MINOT — Selectmen made their final recommendations on the town budget for 2011-12 on Monday.

The board’s recommendations stand at about $1.4 million, which is about $52,000 less than the amount budgeted for the current year.

The town office budget is up about $9,000 — about $8,000 of which can be attributed to the increase in costs for health insurance — and includes the recommendation for a two percent pay increase for town office employees.

Selectmen are recommending against a $10,000 request from the Minot-Hebron Athletic Association, but agreed that the town highway department will absorb a portion of what the athletic association intended to accomplish with the money by reroofing the softball dugouts in-house. Selectmen put an additional $2,500 back into the highway department’s budget.

The overall budget proposed for the highway department stands at about $13,300 less than the current budget.

Selectman Dan Callahan said he was pleased to see that there was no request to fund the cemetery account.

Callahan noted that he had been skeptical when the town took over control of all cemeteries in town and made a major expansion to the Center Hill Cemetery, fearing that this would lead to a never-ending financial commitment.

“I commend the cemetery committee. They said it would be self-sustaining, and it is,” he said.

The Recreation Committee had requested $40,000 — to be combined with about $12,000 that remains in the recreation account — to begin work on a new multipurpose field in Minot Memorial Park.

Selectmen, noting that this was a year when the town should focus more closely on its needs and perhaps could delay action on its wants, recommended approving $13,000, for a total of $25,000 with which to begin work on the new field.

Selectmen are supporting the purchase of a new plow truck, which, paid for over five years, would cost the town about $32,000 a year.

Commenting on the $50,000 request for a new rescue truck to replace Squad 7, Selectman Steve French said he wished that request could be put off a year, until final payment has been made on the fire department’s new pumper-tanker. Unfortunately, French noted, the reliability of Squad 7 is questionable.

“Hop in the truck, and you don’t know if it is going to start,” French said.

Selectmen asked Town Administrator Arlan Saunders to look into comparative costs for paying over two years.

The selectmen’s recommendations now go to the Finance Committee for review, with voters having the final word on the town budget at the March town meeting.

In other business, Saunders noted that Road Foreman Scott Parker had been a little too busy to prepare his usual report, but it would have consisted pretty much of plow and sand, plow and sand.

“He did ask me to note at the selectmen’s meeting that a very caring resident had come down to the town garage Sunday night with a kettle of what he called “roadkill chop suey,” which was greatly appreciated,” Saunders said.