Windham Town Manager Tony Plante wants to know what the town is willing to do without.

After paring down plans for capital equipment purchases and road repairs and eliminating through attrition two positions – one at the library and one at public works – he is still facing a $218,000 gap in his proposed budget.

Plante is also trying to negotiate a wage freeze with the town’s labor unions, and if that effort were unsuccessful, that gap would be even larger.

Plante started with a $1.5 million gap, due largely to steep declines in revenues, in a $14.5 million budget. On Tuesday night, he told councilors reaching the goal of a flat-funded budget will mean a reduction in services.

Just exactly where those cuts will come from will be decided between now and March 31, when Plante will present the proposed budget in its entirety to the council, who will have to approve it before it is placed on the town meeting warrant.

“Nothing is going to be, probably, appealing,” Councilor Bob Muir said of the cuts the council is going to have to consider. “But those are the hard decisions we are going to have to make.”

Windham officials will cut first the town programs and services that require no additional staffing or that have become less popular in the economic downturn as they attempt to close a budget gap now whittled down to roughly $218,000.

The Windham Town Council has asked Town Manager Tony Plante for a balanced budget with a minimal tax increase in the face of falling revenues and rising costs. Starting with an original budget gap of around $1.5 million, Plante pared down plans for capital equipment purchases and road repairs, suggested a wage freeze, and flat-funded all operating accounts at levels approved in the 2008-09 budget. His proposal also includes the elimination through attrition of two positions, one at the library and one in public works, and the effective management of overtime in the public safety department.

Even with those reductions and cuts, Windham finds itself $218,338 short in a roughly $14.5 million budget. Reaching the goal of a flat-funded budget will mean a reduction in services, Plante told councilors Tuesday night.

Just exactly where those cuts will come from will be decided between now and March 31, when Plante will present the proposed budget in its entirety to the council, who will have to approve it before it is placed on the town meeting warrant.

“Nothing is going to be, probably, appealing,” Councilor Bob Muir said of the cuts the council is going to have to consider. “But those are the hard decisions we are going to have to make.”

In order to make those decisions in an orderly and effective manner, Plante told the council Tuesday, he proposed, and the council accepted, identifying first the programs and services that have no staff or organizational commitment beyond funding and for which there are reasonable private sector alternatives.

Plante cited, for example, the household hazardous waste program, which allows residents to dispose of items like batteries and computers. Last year, he said, the program cost the town $15,000 and was used by only 100 households. If the program were eliminated, there would still be private businesses willing to take the goods for a fee, and the program could easily be restarted in the future if the town so desired, Plante said.

“That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about,” he said.

Next on the list to be cut should be programs and services that are less in demand because of the economic downturn, are duplicative or can be reasonably shifted to other personnel, or that cannot be delivered effectively at a reduced cost.

In one example of a service that could be shifted to other personnel, the town has more than one plow truck operator, Plante said. A position could be eliminated if needed to save money, though service would suffer, he said.

In this environment, Plante said, the Town Council cannot reasonably think it can keep taxes flat without cutting services in some way.

“We can’t have it both ways,” he said.

Councilors did make a few suggestions Tuesday. Liz Wisecup suggested Plante look at using perhaps $50,000 out of the public works contingency fund to help balance the budget, while John MacKinnon wondered if more revenue could be raised by increasing the cost of the town’s trash bags. The councilors agreed that the new Windham-Raymond school department should be asked to pick up half the cost of the resource officer that is stationed at Windham schools.

The town manager is also negotiating a possible wage freeze with the unions representing the town’s police officers, paramedics and public works employees, respectively. They have been open so far to a wage freeze, and the budget has been prepared using this year’s wage levels.

“The impression I get is that they all get what the town is up against,” Plante said.