Due date for of 2007 town draft budget drawing near
by JESSICA L. FINCH Associate Editor

The Town of Amherst's 2007 draft budget is due in 11 days, and Supervisor Satish Mohan said he still has groups to meet with - including the fire departments.

Firefighter representatives are saying they were promised a meeting in May or June and were never contacted by Mohan. Fire budgets were due on Sept. 15, and some faced a 10 percent cut.

East Amherst Fire Chief Michael Morris, president of the Amherst Fire Chiefs Association, said the departments will have more direction on how to meet this financial impact following a meeting planned this week.

"Obviously we will have to cut from what we wanted to do, possibly from areas of public education and training. There are a number of areas that cost money that are not losing," Morris said. "More than $50,000 will need to be taken from somewhere, just not sure from where."

Jim Goss, president of the Getzville Fire Department, said the departments were not informed their budgets would be cut.

"I was contacted to negotiate on Friday (Sept. 15) at an afternoon meeting, and the budgets were due that afternoon," Goss said.

Mohan said not all of the individual budgets were turned in on time. He added that he was receiving letters the middle of last week, not enough time to answer questions and address concerns before the Sept. 15 deadline.

The 10 percent reduction does not affect all departments.

"Not in all cases were there cuts. In some cases I was satisfied," he said.

When asked about a May meeting with the fire departments, Mohan said as time went on, he never called for the meeting.

During Monday's work session, Mohan said the special district section of the budget, which is 30 percent of the overall budget, was due on Friday. Reviewing spending figures during the past two to three years and what has been

spent during the last eight months from the 2006 budget will be used to finalize the 2007 budget.

He also said because the fire budgets were not where he wanted them to be, he plans to meet with fire department presidents this week to discuss their budgets.

"The numbers are not very good," he said about creating the 2007 budget.

The estimated special district budget is $32.7 million - $2.4 million less than the previous year.

Mohan said departments will not fill positions created by retirements and resignations. That includes five positions in the Highway Department and six in engineering.

"I will continue to look at department by department," he said about preparing the budget. "I think we can reconstruct some departments for more efficiencies and save."

The draft budget is due Oct. 2, and a public hearing on the budget is scheduled for Oct. 16.