Other spending notations:
$40,000.00 to fund merit and equity adjustments (pay increases - raises)
for non-union personnel and police collective bargaining agreement (union/labor contract)
As previously posted, all labor contracts are expenses of taxpayers/town residents and should always be considered when moving to say a full time EMS - fire fighter arrangement, as in include in the total cost of that service.
Another interesting proposal (one I agree with) is put catch basin cleaning out to private contract, which is listed at $13,000.00 per year. It was mentioned a new truck to do this job would cost the Town in the $200,000.00 range, so anyone is free to do the math. A point made when talking of this is the move would free up to 960 man hours, which is time that could be spent on say repairing pot holes and maintenance on equipment. Since the size of the highway crew is often mentioned as being to small for the size of the Town, cutting down on the number of tasks seems to make sense.
Making the door (s) to Town Hall ADA compliant and probably finally getting back to what was originally talked about when the building was made into a Town Hall. A new and different door would be able to be opened by hitting a button or device so the door (s) would open automatically for handicap accessibility, which is an important item.
I believe the idea of hiring a company to clean catch basins has merit. As long as the numbers are based on a realistically sound plan, cool. I honestly think we should do more of this type when feasible.
ReplyDeleteI personally see a benefit to the full time ALS. Maybe its because I'm getting older, I dont know, but it is something I do see value in. I think our method has been typical of the promote flash, cover the cash approach. The town was sold a poorly vetted plan based on many assumptions that turned out to be false. The cost of this service will impact the tax rate. It will effect the tax rate for ever as I see more and more Medicare/Medicaid type payments then private pays in our future. Think of it, if the government goes single payer.....
Ok, this may sound dumb, but why can't we reuse the sand we collect over again ? We spend so much time on sand, there has to be a better way. Put what we collect in a big pile, and reuse it. Sand is sand !
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