Question: When do the selectmen unanimously endorse deficit spending by a town department with no questions asked?
Answer: When up to a foot of snow is predicted the following day and the highway department’s snow and ice removal budget is nearly depleted.
Near the end of a long meeting last Tuesday night, Feb. 4, Town Administrator Tim Bragan warned the selectmen that with heavy snow expected on Wednesday, the roughly $17,000 remaining in the snow and ice removal budget would almost certainly run out. Bragan asked for and got authorization for deficit spending to cover the costs of the storm. This happens almost every year at some point, Bragan observed, but this year it’s earlier than most. Another significant storm was expected for Thursday this week.
