DPW officials told the Finance Committee on Jan. 8 that the department’s proposed budget increase is driven largely by salary and wage pressures and by programmatic changes tied to new facilities and rising maintenance needs.

The staff reported a total department increase of about $561,000 and said salary and wage increases are roughly 3.9 percent. Among the notable operating or DSR 4 requests discussed are:

- A full‑time custodian for the Emery Grover building. Staff said Emery Grover now contains 14 bathrooms and greater usable space than before; cleaning is currently covered by overtime. Officials said the increase in bathrooms and continued use of other facilities (Hillside) justify an additional custodial FTE.

- An additional park ranger to expand coverage to seven days a week for fields and permit enforcement; the committee heard the first ranger, authorized two years earlier, has been well received but gaps remain on Sundays and Mondays when no ranger is present.

- A traffic/controls maintenance hire to maintain an increasing number of traffic-control devices and signals; the workload has grown with the number of systems (radar speed signs, solar panels, batteries) and the town lacks staff redundancy for licensed traffic-signal work.

- A $46,000 one‑time key‑management system and $3,000 annual maintenance to track shared vehicle keys.

- Two cooperative positions (one engineering co‑op and one trades co‑op/high‑school student) intended to recruit younger workers and provide pipeline capacity to the department.

- In-house commercial driver's license (CDL) training and a license‑incentive stipend program added during recent union negotiations. The stipend program pays employees for obtaining and maintaining certain licenses (for example water-treatment licenses) and is capped at $5,000 per employee; staff said no employee has hit that cap. The in-house CDL training replaces otherwise expensive private training and has yielded eight employees trained so far, with cost savings estimated in the thousands per employee compared with private schools.

DPW staff also explained operating capital variability year to year is driven by the timing and type of rolling stock and equipment replacements (vehicles under the capital threshold and specialized sidewalk/grounds equipment). The department said some items carried over from fleet submissions contribute to year‑to‑year variability.

Committee members asked for priorities among the DSR 4 requests; staff said the items were presented in priority order but noted the relative long‑term costs differ (some hires create recurring pension and OPEB costs while co‑op students and one‑time purchases do not). Staff acknowledged trade‑offs if the town needs to favor items without ongoing costs.

The DPW presenters also said the town is recruiting for succession‑planning licenses (water treatment, etc.) because multiple staff with specialized certifications are eligible for retirement in the next one to two years.