Director of Public Works John Tomasz presented his department’s budget request for fiscal year 2025 at the Select Board’s most recent meeting.
“The budget’s a 2.4% increase from last year,” Tomasz said during his presentation.
The Department of Public Works had a budget of roughly $8.3 million in FY24, and Tomasz said the budget request for FY25 is a little less than $200,000 more.
Tomasz said the increase is mainly driven by four things: collection and disposal of waste and recycling, contracts, contractual and non-contractual labor costs, and the town’s electric and heating expenses.
In response to Select Board member Dick Dalton’s concern about the rising costs of disposal and collection of waste and recycling, Tomasz said that the costs at the moment are “pretty fixed,” but that disposal costs are slowly increasing.
As for capital costs, the Department of Public Works is requesting two trucks: a pickup truck and a large truck.
“The large truck is kind of important because it’s one of our salting machines,” Tomasz said. “I lost two of them this year because they’re just too old and it won’t pass inspection.”
The department is also requesting funding for multiple school buses, which are paid for through yearly payment plans.
Tomasz said the DPW requests the same amount, $500,000, for road repairs each year.
“Whatever you can give me is greatly appreciated,” Tomasz said regarding the funding for town’s roads. “We’re not there yet, but we almost have our list together of what roads we will be doing this year and looking ahead for next year.”
Tomasz explained that determining which roads to repair takes some time because it requires collaboration with National Grid and two different water departments.
He also said the department is requesting money for equipment for school custodians to help keep schools in better shape, as some of the equipment is aging
“They (the custodians) do a spectacular job,” Dalton said. “I think for us, when we walk the halls, they look like brand-new buildings. So anything we can do to support them I think is great. Probably not a lot of people realize that the DPW really takes care of the maintenance for the school district.”
The department’s final request is funding for septic systems.
“The systems up at the high school and the middle school are now over 20 years old,” Tomasz said. “So I’m concerned that I’m starting to see pumps and lines failing.”
Tomasz explained that it would take around $10,000 to $15,000 to repair the system’s pumps if they fail, which the department does not have the budget for. As a result, he said he is requesting the funding as a safety net.
Select Board members told Tomasz that they appreciated the detailed descriptions he gave about the department’s inventory, which provided context for the requests.
“I want to thank you, for the public, that you do a remarkable job on every piece of equipment that you have listed,” Select Board member Phil Crawford said. “It tells us when it was purchased, it tells how many miles are on it, what the wear and tear is. That is all listed for us so we can forecast five years out.”
