NEWBURY — After disposing of three items dealing with a beach replenishment effort on Plum Island, voters at Tuesday's Special Town Meeting made short work of the remaining eight articles on the warrant.
Residents spent only about 15 minutes on the articles before adjourning.
Voters skipped Article 12 entirely, a proposal to raise some unspecified local fees, after Town Moderator Joan Weyburn said town officials had not come up with any fees to raise.
Residents accepted selectmen Chairman Joseph Story's amendment of Article 4 to take $96,077 from the town's $445,000 stabilization fund to offset the loss of revenue from motor vehicle excise taxes and state aid. The original transfer amount had been $100,000.
Article 5 took another $15,000 from the stabilization to add to an unemployment compensation fund established last year.
Article 6 saved $37,500 of the town conservation agent's salary by transferring it from the regular budget to the Wetlands Protection Fund, which is supported entirely by fees from applicants to the Conservation Commission. There is currently approximately $98,000 in the Wetlands Protection Fund, according to Town Administrator Chuck Kostro.
Article 7 saved an additional $7,500 by doing the same thing with the Conservation Commission's administrative assistant's salary.
Article 8 transferred $10,000 from the town accountant's salary item to a line item for expenses in the same department.
Kostro said the funds will be used to bring in an accounting firm for consulting services. The salary money was freed up when town accountant Catherine Gabriel left earlier this year to take a job with the town of Wenham.
Article 9 transferred $7,407 the town received as a discount for paying its entire Essex County Regional Retirement System levy at the start of the fiscal year to purchase computer software to better manage the town's tax title process.
Article 10 reduced the town's line item for health insurance premiums in the town's current budget by $50,000 in anticipation of further reductions in state aid. The transfer reduces the original line item of $583,150 to $533,150.
Kostro said the town had been under budget on health insurance in the previous fiscal year and he was projecting that it would be again.
Article 11 took money from the stabilization fund to pay three bills from a previous fiscal year totaling $1,000: $320 in selectmen's expenses, $440 for the Police Department and $240 for the Historical Commission.
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