School, town budgets move along

Friday, February 5, 2010

BY KELLY McGRATH

Staff Writer

BEDFORD – The School District and town budgets were discussed with community members through Deliberative Sessions and hearings over the past week.

Hundreds of community members voiced opinions on teacher salary increases and school building repairs, while the Town Council voted to reduce the municipal budget.

Town budget

The Town Council approved a $6,000 reduction to the 2010 Municipal Budget, with no impact on the proposed tax rate, during last week’s public hearing.

The current proposed 2010 municipal budget stands at $24.37 million with a tax rate of $4.13 per $1,000 of assessed value.

During the Jan. 27 public hearing, reductions in appropriations included $1,000 for printing the annual report and $5,000 in cemetery property repairs and maintenance. The revenue in the conservation commission budget was reduced $273,382.

Residents questioned items on the budget including a $2,000 increase in traffic control under the Public Works Department. But with three additional lights and the increase in electricity prices, the explanation was simple.

A question about the Town Council budget increase was answered by the number of elections going from one last year, to three this year, and when it came time to discuss employee wages, several residents voiced opinions on not offering raises in 2010.

“Just because the economy is bad doesn’t mean houses aren’t catching on fire and the police don’t need to do their job,” Town Councilor Michael Scanlon said. “I just don’t believe our employees have to carry the tax burden of this community on their back.”

The budget now moves to the budgetary town meeting on March 3 at 7 p.m. at Bedford High School. It will then move forward to Election Day on Tuesday, March 9.

“We had a good public debate tonight,” Scanlon said. “We listened, we discussed it and inevitably (the voters) are the ones who will decide what passes.”

School District budget

The School District Deliberative Session took place Tuesday night and resulted in no changes to the warrant articles or the budget.

An estimated 500 people packed the Bedford High School theater to voice their opinions on two warrant articles: McKelvie Intermediate School renovations and teacher salary increases.

“It was good to hear from a cross section of the community,” School Board Chairman David Sacks said.

Under the McKelvie Intermediate School renovations and capital improvement plan bond warrant, the school district will raise and appropriate $7.85 million to renovate the old building and upgrade safety systems.

The bond would also fund the installation of fire sprinklers and roof repairs at Memorial School and Peter Woodbury School.

Deliberative Session discussion on the McKelvie renovations came from previous students, teachers and community members who debated between this being a “need” or a “want.”

“I think it was very good to have multiple opinions on that,” Sacks said. “(The School Board) feels that is a very necessary thing.”

The first year tax impact of the bond, if approved, would be 5 cents. In order for the warrant article to pass, a 3/5th ballot vote is required.

After about 45 minutes of discussion, the session moved to the topic of salary increases for district teachers.

The warrant article asks for $1.09 million to fund the additional cost items related to the third year of a three-year collective bargaining agreement between the district and the Bedford Education Association.

The agreement provides an average salary increase of 5 percent and would create a 33 cent tax impact. It requires a majority ballot vote to pass.

When the meeting moved onto the Bedford School District budget, no amendments or comments came from the floor.

According to the Jan. 12 public hearing packet, the 2010-11 default budget stands at $59.05 million.

All warrants and the current budget, which can be found on the School District’s Web site at www.sau25.net, stand as is. They move forward to Election Day on Tuesday, March 9.