EMMITSBURG, Md. – Rather than having to worry over what to cut from their 2008 budget, the Emmitsburg town commissioners spent much of a recent budget review deciding how to spend an additional $20,295 found in the budget.

“There was a typo made in the parking meter income, it should have been $22,250, the zero was left off at the end, meaning a net increase of $20,295 is in the budget,” Mayor James Hoover said.

The Dispatch Community Newspapers discovered the and brought it to Hoover’s attention. The typo created an opportunity for the commissioners to have their say in where the extra money should be spent.

Commission President Chris Staiger proposed two ideas on how to spend the excess money. Currently the Emmitsburg Elementary School is trying to acquire a tech cart, consisting of a laptop projector and document camera, for each classroom. Staiger proposed a motion that $2,443 be taken and donated to the elementary school PTA to cover the cost of purchasing a tech cart. Without any objections the motion was passed.

Staiger also proposed a motion that $7,500 be spent to build a tot lot in the Emmit Gardens area, which would provide the residents of Emmit Gardens a closer play area. The motion was passed without any objections.

Commisoner William O’Neil suggested, “The streets committee wanted to have some beautification effort undertaken in Emmitsburg. Right now when you come in off of 140 from Baltimore it’s pretty much blighted.”

O’Neil suggested spending $2,500 to aesthetically beautify the blighted “grassy null” and put forth a motion to take funds from the Education and Conference budget to pay for the beautification. Without receiving any support from the commissioners, the motion was killed. Realizing that there still was an excess of $9,943 O’Neil put forth a motion to use $2,500 of the excess funds to pay for the aesthetic beautification. The motion passed 4 to 1, with Commissioner Joyce Rosensteel opposed.

“I think this will be good to run the flag up the flag pole and see how this project actually plays itself out and see what happens to that $2,500 investment come August,” Staiger said of the passed motion.

Both Commissioners Glenn Blanchard and Rosensteel did not have any suggestions on how to spend the remaining excess, but Commissioner Cliff Sweeney did.

“I’d like to allocate it [the excess] to help with pool repairs,” Sweeney said.

Although Sweeney noted that the $7,852 remaining excess would not cover all of the repairs, it would help. After putting forth a motion to spend the remainder of the $20,295 excess on pool repairs, the commission voted unanimously and passed the motion.

The commissioners made several changes in other areas of the budget.

Staiger put forth a motion to specifically allocate $5,000 of the already proposed budget be set aside to repair the fences at the ball field; the motion was unanimously passed.

Blanchard put forth a motion to specifically allocate $1,000 of the already proposed budget be set aside to place two benches in the memorial park.

“I would like to see if some of the benches can be donated…we can have their name put on it for that person, that way it’ll save an expense for the town,” Sweeny suggested.

Staiger said that Sweeny had a good point and it would save the town money, but the motion was still voted on and passed unanimously.

No other changes were made to the budget. The commissioners will have an opportunity to discuss any additional recommendations for changes to the budget at the next town meeting.