Bristol Parks and Recreation Director Shelley Gallagher (right) hands Bristol Parks and Recreation Commissioner Sandra Lane a bouquet of flowers during the annual town meeting at Bristol Consolidated School on Tuesday, March 19. This years report was dedicated to Lane, who was also a school bus driver for many years in the area. (Johnathan Riley photo)
Bristol residents dispatched with the 48-article annual town meeting warrant in two and a half hours while posing questions to representatives from Bristol Consolidated School and the AOS 93 office about the education budget.
Voters dispatched the 48-article warrant, which included the $3,768,524.96 municipal budget, an increase of $247,147.77 or 9.34% from the previous year. The amount of the budget funded by taxation will increase as well, with $1,648,330.22 to be funded through taxes, an increase of $60,677.97 or 3.82%.
Article 38, the transportation portion of the education budget received some questioning from BCS bus driver Stacey Simmons who asked why the number of bus runs was being cut from four to three.
First Student, the school’s bus service provider, advised the Bristol School Committee to decrease the number of bus runs due to the drop in bus use by students, according to Darrin Carlucci, the committee’s chair.
In the same line item, the expense of special education transportation was included; something that hasn’t been in the past because costs for the district’s shared special education program was centralized up until this year with the disbandment of the Compass and Pathways programs.
Sandra Lane, whom the town report is dedicated to for her work as a bus driver and with the Bristol Parks and Recreation Department, said she thought it was time for the school to invest in buying their own buses.
“If you didn’t have the buses, you wouldn’t be having school,” Lane said.
Voters approved $577,735, for facilities maintenance budget after Carlucci made a motion to reduce the amount by $100,000. The reasoning, according to AOS 93 Business Manager Peter Nielsen, was that the budget no longer called for $100,000 to be generated for a bigger generator for the school.
Nielsen said that with some help from the town’s auditor, Bill Brewer, an error was indentified in an interpretation from fiscal year 2022 town meeting minutes that said there was a capital reserve with $225,000.
The real and accurate number in that reserve is $344,000, so the $100,000 was no longer called for in the line.
Bristol budget committee member Alex Beaudet said despite finding this clerical error, the funds expended will still need to be replenished by funds generated by the town and that the total cost of the generator is going to be around $225,000.
“Ultimately, this is still going to be $225,000 of taxpayer money,” Beaudet said.
He also expressed frustrations, along with other members of the audience, with the oversight of the bigger generator in the initial plans drawn up for the school.
Article 42, which would have authorized the school committee to carry forward unspent funds in the facilities and operations reserve fund for unexpected costs, was the only article rejected by residents after Nielsen said article must have been included in the warrant by mistake.
The education budget totals $7,645,138.75, an increase of $735,558.81 or 9.62% from the previous year.
For more information on the warrant articles presented at the meeting, go to bristolmaine.org. The Bristol Select Board will meet at 6:30 on Wednesday, March 20 at the town office.
