Finance Committee makes final recommendations

Recommended 2010 budget

Finance Committee members Tony Butterall, right, and Barry Patrie debate a point during the Jan. 5 meeting when the final recommendation was made.

The Waterford Finance Committee wrapped up its review of the municipal budget in early January and is recommending a package containing a 4% increase.

Nearly half of the increase will come from the transfer station, where the purchase of a Skid Steer is proposed. The remaining increases are spread throughout the proposed $1,044,116 budget.

“Overall, I thought the budget process went very smoothly and that things went very well,” Finance Committee Chairman John Martin said. “The committee took it very seriously and tried to keep the town budget in check.”

The Skid Steer will cost $25,000 with Waterford’s share $16,000. The transfer station budget will increase $4,000.

Some increases in insurance, wages and municipal building utilities were unavoidable. But in many cases they were offset by decreases in winter roads, street lights and repayment to the Forestry Fund for a highway truck, among other accounts.

The committee has scheduled another meeting to discuss how to coordinate the town warrant approach to the budget with the way Trio, the town accounting software, handles the various accounts.”

There are some peculiarities in the way Trio handles things that need to be worked but we’ve come a long way in the last year and a half,” Martin said.

Waterford's Finance Committee wrapped up its deliberation of the 2010 budget Jan. 5. Shown above are members Mary Colbath, Barry Patrie and Tony Butterall in the left panel; Chairman John Martin, center, and members, right, Denny Raymond, John Thompson and Selectman Richard Hunt gesturing.

Source: Mutiny Brook Times - Issue 79