CLAREMONT — The City Council has unanimously approved a $20.53 million budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, which represents a 3.3% increase from the current year.
During its roughly six-week budget review, the Council trimmed $55,000 from the budget City Manager Nancy Bates proposed in May.
Based on the current grand list, the budget is projected to increase the city’s tax rate by about 42 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation. That would add $105 in municipal taxes on a property assessed at $250,000.
Salary and health care costs increases are partly responsible for the higher spending. There is also new money for services of the consultant working with the city on EPA Sugar River Revitalization Grants to redevelop a section of city-owned property along the river off North Street. The spending plan includes funding to redesign the city’s website and other technology costs and a maintenance plan for the municipal parking lot off Broad Street.
The largest reduction from Bates’ budget was in the Police Department, which was reduced $47,000 to $2,773,140. Police Chief Brent Wilmot told the council during the budget review that he can obtain a grant to fund a new position that will work solely on narcotics investigations and related matters.
Most of the discussion at Wednesday’s Council meeting was on requests for social service agencies. In the current year, Southwest Community Services, which serves Sullivan and Cheshire counties, the Claremont Soup Kitchen, the Sullivan County Humane Society, Sullivan County Nutrition Services (Meals on Wheels) and the Arrowhead Recreation Club received $54,000 from the city.
After a number of suggestions for a bottom line number that ranged from $46,500 to $72,000, the council voted 5-4 to increase the total to $64,000.
Assistant Mayor Deb Matteau and councilors Chris Cogswell, Chris Irish, William Greenrose and William Limoges supported the increase while Mayor Dale Girard and councilors Andrew O’Hearne, Nick Koloski and Wayne Hemingway were opposed.
Girard wanted to leave the total at the current $54,000, while O’Hearne and Koloski said they did not support cutting Southwest Community Services from the current $20,000 to $15,000. The agency sought $30,000.
“I’m not looking to cut from the past year,” O’Hearne said.
The agency, which provides several services in the city including bus transportation, asked for an increase to $30,000.
At one point during the discussion and with multiple suggestions for funding levels already made, Koloski sounded frustrated they were “arguing” over a half cent on the tax rate.
“That is not doing a service to the community,” said Koloski, who with other councilors praised the work of the agencies for helping so many people in the city.
Cogswell was the most vocal councilor in support of increasing funding for all four agencies, which he said are lifelines for many vulnerable residents. “I would hope one penny on $1,000 is the least we could do.”
The Council gave the Humane Society, which handles cats, $10,000, an increase of $5,000 from this year. The money helps pay for spay and neuter clinics and rabies clinics. The Council gave the soup kitchen a $10,000 increase to $20,000, double what it received this year. Meals on Wheels received the same amount as this year, $10,000.
Also on Wednesday the council added $5,000 to the library book budget bringing it to the original request of $25,000. Several people spoke during the public comment period, urging the council to add the money back.
The Council also made minor reductions in some budgets, including the fire department, to reflect new collective bargaining agreements with union firefighters and city employees in the Teamsters union.
Bates had budgeted for larger increases in the first year but the council rejected two, proposed three-year agreements in May. The Council approved a new agreement for firefighters on June 10 and one for the Teamsters Wednesday. Both contracts have lower first-year costs for salary, retirement and taxes than the previous proposals.
When Koloski noted paving, the one thing residents complain most about, was not increased above $700,000 during the budget review, Bates told the Council she plans to present a proposal in July to use some of the city’s fund balance for additional paving.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
