OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford The Dunkirk Common Council to the left of the table, joined by some city department officials on the right, began its look at Mayor Kate Wdowiasz’s 2026 budget proposal Thursday.

Concerns about expense line cuts dominated the first Common Council review meeting for Dunkirk Mayor Kate Wdowiasz’s proposed 2026 budget.

The meeting this week covered the Department of Public Works — a sprawling entity that provides the city with water, sewer, snow plowing, street paving, and garbage services, and also oversees its parks and beaches.

Councilwoman Abby Zatorski, who brought up many of the cut concerns, started with an equipment expense line. Mike Przybycien, DPW’s deputy director, pointed out it costs $1,000 just to buy toner for a map printer. DPW’s director, Randy Woodbury, said they also need money to get a computer program update essential for continued use of the mapper.

“This is just reinforcing what people have said about how minimal we are,” Woodbury said.

Councilman-at-large Nick Weiser said it looked like there was about $200,000 of “headroom” in a general computer equipment line, which could pay for DPW’s software.

Tim Gotowka, the public works supervisor who runs the DPW garage, said there was also not enough money for his equipment. “Maybe 20 grand” is needed to replace worn-out items, he said.

Przybycien worried that a traffic light line was slashed to $1,000. “I don’t need $36,000, but $1,000 isn’t going to cut it,” he said, adding that $20,000 would be good for the line.

He then brought up a complaint that recurred throughout the meeting: the 38-page budget proposal can be hard to follow.

“There were 13 separate personnel lines for DPW,” Przybycien complained. He said Fiscal Affairs Officer Ellen Luczkowiak is having a go at “streamlining” that.

She commented that in her personal opinion, the structure of Dunkirk’s budget is “convoluted.”

“It’s the same guys doing the same work,” wherever they are working, Przybycien said of DPW’s baker’s dozen of personnel lines. “Literally, now you have to say, ‘This guy did this for three hours, this guy did that for three hours.'”

He suggested, “There should be a line for personnel services, a line for overtime, and that’s it.”

Luczkowiak cleared up another bit of confusion. Money for beach lifeguards is actually in a recreation line item, she said. Bob Bankoski criticized the budget Tuesday in part because a line specifically for beach personnel was zeroed out.

“If we need a report of who is paid what from what lines, I can provide it,” Luczkowiak promised.

There were also complaints that training lines got cut. Weiser suggested that essential training should be documented to prove its necessity.

He commented on the budget, specifically stating that he was not attacking Luczkowiak: “To me, it feels like everything is very arbitrary, in terms of the numbers plugged in.”

Przybycien said cutting overtime lines for DPW is dangerous because they are required to work after-hours emergency scenes. He noted that they had to clean up smashed grapes on a recent night from a truck that had a Route 5 accident.

“It was a literal traffic jam,” he said. Laughter and groans rang out in the meeting room.

“When we cut these lines, we have to have expectations that certain things can’t be done,” Przybycien said after everyone settled down.

“Difficult decisions need to be made,” commented Weiser. “We just have to figure out what the highest priority items are.”

“We need to have salt trucks that are operable. We need plows that are operable. We need salt in the barns,” Zatorski said.

The Common Council will continue its review of Wdowaisz’s budget proposal over the next few weeks. The council is required to approve a budget by mid-December.