Village of Thomaston officials said Monday they intend to reduce the number of full-time workers and purchase three low-cost vehicles to help reduce costs and the reliance of services from outside Thomaston.
“We’re on the track to making ourselves an entity with little outside dependence,”Village of Thomaston Trustee James Sharkey said at the board’s regularly scheduled meeting.
The board announced plans to reduce Thomaston’s maintenance crew later this year, from two full-time workers who are getting paid $60 an hour to two part-time workers getting paid $ 20 per-hour, three days a week with no benefits.
“We’re trying to do as much as possible with less people,” Village of Thomas Mayor Robert Stern said. “Our goal overall is to keep cutting the municipality’s expenses.”
The village has also ordered three trucks that will require as little maintenance as possible, board members said.
“The village has plenty of cash set aside,” Stern said, “so none of the expenditures for these developments reflect our budget.”
Stern said the village will also be installing new gas pumps in the village, and minimum-priced auxiliary generators for any future power outages.
The mayor said that with the village scheduled to pay off bonds issued 15 years ago to maintain village roads Thomaston will be debt free – something he would like the village continue in the futuere.
He said the move to hire part-time employees was spurred by this past weekend’s snowstorm when he considered the expense of sending two full-time workers to wait on line for the community salt supplier.
It was at that point, he said, that he decided to hire part-time employees and install a community salt shed.
Hurricane Sandy, he said, also raised concerns. Power was needed for both personal and maintenance vehicles, but there was not enough fuel in the village – hence the decision to install new gas pumps and auxiliary pumps.
The generators will also help with everyday devices like garage doors, many of which were sealed shut after Sandy, according to the board.
“After the hurricane,” said Stern, “there was all this equipment to fuel, but we couldn’t get near any gas stations. In the future, we want to have enough fuel on hand.”
