Corrected 3:30pm 3/8/08

After being on a default budget, Weare town officials hope voters will pass the proposed $4.6 million operating budget for the coming year, particularly for department budget increases related to fuel costs.

“They’re almost entirely fuel related,” said Fred Ventresco, Weare town administrator, about the highway, police and fire department budgets.

A line-by-line comparison of the town’s proposed budget and default budget show a $39,081 spread for the Highway Department, a $54,955 difference for the Police Department and a $14,451 difference for the Fire Department.

Should the $4,658,578 proposed budget fail with voters, a default budget of $4,529,870 will take effect.

Ventresco said the town’s Board of Selectmen has not yet contemplated what they would cut from the budget to account for the $128,708 difference between the proposed and default budgets.

The proposed budget would result in a projected tax rate of $2.29 for the town portion. For Weare residents owning a $300,000 home, this amounts to a $45 increase over last year’s budget, with a total tax bill of $687 from the town.

The passing of all monetary warrant articles would add another $1.52 to the town’s tax rate on top of the operating budget, whether it be passed or defaulted, or another $456 to the tax bill of a $300,000 home.

Ventresco said the town would want all the articles to pass, but particularly a $900,000 bond for a new public works garage.

“That building is in really bad shape,” he said.

There are also a couple of articles related to building maintenance, passed without debate to the ballot at the town’s deliberative session on Saturday, Feb. 2. Ventresco said the town municipal building and several others in town are in poor repair due to putting improvements off in prior years of default budgets.

“We’re hoping that’s a good indication that people can see the real necessity in those items,” Ventresco said, adding the town hall in particular has a leaky roof and is in violation of numerous fire and safety codes.

Also at the deliberative session, voters shaved $815,000 off an article that would authorize the Board of Selectmen to enter into a bond to improve the Bolton Field Memorial Complex. The proposed bond amount, originally set at $1.25 million, was cut down to just $435,000, the cost of the first phase of necessary improvements, after lengthy debate at the deliberative session.

This article has no effect on the tax rate as it only gives selectmen the go-ahead to negotiate and sell the bond.

Several articles involve increases in payroll funding, including $57,000 in raises for town employees; $92,000 to hire, train, equip and pay two full-time police officers for nine months; $80,085 for two new firefighter/EMTs for six months; and $23,023 in pay for the ambulance department to have weekend and holiday coverage. Several more ask to put land into conservation, one of those asking the town to raise $200,000 to purchase 175 acres-worth of easements in Melvin Valley.