CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The Select Board is considering pushing the annual town meeting into June to give school officials more time to find offsets in their budget. 

 

Town and school officials met last week to discuss the town's fiscal woes — the budget is up, reserves are down and, for the second year, there will be no free cash available.

 

But the elementary school budget is up 8.5 percent largely because of the cost of a student's out-of-district placement, pegged at $175,000 to $200,000. 

 

"We're looking at total revenues of $4.978 million and the budget that you see is at $5,108,000," said Town Administrator Carl McKinney  at Wednesday's board meeting. "Which would allow for a 2 percent increase at the school. But that is also going to require $140,000 out of stabilization to balance this."

 

The school currently has a projected budget of $3,018,154, up $235,392. School Committee member Mary Giron, who attended the meeting, pointed out that the school budget would be up only $35,000, less than 1 percent, without the educational placement. 

 

She asked if there was a way to help push along the free cash certification, either through volunteers helping out in the treasurer's office or having the finance team work extra days.  

 

"I feel like we're at a point where we're desperate and here is some money that we know is there. And if we can find a way to push that along, that's going to help some of this," she said. 

 

McKinney said the town already has a former accountant and a former treasurer helping in the office with the new town treasurer. Municipal finance requires specialized knowledge, he said, "we had a CPA here and they struggled mightily."

 

The town had looked into contracting the work out but that would cost thousands of dollars it doesn't have and take anywhere from three to six months, he said. 

 

McKinney said it was unlikely that even fiscal 2021 would be certified with the state in time for town meeting and they couldn't guarantee that the House and Senate would add significantly to the governor's budget, which only gives the town about $48,000 more in aid. 

 

"I think we should pass our budget without any expectation of using anything and if we get there, bully for us, we don't get there, we have a budget in place that will sustain us through the year albeit maybe not where we want to be," he said. 

 

Select Board member Daniel Haskins said he had met with the superintendent that morning and there was the possibility of some grants coming that might offset the school budget. The board thought it might be better to wait until June to give the school more time but did not vote on the matter. 

 

Select Board member Robert Norcross was concerned that voters would reject a budget that dipped so far into the stabilization account. The town only has $190,000 and balancing the budget would take up most or all of that though officials are planning on replenishing it when free cash becomes available — which could be next year. 

 

If someone convinced the town it was ill-advised to use up the emergency account, "we're really in trouble," he said, noting he'd voiced opposition to doing that in the past. 

 

"We just have to make sure we explain to them that it is going to be replenished or whatever," Norcross said. "Because I don't see a choice either, but we got to make sure we're taking care of our stabilization to cover this budget."

 

Board members agreed that next year should be better with free cash in hand and nearly $200,000 in debt falling off — but they just had to get through this year.

 

"You know, if the townspeople always say you should only spend that in an emergency, well, if this doesn't qualify as an emergency, good God, I don't know what does," said McKinney. 

 

Giron suggested the board move its meetings back to the evening when more citizens could attend and allow for more information to get out. Chair Jeffrey Levanos said they'd moved to Wednesday mornings because no one was attending the meetings and the time was more convenient for the board. 

 

McKinney said citizens needed to be more open minded about ways to raise revenues. 

 

"If your town is struggling and they're trying to diversify the tax base, it behooves you to support them," he said. "We need to see that, we need to expand our tax revenues by a solar array on the landfill or on the school roof. Or if we need to have denser zoning in areas that are able to support that with public water and sewer."

 

The board also heard from Highway Foreman Kyle Hurlbut, who said his budget was coming in level-funded. Hurlbut said there were a host of capital needs, including replacing a truck, but acknowleged that wasn't going to happen, nor would he get a fourth Department of Public Works employee. 

 

"If we don't have the money to do the work then it doesn't get done, that's the bottom line on everything," he said. 

 

He cautioned town officials that there were some big projects ahead, such as the Cross Road bridge. And he and McKinney warned the board that the $1 million MassWorks grant for Middle Road might not even cover a full mile because costs have ballooned so much.