Another year, another pair of default budgets for Epsom’s school and town expenses.

The town must adhere to a budget of $2,469,882, as the proposed $2,882,220 budget was defeated 601-304 on March 11. Epsom is now on its fourth default budget in a row, but that doesn’t mean taxes stay the same.

The town budget will add 28 cents to the tax rate, an increase on the bill of a home assessed at $200,000 of $56.

The school district’s budget of $7,904,002 will represent a tax increase of 88 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value.

For a home assessed at $200,000, that translates into a tax bill increase of $176.

The school district must find $167,441 to cut to come in line with the default, while the to>wn must cut more than $400,000.

Town cuts
Selectman Joanne Randall said selectmen have decided not to weigh in too heavily on what the department heads decide to shave off their proposed budgets, but added the decision will be far from easy.

The town’s departments have become quite used to looking for savings in their budgets.

“It’s not the end of the world,” said the town’s road agent, Gordon Ellis. “I’m a farmer. We make do with what we’ve got.”

The Highway Department is already about $12,000 over its winter budget this year because of the heavy snow and the toll it has taken on the roads, making it difficult for Ellis to predict how his cuts will affect the department at this point.

And they still have April, November and December to cover, Ellis said.

“I’ll have to cover all my winter overages with my summer budget,” Ellis said, which would require eliminating most of the shim and overlay work planned for the roads as well as tree trimming and crack sealing.

The one thing he can’t save on is repairing the bumpiest roads in town.

“I have to do the potholes,” he said.

Fire Chief Stewart Yeaton, faced with a default budget that is $27,000 less than what he proposed, said some lines were already cut to comply with the default.

He said he took $1,000 out of the fire department’s equipment purchase line to split between the gas and oxygen funding lines.

“Everybody’s in the same boat,” said Yeaton. The police department has to find $23,217 in savings to fall in line with their default operating budget of $494,412.

Slightly helping that were Bow Dispatch fees that came in at $42,625, about $300 less than what was anticipated.

The department also cut out a school program that involved officer Cory Crochmal meeting with second-graders at Central School every other week to educate them about different types of officers, crime and police work.

“We’re going to tighten up on everything,” said Police Chief Wayne Preve, adding they have made concerted efforts to save money in energy lines, including lighting and heating. He added the department just lost an officer to the Northwood Police Department for a salary increase of about $600, and has plans to replace the officer after a new academy starts in a few weeks.

Part of the problem is that wages in Epsom for patrol officers are below average, and there is no incentive for officers to stay around. Consequently, the department ends up having to pay to put recruits through the police academy, many of whom go on to other higher paying departments eventually.

According to Preve, his highest paid patrol officer is earning $15.80 per hour. The lowest paid patrolman’s hourly wage is $14.40.

“The cards are dealt, and we have to deal with what cards are dealt to us,” Preve said. “We’re going to do our best with what we’ve got, and hopefully it’s enough to keep people happy.”

School cuts
School Board Chairman Barbara Doughty said the district will not replace two middle school teachers, one for the eighth grade and one teaching fifth grade, who are retiring at the end of the school year.

Other savings will be realized in overlapping some of the staff positions, one example of that being a combined second and third grade class.

This may increase the class size to about 22 students per teacher, Doughty said.

“It’s not ideal, but it’s what we have to do,” she said, adding the district is on a spending freeze and supply lines have been cut.

The board decided not to cut funding for sports programs, Doughty said, because doing so would not even cover the cost of one teacher.

According to School District Business Administrator Peter Warburton, Epsom spends slightly below the state average cost per pupil.

In 2006-07, according to enrollment and expenditure data, Epsom spent $9,427.61 per student.

Warburton said Epsom Central School Principal Patrick Connors has set up a good framework for realizing savings, having been through this a few times already.

“Epsom’s sort of used to it. They’ve lost more budgets than they’ve gotten,” he half joked.