. the arguement "they'll stop at the crosswalk"--goto abc6.com and read the stories of people who thought they would stop and get run over in the crosswalks 2 yesterday one in westerly and two in providence. I'll pay the 5 or 10 cents a week if it means 4000+ are alittle safer.
Do you really think drivers can tell the difference between a volunteer crossing guard or not? I want to hear the whole story about the child who was hit. I think it's terrible that anyone would get hit, but there are other factors involved. There is no crossing guard where this child was hit. Let's keep this in perspective, please.
The child was hit because an inexperienced driver did not stop for the bus which had flashing lights and a stop sign extended. The crossing guard argument is still relevant since there are a large number of crossings occurring in front of the schools. ;There are hundreds of inexperienced drivers on the roads , not to mention the careless, rushed and inattentive. It is foolish to think there will not be many more accidents, hopefully minor, than there are now. The crossing guards are directing traffic not merely standing in the road while students cross, which is the primary role in New Bedford.
Like most items that come into this world, a child arrives with no garantee's or road map.
Many years ago, police officers control traffic at school sites. This school crossing issue relates to public safety and our police will handle it or we go with out. Traffic guards were used to allow a constant coverage at school crossings, but this is when money was everywhere. Too bad the SB didn't have control over the School depatment budget.
Post a Comment