Sandwich Town Manager Presents Budget to Selectmen

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SANDWICH – A preliminary $78 million budget was presented to the Sandwich Board of Selectmen last week.

Town Manager Bud Dunham said the board instructed him to present a level service budget.

“This will be the 13^th fiscal year in-a-row without an override in Sandwich,” Dunham said. “It’s something that I’m regularly told at the beginning of the budget process that it won’t be considered.”

Dunham said the final budgets must be submitted by Wednesday.

“The school I still think is finalizing their budget but the town’s came in and I was able to level service the budget around 2 percent,” Dunham said.

Rising health insurance costs continue to be an issue with a 10 to 11 percent increase next year, which Dunham said eats up a lot of money.

“It eats up a lot of our 2 and ½ percent increase every year,” he said. “It’s getting worse each year and it’s something we try to manage the best we can.”

Selectmen and the Finance committee will review the proposed budgets for about 2 months with a final vote coming in early April to be ready for Town Meeting in May.