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Wilton ambulance service getting ‘positive response’

WILTON – The ambulance service has been getting “a positive response” to changes in the wage scales, Town Administrator Scott Butcher told selectmen on Monday, March 6.

He said Director Gary Zirpolo is under budget. The service has new people involved, and “Gary’s hours are down,” Butcher said.

Lyndeborough’s decision to not add about $1,300 to its share of the ambulance budget “should be covered by added revenue,” he said.

If the extra assessment, caused by an error on the part of the Budget Committee, produces the expected funds, Temple will be reimbursed for its extra payment, Butcher said.

“It is a simple problem which can be fixed at the end of the year,” Butcher said. “Our budget season (this year) was chaotic for several reasons,” which caused the error.

“I think everything will be fine,” he said.

Lyndeborough selectmen declined to pay the extra amount because that town had already held its budget hearing and published the figures. To make an addition would have required raising the operating budget at Town Meeting, which they declined to do.

“Lyndeborough is looking for a predictable annual expense,” Butcher said, “not the yo-yo from year to year.”

To even out the budget, Wilton has created a revolving fund for the ambulance department.

In other business, the board met with the library trustees to discuss a “more transparent” budgeting system that would cover expenditures from the library’s trusts more clearly.

Library trustees Ron Brown and Molly Shanklin agreed they needed “better communication with the Budget Committee.”

The library has trusts worth about $1.4 million, but the interest can be spent only on “a narrow list of budget lines,” and can’t cover day-to-day operating costs, Shanklin said.

Much of that money is going toward the eventual replacement of the slate roof.

The library was built in 1908, the gift of David Gregg, and the roof is showing signs of wear.