Proposed Woodstock school budgets up slightly
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By Josh O'Gorman STAFF WRITER - Published: February 12, 2009
WOODSTOCK – At town meeting, residents will see proposed school budgets with slight increases, a proposed town budget that is actually decreasing and an article that would help pave the way for affordable housing.
The proposed budget for the town is $3,958,580, a decrease of $146,675, or 3.6 percent, from the current budget of $4,105,255.
Municipal Manager Philip Swanson said the town was forced to make budget cuts after revenues from interest and state land reimbursement dropped nearly $150,000.
Proposed cuts include a $50,000 in the ambulance budget, resulting from emergency personnel not staffing the emergency services building on Saturdays.
The proposed highway budget is also dropping about $50,000 because the town is using money that had been saved, Swanson said. The proposed fire department budget is dropping about $16,000 as the town's new fire alarm ordinance requires alarms to be professionally serviced once a year. Swanson said the department receives about 50 false alarm calls a year, about one-third of the total calls.
Residents will vote on the budget during a floor vote during town meeting, beginning 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 28, in the Town Hall Theatre. Residents will elect officials and vote on 21 ballot items, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 3, at Town Hall.
Swanson noted a dozen ballot items – which range from requests to exempt properties from taxation to increased money for the Pentangle Council on the Arts – would together result in an increase of 1 cent in the residential tax rate.
Contested races include Lister Margaret Brady, who will defend her three-year post against Charlie Degener, and First Constable Penny Davis, who will face a challenge for her one-year post from Roger W. Berry Jr.
Woodstock – along with Barnard, Bridgewater, Killington, Pomfret and Reading – will vote on a proposed budget for the Woodstock Union High School District of $10,948,763, an increase of $256,903 or 2.4 percent more than the current budget of $10,691,860. Residents will vote by ballot March 3 at Town Hall.
"We've cut it as tight as we can, balancing the needs of the students with the reality of rising costs," said Board Chairman Dwight Doton.
Also on the ballot for the high school is a proposal to allow an easement for the Woodstock Community Trust to use a portion of school property to install drain pipes and a discharge channel for Grange Hill Family Housing, a proposed 36-unit affordable housing development across from the high school.
Plans have been rejected, revised and then accepted by the town's Design Review Board, but in October, an Environmental Court judge ruled the plans need to be revised yet again.
"To convey the land, the School Board felt we should have the permission of the electorate," Doton said.
Also during town meeting Feb. 28, residents will vote on a proposed budget for the Woodstock School District of $3,167,962, an increase of $75,336, or 2.4 percent, more than the $3,092,626 approved by voters last year. Residents will elect school district directors by ballot March 3.
josh.ogorman@rutlandherald.com
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