Town Saved Money This Year with New Highway Crew

Savings top $42,000 so far this year

December 2, 2015 • Saved under Committees
By Marj Roy, Town Administrator
Keith Blinn and Jim Reed, Andover's part-time highway crew, assembled and erected a new movable-letters sign for the Town Hall to replace the old painted sign. Photo: Charlie Darling
Keith Blinn and Jim Reed, Andover’s part-time highway crew, assembled and erected a new movable-letters sign for the Town Hall to replace the old painted sign. Photo: Charlie Darling

Where has the year gone? With the passing months, we have been able to gain some perspective about the effectiveness of a Town highway crew and whether or not it is financially smart. There have been many, many positive comments about the maintenance of the cemeteries, Chaffee Park, the Town Office lawn, and Blackwater Park. These are the things that are immediately visible. However, the financial analysis is more involved.

Of course, having Jim Reed and Keith Blinn to work on Town road projects and take care of the cemeteries, lawn, and park means we are able to save the expense of contracting these services. But what does that mean financially? Although the year is not over yet, the following figures are in. The 2015 Road Work amount includes the annual truck payment. As you can see, there has been significant savings over the prior year.

  • Road Work 2014: $78,960 (1 Ton + Driver)
  • Road Work 2015: $40,231 (1 Ton + Driver + 1 Laborer)
  • Savings in 2015: $38,729
  • Blackwater Park/Beach/Cemeteries 2014: $18,898
  • Blackwater Park/Beach/Cemeteries 2015: $14,966
  • Savings in 2015: $3,932

Also, it is very nice to have miscellaneous jobs at the Town Office taken care of more economically. This includes trash and recycling pickup, putting in the air conditions in the summer and removing them in the fall, changing the lighting when needed, setting up new office furniture that was donated by a generous benefactor, and installing the new kiosk sign. These are things that would typically need to be contracted.

With only two check runs left in 2015, it appears that we are seeing a substantial savings since purchasing the Ford F550 one-ton dump truck and hiring two part-time employees to take care of road, cemetery, and park maintenance.