City and School Hold Joint Workshop

May 25, 2006
By Greta Sproul

  A joint budget workshop held Monday night at the Old Town Public Library was the setting as the city council and the school board met to discuss ways to reduce their respective budgets. Cuts on both sides of the table are being driven by the need to make up for tax revenue lost in the wake of the closing of the G-P mill in Old Town. On the municipal side, city manager Peggy Daigle has already outlined multi-tier budget cuts, the first tier of which would eliminate proposed funding for a Parks and Recreation Director, shut down the city pool, and either eliminate or reduce funding for other city personnel positions. The first tier of cuts, coupled with the revenue the city gets from things such as burn permits, code enforcement permits, and excise tax, would reduce the city budget by $629,994.

On their side of the reduction process, the school board must find a way to cut  $315,000 from their budget. The difficulty in deciding what and where to make the cuts prompted school board member Dave Walstadt to take issue with the cuts being made on the municipal side. Reiterating remarks he had made in a letter sent by the school board to the city council last week, Walstadt referred to the city’s fire, police, and public works services as “Cadillac-level” while characterizing school spending as being “forced into the bottom quintile statewide.”

Walstadt’s criticism of the city side budget cuts elicited a strong response from council chairman Gary Sirois.

“I’m sorry you have taken the position of micro-managing the city,” Sirois said. “The charge of the school board is to manage the school.”

Sirois also took issue with the idea that Old Town’s school system is the primary reason that people move to the area.

“Believe it or not, people don’t move to Old Town just for the school system. They also want the level of services,” he said.

Sirois reminded those present that everyone was facing hard times, and that the situation may not have hit rock bottom at this point.

“We haven’t seen the new valuation come in,” he said. “None of these decisions are easy. It’s not fair for anyone on this board to look across lines. It doesn’t accomplish anything.”

One important aspect of the workshop discussion centered on a request by the school board that the city council allow them to use $100,000 on the FY07 existing bonded debt. School Superintendent David Walker called the money a “band-aid” but added that the use of the $10,000 for the school’s “most urgent needs” would be for this year alone.

“It would mean that there would be $100,00 worth of programs that we wouldn’t have to cut,” he said.

The Council responded positively to the request for the use of the $100,00, as well as to the authorization of $215,000 for school roof repairs at the Leonard Middle Schhol. The $215,000 used for the repairs will be returned to the city in the fall at which time the school will receive the bond money earmarked for the project.

Despite the positive response from the city in regard to both requests, some school board members remained concerned about the long-term effects of the cutting process.

“We are in a triage situation,” Lianne Judd said. “If we cut all this money from our budget, we won’t have a school district here. If we don’t put our finger in the dyke, we will have a real problem.”

Judd went on to ask the Council who owned the buildings used by the school, adding that money might be saved if the owner of the buildings were responsible for their upkeep. Council member Bob Miller explained that the city owned them, but that once they were turned over to the school, the school was in charge of maintaining and operating them.

“They’re yours for as long as you want them,” he said.

Council Chair Gary Sirois had a few words regarding the potential future regionalization of Old Town and Orono schools.

“I think everyone here can agree, that the system we are working under is broken, and it needs to be fixed,” Sirois said. “It might be time to look at regionalization. That takes the ‘what if’ out of it. There’s serious work to be done.”

Sirois contended that there were existing problems on both sides that had only been compounded by the closure of the mill last March.

The Council will hold another meeting next Tuesday, May 30, at 7 p.m. at the Old Town Public Library. That meeting will allow for time in which members of the public will be invited to speak.

The school board’s next meeting will take place on Wednesday, May 31, at 7 p.m.

Another joint workshop will be held on June 1, at a still unannounced location, and will be followed by a final reading of the budget on Monday, June 5.