SAUGUS — The Finance Committee has reviewed the fiscal year 2023 budget for the Department of Public Work.
The town administration appreciated the work of the department.
“Brendan is phenomenal,” said Saugus Town Manager Scott Crabtree about Saugus DPW Director Brendan O’Regan. “I am very grateful for the work he does.”
Crabtree said that O’Regan was able to have a master plan for everything and have a system in place.
The Department of Public Works (DPW) budget is made up of three main components: salaries, expenses, and capital.
The total DPW expenses increased from $4.33 million this fiscal year to $4.53 million in FY23, the budget proposal says. With only a slight increase in the capital ― from $32,000 in FY22 to $35,000 in FY23 ― and an increase in salaries by approximately $30,000, expenses comprise the largest increase among the three components, according to the budget.
“We do not have a lot of capital within our operating budget,” said Crabtree at last week’s Finance Committee meeting. He explained that this was the difference between the Saugus budget and the budgets that different communities around Saugus had.
The document divides the running expenses into the following areas: administration, forestry, highway maintenance, snow and ice, motor-vehicle maintenance, waste collection and disposal, cemetery division, and parks.
The total running expenses will increase by approximately $200,000, from $4.33 million in FY22 to $4.53 million in FY23, according to the budget proposal. Four of the nine articles of expenses ― street lighting, snow and ice, forestry, and administration ― remain unchanged in comparison to the previous year, according to both years’ budgets.
The budget shows that waste collection and disposal accounts for the main part of the growth of Saugus DPW expenses in FY23. The exact growth of the waste collection and disposal expenses is $145,000, according to the document. This fiscal year, the waste collection and disposal cost is $2.49 million, and in the next fiscal year it will rise to $2.64 million, the budget says.
Cemetery division expenses increased slightly from $15,100 in FY22 to $15,750 in FY23, according to the document. Parks expenses rose from $215,000 in FY22 to $235,000 in FY23. Motor-vehicle maintenance expenses exhibited another slight increase. This provision will constitute $176,050 in FY23, compared to $160,850 in the previous fiscal year, the document states. Highway expenses will rise from $553,500 in FY22 to $568,500, according to the FY23 budget.
Total salary expenses increased only slightly, by $31,891, from $1.51 million in FY22 to $1.55 million in FY23, the proposal states. Snow and ice division salaries remained the same as in FY22 ― $20,000, as shown in the budget. Waste-collection salaries decreased by $15,341, from $126,885 in FY22 to $111,544 in FY23, the document says.
All the rest of the total salaries per unit within the Saugus DPW will slightly increase in the coming fiscal year. Park division salaries will rise by $13,253, reaching $142,941 in FY23; cemetery division expenses will increase by $8,611, coming to $233,003 in the next fiscal year; and forestry division salaries exhibit an increase of $9,335, and they will constitute $362,779 in FY23 budget, according to the document.
Likewise, administrative division salaries will increase from $409,713 to $420,133 in FY23, forestry division from $169,579 to $172,893, and motor pool division from $80,040 to $82,339, provided for in the FY23 budget proposal.
The Finance Committee also briefly discussed enterprise funds. The total water enterprise budget expenses in the upcoming fiscal year will increase by approximately $100,000, from $7.82 million to $7.92 million, the budget says. The total sewer fund expenses will shrink from $6.44 million in FY22 to $5.81 million in FY23.
The meeting also went over FY23 budget proposals for the Board of Selectmen, town manager, Conservation Commission, Board of Appeals, Council on Aging, Veterans’ Services, library expenses, and other departments.
The Board of Selectmen will receive almost the same funding in FY23 as in the previous fiscal year ($60,061 and $60,062, respectively, according to the budget). The town manager will enjoy a slight increase in funding from $761,482 to $763,578, while the Conservation Commission will receive $56,676 in FY23 against $55,054 in FY22, the budget says. Council on Aging funding will rise from $263,574 to $299,987, and the Veterans’ Services and libraries will get more funding as well, according to the new budget proposal.
Finance Committee Chairman Kenneth DePatto thanked everyone for the great job.
“We had some challenging times out there,” he said of the past year.
