Faced with the options of raising taxes by 2 mills or 4, a majority of Farrell Area School Board members went with the higher number.

By increasing taxes by 4 mills in the 2002-03 budget, the board is hoping it can end the several-year trend of using its rainy day savings account to balance the budget.

A 2-mill hike still would have taken $96,000 from the fund balance, which might not be healthy enough to contribute that much by the end of this year.

With a 4-mill hike, administrators predict the district will be able to add a nominal amount to the fund balance, $8,944.

In either case, the total budget was the same, $10,865,128.

The board sanctioned a number of cuts to bring the budget down from what had been tentatively approved, $11,061,445, and the total is about the same as this year's spending plan, $10,842,503.

Board members Ronald Weston, James Guerino, Jerome Flint, Larry Manilla, Lester Robinson Jr. and Michael Wright voted for the tax hike.

Edward Zappa and Joseph "Peppy" Costa dissented.

Sadie Benham was absent.

"The 4 (mills), I can't put that on the people right now," Costa said. "I think there could have been more cuts."

Zappa agreed that 4 mills was too high.

Neither man would say if they would have supported a 2-mill hike.

Zappa asked the board to close the swimming pool for one year and upgrade it.

He said the closing would save $116,000 this year -- possibly more with a reduction in utility usage -- and the new heating system that would be installed would save energy in the future.

The district had HHSDR Architects and Engineers, Sharon, study the pool, and the firm released its report in October.

Aside from replacing the 30-year-old boilers, the study recommended improving ventilation and other upgrades. Superintendent Richard R. Rubano Jr. estimated the work would cost "hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Zappa said the district could use its capital budget, which has $120,000 in it, and the work might be extensive enough to qualify for state funding.

Business Administrator Ronald Pendel agreed that the work needs to be done -- he said he recommended the same thing unsuccessfully when he was on the board 15 years ago -- but it's too soon to the end of one budget year and the beginning of the next to show the savings Zappa predicted right away.

"We, as a group, were foolish for not having done this years ago" Guerino said. But, he continued, he could not support the move without knowing how much the work would cost and how long the pool would be shut down.

Weston said if the board closes the pool for one year, it will never be reopened because of the cost.

Wright said he wants to keep the pool open.

"We're going to jeopardize people's jobs," he said. "We're going to jeopardize the kids."

Wright said there might be other avenues for funding, such as through Sharon/Farrell Weed and Seed.

The pool recently was shut down due to a potentially dangerous problem with grounding wires, Rubano said. It has since been repaired and certified by the state for use, he said.

The board approved a summer swim program Monday.

The budget is the first under the county's new real estate assessment ratio. In previous years, assessments equaled one-third of a property's 1970 market value. Starting this year, the assessment equals the 1970 figure.

Farrell's 119 mills in real estate taxes -- millage is $1 for every $1,000 in assessed property value -- translates to 39 1/2 mills under the new formula.

The 4-mill hike takes the millage to 43 1/2.

Pendel said an average resident of Farrell or Wheatland would see a tax hike of about $80 a year.