This year’s annual town meeting warrant in Waldoboro has only a few articles that are different from years past.
At a public hearing on May 24 at the Miller School, about 40 residents attended but asked no questions about the new articles and instead focused on their concerns and suggestions about the overall budget.
Except for a new addition to the list of social service agencies, the only new articles are two proposed ordinance changes: one would amend the town’s shellfish license requirements, the other would create an ordinance to allow residents to participate in the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Program.
Article 3 on the warrant, which is on the warrant every year but failed last year, asks voters to allow the selectmen to expend “an amount not to exceed 3/12 of the previous year’s appropriation” should a municipal budget question fail.
This means the town will be able to use last year’s budget number to fund the department for up to three months if voters reject the department’s budget request.
If voters reject the budget request for any town department, passing this article is necessary to give town officials time to create a new budget and bring it back before voters for approval.
The overall budget as proposed in the warrant is $3,591,072, a .14 percent ($5088) decrease from last year. However, the amount raised from local taxes in the proposed budget is $1,699,569, a 19.65 percent ($278,418) increase over last year.
The increase in taxes corresponds almost perfectly to the loss of fund balance contribution in this year’s budget. Last year, Waldoboro’s fund balance – essentially a surplus funds account – was used to fund $275,000 of the budget.
This year, the fund balance is dangerously low, and no money will be taken from it to pay down taxes, said Acting Town Manager Eileen Dondlinger in an interview before the hearing.
“I think the department heads did a great job to come in with a budget that’s lower than last year’s” on the expenditures side, she said. With fuel prices, health insurance costs and retirement costs increasing dramatically this year, significant cuts were made to most departments in order to lower their budgets.
At the hearing, Dondlinger said the cost of diesel fuel and gasoline is up $27,231 this year; heating fuel is up $27,960; health insurance is up $30,732; and Maine State retirement is up $14,641.
Dondlinger believes the only budget areas that saw increases were related to fuel and benefit increases, including: the municipal building operations budget (up $8094); the police department (up $10,237); the roads and bridges account (up $20,021); the Friendship Street School (up $4616); the AD Gray Project (up $10,225); and the employee benefits budget (up $27,242).
Resident and budget committee candidate Duncan Morrell said the cost of the assessing department is high relative to what the town could spend on private contractors. The budget for that office is $77,521, which includes half of the town’s administrative assistant’s salary – the other half is in the office of the town manager’s budget.
Many towns’ assessors handle more parcels than Waldoboro’s, and some towns share assessors between towns, Morrell said. “That would be a great place to start” cutting back,” he said.
Waldoboro’s assessor, Darryl McKenney, also handles the town’s general assistance program and helps in code enforcement, Dondlinger said. “The workload is there.”
Sharing between town’s works “if you do only the assessing function,” McKenney said, “but they won’t be available to public, or to write deeds, work in the office,” etc.
A full revaluation from a private firm costs about $400,000 and could be done every 10 years, Morrell said. McKenney added that it would cost about $25,000 per year for the contractor to handle new construction and the other ongoing functions of the assessing department.
Contracting out assessing, by those estimates, would cost about $650,000 over 10 years. The full cost of the assessing department, including half of the administrative assistant, is about $770,000 over ten years.
“I’d rather walk into the office and talk to Darryl than some contractor, who doesn’t know the town,” Selectman Bob Butler said.
Other budget areas that residents expressed concerns about – the police department, the library and the recreation department – went similarly, with residents expressing concerns about the value they’re getting for their money or questioning whether we need the service at all, and town officials explaining how much work the employees do and how valuable the department is to the town.
The proposed recreation department budget is $49,927. Some residents questioned whether those costs could be recouped in participation fees or selling advertising space at recreation facilities, etc.
Town officials did not address the question about advertising at the hearing, but Recreation Director Kyle Santheson said if the town charged enough for participation to cover the cost of the department, the programs would be too expensive for most kids to participate.
Residents also questioned why Santheson is paid full-time, year-round if the recreation department only operates programs in the summer.
Town officials explained that the winter months are used for planning and organizing the summer programs, and Santheson also doubles as the town’s Emergency Management Director.
In that capacity, he has brought in about $360,000 over the last five years for storm damage reimbursements, Santheson said.
EMS Director Mike Monck said Santheson is invaluable to the fire department and EMS. “If you were to cut him, you’re not just cutting a rec. director, you’re cutting some arms off of our organization.”
“The question for voters is: what’s the value of service?” Santheson said. Although not everyone has children in the recreation department’s programs, Santheson compared the recreation department to paying for fire hydrants. He lives in a part of town without hydrants, and so does not receive the credit on his homeowners insurance. “We all pitch in, we all participate in a community.”
The addition to the charitable contributions list is $2500 for Healthy Kids, an organization that provides home visits to give information on parenting, discipline issues and infant care, among other child-related issues. Healthy Kids’ request appears on the warrant as a separate article from the other social service organizations, because their request was submitted by resident petition.
The total requested for social service contributions, including Healthy Kids, is $24,429, a 13.73 percent ($2950) increase over last year’s budget.
The shellfish ordinance change would increase the number of conservation hours required for license holders from four hours to six, and add a requirement that four of those hours be spent on reseeding. The change would be effective Jan. 1, 2012, for next year’s licenses.
The PACE ordinance would allow residents to apply for federally funded, low-interest loans, administered through the state agency EfficiencyMe, to pay for home improvements that boost energy efficiency.
Any resident can have an EfficiencyMe energy audit conducted at their home. If the audit determines that the residence could reduce energy use by 25 percent through winterization improvements such as insulation or replacing old windows, or by adding alternative energy sources such as solar panels or wind turbines, the resident will qualify for a low-interest loan through EfficiencyMe.
State law regarding the PACE program requires that towns pass an ordinance giving residents permission to access the program, Dondlinger said.
The town will not be involved in the loans in any capacity, Dondlinger said. The ordinance simply gives residents the ability to apply for them.
The town’s only responsibilities under the program are to distribute educational materials and provide information about applying properties to EfficiencyMe, the same way they do with banks and other loan agencies, Dondlinger said.
