by Frank Schroth

The Cronin conference room was packed last night by residents who had come to support Mary Ann Sullivan. Ms. Sullivan, Director of the Council on Aging, appeared before the Selectmen to argue the case for allowing an amount of $12,000 that had previously been accounted for outside of their budget to be factored into level funding limit.

The Warrant Committee has asked all town departments to submit level funding budgets for the upcoming fiscal year. The council on Aging submitted a budget in the amount of $207,845. The issue is that this amount includes a $12,000 amount that had previously not been included. This amount covered health costs and had been billed directly to the Treasurer. This has been going on for some number of years. Initially it was covered by a grant. However, the $12K enabled the CoA to provide important services and though the amount does not seem that great, “it would devastate the program.”

The Town Administrator, Kevin Mearn, argued that the amount should not be part of the CoA’s level funded budget. He expressed concern that other departments could also have a case to make for adding in amounts arguing for an exception as the CoA was. This could “open a Pandora’s box.”

People who spoke in support of the submitted amount included Debbie Neely who noted that the CoA is “scraping by just like everybody else. . . The problem is that [the $12K] was not put into the budget properly in the first place.” Neely wanted to see the CoA continue to deliver services. “We see a lot of people who have done an awful lot for this town.”

The arguments in favor of the $102K amount prevailed. The Selectmen approved the amount. As resident John Duff, who drives a van for the CoA said, “I’ll see you all up there some day.”

The Selectmen also approved level funded budgets for a number of other town departments.

In other busiess the Selectmen appointed Ann Marie fagan to the committee that will be tasked with reviewing town government. There is one seat left which may be filled by one of the Selectmen. Their preference is to fill the vacancy with a former Selectman. Among those are Kathy Fagan, Charlie McCarthy, Marion McEttrick, and Jim Mullen.