WHATELY — The proposed budget in Whately is up 1 percent from this year, with a 17.8 percent hike proposed in general government expenses.
The $5.4 million includes increases in most categories, with a notable 5.1 decrease in public safety costs. Town Administrator Mark A. Pruhenski said the Whately Finance Committee, which approved this budget on Tuesday, will meet on April 5 to make recommendations to the Selectboard regarding articles for the annual town warrant.
The general government portion of the budget for the year that begins July 1 includes three sub-categories with suggested hikes of more than 100 percent, but Pruhenski said the specific dollar amounts are not as daunting as they may first appear. The 650-percent increase under “website update” represents a jump from $200 to $1,500. Pruhenski explained Whately is using a company called Virtual Towns & Schools, which specializes in municipal websites, to revamp the town website. He said the plan is to launch a new one within a few months. He explained there are serious space concerns with the current site, which he said is not as user-friendly as he would like.
A 213.3-percent hike for the Finance Committee constitutes registration fees for the Massachusetts Municipal Association, Pruhenski said. The cost is going from $150 to $470.
There is a 130.7 percent hike ($26,083 to $62,040) in the cost of town building operations. The town offices recently moved from 218 Chestnut Plain Road to 4 Sandy Lane, which once housed the Western Massachusetts Regional Library System.
“Since we continue to own and use the Center School and the Historic Town Hall, this year’s budget request includes those expenses as well as the expenses related to our new 13,000-square-foot facility,” Pruhenski told The Recorder. “That budget is up just over $35,000.”
He said Whately purchased the building for $810,000, with roughly $10,000 paid back to the town at closing for upgrading the HVAC software program.
The 5.1-percent drop in public safety expenses is attributed mostly to a 22.8 percent decrease in ambulance costs. Pruhenski said this is due to a reduction in the South County EMS assessment, which is $25,000 under this year’s actual assessment.
Combined education expenditures in the proposed budget is $2,628,037, broken down into $1,599,454 for Whately Elementary School, $909,447 for the town’s Frontier Regional School assessment and $119,136 for the Franklin County Technical School assessment. The combined figure is down $14,307 because no Whately student requires Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School tuition this year.
There is also a 7.6 percent increase in insurance and benefits, most notably in estimated unemployment insurance expenses.