FARMINGTON -- For 2009, in the midst of the recession, Farmington town employees received a 4.8 percent pay raise, thanks to a town policy that bases increases on a yearly average of the federal consumer price index.

For 2010, the story will be different.

The country's financial woes over the past 12 months have now hit town employees from the other side. Selectmen on Tuesday, using the same model, voted to recommend a pay adjustment of minus .68 percent.

Town Manager Richard Davis said that the salary of an employee earning $45,000 would be cut about $321 a year. He told selectmen the decrease will be a "double whammy" since employees are picking up half of their health insurance premium increase. He said he did not have the new rates from the town's provider through the Maine Municipal Association but he anticipated a jump in costs.

Selectmen weighed the possibility of freezing salaries at current levels for one year and deferring the pay cut to 2011 when, hopefully, the economy will have improved.

That idea didn't fly.

"We went through the trouble of creating this policy," said Selectman Jon Bubier, a small-business owner. "The business sector and a lot of people have pulled back and we have all seen salaries decrease. This is the right thing to do at this time."

The town bases its pay adjustment policy on the monthly average of the U.S. Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers between Oct. 1 and Sept. 30. In prior years, it used the index only for the month of September, which they found did not provide a broad enough sample.

Also on Tuesday, a junkyard law violation was the subject of a public hearing and the tenant responsible for the accumulated junk at 466 Industry Road told the board he planned to get it cleaned up immediately.

James "Skip" Hasty said that his effort to make some money by bringing old appliances and other metal items to a scrap metal recycler had "gotten out of hand." The yard is also filled with old furniture, scrap wood Hasty said he had planned to use for kindling in his wood stove, and several junk cars.

The town's code enforcement officer, Steve Kaiser, had sent owner Mark Hand two letters warning him the property was in violation of state and local junkyard laws, a nuisance law and a local mandatory recycling law. Hand responded that the site would be cleaned but nothing happened, Davis said.

"I was trying to make some money but I got carried away," Hasty said during the hearing.

The board gave Hasty until Nov. 10 to get the debris removed or else he and Hand both would face legal action.

In other business, the town has received a $20,000 matching grant from the federal Land and Water Conservation Program to reconstruct the two aging and cracked tennis courts at Hippach Field. The town's match of $25,000 will come from a reserve account designated for the repair.