NEWPORT – Even as the final quarter of the year remains, Newport officials began discussing the 2004 budget Wednesday night.

Town Manager James Ricker said the biggest priority was to build a recycling and baler building at the transfer station, with heat, so that outside workers can get indoors.

“Last year, temperatures in that work environment reached 25 degrees below zero,” said Ricker. “They have the poorest working conditions of any town employee.”

The 40-by-80-foot building could cost $225,000, said the town manager, “and that is being conservative. We will be working with engineers over the next few weeks to determine what the actual cost will be.”

Ricker said there also could be the possibility for the town to bond $250,000 for the road construction account next year because not only are many roads in dire need of attention, but an $8,000 grant can be obtained by a $5,280 Newport match.

The grant was offered this year by the Natural Resource and Conservation Service to replace culverts, repair ditches and install rock embankments on Camp Benson Road to prevent erosion and runoff into Sebasticook Lake. The project was placed on hold for cost effectiveness and will be available for only one more year.

Other budget discussions included creating a new account that will roll over every year and be seeded with $3,500 from the Maine Department of Marine Resources. It will be earmarked for fishway repairs and maintenance at the North Street Dam; spending $2,000 on computer upgrades; ratifying $5,069 already spent on the dam for emergency repairs; and researching the possibility that Maine Power Options could offer lower rates.

Selectman John Buckland quizzed Ricker on whether the proposed budget should include additional police officers. “We’re being overwhelmed with traffic on the weekends,” he said.

Ricker acknowledged the increase in traffic but said it was the increase in violent crime that had him concerned. “Juvenile crime is down, petty crime is down, but violent, predatory-type crime is up,” he said. “Our complaints are getting more and more serious.”

Over the past week, Newport has experienced an armed standoff and an armed robbery.

Resident George Lougee asked if some provision could be made in the budget for signs that warn boaters away from the North Street Dam in the wake of the drowning death of kayaker and local resident Joyce Packard last month.

“I’ll bet we’ve replaced 150 signs, ‘Stay Off,’ ‘Keep Out.’ The problem is that people like the challenge of going against the current,” Ricker said. “We chase them out of that current every day. Today there were boaters in there fishing for bass.”

In other business, the board hired Alicia Nichols of Veazie as the fund-raising coordinator for the Newport Library and Historical Society building, to be known as the Newport Cultural Center. Her first duties are to create a vision and mission statement and define future goals. By having these in place, the town will be able to apply for significant grants, said Ricker.

Already $200,000 has been raised for this Main Street project, which is estimated to cost between $750,000 and $1.1 million.