Town budget ready for hearing

SHARON — At a Board of Finance budget workshop on Tuesday, March 29, the Board of Education budget, Board of Selectmen’s budget and five-year capital improvement plan were topics of discussion. The Board of Finance had previously asked the Board of Education to cut $55,000 from its proposed spending plan. On Tuesday, much of the discussion centered around plans for building maintenance, which have been deferred. Although there are no plans at the moment for repairs or replacements, the boards agreed that some money should be set aside for when such expenses come up. The finance board suggested adding in $50,000 as, essentially, a rainy day fund for future costs.Additional money was also added in to cover anticipated energy costs. As of April 5, the proposed spending plan for Sharon Center School is $3,758,340, which is a 3.9 percent increase over this year’s budget. The new fiscal year begins July 1. The finance board then asked the Board of Education to reduce its total increase from 3.9 percent to 2 percent or less. The Board of Education budget will go back into discussion at its next monthly meeting, which is on April 11 at 6:30 p.m.The municipal budget remained mostly unchanged from the draft that was produced after the March 23 budget workshop. The Board of Finance did make one more change, removing $1,000 from the budget for assistant directors of youth services, changing the figure from $8,000 to $7,000. With the reduction of that $1,000 the finance board voted to send the municipal budget of $2,991,883 to a public hearing, scheduled for April 29 at 7 p.m. Copies of the municipal budget draft will be available in Town Hall for the week preceding the hearing. The public is encouraged to attend and to ask questions at the hearing. Changes can still be made to the spending plan before it is presented for a town meeting vote on May 13 at 8 p.m. at Town Hall.The third and final topic on the agenda at the March 29 workshop was the approval of Sharon’s five-year capital improvement plan. The current plan includes the new dog pound, the repair to the Mitchelltown Road bridge and several other big projects. The Board of Finance switched the order of priority of two of the projects: A storage building for town equipment was to be constructed in 2012 for $250,000 and repairs to a bridge on River Road were to be done in 2013 for $250,000. The bridge repairs are now to be done before the construction of the new storage facility.