By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

NAPLES — Residents will decide whether or not Naples should switch to a public works department. 

This year’s town meeting voters will have two budgets from which to choose: One with a public works department (PWD) and one with a town maintenancedepartment plus a roads and highway budget. 

The proposed public works budget, Warrant Article 56, comes recommended by the elected officials and by the volunteers who helped to craft the budget.

On March 22, both the Naples Board of Selectmen and the Naples Budget Committee unanimously recommended the budget containing the formation of a public works department instead of the status quo of the maintenancebudget. 

The selectmen agreed that the public works component of the 2021-22 budget will be explained to residents on the night of annual town meeting. 

The town manager “is going to make the presentation. We still need to have a discussion. We might want to send something out explaining it to the public. It would be important to do that prior to the meeting,” Naples Chairman Jim Grattelo said.

The town is proceeding with the possibility that the public might choose town maintenance over public works, he said.  

“We have covered all our bases, and we’re going down two parallel paths to make sure town is taken care of,” he said. 

Naples Town Manager John Hawley explained the reasoning behind the proposed public works department. 

It is mostly about savings in the long run, he said. However, there is the upfront investment of equipment in order to do the jobs in-house instead of contracting out, he said. 

“It would be a better use of money. For the cost that we pay for plowing and winter maintenance for a season, we could pay for a public works department with a crew,” he said. “So when we contact out, we spend a lot of money for one project and then the company does a specific job and leaves town. Or we could have people who are here, every weekday, 40 hours a week.”

During the public hearing for the budget, which was held on March 17, Hawley had prepared a statement in favor of the proposed public works department. 

“To be sure that people are fully aware, the initial cost for acquiring the equipment needed for such a venture is felt in the first year. Fortunately, Naples has a healthy fund balance (saving account) and could easily use some of that funding for this purpose,”Hawley said.

“We would need to purchase four dump trucks of various ages with plow equipment, a used pick-up truck, a wood chipper and a sanding unit at a cost not to exceed $438,500. This expense would not impact your tax bill as it would be funded from savings. The future replacement of these vehicles would then be added to our capital reserve account so that money would be put away each year to offset those replacement expenses.”

He predicted that future budgets will increase if the voters do not welcome the idea of public works.  

“If however, it is the voters’ will not to add a public works department, one needs to look only at the status quo budget lines that are not followed by the text ‘w/ Public works.’ The maintenance budget would increase by $11,000 to allow for wage and affiliated tax increase and health coverage changes, street lighting increases due to the new sidewalk lighting on [Route] 302, and waste expenses. The CIP budget would not need the $438,000,” Hawley said. “And the Roads and Highways Budget will increase due to projected increases in the traditional contracted services and road maintenance.”  

Hawley’s presentation touched upon the selectmen’s concern to keep tax rate the same, and how the public works would be a more prudent use of taxpayers’ dollars. 

The board of selectmen “has been very firm in maintaining a static mil rate for Naples. It was a clear expectation when I was hired, and I am politely reminded annually that $13.35 is $13.35,” he said, in reference to the tax rate. 

“It’s a respectable position to take as long as the expenses out of our control can be absorbed by increasing tax dollars collected on new assessed values. However, that gap continues to grow smaller and smaller each year,” he said. 

“The board has granted me liberties to be creative with exploring the best use of tax dollars, and I would be doing by job properly if I were not looking for the most efficient ways to make the tax dollar stretch further. Hence, the proposed creation of the public works department,” he said.

“We factored all the services we usually have to contract out because we do not have the manpower or equipment. These contracts are also very task specific and short-term. Utilizing that same amount of money, we would have the ability to hire and equip a department that is accessible to us year-round. We would have the ability to send our department out on a moment’s notice to take care of issues that sometimes we have to wait until we have several jobs that can be bid out as a package because the single jobs here and there are too costly to have done. The roadside maintenance that has historically been neglected now becomes routine and more prevalent. The quality of workmanship improves as you have better supervision and no over-extended contractor just trying to get your job done so they can move on to the next one if you are lucky to find a contractor willing to do the work at all.”

“Why are we okay to settle on paying for services that in total equate to just four or five months’ worth of services,” Hawley said, “ when we could have the services 12 months out of the year at the same cost?”

When researching the costs, the town compared the public works budgets of the towns of Harrison, Bridgton, Raymond, Poland and New Gloucester “to ensure that factual data adequately supported our figures,” Hawley said.  

He said it showed there would be a yearly savings once a public works

department is formed. 

The proposed 2021-22 budget is on the Town of Naples website, and copies are available at the Naples Town Office, 15 Village Green Lane.