Budget committee reviews updated draft of budget

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Budget Committee members reviewed an updated draft of the 2019-2020 municipal budget and re-discussed parts of the school budget at their April 4 meeting, but neither was the highlight.

Lauchlin Titus, chairman of the Board of Selectman, shared excerpts from school evaluations in the town report for 1868 -1869, when Vassalboro had 23 separate school districts. Each district operated two sessions, summer and winter. Often there was a new teacher each session; a district official rated his teachers, sometimes praising, sometimes bluntly suggesting the teacher find a new profession.

In the currently-proposed municipal budget, Titus and Town Manager Mary Sabins listed some of the recent changes, which include:

• A $2,000 reduction in the request for vehicle fuel for public works, after a price “comparable to the current year” was locked in;
• Addition of a second full-time transfer station employee and elimination of a proposed $5,000 for an engineer’s study of relocating the transfer station entrance, because local expertise has been volunteered; and
• Increases in projected revenue from the transfer station and from state revenue sharing.
  Sabins is not sure the draft budget includes everything voters will be asked to fund in June. New issues keep cropping up, she said.

Budget committee members took no action on either the municipal or the school budget, postponing recommendations to future meetings.