A part-time teen services position at Walker library was restored and the school resource officer remains in the budget approved unanimously by the Finance Committee Monday.

The City Council will take its first vote May 18 on the $55.8 million budget, which represents a 3.1 percent increase over this year’s budget. It would raise the tax rate by 47 cents to $15.90 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. The average Westbrook home, worth $199,400, would have a tax bill of $3,170, which is $93 more than last year.

The council will give final approval to the budget June 1, before residents vote whether to approve the school budget in a referendum June 9.

The school department accounts for $33 million of the budget, which includes Westbrook Adult Education, and $20.4 million comes from the city. County taxes and payments made for tax increment finance agreements make up the rest of the expenditures.

The Finance Committee, which is made up of the seven city councilors, made its final adjustments to the budget Monday night.

There was little discussion among the councilors about whether to keep the school resource position in the city budget. It had previously been part of the school department’s budget, but was removed by the superintendent and restored by Mayor Bruce Chuluda, to be funded through the police department.

School Committee member Alex Stone spoke up against restoring the position because, he said, the officer’s duties could be covered by school staff.

“The climate has changed at the schools,” he said, since the position was created, and because of that, it’s no longer necessary.

Police Chief Bill Baker, however, argued that school officials don’t have the authority to handle many of the incidents that the resource officer deals with, including assault, weapons and drug charges.

“It’s a vital position,” he said, and the only one in the police department that specifically deals with juvenile issues, both during the school year and in the summer.

The committee elected to let the position remain in the police budget.

Greater debate surrounded the request from the Walker Memorial Library to restore two part-time positions in the city budget. Since the closing of the private Warren library, the Walker library is taking on its collection and many of its patrons, which is why its staff thinks it should get extra help.

Councilor Lyle Cramer proposed to restore $29,559 to fund a part-time teen services assistant, but also to remove nearly the same amount of money budgeted for acquiring new materials.

“I don’t think we can do it at the expense of an already deficient book budget,” said Mike Miles, a member of the library’s board of regents, about Cramer’s proposal for restoring the position.

“We asked every department here in the city to suck it up,” said Chuluda, adding that he wouldn’t support restoring the position unless money was removed from a different part of the library’s budget.

The committee voted 4-2, with councilors Mike Foley and John O’Hara opposed, to move the money from the acquisitions budget to fund the part-time position.