The town’s budget work sessions for the next fiscal year that starts on July 1, kicked off on Tuesday night, March 22. The hearings focused on town departments, and other entities that receive some funding from the town, that are related to community support. The items up for discussion were the Medical Center, the Island Free Library, Block Island Volunteer Fire and Rescue, Block Island Early Learning Center, Senior Advisory Committee, National Alliance on Mental Illness –Block Island, Tri-County Community Action, the Block Island Visitor Center, the Coast Guard facility, and the Block Island School.Finance Director Amy Land began the proceedings by pointing out a few changes to the look of the budget, including aggregating some line items in order to group them “more intuitively,” moving some line items from one department to another, such as placing engineering into the Public Works Department, and “rolling up” the wage lines rather than breaking out the salaries of the directors of individual departments. After feedback from councilors, department heads’ salaries will be listed separately going forward.Town Manager Maryanne Crawford made a surprise announcement that the cost of the municipal medical and dental insurance had come in “significantly lower” than had
