READSBORO- Since voters eliminated $66,285.60 from the town budget at Town Meeting, the selectboard has been struggling to figure out which line items should receive less money than others. At Wednesday’s selectboard meeting, a cemetery commission member asked the selectboard to leave the cemetery budget alone, while a selectboard member queried whether the assistant town clerk and treasurer were overbudgeted. After much discussion, the selectboard reshuffled the money so that the cemetery commission and miscellaneous town services have more money to work with.

Forrest Hicks, of the cemetery commission, expressed concern over the cemetery’s budget and requested that the selectboard not move their money. Hicks said their budget is “bare bones” going into the new fiscal year and it suffered an 18% decrease from last year. In 2009, the cemetery commission was budgeted for $29,859.28. This year they were budgeted for $13,000. If more money is taken out, Hicks said they may not have enough money. “I understand you have to do it but we were level funded and we had two articles approved by voters for special projects,” said Hicks.

The town approved $5,000 to repair a bank along the Village Cemetery and another $5,000 to upgrade the town’s digital maps and repair stones at the Village, South Hill, North Hill, and Heartwellville cemeteries.

Selectboard chair Raymond Eilers argued at the last selectboard meeting that the assistant town clerk and the assistant treasurer have more money than they should. Eilers brought up his concern again and suggested their budgets could be reduced slightly and it would not impact their operating budgets significantly. The assistant town clerk’s salary was budgeted for an extra $1,600 and the assistant treasurer’s salary was budgeted for an extra $2,281. Both budgets were set at $5,500 each for 2010. Selectboard member Craig Bartosewicz and selectboard chair Tony Caruso believed the money should remain in both budgets.

After much discussion, the selectboard agreed to move $3,900 from both budgets ($1,600 from the assistant town clerk’s salary and $3,200 from the treasurer’s salary) and reallocate the money to the cemetery, library, fire department, and special projects budgets. The cemetery commission received $3,000, the library received $500, the fire department received $500, and special projects received $587.57. The selectboard approved the changes by a 2 to 1 vote. Bartosewicz and Eilers voted for the motion and Caruso voted against it.

In other news, four weeks ago the selectboard approved the installation of security cameras in the town office after town clerk Annette Caruso complained that files and other important town documents had gone missing or were stolen. One of the cameras was placed in the listers’ work area. The Readsboro School uses the listers’ office for special education purposes.

According to state law, no student can be recorded by video because of confidentiality issues. Caruso said the cameras cannot operate until the selectboard reconciles their differences with the school and the Windham Southwest Supervisory Union.