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Text Box: At its May 29th meeting, the Town Council voted to spend $200,000 for street paving during the fiscal year that begins July 1st, compared to $75,000 that was budgeted (but unspent) for this purpose in fiscal 2006-2007. However, councilman Steve Matney said not all town streets would be repaved in the new fiscal year, since a complete repair job, including "milling" them down to original curb levels, would cost at least $1,000,000, according to an earlier estimate. As described in the June issue of The Echo, the town has received a bid of $4,000 by A. Morton Thomas for a basic engineering survey for the project and of $13,000 by EBY Engineering for a larger survey that includes a geo-technical survey. By a unanimous vote, including that of newly sworn-in councilmember Robin Kogelnik, the council adopted the mayor's proposal to retain the existing real property tax rate at $0.12 per $100, although a rate of $0.113 would be expected to produce the same revenue as last year. Mayor Beers noted that the tax rate was lowered two years ago from $0.14 per $100 to the current rate. "If we're really going to do the streets, I do not think we ought to decrease it again," she said. The total

Text Box: budget for fiscal year 2007-2008 is $467,820, compared to $356,920 budgeted for last year, although total expenditures from July 1, 2006 to April 26, 2007 amounted to less than half of that ($167,881). The low expenditure rate was principally due to the town's spending less than a third of the $150,000 that had been budgeted for capital improvements. The only capital improvement bills paid by April 26 were for the town hall ($42,056), largely for heating and air conditioning. The largest percentage increases from last year's budget were for street paving (+127%), streetlights (+50%), landscaping (+50%), snowplowing (+30%), refuse/recycling (+25%), and administration (+20%). The largest dollar increases were for street paving (+$125,000), refuse/reycling (+$10,000), landscape (+$10,000), administration (+$2,000), payroll (+$1,600), and snowplowing (+$1,500). Offsetting the increases were decreases in budgeted expenditures for town hall improvements (down from $30,000 to $7,000), sidewalk improvements ($20,000 to $5,000), town hall maintenance ($10,000 to $8,000), recreation ($5,000 to $3,000), professional services ($37,500 to $36,000), and electrical ($7,000 to $6,000). Once again, the town ended the fiscal year with a large capital surplus, $632,318, as of April 26th. Unlike in previous years, however, the surplus declined in fiscal 2006-2007 -- by nearly $31,000, largely because of the town hall expenditures. Mayor Beers said she expects the surplus to drop even further if the street paving actually gets underway. As in previous years, the biggest money producer was the town's share of Maryland State income tax, which amounted to more than $78,000 last year and is expected to remain at that level in fiscal 2007-2008. Also, the town's share of highway revenue, based on cars registered to Glen Echo owners, is anticipated to exceed $21,000. Real property taxes from Glen Echo residents are

Text Box: of the United States or not, who has lived in Glen Echo for 30 days prior to an election and is registered in Glen Echo is a qualified voter. He/she need not be registered to vote in Montgomery County or the State of Maryland. The town is given a list by the State of Maryland of all those registered to vote in Glen Echo. This list, however, is not up-to-date, according to Susan Grigsby, Supervisor of Elections in Glen Echo. “It has people on it who haven’t lived in Glen Echo in years.” The town charter requires that the clerk-treasurer keep a separate voter roll for the town, since some residents are not registered Maryland voters. However, since registration of voters is permitted “up to and including the day of election,” in practice the voter roll has not been kept up to date. Prospective voters were given a ballot, according to Susan Grigsby, Supervisor Elections, because she or another member of the election board personally recognized them. No identification or proof of residency was required. Absentee ballots presented another problem. Ms. Grigsby emailed ballots to absentee voters, and most had time to mail them back. But the only other method was to fax them back, if a fax machine was available, and in that case the ballot was not secret. “We have to decide if we will allow emailed ballots,” she said. Ms. Grigsby said she will offer suggestions to the town for clarification of these procedures for future elections, and Mayor Beers said she plans to ask Mr. Knopf for his advice.