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By COLIN POWELL While a formal discussion of continuing services to Surry was tabled, the issues still came up, as the board needs to begin budget development for 2010. Opening the subject, Wittine explained, “Taking on Surry has been very time consuming for the folks in the central office.” He said training of the new office worker added when Surry joined this year takes up a lot of executive secretary Pat Henry’s time, while the two office secretaries have seen their workload increase by 20 percent. “We’re going from day to day,” said Wittine, adding that less pressing issues are getting dropped and long-range work not getting done. Henry elaborated on Wittine’s comments, noting the root of the problem: five balls are harder to juggle than four. “It will get better,” she said, adding that a suggestion by Wittine to add another office worker next year would likely not improve things. Rather, she said, the board needs to seriously consider adding a business manager in the future. The financial work done in the office has become more involved over the past years and is becoming more difficult for her to manage each year. In response to her suggestion, the board briefly discussed issues of efficiency. Board chairman Joe Spinazola of Castine pointed out that in Bucksport, where he works, the central office has a $15 million budget and the same size office staff as Union 93. “Personally, I think we need to sit and not panic,” said Spinazola, noting that despite the office concerns, things are working now. He proposed forming a committee to take a hard look at where efficiencies can be found with the current structure. In addition to the office staffing concerns, Henry also told the board they need to sit down and seriously consider why Union 93 took on Surry. “You need to do a lot of soul searching. You’re not four anymore. You’re five,” said Henry. Blue Hill board member Alice Herrick added that Surry was brought in with the understanding that the union would save money and get the same level of services. “With all the stress, what benefit is there to bringing Surry in?” asked Herrick. The board then discussed that despite the stress, money was saved in all union towns except Blue Hill. Tom Gutow added that the central office stress is hard to assess from the outside and seconded Spinazola’s proposal to create a committee to look into the problems, which was approved unanimously by the board. At the end of the discussion on Surry, Charles Tarr, board chairman in Brooksville, made sure to state that Surry was brought in for “reasons other than budgetary,” and that they are more than welcome in Union 93. His sentiment received positive reactions from the rest of the union board. The board will meet next on Monday, November 30, at 7 p.m. in the Penobscot Community School gym to do a line-by-line discussion of the central office budget. They will hold their next quarterly meeting on Tuesday, January 19, at 7 p.m. at the Penobscot Community School. Return to the The Weekly Packet home page. |
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