Orono Committee discusses school budgets, floodplains and water board appointments.

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The night before Orono votes on whether or not to push its schools into a consolidation with Veazie and Glennburn, the superintendent presented his disappointment in next year’s education budget to the Community Development Committee on Monday night.

A curtailment order issued by the governor demanded Orono’s schools cut the budget by $89,000. Superintendent Kelly Clenchy said the biggest strains on his budget currently include long-term staff sick leaves and a boiler that blew, costing the school $13,000 to fix.

Clenchy said he originally expected an additional $137,000 in state aid this year, which would have been in line with previous budgetary increases, but the flat-line funding from the state blew this expectation.

To meet this $89,000 decrease, Clenchy said some staff members may need to be cut.

“We really need to take a look at what we’re doing in the organization. I think we need to downsize,” he said.

Orono Town Council Member Lianne Paris asked if Clenchy could instead ask his employees to take pay cuts or relinquish contracted raises. “They’ll see their colleagues losing jobs,” she said.

Clenchy said this arrangement would probably not work.

The meeting also included a report from Code Enforcement Officer Bill Murphy who discussed amendment changes for a land-use ordinance stipulating floodplain regulations. Murphy explained that these changes would not negatively affect any Orono residents, the changes were strictly to become in compliance with the Floodplain Management Program that Orono is a part of.

Scott Hall will likely be appointed to the Water District Board of Trustees. Hall is the Manager of Environmental Services for Pennsylvania Power and Light, which convinced many of the committee members that he is qualified for the position, which is paid $500 per year.

Town Manager Cathy Conlow was a nominee for the position, but after the Water Board questioned the ethics of having a paid official acting in the role, she removed herself from the process.

“I don’t believe there’s any ethical conflict with me doing it,” Conlow said earlier in the meeting. “I’m very qualified.”

Hall missed the Monday meeting due to a miscommunication between he and Conlow. Once Hall fills out an application for the position, the committee will be able to confirm him, if it chooses to.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 26th, 2009, 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.