NORTHBOROUGH – The Recreation Department is hoping that the town will financially support the full-time positions in the department.
On Aug. 1, the Select Board, Appropriations Committee, Financial Planning Committee and Northborough School Committee gathered for a financial trend summit.
Over the 3 1/2 hour meeting, the department heads presented financial expenses and capital items on the horizon. Recreation Director Allie Lane said she had two goals to discuss with the boards.
Her first goal was to ensure the financial stability of the growth of her department and ask the town to financially support the two full-time positions in her office.
According to Lane, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the department was fully self-sufficient. Lane and Administrative Assistant Maegan Wackell’s salaries and insurance were covered by the funds brought into the department through its programs.
“Post-COVID, we started out with $0, and we started from scratch,” she said.
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The first year after the pandemic, the department was completely covered through the general fund. This year, Lane said, the department is paying $100,000 from its revolving account into the general fund to go to their salaries, which are $164,000.
Lane is proposing a two-year phased plan. In fiscal year 2026, she would like the revolving account to put $50,000 into the general fund, and by fiscal 2027, the department wouldn’t put in any money and it would be fully funded by the town.
“The reasoning behind that is it’s very difficult for us to start from zero,” Lane said.
When she started with the town 23 years ago, the Recreation Department had money in the bank. This means that if the department had a bad year, it had a fund balance to cover them.
“But as our salaries go up, the cost of the vendors to run the programs goes up. We now have to pay the schools to use them for overtime – 15 years ago, that wasn’t a thing,” Lane said. “Everything just keeps going up, and it’s really hard for us to keep going up in price. We are a town department that families really rely on to have affordable programming.”
Lane said that Northborough is the only town in Central Massachusetts whose Recreation Department was self-sufficient, and the only town of its size with only two employees. Southborough, she noted, has three staff members.
“I’m not asking for more employees. I’m asking the town to support what we’re trying to do, and what we’re trying to do is create programming for not just kids, but all ages … at an affordable price,” Lane said. “In order to do that in the future, we’re going to need the support from the town and the taxpayers.”
Her second request was to change the job description of her administrative assistant. She said that Wackell goes to all of the programs, helps create programs, attends and runs all events.
According to Lane, there is a position of program supervisor, and this position went through a classification and comp study and is a grade four position. She said there would be a $4,432 difference between the current salary and that of the program supervisor.
“I think if we did, it would help Northborough stay competitive,” Lane said, noting that other neighboring towns were seeking a program coordinator.
