FREEPORT – The Freeport Town Council is scheduled to vote this week on a 2015 municipal budget of approximately $8.9 million.

Town Manager Peter Joseph said last Thursday that the Town Council had whittled approximately $30,000 from the original $8,926,159 budget during workshops. That would make municipal spending about $82,000 less than this fiscal year.

However, with a 5 percent budget increase from Regional School Unit 5 and a slight increase in county taxes, the owner of a $221,000 residence – which is the average in Freeport – is looking at a hike of more than $130 in taxes.

The council meeting was Tuesday, after the Tri-Town Weekly’s publication deadline.

Joseph’s figures do not include any money for a town shellfish coordinator, requested last month by the Freeport Shellfish Conservation Commission.

Del Arris, shellfish commission chairman, said last Friday that the commission decided Thursday night to seek a change in the shellfish warden’s job description, rather than request a separate shellfish coordinator. Tom Kay, the shellfish warden, concentrates mostly on enforcement of town ordinances. The shellfish commission wants more attention on resource protection, especially focusing on the effect of green crabs on soft shell clams.

The shellfish commission was prepared to ask the Town Council to set aside between $30,000 and $35,000, instead of the $90,000 it had requested for a town shellfish coordinator, Arris said.

“The commission voted to redirect more administration and work toward the warden,” Arris said. “We didn’t vote to ask for a coordinator. We’re going to focus on directing more responsibility to the warden, but it’s still going to take a couple more meetings to work those details out.”

Arris said the hope is that the council will set aside the $30,000-$35,000 in a reserve account while details of the request are ironed out.

Joseph said that some councilors prefer a regional approach to shellfish conservation – an approach the commission had considered all along prior to switching gears two months ago, when it decided to seek a town coordinator.

“I think there are more people on board with that,” Joseph said. “There’s not a huge amount of support for a Freeport-only position.”

The council also was scheduled to vote on a $2.4 million capital budget and $247,000 for tax-increment financing on Tuesday night. This year’s capital budget amounted to $945,100, with the TIF budget $219,500.

A $1 million reconstruction of Wardtown Road, half of which will be funded by the state, accounts for a large chunk of the capital budget.