'08 budget anticipates reval


SHARON — As the town heads into the home stretch of the budget process, the selectmen’s budget, while not a great departure from the last five years, has First Selectman Malcolm Brown mildly frustrated.

Brown pointed to certain elements of the budget that are out of the town’s control — lines dealing with taxes, health care and energy.

Included in the budget is $180,000 ($90,000 over two years) for the state-mandated property revaluation. After consulting with assessor Patricia Braislin and Board of Finance chairman Barbara Prindle, Brown said the figure is "inescapable."

"We based it on the figures from similar towns," he added.

Health-care costs for town employees are up 5 percent; overall, the employee benefits line has grown by $12,846 or 4.4 percent.

And the town got slammed by rising electricity costs. Last summer’s heat wave was very costly for town buildings, according to Brown. The Town Hall overall budget line is up $14,254, or 23.8 percent; the biggest energy increase is electricity, expected to rise $5,500 (57.9 percent), closely followed by heat, up $1,500 or 27.3 percent. Town Hall is also slated for significant technology upgrades, for a total proposed cost of $6,000.

The town’s road crew is scheduled to get some new equipment. A new general-purpose truck will cost about $122,000; a new grader, to replace the 20-year-old machine in use, will cost between $85,000 and $100,000. The equipment fund currently stands at $105,591; the selectmen propose adding $40,000 to that line — an increase of 47 percent.

"We should have been saving for that," said Brown. "We didn’t."

On the plus side of the ledger is the rental, at long last, of 67 Masin St. to Tri-State Public Communications, for $12,000 in the first year, with a three-year option. In addition to the rental income, the town is no longer on the hook for utilities, plowing, or liability insurance for the interior or the driveway, parking lot or porches. The town will continue to maintain the exterior and may use part of the second floor for storage. These savings represent a savings of $9050 on top of the rent.

The selectmen’s net budget is $2,349,126. Taken with the Board of Education’s budget of $5,727,841 (including the town’s share of the Region One budget — $2,453,129, up 14.27 percent), the Sharon aggregate budget total is $8,076,961 for fiscal year 2007-08.

The budget hearing is Friday, April 27, 7 p.m. at Town Hall.

 

 

 

Latest News

South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

On Yale’s roster this year are two graduates of The Hotchkiss School: Nick Townsend, class of ‘22, and Jack Molloy, class of ‘21. Townsend wears No. 42 and Molloy wears No. 33.

Keep ReadingShow less
Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

Keep ReadingShow less
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less