Vassalboro select board begins review of 2024-25 budget

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro select board members began review of the draft 2024-25 town budget, prepared by Town Manager Aaron Miller, at a Feb. 6 meeting that lasted almost three hours. They continued discussion for an hour before their regular Feb. 8 meeting.

Miller’s first draft totaled close to $3.9 million, and represented an increase of more than $256,000 over the current year. By Feb. 8, the estimated increase was more than $258,000.

This part of the budget covers municipal services and an estimated 10 percent increase in the 2024-25 bill from Kennebec County. The 2024-25 school budget is separate; Vassalboro school board members were scheduled to begin work on it at their Feb. 13 meeting.

Select board chairman Chris French emphasized that the budget presented to voters at the June 3 annual town meeting “will look very different” from the February draft. Select board members will continue to refine figures for proposed expenditures and compare them with expected revenues.

Select board chairman Chris French emphasized that the budget presented to voters at the June 3 annual town meeting “will look very different” from the February draft. Select board members will continue to refine figures for proposed expenditures and compare them with expected revenues; budget committee members will review the entire proposal; and the two boards will negotiate agreements, or agree to disagree in their recommendations.

Select board members began the Feb. 6 discussion by accepting Miller’s recommendation that town employees get 3.2 percent cost of living raises plus two percent merit raises for 2024-25.

Miller had recommended continuing the select board members’ stipends at the current level, $2,500 apiece. French argued for a cost of living increase, and, he said, the board chairman should get $500 more than the other two members because of the extra time he (or she) spends on town business.

French will not be board chairman in 2024-25, unless board policy is changed. If he runs for another three-year term and is re-elected, he will become the junior board member and Frederick “Rick” Denico, Jr., will become chairman.

The result of the discussion was, for now, a recommended increase of $680 in the budget line for select board.

Miller recommended, and board members supported, hiring a part-time staff person at the town office, primarily to cover the counter during especially busy times, lunch hours and when another staffer is out sick, running a town errand or on vacation. Details remain to be worked out; by the Feb. 8 meeting, the cost was estimated at $21,000.

The preliminary public works and paving budgets are about $167,000 higher than this year, generating considerable discussion of equipment needs – costs and timing – and paving plans.

How to plow the new sidewalks planned for North Vassalboro was one subtopic. Board members considered buying a piece of equipment, and discussed what they could buy that would be useful year-round; or contracting out the work.

Another subtopic was the bridge on Mill Hill Road, on which the state has threatened to post a speed limit. The issue first came up at the board’s Nov. 2, 2023, meeting, when board members learned the double culvert carrying Seven Mile Stream under the road had deteriorated significantly (see the Nov. 9, 2023, issue of The Town Line, p. 3).

Board member Denico said as of the previous night, posting had been delayed a year or so; but the town will have to fix the bridge eventually. He estimated the cost at up to $600,000 if the bridge were one lane wide and up to twice that for a two-lane bridge.

Proposed additions to the public works budget range from increasing employees’ boot allowance to hiring one more full-time employee, perhaps shared with the transfer station. Adding a person would reduce hours each driver works during blizzards and other emergencies.

The manager recommends starting a reserve fund to pay for a town-wide property revaluation. His suggested figure for 2024-25 is $40,000.

During the Feb. 8 select board meeting, French suggested a town meeting warrant article asking voters to approve $25,000 for town expenses when Vassalboro Community School is used as an emergency shelter.

Douglas Phillips, speaking for the Vassalboro Historical Society, discussed problems at the former East Vassalboro schoolhouse, owned by the town and leased by the society as its headquarters and museum. The wooden building and its roof need repairs; if another heat pump is installed, the boiler might be removed, making more storage space; the restroom should be made handicapped-accessible (a chairlift provides access to the building); and cracking tiles in one room contain asbestos, a hazardous substance.

Select board members added $15,000 to the 2024-25 budget for asbestos remediation.

The draft social services budget for 2024-25 currently contains two new requests: $4,000 to support the local Window Dressers program that provides window inserts to help insulate houses; and $3,500 for Kennebec Behavioral Health, an Augusta-based organization that has not previously asked for town support. The Vassalboro food pantry asks for a $2,000 increase that would be used for stipends for volunteers.