By Paul Leighton
BEVERLY — The City Council's finance committee voted last night for a school budget that would keep the city's five remaining elementary schools open.
By a 2-1 vote, the three-person committee approved Mayor Bill Scanlon's plan to transfer $680,000 to the schools to avoid closing another school or making more cuts to programs. The full nine-member City Council will have the final say when it meets tonight at 7 at City Hall.
Ward 5 City Councilor Don Martin voted against giving the schools the extra $680,000, saying he wasn't sure the plan to keep five schools was sustainable for the long term. Martin wanted the money put aside in a reserve fund to give officials more time to make sure the budget would work.
But Scanlon and other councilors said that would only prolong the uncertainty that has permeated the city over the last three months, culminating with the closing of McKeown School last week and 30 layoffs.
"It wouldn't be fair to continue the chaos," Councilor-at-large Pat Grimes said. "We can't keep pulling the rug out from under people in this city time and time again."
Scanlon told councilors he feels "very strongly" that the city will be able to afford five elementary schools for at least five years, but he said the schools will need find ways to keep costs down.
"The School Department budget for the last 25 years has been solved with more money," he said. "The vote this month (against a Proposition 21/2 override for the schools) said now that has to be solved on the other side of the ledger."
Finance committee members Tim Flaherty and Judith Cronin voted to approve the $680,000 transfer to the schools.
The finance committee also split on another controversial subject, the trash fee. Flaherty and Martin voted to cut the annual fee for residents from $100 to $80, saying the city is collecting more than the $1 million per year it had anticipated from the fee when it was established four years ago.
Flaherty, who proposed the cut, said residents deserve a "reward" for increasing their recycling, which has reduced the city's trash disposal costs.
"The intent of the trash fee from the beginning was to raise $1 million and we've done more than that," he said.
But Cronin said it didn't make sense to cut the trash fee, which would eliminate $250,000 in annual revenue, when at the same time councilors are worried about being able to pay for city and school services. The $20 annual savings, she said, amounts to 40 cents per week for residents.
"How can a $100 trash fee compare to the burden we have placed on families of school-age children?" Cronin said. "Some families are paying more than $1,000 per year in fees (for school sports and programs), and we're giving them a return of 40 cents per week."
The full City Council will also have the final say on the trash fee tonight.
