Part two: Town of Agawam budget discussed during budget workshop

June 19, 2019 | Stephanie Trombley
stephanie@thereminder.com

Town of Agawam Mayor William Sapelli presented part two of the budget workshop.
Screen capture from Town of Agawam Vimeo

AGAWAM – On May 20 and 21, two budget workshops were hosted with the Agawam City Council. Agawam Mayor William Sapelli presented the fiscal year 2020 proposed budget plan to the Council.

Last week, Reminder Publishing released an article outlining a portion of the first budget workshop. The following is a summarized version of the remaining categories in the budget with an outline of changes in comparison to the fiscal year 2019 budget as presented in the budget workshops.

Parks and Recreation

The “Parks and Recreation” category has a budget decrease of $266 under the fiscal year 2019 budget. The changes in this category include a $8,354 salary adjustment increase for a dog park supervisor/custodial staff for School Street Park on Sundays and a $8,765 decrease to water rates.

Highways and Grounds

The “Highways and Grounds” category has a budget decrease of  $8,511 under the fiscal year 2019 budget. The changes in this category include a $6,000 increase for electricity/heat and $20,000 for storm drain repairs. There is a $35,660 decrease due to the reduction of one laborer.

“We’ve been talking about this for quite some time now, the increased need to address the storm drain materials needs. These are for storm drain repairs whether its piping or catch bases or manholes and the like,” Sapelli said.

Motor Vehicle Maintenance

The “Motor Vehicle Maintenance” category has a budget increase of $8,812 over the fiscal year 2019 budget. There is a $6,000 increase for electricity/heat and an increase under personnel of $2,438.

As Sapelli went through the budget, he shared, “This year’s budget, you’ll notice, I think for the first time in a long time is under 3 percent overall including the school and the town. It’s under 3 percent total increase including salaries. I think it hasn’t been under 4 [percent] for quite some time.”

Water

Overall, there is a $97,162 increase to the budget in the “Water” category compared to the fiscal year 2019 budget.

Salary adjustments under the “Water” category resulted in an increase of $15,650. There is also a $3,650 increase for equipment rentals, a $6,000 increase for electricity/heat, a $6,000 increase for training and education due to new OSHA regulations and required training, a $12,262 increase for professional services due to pumping station fees, a $3,000 increase for postage and courier due to an increase in postal rates, $6,000 for printing and copying due to reporting requirements and $26,802 for medical claims insurance due to enrollment changes.

There are also increases under chemicals and lab of $1,225 for dechlorinization chemicals, $20,000 for new project materials to be used to replace water mains and $91,200 for resurfacing roads after replacing water mains.

There is a decrease of $87,354 under water purchase and a decrease of $15,279 under long term debt interest.

Wastewater

The “Wastewater” category has a budget increase of  $77,737 over the fiscal year 2019 budget.

The increases in this category include a $20,147 increase to grounds and building maintenance for pump station upgrades, $6,000 for electricity/heat, $16,609 under professional services for the Suez pump station contract, $69,187 under wastewater treatment for an increase in the Springfield Water and Sewer Commission contract and $1,300 under chemicals and lab for degreasing chemicals.

Decreases include $16,125 under medical claims/insurance for enrollment changes, and $18,863 under long term debt interest for debt amortization.

Administrative Building

The “Administrative Building” category has a budget decrease of $24,331 under the fiscal year 2019 budget.

There is one increase in this category of $7,300 under postage and courier due to increased postal rates.

Decreases in this category include $12,631 under regular permanent personnel, $8,000 under electricity/heat and $11,000 under telephone.

Line Items

In the “Line Items” category, there is an overall budget increase of $1,029,034 over the fiscal year 2019 budget.

Increases include $57,222 under solid waste expense due to increased collection and disposal costs, $225,000 under stormwater management and $711,270 in the salary reserve fund for salary adjustments and five days accrued payroll.

Decreases in this category include $90,601 under long term debt principal and $73,615 under debt interest.

Public Library

In the “Public Library” category, there is an overall budget increase of $16,848 over the fiscal year 2019 budget.

Increases include $1,000 for children’s programming and the museum pass program, $5,000 for e-books and online magazines, $9,000 for the purchase of books and periodicals, $3,804 under library supplies for circulation supplies and Central Western Massachusetts automated resource sharing.

Health Department

In the “Health Department” category, there is an overall budget increase of $6,666 over the fiscal year 2019 budget.

Increases include $5,306 under regular permanent personnel for adjustments in salary and $1,360 for a uniform allowance for permanent, part-time nurses.

There is one decrease of $150 under regular temporary personnel due to a change from sub to permanent part time.

Inspections Services

In the “Inspections Services” category, there is an overall budget decrease of $9,775 under the fiscal year 2019 budget. Decreases include $2,687 under contractual services and $100 under supplies.

Fire Department

In the “Fire Department” category, there is an overall budget decrease of $3,122 under the fiscal year 2019 budget.

An increase occurred under regular permanent personnel of $7,275 for salary adjustments.

Decreases occurred under holiday in the amount of $4,288 and under science college in the amount of $6,109.

Police Department

In the “Police Department” category, there is an overall budget decrease of $21,684 under the fiscal year 2019 budget.

Increases include a personnel overtime increase of $8,750 for a canine officer, $7,158 under science college, $1,000 under telephone, $1,000 under medical and surgical for nasal Narcan and $2,000 under crime scene management supplies,.

Decreases include a regular permanent personnel decrease of $23,251 due to retirements, $1,975 under personnel holiday, $500 under uniform allowance, $12,500 under animal control service and $1,000 under office supplies.

For a complete review of all areas of the budget, visit https://vimeo.com/agawam to view the full budget workshops

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