Town officials say initial department head requests total some $2.35 million as they begin to look at the expenses in store for 2009-10.

The first initial view of next year’s budget began on Sept. 13, as selectmen reviewed the budget requests from the town’s Fire Department, police, road crew and other areas. Selectman Joe Duarte said that the requests total $2,353,339, an amount about $30,000 higher than today’s budget, but he warned that some big-ticket items such as insurance have not been added into the budget yet.

According to the figures in the current budget, health insurance totals about $75,000, and Duarte said officials are anticipating a rate increase of around 25 percent or more when the new rates are finally released next month. Overall, Duarte said department heads have submitted thrifty budgets this year, with no new major spending items or unexpected work project requests to be seen so far.

But figuring largely on the minds of most officials right now is what the new transfer station costs will be, and amount that Duarte said could have a very wide variance based on two “unknowns” -- recycling levels and trash transfer costs.

The town’s former trash disposal method of burning in the incinerator essentially costs the town nothing outside of the cost of running the incinerator itself, Duarte said, but the disposal fees to landfill the town’s nonrecyclable household trash has the potential to be a very costly service for taxpayers.

So far, the requests for the transfer station total $421,969, but Duarte said there is no surefire way for official to predict exactly how much they will have to spend next year on the transfer fees. Recycling has the added benefit of decreasing the tonnage that goes into landfills as well as giving the town coffers a boost through the sale of bailed plastic, metals and other recyclables, and some officials said they hope to see residents recycle as much as $100,000 next year.

Duarte said the income from recyclables will be based on fluctuating market conditions for the prices for iron, steel and other commodities, and their values will probably change as rapidly as the cost of gasoline changes next year. Ultimately, the recycling income itself will be recycled as it goes back into the general fund, he said.

“But we have to be very careful, and we can’t rely on any particular amount of money coming in” he said. “All we can do is try and stay on top of (recycling).”

Among other budget areas, the police is the largest budget request area, with a total in $641,327 in requests. Although the amount is down from this year $686,000 in allocations, insurance figures for employee benefits have not been worked into the budget yet.

Chief Michael McGillen said yesterday that he has not put forward any requests for major projects or upgrades, although an $8,000 law-enforcement computer program could come forward as a warrant article.

McGillen said the program would outfit the new onboard computers in the department’s four cruisers with software to allow them to conduct checks of license plates, licenses and registrations on the road instead of having to relay the information via radio. He said the program would essentially eliminate the potentially unsafe roadway standby time when an officer is awaiting information on a person involved in a routine traffic stop, a situation that can be dangerous for officers in the event the person is a wanted suspect.

Fire Chief Rudy Cartier also said he doesn’t foresee any major projects form next year, and his department requests for the year total $112,460, an increase of $10,000 more than the current budget. About one-quarter of the increase is for fuel costs, and Cartier said he also requested an additional $5,500 for a project to dredge out and clean the fire pond, which provides emergency firefighting water to the downtown area.

Cartier said this important safety maintenance project has not probably not been performed during the past 25 years.