The Freeport Town Council has not yet expressed concerns regarding specific department requests in the $2.5 million capital budget request, Town Manager Peter Joseph says, but the bottom line might be a different matter.
The council will hold a public hearing on the capital budget on April 7, at 6:30 p.m. The capital budget will be part of a municipal budget, yet to be unveiled, that will be voted on by the council in June.
Department heads made their pitches to the Town Council on March 17. A new $750,000 fire truck is among the requests. Other major components of the capital budget include $196,000 for a new ambulance, $150,000 for closure of the landfill, $430,000 for reconstruction of Litchfield Road and $135,000 for drainage work on roads in South Freeport village.
“We talked quite a bit with the fire department, and details about their request,” Joseph said. “Larger cities have a shorter replacement schedule. Freeport is in the 15-year to 25-year (schedule), and this one is 27. It did have a major overhaul six years ago.”
Every department requested will be thoroughly examined, Joseph said.
“None of the councilors have suggested what they might do yet,” he said. “There will be amendments. There always are.”
The council adopts a capital budget that becomes part of the municipal budget, and could be subject to further change.
Joseph said that the April 7 public hearing will afford the public to weigh in. In the past few years, he said, there hasn’t been much pubic input on the capital budget.
Following the public hearing, the Town Council will make any changes it deems necessary.
“After the public hearing is the opportunity for the councilors to make any suggestions about increasing or decreasing appropriations, eliminating items, or moving them up or down the capital program,” council Chairwoman Melanie Sachs said.
Joseph expects more attention to the overall spending requests. Cumberland County taxes in Freeport will increase by 7 percent this year, and Regional School Unit 5 will unveil its plan for 2016-2017 at a school board meeting Wednesday, March 25, at Freeport High School.
“I’ve heard a lot of concern on overall financial matters – budgeting in general,” he said. “There will be more attention paid to the bottom line of both budgets, especially with the concern over state revenue sharing. But these are all items that we wouldn’t be proposing unless we thought they were needed.”
This year’s capital budget is $2.7 million, a significant increase due mostly to a major reconstruction of Wardtown Road. Freeport Public Works will complete that job and repave the road this spring.
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