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Public Works presents 2027 budget with staffing gaps, barrel shortfall and rising recycling costs
Summary
Public Works presented a 2027 operating and capital plan focused on maintaining service levels; officials warned of staffing shortages (including two laborer positions requested back), an acute shortage of curbside barrels after last year’s cuts and a roughly $186,000 increase in recycling processing costs tied to commodity markets.
Public Works officials presented the department’s proposed fiscal 2027 budget, stressing that sustaining core services will require restoring two laborer positions, addressing an urgent curbside‑barrel shortage, and absorbing higher recycling processing costs driven by market volatility.
Ray Rogozinski presented the plan as a sustaining budget across seven divisions — administration, engineering, building maintenance, streets, solid waste, fleet and land use — plus supplemental accounts for capital and snow. Rogozinski told the Board of Finance the budget “focuses on sustaining level of services and efficiencies,” and noted the department maintains about 235 miles of road, 14 buildings and roughly 5,600 streetlights.
Josh Corey, the solid waste superintendent, said a $20,000 cut to program supplies reduced barrel purchases from about 800 per year historically to only 400 last year, leaving current inventories strained. "If we're not allowed to get what we used to get, the next year we will run out of barrels," Corey said, describing the potential service disruption ahead of July and the start of leaf/yard waste collection.
Rogozinski told the board the single largest operating increase in Public Works is approximately $186,000 for curbside recycling processing, a line driven by commodity values and regional processing contracts. "We budgeted at 80. Now it's going up to...105," he said when describing processing cost assumptions for the coming year.
On capital and fleet, officials identified aging vehicles and mechanics vacancies as constraints. Fleet staff asked for multiple heavy vehicles (including 10‑wheel dump trucks) and discussed municipal financing/lease options to smooth replacement. Board members pressed for a longer replacement and maintenance schedule; Rogozinski said Public Works maintains a three‑year plan and could expand it.
The presentation also listed recent and anticipated grant awards and projects — including statewide bridge and reconstruction grants — that materially offset local costs for several large projects. Officials highlighted smaller line‑item savings (for example, ending an external USGS gauging contract and segregating cardboard to a no‑cost vendor) intended to help hold the line in other accounts.
No formal vote on the Public Works budget was recorded in the transcript; the presentation concluded before the police technology presentation.
