Hampstead residents got a first look last night at the proposed town budget for 1994-1995, but the numbers are almost guaranteed to change after the Town Council holds a work session April 26, Mayor C. Clinton Becker said.
The current draft calls for an 11.3 percent increase in the total budget, to $806,007. This year's budget is $724,307, with a tax rate of 50 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
To raise the same sum next year, the town would need a tax rate of 47 cents, called the constant yield, because of the increase in the value of property in town.
The council's work session will be at 7 p.m. April 26 in Town Hall.
In other business last night, the council complained that area residents are still dropping off garbage and recyclables at the post office parking lot on West Street, even though the county has removed self-service recycling bins that were there for more than four years.
Council members agreed to stand by their March decision to remove the bins and not to bring them back. When the containers were there, they attracted trash as well as recyclables, council members said.
"Sooner or later, the message has to go out to people that the bins are not there," said Councilwoman Jacqueline Hyatt. She said it might take a while for people to break the habit of taking refuse there.
Mayor Becker said the problem is people bringing inappropriate items.
"We found a car motor," he said. "We found a sofa. These kinds of things."
Council members said that because the town offers curbside recycling to residents, people dumping at the self-service bins are not even town residents.
Police Chief Kenneth Russell said third-class mail in some of the trash bags led him to at least two offenders, one who lived in Hanover, Pa. Another offender lived on Lees Mill Road.
"She said she comes up here once a week to get her hair done and she brings her trash," Chief Russell said.
Police took her trash back to her, which didn't please her, he said. "She said if we don't want her recyclables, she won't bring them to us."