By Bonnie Adams, Government Editor
Westborough – Voters approved the $89.1 million fiscal year (FY) 2013 operating budget for the town at the March 17 Annual Town Meeting (ATM) but not before hearing from residents who questioned many of the line items. Several residents also implored town officials and their fellow voters to use fiscal restraint.
Resident Scott Parker addressed the nearly 100 voters in attendance.
“I have lived here nearly 50 years with my wife; our taxes have gone up astronomically over the last ten years. [The town] needs to control our expenses. We need to compete with other towns to bring business back in,” he said. “In the old days, 60 percent of our revenue was commercial taxes.”
Several residents questioned why the Department of Public Works (DPW) was requesting approval to fill a vacant mechanics position.
Resident Vincent Borkowski, 114 Adams St., said, “In these tough times, some Westborough residents are experiencing great hardship. I's not sure this is the right time to be adding staff to the town of Westborough.”
He added that perhaps some of the maintenance could be done by contracting some of the repairs to outside vendors.
DPW Manager John Walden noted that he has tried to shift his staff around to help with the needed maintenance. But with so much other work to be done throughout the town and more than 100 pieces of machinery the DPW is responsible for maintaining, there is not enough personnel, he added.
“We'se been getting complaints about the lack of turf maintenance at the rotary and cemeteries so we'se started doing that again,” he said. “”And we do farm some repairs out, but that is costly. But we also need quick turnarounds – we don's have time to wait a week for repairs.”
Resident Paula Less, 7 Blake St., questioned if senior citizens who participate in the seniors” tax abatement program could help fill the void.
Town Manager Jim Malloy said the town currently has fifty seniors who partake in this program but most of them work in the town's offices helping out. He added that not only would most of the seniors not be able to do physical tasks such as “weed whacking or digging graves” but the town's insurance company would never allow it.
The public schools, at $41.3 million, accounts for almost half of the town's overall budget. Several residents questioned if the school administrators had tried to cuts costs.
Ilyse Levine-Kanji, the school committee chair, noted that the schools had cut staffing by six percent over the past five years. The district had also voted to raise fees for events by 150 percent for the next year. But, she added, there were several factors that the administrators had no control over, such as the loss of federal stimulus funds, unfunded state and federal mandates, special education (SPED), and transportation.
Resident Marsha Golden, 57 Treetop Park, said, “If you are not getting the state funding, then you need to learn to live within your budget. Times are really tough – we have to say no more. If it means cuts to personnel then it means cuts to personnel.”
Less asked if the district had considered charging bus stipends, such as many other locals towns have done.
Levine-Kanji replied that several years ago a transportation sub- committee had determined that this was not a feasible idea. Several of the schools did not have adequate streets that would be able to easily handle the extra traffic that would occur, she said, from parents who chose to drive their children instead of paying the bus fees.
Additionally, state law required districts to bus children in grades kindergarten to grade six that live more than two miles away and that the district could not charge to do so.
The voters ultimately approved the entire $89.1 million budget. The ATM adjourned at 11:30 p.m. and will resume Monday, March 19 at 7 p.m. at the Westborough High School.