ATHOL — Town Manager Shaun Suhoski presented his draft fiscal year 2023 budget to Athol’s Selectboard at its April 12 meeting. Suhoski said he was following the requirements of the town charter by bringing the proposed spending package to the board at this time.
“What we’re proposing here,” the town manager began, “is a $22.7 million operating budget. What I’d like to highlight in this is that it’s sustainable, it’s within the constraints of Proposition 2½, plus our new growth and our projected revenue estimates for the following fiscal year.”
Suhoski continued by saying, “This year, we have a larger — a much larger — group than usual of retirements coming forward. So, we need to accommodate that as an unforeseen expense.
“We’ve been able to do that in a way that does not create a cliff for the next fiscal year and that we can sustain. That’s the important thing I wanted to share.”
The results of contract negotiations, once they conclude, will also impact the budget, he explained.
“Your board will soon be seeing proposed settlements for collective bargaining agreements. So, we’ve made assumptions in here based on the negotiations to date and where we stand,” he said.
Suhoski added the spending package also includes the addition of personnel.
“In this proposal, there are a couple of areas where we are supplementing the staff,” he continued. “We are retaining the patrol officer who was hired last fall, for half a year. We have the recurring revenue to retain that position. And we’re adding a patrol officer, effective December of 2023. What that does is, it brings the (police) department to 20 sworn officers.
“This was the benchmark from 12 years ago, when the Finance Committee did a very detailed assessment. And, most recently, I updated some statistics from their report 12 years ago, and the demand could be higher. But Chief Lundgren feels this will provide the flexibility for when people are out injured, to have adequate patrols, and to supplement resources in the detective bureau.”
The town manager proposes to increase the Police Department budget from just under $2.25 million this year to approximately $2.4 million next fiscal year.
Suhoski said he also plans to add staff to the building and planning departments.
“We’ve got to help the department heads,” he stressed. “The Building Department is really being over-taxed right now with construction activity. This would allow us — at this point — not to hire anybody but to contract out local inspection services to supplement the building inspector. So, there’s an increase there.”
The proposed budget for the Building Department would increase from $189,000 this year to just over $203,000 in the next fiscal year.
The budget, Suhoski said, “also includes a 20-hour, part-time planning and grants assistant for the planning director. He’s been looking for this for some time. I’ve heard feedback from many people in the community that the department is maxed-out and that it could be much more productive with just that little bit of help. To me, it will likely pay for itself. We’re talking less than $30,000, and I’ll bet the first grant that rolls in will be more than that.”
The Planning Department budget proposed by Suhoski would increase from $137,000 to $167,000.
Suhoski then moved on to revenue projections for FY23.
“You’ll see increases in meals and cannabis revenue,” he said. “Those are below what we project. We tend to leave things at 80 percent or less of what we reasonably anticipate in case there’s a downturn.”
In total, Suhoski and his finance team project revenues of $22,769,701 in fiscal year 2023, and spending of $22,769,027.
The only question for Suhoski came from board Vice Chair Rebecca Bialecki.
“Is our building inspector continuing to serve in other towns?” she asked. “I know there was a brief period where was serving — was it Royalston or Phillipston?”
“We had a short-term pilot program with Phillipston,” Suhoski replied. “Administratively, it wasn’t workable.”
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com