MEXICO — A political dispute over the town’s Recreation Department budget has hit close to home for one Budget Committee member.

On Tuesday, Marjorie Richard attended a budget workshop with her fellow Budget Committee members and town selectmen. Officials convened the meeting to discuss lowering the town’s recreation budget, which residents voted down on June 12. A town ordinance allows officials to revise and resubmit defeated budgets to voters at a special town meeting.

At Tuesday’s contentious meeting, Budget Committee members and selectmen exchanged barbs over the proposed budget. Selectmen, with input from the Recreation Board, reduced the recreation budget by 20 percent, to $114,842. The Budget Committee, which balked at the fact that the revised budget was still 23 percent higher than the current budget, recommended $93,585. The meeting ended in shouts, accusations and arguments.

The next morning, Richard discovered that someone had stolen a political sign that she had placed in front of her 234 Highland Terrace home. The sign, which read “No Means No,” referred to the June 12 defeat of the recreation budget.

Richard called police to report the missing sign.

“I know there’s other things going on in this town, but to me that was important. Also, it kind of scared us,” said Richard, who is in her mid-70s and has served on the Budget Committee for five years. “My husband and I have been jittery at night, wondering is somebody going to come back and egg our house?”

Over the past month, the recreation budget has become a controversial subject in Mexico. The $144,101 recreation budget that voters defeated in June would have represented a 54 percent increase over the current budget. The increase would have paid for increased utility costs, building repairs, and a near-tripling of Recreation Director Wayne Sevigny’s salary to $30,000.

On the Budget Committee, Richard and fellow member Betty Barrett have taken an outspoken stance against the proposed budget increase. The pair have regularly attended selectmen’s meetings to directly challenge the selectmen on the budget hike.

“We decided this year we were going to try to make a stand on at least one department. Next year, we’ll make a stand on another department,” Richard said. “If we can get any results, we’re going to remind the people that two elderly ladies can rattle the selectmen’s cages and get what we want.”

Richard plans to make another sign before residents vote on the revised Recreation Department budget at a town meeting later this summer. Selectmen will likely schedule the date of the vote at their July 24 meeting.

The new sign will ask residents to vote “no” on the proposed recreation budget. If that happens, the budget will automatically revert to the current year’s level of $93,585.

“Mexico’s not a rich town, and we just can’t afford to do this,” Richard said. “We can afford something, but we can’t afford the great big Cadillac of recreation.”

Copy the Story Link