On Tuesday residents approved a proposal to use money from the undesignated fund balance to pay for public works equipment that would otherwise be purchased during the next fiscal year, therefore taking advantage of the market and removing the expense from the 2010 budget.
Other changes proposed by Town Manager Mitchell Berkowitz to decrease expenditures include reducing staff at the transfer station by one position and either moving assessing in-house or reducing staff at the Municipal Center by one full-time position.
The town currently pays John O'Donnell $30,000 a year for assessing, and Berkowitz said having the assessing clerk and code enforcement officer take that over would create significant savings. The other option Berkowitz was looking at was decreasing the Municipal Office staff by one full-time position, which would save $30,000 in 2010.
By matter of good timing, the budget is lower because a police cruiser was replaced with insurance money after being involved in an accident and no new police officers will have to attend the police academy.
Berkowitz said he was also exploring the possibility of switching to Cumberland County Dispatch services, which would mean shutting down the local dispatching center and laying off employees. The dispatch budget is more than $200,000, and Berkowitz said that after initial costs to make the switch, there could be substantial savings.
Other area towns, such as Casco, Naples and Raymond, have recently switched to county dispatch, in some cases halving their dispatch budget.
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