Veazie officials trim school, town budgets again

VEAZIE – Further budget reductions have been made to both the school and municipal budgets.

After hearing concerns voiced by the public at a meeting Wednesday, the Town Council directed Town Manager Bill Reed to cut his budget by 2 percent and requested that school officials reduce their budget by 1 percent.

“They want to express to the taxpayers that they are trying to control growth,” Reed said Friday. He said it’s challenging for a small school system to control education cost growth because of funding requirements passed earlier this year by the Legislature.

Residents will have a chance to vote on the budget at the annual town meeting, set for 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 14, at Veazie Community School. Elections for two school board members and two council positions will be held during the day, with polls opening at 8 a.m. at the town office.

The proposed school budget presented Wednesday night was $3.45 million. That figure now has been reduced by $33,615.

Those cuts will be made by taking small pieces from a variety of places, Union 87 Superintendent Kelly Clenchy said Thursday. He is to meet Monday night with the school board to discuss exactly where the reductions will be made.

Originally the school budget was slated for a 7.4 percent increase, which came out to about $240,000 more than last year. All but $10,000 of that was from fixed costs such as high school tuition, fuel and contractual salary increases, Clenchy said.

As for the town, the revised proposed municipal budget is $1.66 million, some $30,000 higher than last year’s budget. The current tax rate is $17 per $1,000 of property valuation. That is projected to increase to $18.30 for the coming year.

Reed listed a number of areas that are being reorganized and decreased in an attempt to keep the tax rate down:

. A vacant, full-time administrative assistant position at the town office won’t be filled.

. The half-time code enforcement officer position will be reduced to on-call hours.

. The police department is eliminating one full-time position in which the employee has another job opportunity.

. The fire department has reduced its budget for salaries by $5,000.

As with the school department, most of the increase to the town’s budget was due to fixed costs.

Hydrant rentals went up 6 percent, and the solid waste budget increased 30 percent due to increased fuel costs and the addition of stops made in town, Reed explained. He added that heating costs for town facilities also increased by 30 percent.

“On the town side … I think we have fully attended to what the council has asked,” Reed said.