WORTHINGTON — Voters in Worthington will decide whether to adopt a full-time fire chief position at Saturday’s annual Town Meeting. The meeting, which will include more than 30 articles, will be held outside the R.H. Conwell Elementary School starting at 9:30 a.m.
“Everybody seems to feel that it’s going to be pretty lively,” Select Board Chairwoman Amy Wang said.
Creation of the full-time fire chief position is among the prominent items on the warrant. If approved, the full-time chief would be paid $65,000 a year. Current compensation for the part-time position is $5,608. The position would also have health insurance, which would add an additional $20,423 to its cost.
The Select Board endorsed the $65,000 salary for the proposed full-time position, while the Finance Committee chose to defer to Town Meeting.
“They’re hoping for somebody who can kick-start recruitment and somebody who can handle the paperwork,” Wang said, of the Fire Department.
She said a full-time fire chief could help secure grants to bring in more money to the department. Additionally, she said that the insurance cost could be less if the future chief opts for an individual and not a family health plan.
Should Town Meeting opt to keep the position as is, the salary would be raised to $6,265 a year.
Other warrant items include approval of the proposed $1.272 million school district budget for next fiscal year, which begins July 1. That’s up from the current year’s school budget of $1.212 million.
Voters also will decided whether to appropriate $150,000 from the general stabilization fund for repairs to the R.H. Conwell School building; $360,000 for a new dump truck, replacing a 2009 model; $47,243 to purchase a new police vehicle; and $120,000 to replace a backhoe. Voters rejected buying the police cruiser at a special Town Meeting and backhoe at last year’s annual Town Meeting. Wang said the backhoe is too old to be repaired, as parts are no longer made for it.
Another item would legalize new accessory dwelling units in town, albeit with restrictions.
The total proposed appropriations for fiscal 2023 is $5.37 million, up from $4.66 million in the last fiscal year.
At this time proposed town expenditures, $5.7 million, are more than the estimated total revenue and available funds, $5.66 million, meaning the budget will be out of balance by $57,647. “It’s not a huge amount that it’s out by,” Wang said. The budget will have to be balanced at a special Town Meeting in the fall.
“We will not be going for an override,” Wang said, noting that the shortfall is a small amount of money.