Town Meeting Approves $134 Million Budget

Town Meeting voters last night spoke their minds about several significant issues in town and by the end of the night had approved a $134 million budget, $1.24 million in capital project funds and continued funding for the Town Yard project.

The Andover Annual Town Meeting was held Wednesday night at the Andover High School Field House and voters began tackling 47 separate warrant articles regarding budget and bylaw measures.

As town officials are always forced to budget based on revenues and expenses that haven't yet been confirmed, this year officials are hoping that special education funds come in at roughly $1 million over previous estimates to close a $941,000 deficit in the fiscal 2012 budget.

After lengthy discussions, taxpayers ended approving fiscal 2012 operating budget, which represents a 2.7 percent increase over last year's budget. Town officials talked about the collaboration and sacrifice needed to balance the budget this year after starting with a roughly $6 million deficit.

"This did not happen easily or without comprise by all parties," said selectman chairman Alex Vispoli. "The end result was a balanced fiscal year 2012 operating budget."

In addition to the budget, voters also approved $100,000 for the purpose of studying possible relocation, development and financing of a new Town Yard, or Municipal Services Facility.

While some voters commented that further study was not needed, voters ended up approving the measure, which only subtracts $35,000 from free cash with the other $65,000 coming from balances in past, unspent warrant articles.

Voters also approved an article that will allow the town to borrow $900,000 to replace 60,000 square feet of the West Middle School roof with a greener alternative. The entire project will cost roughly $1.54 million but the Massachusetts School Building Authority has agreed to fund roughly 39 percent of the project costs.

The funds for a long list of capital projects in various town departments were approved Wednesday night as well. The $1.246 million total covers one-time expenses for school technology needs, sidewalk repairs, police vehicle replacements and others.

The approval of the roughly $62 million school budget will also mean the restructuring of the special education services at the schools. While the school is reducing the special education staff by 8 full-time workers, they are adding 10 full-time special education teachers in a different program in order to handle more children in-house and avoid the cost of sending students out-of-district.