Edgartown Requests $22.7 Million Budget

By JAMES KINSELLA

Town officials will ask Edgartown voters next month to approve a
$22.7 million operating budget for the coming fiscal year.

The proposed budget represents an increase of $885,025, or 4.1 per
cent, over the current budget.

Voters also will be asked to allow the town to borrow up to
$1,965,000 to help fund a new public water well near Pennywise Path and
a new fire truck. The proposed borrowing would include $1.5 million for
the well and $465,000 for the truck.

While the April 13 town election ballot includes a request to exempt
$600,000 in borrowing toward the construction of the new fire station on
Chappaquiddick from Proposition 2 1/2, town administrator Pamela Dolby
said the town previously voted the money. Ms. Dolby said the ballot
question is a housekeeping item that specifically will exempt the
borrowing from Proposition 2 1/2, a state law that restricts annual
increases in the property tax levy.

The voters also will consider requests to spend roughly an
additional $1 million during the coming fiscal year to fund a variety of
projects, including the rehabilitation of the Dark Woods trolley lot and
the annual operation of the dredge program. But the voters will not be
asked to approve a permanent override.

The proposed budget would take effect July 1, the start of the
town's 2007 fiscal year.

Edgartown's annual town meeting is set to begin at 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, April 11, in the Old Whaling Church on Main street. The town
election is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, April 13, at the
town hall on Main street.

Assistant assessor Will Pfluger said the tax levy and the tax rate
for the current year have yet to be certified. As of earlier this week,
Mr. Pfluger estimated the levy at about $18 million and the tax rate at
about $3.03 per $1,000 assessed valuation.

The operating budget includes a 4.2 per cent cost of living
adjustment in salaries and wages. The personnel board, the finance
advisory committee and the board of selectmen have recommended that
voters approve the adjustment, which Ms. Dolby said will cost about
$200,000. Voters last year approved a cost of living adjustment for the
current budget at the same level of 4.2 per cent.

The largest dollar increases in the operating budget can be found in
the education budget, which would rise from $3,932,721 to $4,746,323;
the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School assessment, which would
increase from $2,451,798 to $2,698,725; the town's share of its
employee health insurance premiums, which would rise from $1,759,341 to
$1,905,366; and the police budget, which would go up from $1,582,372 to
$1,746,323.

Ms. Dolby attributed those increases to rising salaries and the
increased costs of health insurance.

The operating budget also shows areas that would decrease from the
current year, including salaries in the selectmen's office, which
would decline from $164,464 to $133,511; education expenses, which would
fall from $1,011,419 to $865,481; the assessment for the Martha's
Vineyard Refuse Disposal and Resource Recovery District, which would
fall from $556,268 to $535,136; and debt payments for previously
approved projects, which would fall from $2,545,538 to $2,426,235.

Of those decreases, Ms. Dolby attributed the decline in
selectmen's office salaries to the retirement of longtime town
administrator Peter O. Bettencourt; to cost-cutting by the school
committee; to new management at the refuse district; and to the paying
down of debt on prior borrowings.

As is traditional practice in Edgartown, the warrant and town
election ballot include a number of proposed expenditures that would
need approval both at the town meeting and at the election for passage.
All the expenditures would represent spending beyond the levy limit
calculated under Proposition 2 1/2.

Two expenditures that would involve borrowing include $1.5 million
toward a new public well, and $465,000 for a new fire truck. The three
proposals, which would require a two-thirds vote at town meeting and a
majority vote at the town election for passage, are:

* A public well. Proposed by the water commissioners, the well,
with a maximum daily capacity of 1.3 million gallons, would be slated to
go into operation by the summer of 2007 near Pennywise Path off the
Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road.

The overall cost is at about $1.9 million, according to water
superintendent Fred Domont. The well would replace the Meshacket well,
which Mr. Domont said has a high water content. The water department
would retain the Meshacket well as a reserve.

But no borrowing would occur until the town receives notification
that the town has received a loan, including a grant, from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, and that the grant is large enough to cap the
town's borrowing at $1.5 million or less.

Mr. Domont said the town would borrow up to $1.5 million from the
U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development Program to gain access
to an overall two-year, $3,942,200 loan and grant package from the
federal agency.

The first year is scheduled for the coming fiscal year. In that
year, the department would tap a $1,349,100 rural development loan and a
$578,100 rural development grant to fund the construction of the
Pennywise Path well. The second year is schedule for the following
fiscal year. In that year, the department would tap a $1,410,500 rural
development loan and a $604,500 rural development grant to fund the
construction of water mains and of a centralized control center for the
water department.

User fees would finance the project. Mr. Domont said the federal
loans would be paid back over 40 years to minimize the annual cost to
water department customers.

* A fire truck. The board of fire engineers have proposed
borrowing $465,000 to buy a fire truck to replace the town's 1978
Ford pumper. Fire chief Antone Bettencourt said the fire department
wants to replace the truck because of its age and of the improved
firefighting capability offered by a new pumper truck.

Voters at the town meeting and the town election also will consider
a number of one-time spending requests in the coming year beyond the
annual property tax levy limit. Those proposals include:

* Rehabilitation of Dark Woods lot. The town has proposed
spending $230,000 at the park-and-ride trolley lot, including rebuilding
the lot and surfacing it with asphalt, planting trees and shrubs, and
improving lighting and drainage.