Pittsburg officials lay out warrant-article list, plan final budget workshop and hearing

Pittsburg officials reviewed draft warrant articles and adjusted budget numbers as they prepared for a final workshop and an upcoming public hearing.

During the Jan. 13 meeting, the board reviewed a list of proposed warrant articles presented by the chair (S1). Items on the draft included a $300,000 request for a fire/rescue truck to come from the town’s capital reserve; a $61,000 request to outfit a new police cruiser from the police capital reserve; proposed increases to the fire-truck capital reserve ($75,000) and the equipment capital reserve ($10,000); $50,000 marked for highway heavy equipment; $5,000 for transfer-station capital; $5,000 for the Happy Corner Bridge; and a petitioned article to raise and appropriate $125,000 to improve Day Road (about 3,700 feet of pavement).

S5, speaking for the fire department, described the rescue-truck need and the equipment that must accompany it — including modern hydraulic rescue tools — and said the assembled package would total roughly $300,000 and would be funded from the department’s capital reserve. "So in other words, your warrant article then would be for a total of 300,000," S3 summarized during the discussion.

Participants agreed to simplify the transfer-station warrant language to avoid restricting future uses of the slab/unloading area. The chair and several members stressed that special appropriations and capital-reserve expenditures should be recorded separately from operating costs so they do not affect the town’s operating budget line items.

To finalize numbers, the board scheduled a budget workshop for the coming Monday at 9 a.m. and confirmed a public budget hearing will be held Jan. 27 (regular meeting at 3:30 p.m., hearing at 5 p.m.). The chair asked department heads to provide vehicle lists and final figures before the workshop so the warrant language and totals can be finalized.