Highway projects take a hit in Bristol selectmen’s budget adjustments

BRISTOL — Road and drainage work have been eliminated from Bristol’s highway maintenance program, and road resurfacing projects have been drastically scaled back as the selectmen worked to meet the spending level voters set at Town Meeting last month.

Selectmen set the tone by cutting their own compensation in half, from $16,000 to $8,000 for the five-member board. Department heads had gone through their own budgets and offered suggestions of areas that could be trimmed from the amount proposed by the Budget Committee.

Voters approved a budget that was 4.4 percent more than the town spent last year, but $370,450 less than what the Budget Committee proposed for 2018.

To meet the directive, selectmen reduced road resurfacing from $190,000 to $64,031 and eliminated the $15,000 that was to go to regular drainage work and $28,000 earmarked for drainage at Cummings Beach. The $50,000 for chip seal also was brought to zero.

Another $9,000 came out of the highway department’s operating budget, including cutting in half the amount for sidewalk maintenance.

General government spending for computers, website, maintenance, and security was reduced by $30,000, but selectmen kept money in the budget for a new computer and telephone system.

After hitting several areas of direct spending, the selectmen turned to some of the outside agencies, reducing the town’s contribution to the Newfound Area Nursing Association by $3,400, from $33,400 to $30,000. Funding for the Grafton County Senior Citizens Council was reduced from $8,500 to $4,250; Voices Against Violence from $3,000 to $1,500; Pemi River Local Advisory Committee from $300 to $150; Communities for Alcohol and Drug-Free Youth from $2,000 to $1,000, Bridge House Shelter from $2,000 to $1,250; Court Appointed Special Advocates from $500 to $250; and the Day Away respite program from $1,500 to $750.

Funding for the Lakes Region Mental Health Center (formerly Genesis) had previously been reduced from $3,000 to $1,500 by the Budget Committee, and the selectmen pulled another $750 out of that amount.

In announcing the adjustments, Rick Alpers, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, praised the department heads for the careful scrutiny of their budgets and willingness to make the cuts necessary to bring spending in line with what voters had appropriated.