The Bristol Board of Selectmen finalized its 2012 municipal budget proposal at its Feb. 8 meeting.
The $1,992,288.02 budget totals $45,385.51 more than the 2011 budget. The amount the selectmen propose to raise through taxes, however, is $20,549.72 less than the 2011 bill.
Increases in the amount the selectmen propose to take from the town’s surplus and in excise tax receipts and cable franchise fees would allow the budget to grow without a corresponding increase in taxes.
Bristol’s road management budget accounts for the largest increase. The $621,365 budget is $91,365 more than the 2011 budget.
The road management budget calls for paving of Long Cove Point Road and Martha Beck Road and, most significantly, Pemaquid Harbor Road.
The Pemaquid Harbor Road project accounts for almost two-thirds of the entire roads budget.
The budget also calls for repairs to bridges on Back Shore, Benner, Long Cove Point and Redonnett Mill roads, as well as culvert replacements and ditching.
Elsewhere in the budget, Bristol will save $29,446 on snow removal in the first full year of a three-year contract with O.W. Holmes Inc.
The town will also pay $18,559 less for the Bristol/South Bristol Transfer Station budget as a result of a substantial surplus.
Payroll, including health insurance and the town’s share of payroll taxes, is up $19,050.
In other Bristol news, citizens have submitted a petition to ask the town to “take over the maintenance and upkeep” of six private cemeteries – Bryant, Elliott, Erskine, Herbert, Ocean Hill and Poole-Greenlaw.
Bristol voters will decide the matter at the annual town meeting, Tues., March 13.
