{"id":42675,"date":"2023-03-02T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-02T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=42675"},"modified":"2023-03-02T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-03-02T11:00:00","slug":"sterling-employees-in-line-for-cola-increase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2023\/03\/02\/sterling-employees-in-line-for-cola-increase\/","title":{"rendered":"Sterling employees in line for COLA increase"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Jan Gottesman The Item<\/i><\/div>\n

STERLING Barring a major financial crisis, Sterling nonunion employees should receive a 3% cost of living increase in the next fiscal year, in keeping with the contracts for union employees.<\/p>\n

The Select Board approved the number for using in town budgeting.<\/p>\n

Joseph King, a member of the Finance Committee said that was the figure included in the omnibus budget they were developing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would have to be significant to change that,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n

The Select Board had put off a vote on the COLA at the last meeting due to uncertainty about some aspects of the budget, although Chair Maureen Cranson advocated going ahead with the 3% regardless.<\/p>\n

While the Wachusett Regional School District budget proposal is currently at 6.4%, Select Board member John Kilcoyne said the superintendent is aware that the figure is too high. He said the superintendent was told the towns would not budget more than 4%; Sterling is hoping the increase is closer to 3%.<\/p>\n

The Worcester Regional Retirement Board is being told the same: 3%.<\/p>\n

Town Administrator Bill Caldwell said the regional board, which handles municipal retirees, voted a local option of 5%, which would be approved if two-thirds of the towns in the system approve the increase. The group claims the assessment would not be increased until the 2024-2025 fiscal year.<\/p>\n

Caldwell said he recommended not supporting it, stating that other communities have not supported it.<\/p>\n

The town currently has 62 retirees in the system.<\/p>\n

The Sterling Select Board voted to deny the 5%, with Kilcoyne abstaining. If the retirees do not get the 5%, they would get 3%.<\/p>\n

The increase would be retroactive to July 1, 2022, Caldwell said.<\/p>\n

Voting hours May 8 <\/b>Voting hours for the May 8 election have been set for noon to 7 p.m. May 8 at the Houghton School.<\/p>\n

The Select Board had postponed a final vote at the last meeting, hoping to find out why expanded hours were not possible. Some voters have said they prefer to vote before work and that a 7 p.m. closing makes it difficult to get there after work if they work out of town.<\/p>\n

Town Clerk Kathy Farrell provided a financial report on longer hours, saying the election registrars agreed \u201cshorter hours made more sense,\u201d Select Board Chair Maureen Cranson said. One shift of workers (either 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. or noon to 7 p.m., would save about $3,415. Farrell confirmed it was not feasible to hold split hours, such as 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 8 p.m.<\/p>\n

State law requires that polls are open for at least four hours. More than one shift, and the number of people, in addition to food costs, would increase.<\/p>\n

With seven hours of voting, plus counting time, that would include for nine hours: 20 election officials at $15 an hour, or $2,400; a warden at $19 an hour, or $171; a constable at $16 an hour, or $144; a police office at $50 an hour, or $450; and food for workers, $250.<\/p>\n

Mail-in ballots are available from the town clerk\u2019s office for anyone who wants to vote prior to election day. Monday, May 1, is the last day to apply for a mail-in ballot, absentee or early, and they must be returned to the clerk\u2019s office the hour that polls close.<\/p>\n

Anyone can vote absentee in person by noon on Friday, April 29, in the clerk\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

The cost to the town of mailing a ballot is 84 cents each.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STERLING Barring a major financial crisis, Sterling nonunion employees should receive a 3% cost of living increase in the next fiscal year, in keeping with the contracts for union employees. The Select Board approved the number for using in town budgeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}