The public works workforce includes: a director (Tom), two year-around general workers (Roy and Brennan), three or four summer workers, and two folks who first meet the needs of the water and sewer utilities (Mike and Josh), but then chip-in more generally as their time allows. The utilities folks have specific licenses that are required by the state in order to do some of their tasks. The water and sewer utilities will be addressed separately.
About 15 years ago the number of general workers decreased by one (to the current two), and allowances for overtime by the crew were significantly reduced. They are doing more with fewer folks.
When the public works director and the city treasurer develop the budget, they review the past several years of timesheets to distribute the workforce's time among these categories:
highway/street administration
local highway/street maintenance
snow and ice control
street cleaning
culverts/storm sewers
traffic control
equipment
parking
parks
harbor
pavilion
courthouse, and
water and sewer.
From the budget I have lumped wages and associated fringe benefits (health insurance, FICA/Medicare, retirement, unemployment insurance). Fringes turn out to be about 32.5% of wages. I have abbreviated wages and associated fringes as F+W.
The public works costs related to harbor, pavilion, courthouse, water, and sewer are paid by revenues earned by those enterprises (see Funds). The General Fund supports the remaining, non-revenue-generating core city functions (the top nine categories above). For these, W+F is $213,000, capital purchases (in 2023) are $66,000, and electricity (streetlights and fountain) will run about $17,000.
The three biggest categories among the core (setting aside parks - see below) are highway/street maintenance, snow and ice control, and equipment. Snow removal is a major topic of interest to we year-rounders; for this W+F runs $46,000, and salt and sand costs about $15,000. Fuel, which must be pretty considerable for this, is below.
Highway and street maintenance has $36,000 in W+F, $11,000 in supplies (gravel, rock, asphalt), and $15,000 for road repairs that might arise and are capital expenditures. Last of the biggest three is equipment, which includes routine maintenance of the many machines needed, as well as fuel. Here W+F is $33,000 and fuel (plus miscellaneous supplies) is $50,000.
Street rebuilding is really expensive and fortunately we are in pretty good shape. The only project planned in 2023 is the last stretch of Manypenny before the town boundary. It will cost about $35,000, some of which will be reimbursed by state aids for transportation.
Also in the budget are entries for Refuse/Landfill Testing and for Apple Fest. The landfill category is largely state-mandated testing of groundwater beneath the old landfill. This was closed years ago and capped with clay to reduce water movement through it, but it remains a threat to groundwater. The state periodically revises the required testing and we hope it can soon be eliminated. The budget category also includes the popular dumpster days that helps many of us downsize.
The Apple Fest entry gathers city expenses related to the event ($26,000 in 2023), which are reimbursed by the Vistors Bureau.
Finally, parks has a unique presence in the budget. Budgeted expenses for parks are considerable: $76,000. This includes public works labor, the July 4 fireworks, electricity for the fountain, and water, sewer and cleaning for bathrooms (boat launch, two downtown, and the campground).
Contributions largely cover the fireworks. Other revenue that might be reasonably credited to parks is from campground fees -- these fluctuate from year to year but are budgeted at $65,000 in 2023. One way to think about this is that the Dalrymple campground fees nearly offset other parks-related expenses. There is not a Parks fund analogous to those for the Pavilion and Courthouse, however, perhaps because of the diverse activities budgeted under this category.
The public works crew is a common sight about town and I admire their vigilance and reliability -- particularly plowing snow and collecting summer trash. Always wave when you see them.