Voting on the Charlestown warrant will take place Tuesday, March 14, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Charlestown Senior Center on Old Springfield Road.
Charlestown
Town Administrator Dave Edkins said the proposed operating budget of $4.18 million represents an increase of 1.9 percent, or $76,000 percent, from this year’s $4.1 million budget.
The police budget is up about $130,000, to $872,000, with most of that for salary and benefits for a new full-time officer and pay increases for the department, Edkins said.
“Right now we have five full-time officers, including the chief, and have filled the gap with part-time,” he said. “But we have been having a harder and harder time getting part-time officers, so we want to hire another full-time officer.”
Another part of the budget increase is for an additional person in the highway department and a second person who will divide time between highway and the transfer station, Edkins said.
The goal of the new hire in highway is to allow the department’s supervisor, Keith Weed, to attend to more supervisory duties and spend less time in the field doing highway work such as plowing, Edkins said.
One reason additional help is needed at the transfer station is because of stricter groundwater sampling and monitoring requirements from the state Department of Environmental Services at the closed landfill.
Reductions were made in the fire department budget and capital spending.
The petition article to separate the town clerk and tax collector positions now handled by one person, was signed by about 45 residents.
If approved, it would not take effect for another year, when the Selectboard would appoint the tax collector.
By state law, the town clerk’s job must remain elected.
Also on the ballot are four articles requesting appropriations for capital reserve funds including $25,000 each for real estate reappraisal, highway heavy equipment, and the library masonry restoration and preservation and $3,000 for the emergency services capital reserve fund.
The other two appropriations on the warrant are $3,500 for the Charlestown Beautification Coalition and $7,500 for bank stabilization work in Forest Hill Cemetery.
The default operating budget at $4.6 million is about $420,000 more than the proposed operating budget.
Edkins said it is difficult to accurately estimate the tax rate impact of the proposed spending now because it is very early in the budget year, which began Jan. 1, and non-tax revenues for the entire year are not certain at this point.
The current town rate is $8.78 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
“Right now, if the operating budget and warrant articles all pass and revenues hold, we are looking at no increase in the town tax rate,” Edkins said.
Voters will also be asked to request that owners of the dam, currently TransCanada, on the Connecticut River in Bellows Falls, Vt., modify dam operations if it can be shown there is a “causal relationship” between operations and erosion of the riverbank and nearby roads and farmland and further that the dam owners create a fund to compensate towns and landowners for any damages.
In the only contested race on the ballot, incumbent Town Clerk Kelly Stoddart is being challenged by Patricia Chaffee, who ran unsuccessfully against Stoddart last year.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com
