Mr. Scott stated at the beginning of the meeting they had made a mistake on the budget figure from last year.  The increase the town of was looking at was now $80,806.74 ($17,772.93 of this figure is the fire district) which actually brings the increase down to $63,033.81.

The main concern during the evening seemed to be the pay increase for the Superintendent and the Assessor.  Here is a breakdown of salaries:

• Town Board 0% increase
• Town Justice $4,500 to $4,750 increase of 5%
• Supervisor 0%
• Assessors:    Alice  $4,800 to $6,500 increase of 35%   No increase for John or Randy (Note: There is confusion on how much Alice is actually making at this date.  Mike Scott quoted $4,800 for Alice and $3,000 for John & Randy each however; that doesn’t compute to $9,750 a year.)
• Town Clerk 0%
• Bookkeeper  $6,600 to $7,200 increase of 9%
• Code Enforcement Officer  $3,925 to $4,050 increase of 3%
• Dog Control Officer 0%
• Superintendent $32,000 to $36,000 increase of 12.5%

I am not against anyone receiving a well-earned raise and I’m sure that none of you are either but there seems to be some raises that are way above what is logical.  I believe our Highway Superintendent should remember that he also has a vehicle that he drives back and forth to work that is paid for with tax dollars.  I understand that he has to go out and check roads with it, but he only lives 5 minutes away. If this is too much for his budget should give that up.  He doesn’t seem to realize that the vehicle is part of his pay package.  Mr. Rung was also commenting that his employees had a clothing allowance.  What does he think his contractual account is? My favorite part of his heart felt speach though was if he did not receive this raise then they could find someone else.  So you are going to give up a job for $32,000 over a raise? Don’t you all wish you had this option?

There was a huge uproar among the people present, when it was stated how much of an increase the chairman of the assessors was asking for.  At this point there are no raises in the budget for anyone which is unacceptable.  As Paul Sadler stated his taxes are going up also and he should get his 3%.    He’s asking for a lousy $125 that comes out to $2.40 a week.  Come on Board think about it, think outside the box for a change.

By the end of the meeting the budget was trimmed another $47,452.11 bringing the increase in the budget to $15,581.70 (this is with no raises and does not include the $17,772.93 for the fire department) and a tax increase of 2.57%.  The majority of this figure are uncontrollable costs such as insurance, social security, retirement and so on.

The board is going to hold another meeting to go over the budget with the taxpayers on Thursday, November 13.  The board is not required to do this and it is nice of them to do this however; when you have this many concerned people do you really want to back to keeping every thing to yourselfs?  The public appreciates an honest, open board and would like to thank them for holding this other meeting.