Sharon council will have to figure out how to come up with $80,000, due in April, to pay for road salt used throughout the winter.

Thursday night, council unanimously turned down city Finance Director Michael Gasparich's request to transfer $60,000 from the street salary fund and $20,000 from the repair fund to pay for the salt.

Gasparich said the money would be put back into the fund throughout the year.

Council members balked at the idea, saying they couldn't justify taking money from people's salaries to pay for the salt.

"You would have to lay people off tomorrow if you did that," Councilman Lou Rotunno said. "These guys have been doing a great job all winter, and their reward would be getting laid off? No."

In all, Gasparich asked council to approve transferring $80,000 from liquid fuels accounts to the general fund to pay for the salt. Bills for the salt will start arriving in April, Gasparich said.

Rotunno said $60,000 is about 33 percent of the street salary budget each year.

Mayor David O. Ryan said "street salaries" is a bit of a misnomer for the account.

"It's really a catch-all," Ryan said. "Not every dime in that account goes to paying street salaries. There was never any question of having to lay off anyone with the transfer of that money."

Liquid fuels money is expected on April 1, which is when the salt bills are due, he said.

Now, Ryan said, the city budget will have to be examined item by item, "taking $1,000 here and $2,000 there to make it up and hope council approves."