Town Notes
Published on January 23rd, 2002
STONEHAM, MA – Election update. Four more people have pulled papers for the April 2 Town Election: Darin Leahy of Beacon Street is running for re-election to the Board of Selectmen.
Rocco Ciccarello of DiNanno Road and Patricia Ann Kilty of Collincote Street are running for re-election to the Board of Library Trustees.
Cheryl Walsh of Brookbridge Road is running for School Committee. Walsh’s name may be familiar to readers from her work with the Parents for Healthy Schools.
“I decided I wanted to step up my community involvement,” Walsh said.
Budget perspective
Stoneham officials should be worried about the fiscal 2003 town budget, but it’s too early to know exactly how worried.
The Governor’s Office said she would release a budget draft this week. Boston media sources have been reporting all week that local aid will not be reduced but Chapter 70 aid will not be increased as much as communities like Stoneham wants. Assuming these predictions are true and assuming the School Department gets its requested seven percent budget increase from last year, Stoneham would have a $2 million deficit when making calculations based on the Finance Board’s most recent revenue projections and its estimate of a two percent budget increase on the municipal side.
But the state figures aren’t final. The School budget is not final. The municipal side department budgets are not final. And the revenue figures are just projections.
The size of the deficit will influence the options the town takes to erase it. The debate among the Finance Board, Town Administrator and Selectmen usually centers around how much to take out of reserves versus how much to cut and from where.
The TA has to present a balanced budget to the Selectmen in February. Hopefully, he will have some solid figures from the state by then. Next the TA, schools and Selectmen have to powwow to come up with a distribution of money between the schools and all other municipal departments.
In theory, the schools and town could come to the May Town Meeting without a unified balanced budget and fight it out on the floor. But in recent history the town has presented a united front to the community. Citizens who want to see how dissension transforms into compromise can attend the public meetings of the Selectmen, Finance Board and School Committee.
Central School dedication. The Stoneham School Committee and School Building Committee cordially invite the public to the formal dedication of the new Central Elementary School on Saturday, Jan. 26, 2002.
The formal building dedication will be held at 10 a.m. The Library Media Center will be dedicated in memory of Joanne Harriman as part of the program. The school will be open to the public for viewing from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. All are welcome.
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