Saugus avoids steep budget cuts for 2014

SAUGUS – It?s been almost a year since the town enacted steep cuts to the 2013 budget. But after selectmen voted Tuesday night to accept the recommended 2014 budget, some departments are breathing sighs of relief.Selectmen approved an $80 million recommended budget for the town, with $26.3 million budgeted for the schools. Even though it?s less than the requested budget of $27.7 million, School Committee Chairman Wendy Reed said it was “good news.”?It?s good news in the sense that I thought it would probably just be level-funded,” said Reed. “I didn?t know how well we were doing with stabilizing the budget.”The school currently has a $25.6 million budget. A level service budget would be $26.9 million, according to the budget passed by the School Committee last month.?It?s always a concern not getting a level service budget, but because it?s so early in the year ? there is savings included in that that we can?t really project until the end of the school year like retirement ?” said Reed. “There?s wiggle room, but, there?s no money that?s going to be leftover like last year with energy and fuel. We?re not going to have that this year. Being level-funded, that means cuts.”Fire Chief Donald McQuaid said an increase in firefighter overtime will be a big help for the department and help keep the Essex Street Fire Station open.?That was an issue last year,” said McQuaid. “It?s very important. Hopefully we?ll get through the whole year without any issues with overtime. That?s the plan. I?m kind of happy with (the budget) overall. The manager backed us up and it worked out very well.”Firefighter overtime was set at $305,000 for this year and is budgeted at $500,000 for next year.But while the increase is good news for the department, McQuaid also found out some bad news Wednesday morning. Saugus was denied a grant to pay for eight new firefighters for three years.?We did not get the grant,” he said. “That?s too bad. That would have been a very good thing. There?s only so much money and a lot of people applied for it ? Hopefully they?ll come out with another grant this year and we?ll try again.”The library also saw its budget cut from $506,000 in 2012 to $370,000 this year. For 2014, however, the budget recommends $508,000.Library Director Diane Wallace said she was happy with the number which will help the library buy new books, music and DVDs.?If everybody is able to get what they?ve requested, then there won?t be any fighting over who to cut,” she said. “We?ll definitely be certified ? That?s a long way from 370 to 508. We saw the reverse, and we know how much we felt that. So we?ll definitely feel, in a positive way, the difference in this.”The Finance Committee still has to vote on the budget before it heads to Town Meeting to be approved.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].