The Hanover Select Board conducted a final review of the proposed town budget during the Select Board's meeting on Monday night. At the meeting, Select Board members voted to impose funding cuts on the Hanover Police Department, including reductions in overtime pay for patrol officers, as one of several measures approved for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.
Monday night's meeting followed three hearings two weeks ago open to the public to discuss the town's proposed budget. In light of the current economic situation, the final budget plan was designed to be "extremely tight" while avoiding "putting us in a hole for next year," Select Board member Peter Christie said.
The Board voted to reduce funding for Hanover police officers working overtime, to leave open positions vacated by retiring officers and to reduce funding for ammunition and other patrol supplies.
The savings from cuts made to the Hanover Police Department totalled nearly $27,000.
Some members of the Select Board and the police department, however, criticized the decision.
Kate Connolly, the vice chair of the Select Board, expressed concerns about the effects of reducing overtime for patrol officers and dispatchers on public safety, saying that the idea made her "queasy."
Hanover Police Chief Nicholas Giaccone also questioned the overtime cuts, noting that overtime compensation is a "sensitive" area because members of the police force including detectives often work irregular hours.
Other items in the proposed budget, including alterations to land tax revenues, passed with little deliberation.
The Select Board also voted to eliminate all "non-essential" training costs, including funding for attending regional and national conferences. Although several individuals argued that these conferences helped Hanover forge state- and nation-wide connections, the Select Board maintained that much of the information provided by these conferences was available online and that the reduction in travel costs would be significant.
In a reversal of last spring's budget plan, the Board voted to increase funding for the Upper Valley's Advance Transit bus system.
"If we put nothing in here we have a fundamentally dying system," Brian Walsh '65 Th '66, the chair of the Select Board, said in favor of the proposed Advance Transit funding.
Last year's cuts reduced services during non-peak hours.
The Select Board was unable to meet its goal of limiting the property tax increase for Hanover residents to 3.82 percent because it did not approve all the proposed cuts.
"I think it's a fantastic budget," Board member Athos Rassias said. "It shows a lot of work on a lot of people's parts."
