Recreation budget short, but where?

AMENIA – Recreation Commission Chairman Tom Werner told the Town Board Jan. 10 the budget for the recreation department is short on funds.

However, he would not say by how much the budget was short nor what activities are threatened due to lack of funding.

"At our first meeting of the year, we explained to residents who attended that the budget is going to be tight," Werner said. "We do not want to cut anything, but we may have to cut funding for different programs."

Town Councilwoman Vicki Doyle asked Werner which programs would be cut. Werner said he did not have any idea.

"You don't have any idea, yet we worked on the budget together and I thought we mapped it all out," Doyle said.

"You can't raise it, that's for sure," Werner said. "We may have to adjust certain areas, but we can't."

Councilwoman Victoria Perotti said adjustments needed to be made to the budget itself.

"We are looking at potential problems right now," Perotti said. "We are also looking at some lines that are combined. Our former assistant bookkeeper was allowed to combine many of the [budget] lines, so it's really unclear as to how much is in the budget lines."

Doyle said some of the lines under the recreation department's budget were cut because they were unused.

"Until someone tells me why we need to use additional funds, there's no need to add more money into the recreation budget," she said.

Town Supervisor Wayne Euvrard said the town is working to figure out what, exactly, is happening with the recreation department budget.

"If there is something that comes up, we will work together," Euvrard said. "I don't want to see anything [in

the department] hurt."