TM takes up $5.4 M budget

By Owen Boss

Staff Writer

WILLIAMSBURG - Residents Monday will be asked to approve the town's $5.4 million operating budget for next year and take up more than a dozen other matters when Town Meeting convenes Monday.

Finance Committee Chairman Christopher Smith said residents will be presented with the committee's proposed $5.4 million budget for fiscal 2010, which begins in July.

The proposed budget is about $2,000 less than the current year's budget. Smith said it be broken down by department and analyzed before any vote is taken.

Town Meeting begins at 7 p.m. Monday in the Earl F. Tonet Gymnasium in the Anne T. Dunphy School on Main Street.

Other matters on the meeting warrant are a request to transfer money to a rainy day account, a move Town Administrator Steven Herzberg said is particularly important because of the scarcity of money in the fund and as a measure to improve the town's bond rating, important when the town needs to borrow money.

"Times are tough and the finance, and Selectboard both think it is really important to start saving some money," he said.

"Of all the small Hilltown communities, we have the lowest or nearly the lowest percentage of our operating budget in actual dollars in our stabilization fund," Herzberg said. "Which means there are towns with much smaller budgets that have much more in their stabilization fund."

Other measures include a request to hire a consultant to design a plan to renovate and repair the Anne T. Dunphy School.

Voters also will be asked to consider a bylaw prohibiting the consumption of alcohol in public places such as town streets, sidewalks and playing fields and to weigh in on an article that seeks to keep the position of police chief part-time and one that would reappoint John W. Cotton to the position.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.