The Department of Public Works made its recent fiscal year 2009 budget cut by permanently eliminating an unfilled truck driver-laborer position. That may sound like an easy fix—easier than laying off an actual worker—but the decision could well cost the town in the long run, DPW Director Rich Nota told the Finance Committee in a budget review meeting last week. With a reduced work force, the DPW can no longer serve as “a cheap alternative to private contractors,” Nota said. “We’re in a transition from being a multipurpose organization to being a maintenance organization,” he continued, adding that he doesn’t have enough workers now to keep town roads in acceptable shape and also handle special projects for the Water Department, the schools, Parks and Recreation, and other town departments.
Given his budget constraints, “there needs to be a fundamental shift in the way the public perceives public works,” Nota said. If he takes on new projects for various departments, as he has in the past, important road maintenance would have to be deferred, he said, and “if we can’t take care of what we have, what’s the point in building something new?” In a prepared statement, Nota asserted that future use of the DPW “to undertake capital projects like water main replacements, stormwater improvements, and trail construction will not be possible.”
Most people evaluate the DPW by how well it handles snow and ice removal, Nota told the committee, and on that front he’s pretty comfortable with his department’s performance. With the equipment they have, his workers can deal with a normal snowstorm in a timely fashion, and he thinks most townspeople are satisfied with that, he said. In some towns, citizens insist that the roads be clear and dry, Nota continued, but he considers Harvard residents to be more tolerant and self-reliant. Some of his equipment wouldn’t perform well in a “blockbuster” snowstorm, he allowed, but he hopes townspeople would understand that he can’t afford to prepare for something that happens infrequently. What he would need for a major snowstorm is more big plows, but Nota said it makes more sense for him to buy equipment that’s smaller and multi-use. And he doesn’t believe in laying on the salt as much as some other towns and state highway workers do, he said, because he is mindful of the effect on townspeople’s wells.
If he has to make further cuts in fiscal 2010, “it can always be done,” Nota said grimly, “but we’re at the minimum level to handle snow and ice in-house. We’d have to go to contractors, or people would have to wait longer for us to clear snow.” As requested, Nota submitted a level-funded proposed budget for fiscal 2010, one that absorbs a 2 percent pay raise for DPW personnel, some step increases in pay, and higher health insurance costs within the amount approved for fiscal 2009.
