By ERIC GOLDSCHEIDER
For the Gazette
PELHAM – Voters at the Annual Town Meeting Saturday unanimously approved a $4.4 million operating budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, an increase of just over 2.3 percent from this year’s figure of $4,285,413. More than half of that money goes to the schools.
Voters approved an appropriation for education of $2,699,934, down slightly less than one percent from this year’s figure of $2,710,491. The decrease is due to a slightly smaller contribution to the Amherst-Pelham Regional School District based on lower enrollment and a revised funding formula. That number is $1,125,782, down from $1,214,614 last year.
There were 48 articles on the annual Town Meeting warrant and all passed by a show of hands holding blue voting cards, most unanimously. Seventy-four of the town’s 1,046 registered voters attended the meeting in the elementary school, which lasted for four and a half hours, though by the end more than a half had left.
The only controversy came over a question within one of the articles on whether to raise part-time Town Clerk Kathleen Martell’s annual salary from $16,000 to $18,000, with five people voting against. She told the body that new demands on her position, including extra work associated with early voting connected to upcoming elections, justify the added pay.
The budget also included a line item of $5,000 for a new position of “Records/Information Clerk” to hire someone to help organize and preserve town documents.
Voters approved $40,000 for a brand new Ford Explorer for Fire Chief Ray Murphy to use in his official duties. It will be the first time his department has purchased a new vehicle for the chief, he said. The previous vehicles, including the 2004 Crown Victoria the department now uses, have usually been hand-me-downs from the Amherst and Pelham Police Departments.
The current vehicle was out of commission for four months recently, awaiting parts for repair, forcing Murphy to use his own car to do town business. Murphy said his department has gone through five used cars since be became chief about 12 years ago.
Also approved were expenditures of $12,000 to purchase two new voting machines, $6,000 to purchase replacement turnout gear for firefighters, $11,000 for a photocopier and printer for the elementary school, $3,000 for a vibratory hand roller for the highway department and $8,000 for a riding lawnmower to be used at the community center and on other town land.
Town Meeting also voted to spend $25,000 for repairs on the exterior of the community center to prepare it for future painting.
Among the non-financial warrant articles, voters approved the creation of a committee empowered to speak with counterparts in other communities about the possibility of creating a regional elementary school system. Pelham School Committee Chairwoman Tara Luce said the purpose of the committee would be to explore the cost savings that teaming up with other communities might bring, including the possibility of being eligible for state transportation money that a one-town elementary school is not eligible to apply for.
Eric Goldscheider can be reached at eric.goldscheider@gmail.com