I helped out with videotaping the monthly meeting of the Dracut Housing Authority. There really wasn’t much to report. The properties are weathering the storm pretty well. There is some work underway to upgrade some of the units and the community centers.
I then stopped over to the Finance Committee meeting being held at the [...]

Approving a Draft Budget for the next fiscal year, the School Committee has approved a proposed budget of $28,610,390.00, an increase over last years budget (after paybacks and transfers back to the town) of 2.77%.
A significant issue, of course, is the stimulus money that cannot be depended upon for the future, as well as increases [...]

The latest talk around the campfires this weekend was that the figures from the state that came to the town after the conference committee completed its job and the budget was sent on to the Governor to be signed showed another cut of $600,000 to Chapter 70 school aid.
Town Manager Dennis Piendak notified the school [...]

Tonite’s school committee meeting was highlighted by a long discussion of the proposed budget for the upcoming school year.
Ultimately, the board voted to accept the budget 3 to 2, with the two newest members, Bonnie Elie and Dr Mike McNamara voting against the budget.
The long discussion went very in depth on how Superintendent Mullin was [...]

The Lowell Sun reported that first budget produced by the Dracut School Department is asking for a 1.5% increase for the next school year.
I only got to listen to the school committee meeting in the background Monday night as I was working on the GLTech Appointment report, but it sounded like a lot of justification [...]

The Dracut Finance Committee has scheduled the Monday evenings of March for a series of meetings.
This has historically been the series of meetings where the Town Manager, Dennis Piendak, presents his recommended upcoming budget to the finance committee for their review.
These meetings are being held at Harmony Hall, starting at 6:00 pm each week.
Open to [...]

Raise your hand, those of you who don’t work for the government, if you’ve gotten a 3% raise in the last year.
All you businessmen and women, if you’ve seen at least a 3% increase in profits..
We’re coming into some pretty tough times ahead. Towns around us are seeing 3 and 5 million dollar deficits. Retirement [...]

Not to be outdone by the schools, the town has started posting the minutes of key committee meetings on the town website at http://www.dracut-ma.us.
Announced by Town Manager Dennis Piendak during his “Manager’s Report” at the Board of Selectmen’s meeting last night, the minutes of the meetings of the Board of Selectmen, Board of Appeals, the [...]