If high fuel prices this winter and problems caused by this Marchs thunderstorm made you rearrange your budget, rest assured that youre not alone. The town government needs to make adjustments to make ends meet as well. At their regular meeting Monday night at Town Hall, the Board of Selectmen approved several transfers in the Public Works departments budget to cover costs for heating fuel and the fallout from Marchs thunderstorms.
The largest transfer was $68,000 from the towns contingency fund, much of which will go toward covering the tree maintenance portion of the Public Works budget. This was needed because of the unusually large number of tree that needed to be removed from roads or cut down during the thunderstorms earlier this spring. The Board of Selectmen also approved a $39,480 transfer from scale house, snow removal, and ice control budgets to the Public Works Departments overtime account, which is also over-taxed becuase of costs from storm cleanup.
The Board of Selectmen had little debate about the over $100,000 they approved in those two measures, but there was some concern about four other transfers, totaling $12,110. The funds are to be taken from snow removal, solid waste services and electricity allotments to cover unexpectedly high heating costs in the towns buildings this past winter.
Some were particularly concerned about $9,800 specifically for fuel to heat Town Hall. The Public Works Department asked for the transfer, citing increase of occupancy as the reason for higher than expected costs. Some selectmen were unsure about the vague language, until town administrator Karl Kilduff explained that because of longstanding agreements with the Board of Education and the Darien Arts Center, the town had to pay for heating costs in some buildings without control over them.
The board agreed unanimously to approve the transfers, but selectman David Bayne issued a caveat. One of our concerns is we have nearly $10,000 in transfers tonight that have been characterized as possibly due to increased hours in occupancy, he said. I think next year we need to winnow it down.
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