Plenty of debate is likely to follow the release of the mayor’s budget this week, and much of that will likely be over Mayor Bruce Chuluda’s decision to include pay-per-bag recycling in it.

Councilors were quick to vow this week to remove pay-per-bag – a program we have supported in previous editorials – after rejecting the recommendations of the city’s recycling committee last month. We continue to support a pay-per-bag program as a way to encourage recycling, and there are a few other things we support in this budget, including a long-overdue recycling program for city and school buildings.

While keeping the tax increase to 3.5 percent, the budget would also pay seven new full-time positions. Those include a full-time traffic officer, a part-time parking officer, a full-time head of circulation and systems coordinator at the library, a full-time reference librarian, a part-time position to support the economic development director and four full-time firefighters.

The full-time traffic officer is long overdue. It will help support a police department that’s stretched thin covering the entire city as it is. Westbrook has become what some refer to as a drive-through community. That is to say it’s a place most people pass through on their way to and from work.

Anyone who drives or walks in downtown Westbrook knows how much traffic comes through every day and how fast it travels. If this city ever wants its downtown to be a place where people feel comfortable walking, to the businesses that are located here and that the city hopes to attract, it has to get a handle on the traffic flowing through every day. One of the best long-term solutions to this problem – improvements to William Clarke Drive – has been on hold now for years. In the short-term an additional traffic patrol position would help make it safer for those driving and walking in downtown Westbrook.

Parking has also become a problem in some pockets of the city. Westbrook isn’t Boston or even Portland, but as more businesses move into the city and existing businesses expand, parking is increasingly becoming difficult. In the future, the city will probably have to create more parking, but in the meantime, it needs to enforce the parking regulations it has. To do that, the city needs a part-time parking enforcement position.

It’s also good to see the city investing in its library as the role of libraries in society changes. With fewer people using them to access the books on the shelves, many libraries have attempted to switch their focus to becoming places that help people use computers to do their research. We believe Walker Memorial Library can continue to play a strong role in the community, as a resource for students, residents and businesses, and investing in two positions there will help make that happen.

Once the dust settles on the debate over pay-per-bag, we urge city councilors to support these new positions.

Brendan Moran, editor

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