Rec. Department relegated to zero fund
Published on May 4th, 2005
Department of Recreation Director Christine DelRossi grew up in Stoneham in the neighborhood behind the school, attended and played sports at Stoneham High School, and has spent the last 15 years as the smiling face in the Stoneham Recreation Department office - all things looked on favorably in the Town of Stoneham, but not enough to guarantee her $52,000 a year salary in the FY06 Budget.
Town Meeting, upon the recommendation of both the Board of Selectmen and the Finance and Advisory Board, voted to zero-fund the Recreation Department budget for next year and create a revolving fund for Red revenues - forcing DelRossi to spend as much time fund-raising and brainstorming on ways to pinch pennies as she does on devising recreational activities for residents and the town's children.
"If it's not broken, I understand why this is something that we're trying to fix?" said RoseMarie Nelson, a Main Street resident that got up to speak during Monday night's nearly five hour Town Meeting session. "I think that Christine DelRossi's work in the Recreation Department is worthy of recognition, and that she shouldn't be the one singled out and forced to raise the money for her department."
Selectmen assured Town Meeting voters, as they and Town Administrator Ron Florino have continually assured DelRossi, that donations, fund-raisers and recreational fees would be sufficient to cover both DelRossi's salary and the cost of equipment, staffing and overhead. Selectman George Seibold spoke of a golf tournament planned in Beverly for June 23, an event which he estimated would raise $25,000 for the Rec Department - while also stressing that the Selectmen hope this would only be a one-year solution and that things could return to the status quo in a year.
DelRossi remained unsure about the whole turn of events.
"It's never a good feeling when your salary isn't guaranteed, and you're basically told that you have to go out and find the money for your own salary," said DelRossi. "The Selectmen and Ron have told me that we'll be okay and I don't have anything to worry about, but I'm still going to worry."
According to the Board of Selectmen, the Rec Department will be given a $25,000 "head start" on the zero funded budget - a sum of money that remains from this year's budget coffers and will kick the department off for next year.
"This is a difficult year ahead with a lot of tough decisions, and this is one of the ways we felt like we could save some money," said Ron Florino. "We feel confident that we'll be able to raise the funds needed to run the department, and keep the summer programs running."
Both Finance and Advisory Board member Matt Whooley and resident Terri Ghannam attempted to make Amendments to the final budget that would have partially or fully funded DelRossi's salary, but both measure were struck down by the sparsely attended Town Meeting audience.
Articles 11-16
The Stoneham Town Meeting voters approved several Articles designed to fund capital improvements and repairs throughout the town's buildings and infrastructure.
Town Meeting passed Article 11 which will authorize the Town to borrow up to $60,000 to improve the fire station ventilation system - a filtration system that would prevent diesel exhaust fumes from accumulating in the station and causing long-term health problems for the Stoneham firefighters.
Town Meeting voters Indefinitely Postponed a vote on a transfer of $25,573 to the Stoneham Public Library, as the Board of Selectmen's final budget provided the Selectmen with the funds needed to meet the Minimum Appropriation Requirement to keep the library certified.
Town Meeting voted to approve Article 13 - a $400,000 sum needed by the school department to replace or repair a Middle School boiler and also to replace/repair a 24,000 square foot patch of the Stoneham High School roof in the rear of the building.
Town Meeting likewise passed Articles 14 and 15 which both deal with replacement and installation of water meters, equipment and maintenance of the water system, as well as replacement of water mains, piping, manholes, pumps and any other equipment needed for the sewer department.
Several residents voiced concern that these costs should already be covered in the DPW's budget, but several town officials brought up the age of some of the waterworks equipment in town - as well as the possibility of another situation such as the sudden sink hole on Main Street a month ago.
"There are some 150 year-old pipes still being used in Stoneham, and it's been recommended they be replaced, and I'm sure the people using them for drinking water would agree with me," said Finance and Advisory Board Member John Warren.
Town Meeting voters passed both articles, as well as Article 16 which transferred $25,000 from the Perpetual Care Expendable Accounts to provide an aesthetic facelift to the Lindenwood Cemetery above and beyond the customary maintenance.
Voters approve $54.6M budget
A handful of dedicated Stonehamites burned some Midnight fuel Monday night, approving a $54.6 million FY06 budget at approximately 12:10 a.m. in the morning.
An uncharacteristically tame Town Meeting compared to the boisterous and contentious assemblies during the last two-years, approximately 50 citizens stuck around for the close of Monday's gathering.
And although discussion surrounding the article took nearly an hour to complete, actual citizen debate on Article 23 lasted a little over a half-hour, with not a single audience member asking a question about next year's expense proposal.
"It went well. I think that we had so many meetings on the budget that people were really able to iron out their concerns [prior to Town Meeting]," said Selectman Cosmo Ciccarello in a post-meeting interview.
"But I was surprised by the low turnout. With a $56 million budget, you'd think you'd have at least a couple-hundred people show up," he added, referring to the gaping holes in the auditorium floor when the budget was debated.
After Finance Board Chairman Richard Gregorio explained the expense plan department by department for nearly 45-minutes Monday night, he offered his board's full endorsement of the budget, which assumes nearly $1/2 million in cuts town-wide .
However, Gregorio did remark that he remained concerned with several former and present position eliminations, including cuts in the Community Development, MIS/GIS, and Police and Fire Departments. And with future forecasts looking no better, the Finance Board Chairman warned that much work needed to be done in finding future revenues.
"Next year, if we manage out expenses, we might be okay. The following year, however, we're running out of resources," cautioned Gregorio, who's predicting a $1 million deficit in FY08. Despite statements by the Board of Selectmen, Finance Board, and Town Administrator that a $56 million budget was the best fiscal pitch possible given funding shortages, Finance Board member Matt Whooley and Green Street resident Terri Ghannam unsuccessfully lobbied for increasing expenses. Claiming that the school district was still short-changed given the axing of 17 positions next year, Ghannam amended Article 23 to bolster the budget by $213,000 in stabilization account savings. Specifically, Ghannam's amendment intended to fund nine aides, a High School foreign language and an arts teacher, and the Recreation Director.
"I urge you to vote for this amendment. We need to balance [the budget] on the school side of the community," the Green Street resident argued.
Torpedoed from the most unlikely of sources, Ghannam's amendment was argued against by School Committee Chairwoman Cheryl Walsh, who argued that the school department couldn't accept the money given the budget restraints felt across the town. In addition, Walsh added that the School STONEHAM, MA - Committee would ultimately have discretion on how to spend the money raised through the amendment, meaning that the specific positions lobbied for by Ghannam wouldn't necessarily be restored.
"We as a board really have to think about the whole town. Without a doubt, what [Terri] said is true. But we have to respectfully say thank-you, we're going to move on. We have to live within what we all decided we would live within," Walsh said, before the amendment was soundly rejected. Proposing his own $10,000 amendment to fund the Recreation Director's position, Whooley claimed that the extra money would better ensure the youth programs continued existence. Acknowledging that the Selectmen and Town Administrator had all but guaranteed that the youth commission would be privately funded, the Calthea Street resident felt that the zero-funding of the department left the office's future uncertain.
"My only reason for doing this is that we can say we're going to fund something, but if there's no money on the table, in a month from now this could all be forgotten," the Finance Board member commented, before his amendment too went down in flames.
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