By Richard Kerns
rkerns@newstribune.info
tribune staff writer
WESTERNPORT — The Westernport Mayor and Town Council unanimously approved a fiscal 2010 budget that addresses chronic funding shortfalls by imposing higher water, sewer and garbage fees, and laying off five town employees.
Mayor Amel Morris said the council is still evaluating job duties and other criteria to determine which positions will be cut, but he verified that the spending plan that takes effect July 1 includes savings from the elimination of five positions.
Officials have indicated that the ax will likely fall the hardest on the streets department, whose 11 employees account for just over half of the town's full-time workforce. The staffing reduction will pare about $250,000 from the town budget.
“We're still studying it, we're still looking at it,” the mayor said of the impending decision on who will be laid off.
In addition to across-the-board increases in utility charges for both residents and non-residents who use
Westernport water, sewer or garbage service, the town is also considering privatizing its garbage service. Bids have been solicited in the hopes that a private contractor can provide the service more efficiently and at less cost to the town.
Noting regular increases in landfill tipping fees, Morris said he was pleasantly surprised to learn that one contractor had indicated that rates would be locked in for three years. As part of the bid package, the contractors are also being asked to buy the town's garbage truck, which was acquired under a lease-purchase arrangement.
The fee increases agreed upon at Monday's monthly town council meeting are the same as those hammered out last month during a first reading of the budget ordinance.
Finance Commissioner Darrell Stephen said the council worked to balance the budget through a combination of spending cuts — including the personnel reduction — and relatively modest increases to water, sewer and garbage rates. Had the council opted to rely on revenue increases alone, he said, residents would have faced an increase in those fees of about $28 a month.
“That would have solved all of our problems, but that's a phenomenal amount of money” that many residents would be unable to afford, he said.
Under the new budget, metered water customers who live in town would see their monthly cost for water, sewer and trash increase by $6.
Out-of-town customers who also receive garbage service will see their monthly costs for all three services increase by $7.50. Flat-rate water customers who are not on metered lines would pay $6 more for water and sewer, and $3 more for trash if they're in town, or $4 for trash if they are out of town and receive that service.
The town's budget is broken into two main categories: The general fund, which supports Town Hall,, police and street maintenance, and the enterprise fund, which pays for water, sewer and garbage, with revenue generated by user fees.
For fiscal 2010, the general fund budget will be about $740,000 and the enterprise fund just over $1 million.
